Opera similar to Ava Maria ?

August 9, 2007 5:41 PM

I chanced upon Ava Maria the other day, and I was quite taken with the sound. I sourced many other tracks and disliked all of them. It would seem, mostly I don't like Opera. I'm keen to find what I do like though, so I'm hoping someone will recommend similar performances. I guess I don't much care for understanding the words I just love the pure voice as an instrument. Female, pure, mellow. Hope you can help.
posted by matholio to Media & Arts (30 answers total)

Good evening....you might enjoy the Requiem by Gabriel Faure. I have performed this piece twice with different choirs, and I believe you might find it enjoyable.

Good luck.
posted by Womanscientist at 5:45 PM on August 9, 2007

Which Ave Maria is it? I could use a sound sample of which version you're talking about, or one that sounds similar if you could get a link, to help you out...perhaps youtube?
posted by StrikeTheViol at 5:47 PM on August 9, 2007

I suspect you're talking about Schubert's Ave Maria, which is the one that was used by Disney in the original Fantasia.

I don't think that's generally considered to be opera.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 6:11 PM on August 9, 2007

What about music by Hildegard of Bingen? She wrote medieval chants among her many other accomplishments. If you do a search on "Hildegard" and "CD" you should find a number of useful links to music by her and other medieval church composers.
posted by metahawk at 6:12 PM on August 9, 2007

Vivaldi Stabat Mater,Laudate pueri (psalm) In furore (motet) Nulla in mundo pax sincera (motet) discovered in a library 1939 not well known but beautiful vocal music quite unlike his instrumental stuff.
posted by hortense at 6:28 PM on August 9, 2007

Was it the Bach/Gounod version? If so, Gounod wrote a few operas. Operating on the assumption that it was the Gounod, you might also enjoy Menotti's The Medium, which includes a couple of gorgeous, floatingly lyric arias. Sweeney Todd, though labeled a musical more often than not, also fits into this profile. Or--ooo!--how about some Benjamin Britten? Turn of the Screw, maybe? Aaron Copland's The Tender Land?

You might also want to seek out singers who have that kind of "female, pure, mellow" voice that you're looking for. The name that immediately comes to mind is Kathleen Battle--here singing, of course, the Ave Maria.
posted by Powerful Religious Baby at 6:37 PM on August 9, 2007

@womanscientist - many thanks

@StrikeTheViol
I think it was sung by Maria Callas.
I'll host 30sec of it somewhere tonight.

@Steven C. Den Beste
oh, ok. sounds like opera to my untrained ears.

@matahawk - thanks, we like leads.
posted by matholio at 7:13 PM on August 9, 2007

One term to look for is lieder (German for songs). Schubert's lieder are probably a good starting point. For the pure mellow female sound, the term to use in searches etc. is lyric(al) soprano.
posted by phliar at 8:06 PM on August 9, 2007

Ah, Callas..gorgeous! Was it like this? Now, tell me, do you prefer something like this, or something like this?
posted by StrikeTheViol at 8:08 PM on August 9, 2007

Also, if you're looking for pure voice, lieder are what you want, seconding phliar. Like this?
posted by StrikeTheViol at 8:16 PM on August 9, 2007

I think I know what you mean and I think you'd like Stabat Mater - it's a piece set to music by a zillion people (all the biggies) but the composer whose version I love is Pergolesi. You can hear this version in the final scene of the film Jesus of Montreal. Gorgeous.
posted by loiseau at 8:34 PM on August 9, 2007

Here are a couple of videos of parts of Stabat Mater.
posted by loiseau at 8:38 PM on August 9, 2007

As a recovering Catholic, may I attest that at weddings, when the Ave Maria is unleashed a capella from the balcony by an experienced contralto as a warmup to the wedding march it floods us with the cerulian blue of heaven, and it puts everyone in the mood.
posted by longsleeves at 8:57 PM on August 9, 2007

I always liked Carmina Burana, but that's not what you're looking for, I bet.
posted by emptyinside at 10:40 PM on August 9, 2007

I was never a choral music fan until I heard Mozart's Requiem. Several sections of female solo/duet like you say. Also, you might very well like opera if you were at one, following the story. The music (in a good one) is more than just the music, it sets the mood and matches the acting in an emotional way that film scores rarely come even close to. Also, the difference in experience between live and recorded is huge, just as it is in rock music or whatever.

I've always like the piece from Mozart's Marriage of Figaro - the one Andy played on the record player over the PA in The Shawshank Redemption. Maybe try Puccini's Turandot on DVD. That's a pretty accessible one for those new to opera. Avoid Wagner at first, IMO.
posted by ctmf at 10:52 PM on August 9, 2007

You might like the Flower Duet from Delibes' Lakmé, also featured in British Airways commercials and True Romance (NSF...some situations, I'm not quite sure).
Also somewhat similar is the Barcarolle from Tales of Hoffman.

