On Wed, 5 Jun 2002, Tia Pickeral wrote:
> Dear Vocalists:
> I have been asked to sing Ave Maria at an upcoming
> wedding and I was wondering if anyone knew of a vocal
> recording that uses the Latin words and is in the
> A-flat key? I have a recording of Jessye Norman, but
> strangely enough, she uses the German text.
Not strange at all. Schubert did NOT, as all to commonly (and erroneously)
believed, set the Latin "Ave Maria" prayer to music. Schubert - in his
Ellens Gesang III (D.839), commonly known as "Ave Maria", set a poem by
German poet Adam Storck, which was itself an adaptation of a text by Scottish
author and poet Sir Walter Scott.
Only later did some resourceful (!) person decide to shoehorn the Latin
Ave Maria text onto Schubert's music. Having sung both versions myself, I
can safely say that it *isn't* a comfortable fit! There are superior
settings of the Latin poem to music by composers who actually INTENDED to
do such settings. Unfortunately, few of them are as musically beautiful or
compelling as Schubert's co-opted song. (Admittedly, this misappropriation
of Schubert's song is nowhere near as dreadful as the Ave Maria they
shoehorned onto the "melody" of the Intermezzo from Mascagni's CAVALLERIA
RUSTICANA.)
However, if you need a Latin Ave Maria setting, I would point you to the
almost-as-popular Bach/Gounod (at least a good composer adapted the work
of another great composer), or to one of the many solo-voice Ave
Marias by composers including:
Cherubini,
Caccini,
Tortorella (recorded by Franco Corelli),
Tosti,
Leoncavallo,
Turina,
Marcel Dupre,
Bruckner (1882 for alto and organ),
Dvorak,
Franck,
Saint-Saens (1859, for soprano or baritone and organ),
Faure (Op. 67/2, 1892),
Mendelssohn (1820),
Flor Peeters,
Dvorak,
Rossini,
Verdi (not the glorious aria from OTELLO, nor the choral "Ave Maria" from
his Quattro Pezzi Sacri, but his "Ave Maria" for soprano and strings),
Saverio Mercadante,
Max Bruch (from DAS FEUERKREUZ, op. 52, 1889),
Bizet,
Franz Schreker
plus others by lesser known composers like Sandoval, Kahn, etc.
> Secondly, Are there any good non-Italian mezzos
> that have good Italian diction? Despite my diction
> teacher's recommendation to listen to Cecilia Bartoli,
> I would like to hear a non-italian mezzo sing well in
> Italian to give me a spark of hope that I can do it
> too! Thanks in advance!
How long a list do you want? Since your teacher is having you listen to
Bartoli, I'll stick to lyric mezzos (or singers who have sung many lyric
mezzo roles). Try listening to:
Teresa Berganza
Marilyn Horne
Anne Sofie von Otter
Susan Graham
By the way, I feel safe saying that the above singers all had/have vocal
techniques superior to Bartoli's.
Of course, if your objective is to find actual role models from whom to
learn good Italian diction, one of the very best would be the late ITALIAN
mezzo-soprano Ebe Stignani, who was noted for her crystal clear, flawless,
expressive Italian diction. You should probably also check out Giulietta
Simionata, Fiorenza Cossotto, and the numerous other Italian mezzos.
Anyone know if Sonia Ganassi has recorded?
Karen Mercedes
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
______________________________________
I will sing with the spirit, and I
will sing with the understanding also.
1 Corinthians 14:15
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