Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #104980 in Digital Music Album
• Released on: 2006-05-08
• Running time: 0 seconds

Customer Reviews

The greatest soprano - ever
"In my lifetime, there have been three vocal miracles: Caruso, Ruffo and Ponselle." - Tullio Serafin, conductor.

Briefly a protegee and stage partner of Caruso until his untimely death, Ponselle is as great as her mentor; the ne plus ultra of dramatic sopranos, vocally virtually perfect and close to that as an interpreter. Her range, both in tessitura and repertoire, was extraordinary and she added to her glamour by retiring early to marry, and occasionally threatening a comeback which never materialised. The richness of her lower register, the velvet timbre of her middle range, the security of her top are things of wonder today - and she had that gift of a special vocal intensity and character which etches itself on the memory; it is very easy to bring her voice to mind singing certain memorable phrases inimitably - a gift shared perhaps most notably by Muzio and Callas. Despite singing heavy roles such as Aida incomparably, rivalled only by Emmy Destinn, she could lighten her voice to sing with fluting intensity, as in the famous exotic "Sadko" aria. Everything she sings sounds as if it had been written for her voice and she left a wealth of recorded legacy to prove it.