Much as I detest them, you could probably start by going into a record store, the kind that lets you preview tracks (or searching around on Amazon for clips) and picking up a "Best of Popular Classical Songs for Making Your Baby a Supergenius" type compilation.
posted by casarkos at 11:04 PM on August 9, 2007

Can I also chip in and suggest Richard Strauss' Four Last Songs (German: Vier Letzte Lieder)? This is very much lieder of the pure, female voice.

I would suggest the Elizabeth Schwartzkopf version, though. Renditions by young sopranos (Hayley Westenra etc) do not have the maturity to pull it off, and the richness of others such as Kiri Te Kanawa, to my ear, lose a lot of the beauty of the purity.
posted by mooders at 12:47 AM on August 10, 2007

Second the suggestion of finding a compilation of tracks used in movies and tv adverts and I think you'll like Barbra Streisand's Classical (e.g. full track of Beau Soir on YouTube).
posted by ceri richard at 1:04 AM on August 10, 2007

Charlotte Church?
This site has a bunch of little samples of songs you can listen to.
http://charlottechurch.net/prelude/album.html
posted by BoscosMom at 1:07 AM on August 10, 2007

wow, so much research to do. brilliant.

@StrikeTheViol
It was exactly that tune.
..and I prefer this1 over this2.
this2 had less music.

@Barcarolle
Like Flower Duet but reminded me too much of BA, they pwn it now.

Thanks everyone, I love getting into a new genre, so many many roads to travel.
posted by matholio at 1:25 AM on August 10, 2007

If you want to stick with Ave Maria but not necessarily opera, here's a short list I compiled of covers (all Schubert interpretations unless otherwise stated):

1) Maria Callas (Verdi interpretation)
2) Stevie Wonder. I thought at first the track was pitched up cos he sounds a little squeaky, but i guess he was just young when he recorded this. Its definitely him tho. Placed at no. 2 due to the excellent and unexpected use of harmonica.
3) Carpenters. Nice vibes. Classic beautiful voice. Nice strings programming.
4) Roy Black. Dont know who Roy is, and the producers might have put a little too much reverb on his voice (unless they recorded it in a cave during the war), but the guy's got a nice voice all the same. They managed to fit quite a large choir into the rear of the cave, but the strings are a little too overpowering to be able to hear them properly.
5) Thievery Corporation.

To get to this final list the other following covers were played and eliminated: Gheorghe Zamfir plays the panpipes, Chris Cornell from Soundgarden, Joan Baez, Frank Sinatra, Harry Connick Jr and, wait for it, Bobby McFerrin and Yoyo Ma.

At the time of writing the Freddie Mercury/Michael
Bolton and Placido Domingo versions were unavailable. I didn't download the Celine Dion track out of principle.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 4:01 AM on August 10, 2007

Much as I detest them, you could probably start by going into a record store

Derail: What? Why?!?
posted by Deathalicious at 4:25 AM on August 10, 2007

Matholio, I challenge you to find a version better than this by Yehudi Menunhin,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLperaX6Q3A
posted by Zé Pequeno at 4:30 AM on August 10, 2007

Menuhin* doh.
posted by Zé Pequeno at 4:30 AM on August 10, 2007

Bruckner's Motets are beautiful, especially the Ave Maria. The Corydon Singers performance is soaringly good.

Seconding, (Gabriel) Faure's Requiem, and also his Cantique de Jean Racine.
posted by Shave at 4:58 AM on August 10, 2007

From the "Room with a View" soundtrack, you might like, "O mio babbino caro" (from Gianni Scicchi by Puccini), performed by Kiri Te Kanawa. There is also a Maria Callas version here
posted by FreezBoy at 5:41 AM on August 10, 2007

On the more modern side, you might enjoy Górecki's Symphony No. 3 ("Symphony of Sorrowful Songs"). Very slow & elegiac.
posted by Johnny Assay at 5:50 AM on August 10, 2007

Freddie Mercury recorded Ave Maria? Dang! I need to hear that.

Urbanwhaleshark, thanks for linking to The Carpenters version, which I also love.

Aaron Copland's work is a good call, and more accessible than a lot of opera/lieder. Ditto Faure and Mozart requiem, especially the Faure "Pie Jesu."

I've sung and heard so much gorgeous music over the years... hmmm ... another classical voice I love is Frederica Von Stade.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 7:40 AM on August 10, 2007

Deathalicious: Not record stores, compilations. It was late.
posted by casarkos at 8:45 AM on August 10, 2007

When I saw Striketheviol, I thought it was a suggestion, and a good one. One version on youtube
If you like it, it is one part of Odes for St. Cecilia's Day by Henry Purcell.

If you "don't like opera", but do like lighter fare, you should explore Purcell and other pre-eighteenth-century composers.
posted by hexatron at 10:23 AM on August 10, 2007