Search - Giordano, Poulenc :: Fedora / La Voix Humaine

Poulenc alla Bolognese. . .

Opera-rater | Fayetteville, AR | 12/10/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Purists will cringe, but you've not heard anything like Olivero in

La Voix Humaine. Her French is not bad, but her style is italiano

verismo alla Bolognese (read: spaghetti sauce. . .) Poulenc would

have LOVED her, she is so over the top, and kind of drag-queeny in

her bawling and howling. You might compare this performance with

Anna Magnani in La Voce Umana, an early di Sica film: it has

NOTHING to do with Duval, Lott, et al, in their (beautifully) correct

French style. This almost becomes a different piece. Track this one

down, opera fanatics. Oh, yeah: she sings Fedora like no other in this

century. . ."

AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING

R. Mark | 12/10/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This recording is so amazing I must have listened to it literally a thousand times. Even though the sound is a bit iffy because it is recorded live from the audience you have to adjust and get over it because it is such an important recording. This is Magda Olivero's best Fedora on record and I have them all. It is even better than the studio recording she made on London records. Bruno Prevedi is also amazing. I never heard him live and people who have say he was inconsistent but on this night he is perfect no tenor today sounds anything like this. Now back to the incredible Magda Olivero. She literally sings the whole end where she is slowly dying spinning so much piano that you can only come to one conclusion; Magda Olivero has a diaphragm of steel!!!!! Buy it if you can."