They were mostly all trying to imitate the poor Anna Netrebko.

This might be the funniest Masterclass that I’ve seen . She was a great artist !

She was basically just trying to get them all to sing with clearer vowels as they all had the same problem of that overly woofy voice. There's such a requirement for "dark" and "big" in opera that they've lost their core, squillo! It's CHIAROscuro which means you need a balance of open and clear. This depressed larynx creates neither. The words in opera are actually meant to be understood lol

Years ago, I participated in a master class with Eleanor Steber.  I sang Handel's "Where ere you walk."  The first thing she said was "those were very interesting ornaments."  They had been written by my teacher (a Baroque specialist), who warned me that Steber might speak of how she had sung Mozart in Mozart's time.  Then Steber said "I was sitting here thinking about how you were singing like a young man in a brown suit."  As a young brown skinned man in a brown suit, I chose to interpret that as meaning that she was bored.  She only really worked with one singer, a Canadian soprano who sang one of the Schubert Suleika songs, and went on to have a career in Germany.  All I had to take away from the experience were the useless comments quoted above.  Freni's manner notwithstanding, at least she is clear about trying to change the way the first singer produces her tone.  She is suggesting that the singer uses voce ingolata and wants her to sing at the level of speaking.  It is difficult to get a singer to make this kind of change on the spot and under pressure; but sometimes it happens.  I think on balance, I would rather have had Freni berate me and leave me with something I could have actually used.

Freni fue una cantante superlativa, heredera de la tradición italiana, con sonido brillante y expansivo, igual que Pavarotti. Aquí ya está vieja, con cero paciencia, cero modales y ni el más mínimo criterio pedagógico. Por otra parte, si bien los alumnos tienen unas voces hermosas, su técnica es deficiente, con los sonidos oscurecidos artificialmente, como cantan la mayoría de los cantantes líricos profesionales en la actualidad. Es una pena que esa antigua tradición italiana está cayendo cada vez más en el olvido. Para Freni no pasa inadvertida esa deficiencia técnica en los alumnos. Pero claro, hay maneras y maneras de corregir. Ridiculizar o violentar al alumno, definitivamente no es el modo.

I absolutely loved Freni's singing - but, she acted like an impatient bully in this masterclass.

Freni is willing to help. In Russia they do not teach bel canto. They teach by the old Soviet system that emphasises the word and not the sound. And she is one of the queens of bel canto.

She knew how to sing and she does get it out of some of them quite successfully. Placement was key for her and should be for all. Brava to the angel who left us with so much. She is stupendous!!!!

It is The Legend of Singing Lesson ever. I miss her a lot.. 😭

This masterclass lifts up my dopamine and serotonin 😂levels

It’s right she sounds 60 when she is twenty because of a manufactured dark sound

There is difference between what she’s telling and how singers understand it. You need some right development to get her words. Most of girls tried to imitate Netrebko’s weird ‘potato’ sound. Eventually everyone sounded ingolato, so of course Freni tried to pull out their voices. The problem is - you can’t pull out anything if your throat is closed, larynx high and so on. You just go from potato sound to mosquito. Freni still got some old school, so she sang with super opened throat, which allowed her to play with her head/mixed resonances.
Yeah… the language! You need to study Italian pronunciation(other languages too) like crazy. If properly pronounced, it can help a bit to fix some problems…And the support, well there should be another masterclass just for body feeling.

She cannot transmit her enormous knowledge in some minutes. Or maybe at all. She was a huge artist, technical genius. We all try to learn by looking and hearing her. ❤

Great Basso

what a gread video!! love

The singer who sang caro nome is so amazing!!! Beautiful instrument, I would love to know her name ❤️❤️❤️

Thanks so much

Her name is Natalia Zimina.

La alumna primera tiene una bella voz y presencia que siga adelante ☺️.

Whay  dont give examples singing(mirella) in the tessitura of soprano?