Birgit Nilsson's shocking high note finale - Wien, Wien nur du allein! - 1975 - LIVE footage

Ah, I'm so happy to have found this clip somewhere and to return it to YouTube! It's the one recording of this piece where you can hear the ambient sound of Nilsson's voice in the hall. And then... her special surprise ending, up close and personal :)

EDIT: I’ve just discovered that a proper audio recording of this live performance. Hear it on Spotify at https://open.spotify.com/track/4q88Yd...


"Wien, du Stadt meiner Träume" by Rudolf Sieczynski
from a 1975 Swedish documentary
Geoffrey Parsons, piano

.....................................

Yes, the singing is... extra.

Trrill™ is about florid passages, improvisatory underpinnings, staccato'd intuitions, and virtuosities even at their most ridiculous.

But it's also about the biggest, boldest form of vocal emission, with aural examples of basically correct singing, correct impostazione—chiaroscuro, vowel clarity, firm and centered pitch, correct vibrato action, absence of throatiness or thickness, sounds free from constriction and from the acoustic noise that accompanies it—with occasional video examples that demonstrate what the body, face, mouth, jaw, and tongue look like when used with correct impostazione—the vocal emission of the one and only Italian school.

Caveat: I'm biased in favor of #baritones and baritone literature, but if you want to learn about and listen to all the greatest singers in the old-school tradition, explore this spreadsheet (voice parts are separated by tabs):

https://bit.ly/2W4qmE3