Charles Rosen wrote that the accompaniment to this song is one of the hardest pieces for pianists in the romantic repertoire. On a piano with a Viennese action, it may have been easier, but given that we accompanists don't have period instruments, he made a valid point, I think.

Your comment is warming my heart!

@Ang Are you an idiot or just mentally sic?

@이이잉 Please... 😑

no, its a Mezzo! Its not low, she just uses her well developped chest voice, she was really a great singer but not a real contralto. Like Ferrier was NEVER a true contralto, by the way, technically Beal is much better than Ferrier. Muffled and woofy and no high notes does not mean one is a contralto.

@@contraltissima saying Ferrier had a bad technique and wasn't a contralto It's like saying Bach wasn't a good musician and he couldn't play clavicembalo, it's nonsense but nowadays on KZfaq you can read anything, everybody is an expert

@@fulvioarborio9578 Ferrier had bad technique and couldn't really hack it in opera, which is why she whispered concert rep instead.

@@contraltissima you’re insane 🤡

@@contraltissimaIs it not possible for a contralto to have well developed mixed/head voice? The other legendary contraltos of the golden age had well developed upper registers, like Marian Anderson and Madamme Ernestine Schumann-Heink.

Yes, no doubt she did.

But we are certainly hungry for her

So true. I accidentally heard a recording when living in the Chicago area where there was an arts Channel. Pure happenstance. I went to look her up and found she abbreviated her career to raise her children.

She certainly wasn't. She unfortunately abandoned her career when she got married, so that's one reason why she's not better known. She was also a contralto and not a soprano, so she was never going to be a prima donna and those are the only ones who achieve any notoriety among the general public.

I agree, and can sing it so fast too. Wow.

yep, fantastic for an american

@@slavicmapping5262 if only you’re English was as good as her German. 🤡

YES

Michael Vine You are absolutely right about Ms. Beal singing "Deep River". I know of other performances as good, but none I like better in terms of "authenticity". She takes a song that some think only belongs to black people and sings it with the level of artistry that Marian Anderson brings to Schubert's " Death and the maiden". Amazing.

Michael Vine I think Deep River in German turns out to be Tieffes waser.

Larry Mitchell she could have sung some dramatic mezzo stuff too I think

I wish she sang the Orfeo aria.

Eula Beal mostly retired after the war to focus on motherhood. She sang local performances periodically in the Napa Valley area, but stardom was never of much interest to her. Come to think of it, that might be the reason she sings so well in the first place: she never cared about celebrity or excessive attention.

She sound a bit lighter to consider her a contralto, Rosa Ponselle is heavier than her in comparison and she is a soprano. A pity that Eula didn't dedicated her life to sing, her carrer it's very short, and her repertoire is almost chamber music. Instead she married and had children. :(

로보 티니콜라스 I agree it sounds bright, contralto voices are ones you have to hear in person. There’s a darkening that’s there when you hear that sound in person that these older recordings don’t do much justice to

@@user-en2fx3vl6h Keep in mind, she wasn't even 30 when this filmed (she was born in 1919 and this was filmed in 1947). That's **extremely** young for a contralto. You don't really hear the contralto sound except when she gets to the low Cs. They just have a projection that mezzos and sopranos won't have.

@@taralh1986 I don't agree that contralto voice develop with time, that's not true, listen to Fedora Barbieri 23 years old, when she started to sing heavy things, they were appropriate for her voice with 23 years young!!!

" they were given bad and often limited roles" I mean...if you consider Azucena, Amneris and Arsace to be "boring and limited roles".

Listen at her low notes. Very Dark, and firm.

Actually she does.

She is a mezzo

I go as low as G2.

Well, early in the morning. Easy.

xxxyyyxxx Adapting the note or finding a genre which doesn't "require" that much agility/need to reach notes really high helps a lot.

Agreed, maybe even a soprano. Contraltos sound like men in the chest register (ex: Nathalie Stutzman).

@@jasonblack4208 Not necessarily lol

It's not that contraltos can never sound feminine, but imagine someone saying "yeah, I'm a bass, I just have a bright voice". It's literally impossible to be a bass and have a voice that isn't heavy and dark. Compare her to Ernestine Schuman-Heinke for example.

@@jasonblack4208 I get it. But look at Nathalie. She talks like a man, but imho her singing makes her voice way more feminine.

Ja!

Yes, she was one of the best ever.

Ju AC , so maybe you are not soprano, but contralto, just didn't learn in right way and sing not in you tessiture?) Some contraltos has soprano high notes but i never heard about sopranos with contralto's notes

@@yuliana703 look up Rosa Ponselle

No, she's a contralto.

@@yuliana703 they do, they're just rounder, darker, and woodier.

@@grobanite4ever85 yeah, she can sing D3 easily.

I also think that this aria should be for baritones.

