Eleanor Steber Sings the Pagliacci Aria!

Sorry not to be posting lately. There is just so much to do around here. Teaching of course and Chapter Five is well-along but it just takes so much time and sometimes I feel like I am in among the weeds near a pond and not on the royal road that will lead me home and to the finish.

But enough about that--- for the moment.

Here is Eleanor Steber, American Super-Star Soprano from 50s.

I love her! Have done so for just forever! If you run across the old recording of Barber's Vanessa, get it and you will hear her doing an excellent job with the title role.

Her voice has the sound of a well-schooled American diva from the middle of last century, which is not so surprising of course.

I dote on her rolled "r"s. Delightful.

You hear often a metaphor for good operatic singing-- that you have your capital that you preserve and that you sing off the interest. A solid base of masterful and patiently acquired technique makes the singing well-founded and the sound the audience hears is an epiphenomenon of a much larger structure. Understanding singing in this way means that the good singer does not throw him or herself into the role and lose control. Steber's singing here recalls such a metaphor (which is ironic, for she evidently did do things later that she should not have and, they say, ruined her voice [one of these roles was Marie in Wozzeck!])

AND, and and and and, don't miss the lovely control of articulation and volume from about the 44 to 35 second mark--- que bella!!--- AND, and and and and, she also takes no breath here. People!!

Take it away Eleanor!:

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