Coloratura Comparison! 14 Sopranos add ornaments and high notes to Donizetti's LINDA aria

THE MUSIC: I think it was Erie Mills I heard in a radio interview refer to "O luce di quest’anima" as the coloratura soprano's national anthem. I had to laugh as it really is a go-to crowd pleaser. It is the entrance aria for the title character from Donizetti's "Linda di Chamounix.” I learned from soprano Jessica Pratt, who is preparing the role, that the aria was added by Donizetti for Fanny Tacchinardi Persiani when she sang the role, while he shortened the mad scene. The original mad scene was lost, but now Ricordi has issued a new critical edition of the score with the full mad scene reconstructed -- and Pratt plans to sing it all in an upcoming staging. Though the full opera is rarely performed, the "O luce" aria is ubiquitous in recitals, concerts, and recordings due to its jaunty tune and opportunities for bravura elements. Musically it is rather banal — at times it’s almost silly with its overt repetition and bouncy melody, seemingly just a base structure for divas to build upon. I think of it as a light Italian merengue: delicious, but a little goes a long way. Here, however, I’m offering quite a large serving!

Fourteen women sing the last of the repeats culminating in the big finish, though some singers get a little more time if they did something interesting with the cadenza before. Many seem to start with the embellishment options offered in Estelle Liebling’s famous book. Liebling was a soprano and voice teacher who also compiled and published vocal ornaments and cadenzas from her teacher Matilde Marchesi, other prima donnas of the distant past, and a few that she has devised herself. I recommend coloratura diehards consider picking up a copy for reference (it’s available on Amazon). It’s jam-packed with every conceivable coloratura frill and flourish!

As with all my comparison videos, there are some names you’ll recognize here, but several are little-known singers of merit who I like to highlight on my channel. The aria is typically sung in the key of C-Major, though from comments on this video, I learned that it was originally written in Db-major -- at some point it was reset a half-step lower to C-major which has for the most part stuck. Two sopranos as noted below sing it in Db. In the standard key, the score tops out a High C and Rita Morris and Melanie Holliday don’t interpolate any notes above that, but as they both had something interesting to offer in the way of charm or unusual decorations, and are under-represented on YouTube, I’ve included them here. See, it’s not always about the high notes. That said, I did manage to include at least one soprano who sings up to a High D, Eb, E, F, F#, and G — so all those extra high notes are covered here.

THE SONGBIRDS: I’m presenting these in reverse alphabetical order (so Ruth Welting isn’t stuck at the end again).
00:00 Introduction
03:20 Ruth Welting (1948 - 1999), recorded 1976 - High F
05:56 Elizabeth Vidal, 2000/2001 - High G
07:19 Urszula Trawinska (1937 - 2025), circa 1978 - High Eb (sung in Db-major)
08:40 Gail Robinson (1946 - 2008), 1974 - High D
10:41 Olga Peretyatko, 2004 - High F
12:27 Rita Morris (1937 - 2007), 1972
14:27 Halina Mickiewicz (1932 - 2001), circa 1956 - High Gb (sung in Db-major)
16:20 Melanie Holliday, 1983
18:32 Deborah Cook (1938 - 2019), circa 1978 - High E
20:02 Lamara Chkonia, 1973 - High D
21:52 Claudia Boyle, 2020 - High D
23:12 Judith Blegen, 1974 - High D
25:22 Chihiro Bamba, 1986 - High D
27:01 Arleen Auger, 1988 - High D