No mezzo I can think of, possessed a low chest register of this depth & strength. There are basses that can trespass upon baritone notes, & baritones who can sing tenor high C. However, the fach to which a voice naturally belongs, is determined by the tessitura which it can comfortably & easily sustain. Eula Beal may have possessed an exceptional top for a contralto that encompassed mezzo high notes, but the mezzo tessitura was too high for her voice.

​@@hiyadroogs of course she is a Mezzo, she does NOT sing low, she has a DEVELOPPED chest register and uses it! today no women has a deelopped chest register, thats why most heavier voices sing a fach lower than they would be in reality. Already Ferrier was never a contralto and Simionato never a Mezzo.

@@contraltissima Beal & Ferrier were both contraltos. Neither had access to the higher tessitura of a true mezzo. Just because neither had the dramatic baritonal chest register of Dame Clara Butt, doesn't make them mezzos. They both had the darker hue of a true contralto, & lacked the ease in the upper register to carry the tessitura of a true mezzo, which is actually a rare voice type. Most mezzos are either contraltos with a very poor chest register development, or sopranos with a very poor head register development. True mezzos are rare, & have considerable agility. In a similar sense, just because Ezio Pinza was a lyric bass who could in younger days undertake a few lower baritone roles, doesn't make his voice a baritone. He lacked the low pitch sonority of a basso profundo, & could sing a fantastic high G of the baritone. But it was a lyric bass, not a baritone, & he possessed the florid agility to confirm it. The very best mezzos can sing a comfortable high C, but it doesn't make them sopranos. The best baritones can sing a comfortable high C, but it doesn't make them tenors. Besides the natural dark or bright colour of a voice, which may determine the lyric or dramatic potential, a voice is largely determined by the tessitura it can comfortably sustain. As a tenor voice, I could sing G above high C, but singing contralto let alone mezzo tessitura would make my nuts fall off! I can also hit bottom C of the true bass, but singing along with Paul Robeson feels like digging my own grave. Fach, is the musical range where the voice is happiest to sit, not its outer extremities.

@@hiyadroogs im sorry but I do not agree. a contralto whos voice is not able to perform a low D3 like Ferrier is not a contralto. the colour has much to do with technique. Liric contraltos are not contraltos, but mezzos or sopranos. A developped contralto is dramatic and the most powerful of all female voice types. Dramatic sopranos go as low or lower than Ferrier. If a voice is really developed you feel everywhere comfortable, you have just not so much power everywhere. But completely developedvoices do not exist today, or at least nor perform on international stages. Ponsell, who was a DEVELOPED dramatic soprano had much better low than Ferrier and I guess also than Beal. The natural relaxed speaking voice says a lot about were your voice is really at home.

@@contraltissima it's absolutely fine that we disagree. Though of course two opposing opinions have never happened before in KZfaq comment section history. But we'll get on with our lives somehow or other. I must clear up a couple of misconceptions however. A great technique does give you an extended facility where the voice doesn't naturally belong, but it certainly doesn't mean that you will be comfortable there, especially if we are speaking of opera. A baritone will never cope with a high tenor tessitura, which is why Melchior, who was a natural baritone with a very good top, could not have sung the Italian tenor repertoire, even though he possessed a seat lifting high C. A tenor will have to force his voice to achieve the depth & power of a baritone against a significant orchestra. Caruso once sang a bass aria for an ailing colleague, but even with his immense richness & sonority, no one would claim that he was any more than a below average bass. As for the contralto fach, there is no such thing as a natural predisposition toward being a dramatic voice simply because your voice is naturally pitched at a given musical altitude. Basses, baritones, & contraltos sing the overwhelming majority of their respective ranges in the chest register, which does indeed predispose them toward a dark hued, rich & sonorous quality of timbre. But power comes from resonance, squillo, & a degree of acquired athleticism, which a singer may not naturally possess nor wish to deploy even if they have it. Often, natural physiology & temperament don't agree, & when they clash, it is always the voice that loses the argument. The opera world is replete with examples of lyric voices being destroyed by owners with a dramatic temperament. Or much rarer, a dramatic voice living safely well inside its potential by its lyrical tempered owner. Plenty of true dramatic tenors lived out their careers as lyric or high voiced dramatic baritones through timidity. A lyric voice can be rapidly developed. But a dramatic voice is like a power lifter. It takes many more years to develop, & it curtails other more preferable qualities, such as lyricism, beauty of tone, range, & agility. Just because you can hit very low pitches, doesn't mean that your voice must be of stentorian loudness. Nor does a thin lyrical timbre mean that your voice lacks decibels. Both Lauri Volpi, who described his own voice as a lyric voice of the theatre, & Francesco Tamagno, who had no hint of baritonal heft in their voices, both had greater power above the stave than Del Monaco ever did. I'm sure you disagree with much or most of what I've written still. But I have enjoyed our discourse. It's nice to speak with someone who is equally passionate and engaged. So thank you for giving me an opportunity to get on my soap box! Best regards

Yep, she was a mezzo with a well developed chest voice that produces the low notes!

Are you on drugs ?

Wait, what? Never mind, Imma ignore trolls

ASS!