it fills me with nameless dread and eldritch horror

Ha! Yes, I think that about sums it up.

The astonishing climb through the octaves really showed off her range.

I always assumed that some electronic manipulation came into play there.

I wish that I had the track here to listen to, but... the vocal gymnastics is synthesized. You can tell by the pacing of the notes... a human could do that, but not quite in that way. There's a much more percussive break between pitches than the human voice would have.

t music nerd

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Here's just the techno bit of the aria (which is intercut with the fighty-fighty).

I'm also pretty sure the range is outside just about anyone's actual range (though I never entirely believed in Mariah Carey's claimed five-octave range).

Wasn't Julie Andrews supposed to have a six-octave range when she was only 13 years old?

Let's say, for argument's sake, that Mariah (or Julie Andrews) had a lower limit of, oh, C below middle C. That's lower than I can sing, it's lower than any soprano I know can sing, but let's say that.

Up to middle C, one octave. C above middle C, two octaves. High C, three octaves. I don't believe people can sing another *two* octaves above high C. Even something like the "Queen of the Night" aria only goes up to F above high C.

We're talking dog whistle range.

Here's just the techno bit of the aria (which is intercut with the fighty-fighty).

Mmm. I absolutely love the ending, where they both throw out their arms.

And a vid to the entire aria.

Also, I'm weirded out by the Diva's hands. They seem too long to be human (especially to be female), but they also seem too realistic to have been faked in any way.

On further investigating (by which I mean typing her name into Google), they look to be her real hands. Le huh.

I was just reading through Julie Andrews' Wikipedia entry, and they said she had a four-octave range, which is much more reasonable.