"So that I can remember you in my prayers...

...tell me your name, unknown saviour." And with these words, La Gioconda assures that her lover Enzo will discover that his beloved Laura still lives and is indeed right before his eyes (for Laura has just saved La Gioconda's mother). Enzo will spend the rest of the opera hoping to get back with Laura (and he will succeed in this) and it is La Giconda who is marked for death and tragedy. The next words, about, and which figure in the clips to come are "Dearest Enzo! Oh, how much I love you" (Enzo adorato. Ah, come t'amo!). She addresses him in love but he is lost forever to her through the question asked in gratitude not 10 seconds earlier, as I have said. La Gioconda's mother may be La Cieca (the blind one) but she cannot see either. It is a trademark compelling moment of the kind Ponchielli excelled in. It is also a moment that only improves the better you know the opera, the more you have listened to it, the more you have seen it.

This scene also features a lovely B flat which the soprano holds as a truly beautiful melody materializes and commences its soaring course from underneath. In the excepts to come, I have focussed on the soprano's B flat. In the last clip, however, I give you more of the scene and include the truly gorgeous postlude to this little scene. This is writing in the grand manner and it is one of the glories of the Italian repertoire.

Callas first studio

Callas is always interesting. She does not deliver some of the cream that we will get from Zinka later but she is present, we are in the presence of the character, as always.

Urmana studio (recent)

Urmana sounds very nice indeed. The quality of the high note is muy nice. Gosh she makes a nice dramatic soprano.

Gencer (Venice 1971)

Gencer has delicacy and some glottal action here. The rough and the smooth. THE note starts off soft and then suddenly triples in volume. Wha?! Then the note starts to sound kind of scary toward the end. Things end up where they are supposed to, but gosh the journey has some weird moments. But this is par for the course with this important singer.

Rysanek (Berlin 1974)

Rysanek is perhaps not everyone's cup of tea in the Italian rep. This is fun to hear though. I always like her engagement.

Milanov (New York 1939)

The trademark Milanov (she sounds young!) is laying it down. "I own this role; I understand what an opportunity this moment is."

Milanov (New York 1946)

The trademark Milanov (she is aged to perfection!) is saying that what she said in 1939 still applies. Note how the orchestra takes it really slow--- she has plenty of air left... "What's the rush? There is no rush. I own this role."

Farrell (New York 1962)

Nice gleaming tone! Such authority! You should hear her elsewhere in this recording! She filled the house with clear-eyed phrasing and a powerful voice. If you see this recording available, you will want to grab it.

Tebaldi studio

Love Tebaldi. She is so there. I really enjoy her in her Indian-Summer forays into the dramatic repertoire.

Milanov studio

This is my fav. ZM is able to relax and do the note just so. Check out the glide down! Schuweet!! The yearning and loving nature of this character come out so nicely. There really is no other in this role.

The inspiration for this post is the local opera society's screening of a DVD of a recent performance of this opera from a production in Barcelona. Deborah Voigt will be in the lead. Also, a couple of days later at our house we are going to watch a VHS cassette I recently acquired featuring Grace Bumbry from 1988 (also Barcelona). We are watching them so close together because the second one is not subtitled in English (there are Spanish subtitles). If we see it soon enough, we will remember enough of what is going on so that we won't miss the subtitles too much. La Gioconda fever in our secluded glade down here in Wellington (where Fall is on its way).