Earring Magic Ben
Oh, it’s been a lot of years since La Cieca’s days in the campy cabal. How long, you ask? So long that she plumb forgot the moment where Lohengrin hands Elsa the Cockring of Remembrance.
Dies Horn soll in Gefahr ihm Hilfe schenken,
in wildem Kampf dies Schwert ihm Sieg verleiht;
doch bei dem Ringe soll er mein gedenken . . .
Sadly during Sills’s reign, many in this county did not take her too seriously erroneously thinking that she was not a really serious artist–just so bubbly and unprimadonna like. However, she was a serious singer! Listen to her recordings especially her Lucia.
yes callasorphan, Bubbles gave, gave, gave so much.
when i listen to Bubbles, especially her lucia, i always feel that she sings until there’s just nothing more to be sung.
leontyneluvr, I really like “heartbeat of the cabaletta”. That certainly describes what is missing from some performances and WHY I find them lacking while Sills and Callas’s performances of the same works send my soul to heaven!!
Awful awful radio broadcast today, wasn’t it? For great Lohengrins, check out these legendary performers/performances:
Elsa von Brabant: Cheryl Studer
Heinrich der Vogler, King of the Germans: Manfred Schenk
Lohengrin: Paul Frey
Friedrich von Telramund: Ekkehard Wlaschiha
Ortrud: Gabriele Schnaut
The King’s Herald: Eike Wilm Schulte
Four Brabantian nobles: Clemens Bieber, Peter Maus,
Robert Riener, Heinz-Klaus Ecker
Four pages: Rachel Robins, Natsue von Stegmann,
Katalin Benei, Akiko Makiyama
Noblewomen: Sarah Fulgoni, Helen Lawson, Martina Beier,
Kristina Gloge, Kriemhild Strettner, Isolde
Claassen, Yehudit Silcher, Philippa Thomson
Bayreuth Festival Orchestra & Chorus
Chorus Master: Norbert Balatsch
Conductor: Peter Schneider
Recording: Festspielhaus, Bayreuth, June 1990
Philips 434 602-2
OR
Elsa von Brabant: Cheryl Studer
Heinrich der Vogler, King of the Germans: Kurt Moll
Lohengrin: Siegfried Jerusalem
Friedrich von Telramund: Hartmut Welker
Ortrud: Waltraud Meier
The King’s Herald: Andreas Schmidt
Four Brabantian nobles: Bojidar Nikolov, Franz
Kasemann, Claudio Otelli, Peter Köves
Four pages: Amy-Linda Domaracki, Ingrid Sieghart,
Senta Fischer, Elisabeth Mach
Four Ladies-in-waiting: Renate Hasler, Gretchen Eder,
Ulrike Erfurt, Marianne Sattmann
Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsoperchor
Wiener Philharmoniker, Conductor: Claudio Abbado
Recording: Vienna, Musikverein, Großer Saal
November 1991, May-June 1992
DG 437 808-2
OR
Elsa: Cheryl Studer
Lohengrin: Plácido Domingo
Telramund: Hartmut Welker
Ortrud: Dunja Vejzovic
King Heinrich: Robert Lloyd
Herald: Georg Tichy
Vienna State Opera, Conductor: Claudio Abbado
Virgins Classics
VVD 841 (VHS Hi-Fi) (220 mins.)
Home Vision
833-9659, VHS 2 cass., 219 mins.
Hi-Fi stereo. In German, subtitled (1990)
Video Opera House
LOH 02V (2 VHS) (USA)
Pioneer
PLMCD 00011 (Laserdisc) (219 mins.)
Polygram
079 258-3 VHS (04/1996)
Nothing we heard today surpasses the performers
and performances listed above. Mattila is way too old for Elsa and the
voice is not the same. It was never a special voice anyway. Still, this
compromise is better than not hearing the work at all. Studer is the best Elsa in decades and that no one else has
excelled in the role like she has. The least said about Heppner the
better. What a sad case of a voice gone to ruin for wanting to sing too
much too soon and too much out of his Fach. And what of the really vile Luana DeVol?
Yes, Heppner had a rough afternoon. I was in the house for the prima, and while it took him a while to warm up, he sounded great at the end. DeVol unfortunately arrives at the Met rather late in her career and the voice has a bit of a wobble from years of hard use in heavy rep, but she has wonderful temperment, the the role is Otrud after all!
Marschallin, I couldn’t disagree with you more about Matilla. Her Elsa was radiant both in the house and on the broadcast. She is the real deal, the total package: voice, temperment, glamour. Your refusal to consider the merits of anyone but your idol forces you to live with your studio-enhanced memories. Face it, Ms. Studer’s stage career is (prematurely) over. Her only public appearences in the past 5 years have been concerts in the provinces.
legendary!!!!!!!!! Really!!! Becasue there happens to be a singer that you obviously adore in the cast list hardly makes the rest of the performance legendary, nor hers for that matter! I suggest if you want legendary you listen to Konya and Grummer.
So sad about Heppner those rough afternoons are far too frequent now. Too many Tristans!
Where oh where are those lungs and vocal chords of iron that opera use to have so many of? Gone the way of the Dinosaur I guess.