Search - Maria Nemeth :: Arias

"One of the Greatest Dramatics Sopranos"...Lauri-Volpi on Ne

Impostazione | New York City Area | 06/02/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

""You sing from the head as if the body doesn't exist" - Galina Vishnevskaya......keep that in mind while reading this!



The Vienna State Opera seemed at one time a law unto itself. They had their own stars who elsewhere may not have been nearly as appreicated. Maria Nemeth was THE dramatic soprano before the arrival of the Konetzni girls and Hilde idolized her. She was most renowned for her Turandot, but her technique enabled her to accomplish far more than that. H. Konetzni compared her favorably to Callas in this regard, "her Queen of the Night was equally impressive as her Turandot." What I found was something much more than a technical ability but a stylistic one as well.



Nemeth had the ability to change the timbre, depth, and volume of her voice to match the heroines of Wagner, Verdi, Weber, and Puccini. She seems to accomplish this by the use of her mask placement [ng], and chest support. I think that Dimitrova was the last soprano to use the chest/sternum as a gauge to determine volume of the voice. When Nemeth sings the young dramatic or spinto Wagnerian roles she uses a whiter timbre, medium depth, and controlled volume. In Verdi, she darkens the timbre but the tone is far more narrow and her singing of the tower aria from Trovatore tops anything I have heard - Milanov included. Nemeth concludes the aria with a high Dflat that Leontyne Price made famous, but really this was the tradition in Vienna. The Karajan/Price/Corelli Trovatore took place at the Vienna Staatsoper. She sings the Leonora in Trovatore as dramatic soprano and she allows more volume, whereas Forza is more lyrical, so the tone tone narrows but becomes much darker than Trovatore. Ballo is between the two. Aida is brighter with more spinto accents, larger than Ballo and Forza. In Oberon, she widens the tone a bit to dramatic proportions. In Turandot, the exceptional power of her upper middle, passaggio, and top is set free. It is the most dramatic reading of In Questa Reggia you are likely to find. She does not attack the notes, she snatches the notes with screaming abandon, and renders a lazer focus on the high C.



Nemeth was something of a miracle, and I suggest a study of her. The voice is something out of this world and if we can get past our own feline preciousness, delicate skinny bodies, botox, creme puff mannerisms, and salmon-stench-perfection, we might allow the arrival of another truly impressive and dramatic perspective. Surely, when I hear a modern soprano support with her chest like Nemeth and thus make a true dramatic sound (for nature dictates that to be the only way) - I mean to get the optimum quality on the largest tone. I will sell my all my belongings to buy a ticket to hear her. Susan Dunn used it with her lighter voice, so did Banaudi to a lesser degree but thats the last I've heard. Remember, the mask is a medium of control -- the body is the medium of tone!"