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From:  sopran@a...
sopran@a...
Date:  Mon Aug 6, 2001  11:28 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] Aria competition



In a message dated 8/6/01 12:30:51 PM, dalila@R... writes:

<< > Jewel song- Faust- Gounod

Is your coloratura absolutely dazzling? Is your coloratura your biggest
selling point? If not, why would you use one of *the* most virtuoso
full lyric-to-dramatic coloratura arias in the canon? >>

I usually agree with Karen but not here. The Jewel Song is a showpiece but
not nearly as demanding as she implies here. It has a few trills (and you'd
better have a VERY good one for this aria) and it moves but it's not really
my idea of a coloratura spectacular. Karen's right that it wants clean
execution and you need a fair amount of charm to pull it off. And it's very
well known, so people will catch the slightest mistake--but that's true of
most pieces in the standard rep. However, as a "big" lyric, I've sung it
often and don't find it nearly as demanding as say, Sempre Libera or even
Juliette's Waltz. The Czardas is also much more taxing.

The Jewel Song has no particularly long phrases, a few quick ascending scales
that need to be executed cleanly, no dips into chest, no immense leaps and
just one big high note. I personally think that it's a walk in the park
compared to Fiordiligi's arias--now that's some demanding
coloratura--especially the descending triplets in "Come scoglio," which are
fiendishly tricky. I don't think that I'd advise a young singer to offer
Leonora's arias or "Wie nahte mir..Leise, leise" either (it's VERY long, for
starters, and it's difficult to keep it dramatically and musically unified
outside the context of the opera) although Agathe's other aria, Und ob die
Wolke, could work because it is much less dramatic.

I do second Karen's suggestions of the Contessa's arias--especially Porgi
Amor, which is very impressive when sung well--and you might also consider
Pamina's aria "Ach, ich fuhls"--time was when Pamina was often given to a
bigger lyric, and it can sound quite effective. Mimi's arias would also be
good choices, and you might look at Liu--her arias are really quite
emotionally charged and a bigger voice can give them their due.

For a young singer I would tend to choose "Ain't it a pretty night" over
"Trees" because of the latter aria requires so much more emotional maturity.

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