Princess Fire and Music
“Not since Delia Rigal,” comments one of La Cieca’s regular correspondents, referring to the ongoing (not to mention inscrutable) publicity juggernaut for soprano Erika SunnegÃ¥rdh. Now she’s headlining a revised concert program for the Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall on May 14. According to an “URGENT” press release sent out yesterday, La SunnegÃ¥rdh will be heard in three operatic excerpts by Puccini, Mozart and Wagner. Her assisting artists on the program, Ben Heppner and Rene Pape, each will sing two arias. Changes to the original roster for this concert include James Conlon substituting for James Levine, Giacomo Puccini for Johannes Brahms, and Piotr Illitch Tchaikowsky for Charles Wuorinen. That’s at a $155 top, by the way. See you there?
For my money, no one has sung Marietta right since Carol Neblett.
Ewa Podles is getting a nod from Seattle Opera where I will see her in Julius Caesar. I heard Erika and will have to compare then.
here we go again with another round of waltraud meier bashing … never mind that she is one of the most interesting artists we’ve got now … her leonore is terrificly exciting, it just shouldn’t happen at the met, and it’s not a natural fit for “karita’s” production. with as many isoldes as she has masterfully sung, you can’t say she hasn’t got the top for leonore. i’m so glad she’s back at the met for kundrys next month and can set the record straight.
Come on, guys, let’s give Ms Sunnegardh the benefit of the doubt until we get a chance to judge her properly.
For many of us all the hoopla about her debut is a turn-off but we don’t know that it was of her making.
Anticipated debuts at the Met can (and probably should be) nerve-wracking. Often even the greatest of singers are not heard at their best at their debut performances. (Sutherland herself was reportedly rather shaky during the first act of her first Met Lucia.) Let’s hear a bit more of her before judging.
Was she given the Met opportunity because the artistic staff thought she was good or was it a publicity stunt? I have no idea but in either case she may be just an innocent bystander.
Funny, my friends know I can be very harsh on singers but for Pete’s sake, let’s give this woman a break for the time being. Who knows, she may turn out to be a new Kirsten or Birgit or Astrid or Helen… Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
Yeah, It would. Who knows, Ms. Sunngardh may have great things ahead of her yet.
Has it occured to ANYBODY that the week before the FIDELIO broadcast, Karen Slack was substituted in LUISA MILLER, making a FAR greater impression than Ms. Sunnegardh, with more style, flair, individuality and skill,… singing, technically, a much more difficult role……and receiving virtually no pre- or follow-up publicity? I’m just one person, but I haven’t been so impressed with an unknown — since Aprile sang her first DON CARLO broadcast!!!
Having heard Miss Sunnegardh, I’m afraid we ARE already past the stage where we can make the claim that she is going to turn out to be a new Kirsten or Birgit or Astrid or Helen…….. the voice is grey and colorless. I’m sure she’ll make a competent C house lead, but to go through the motions of watching her be promoted as a major talent worthy of comparison to legitimately great voices is a bit tiresome, and besides, does her a great injustice, as she will disappoint anyone looking for an important instrument (which is what it’s all about), and be quietly dropped in a few years, a la Marilyn Mims, or Victoria Loukenitz, etc. And at 40, there isn’t much further development instrumentally that’s going to take place, unless someone has come up with a new medical supplement that I’m unaware of.
I do wish some people wouldn’t take critiscm of the srtistry as criticism of the person. It really takes a fair discussion of whether the singer in question is really worthy of the attention into a catfight, which isn’t really neccesary. Although I do care whether a singer is a decent colleague, it shouldn’t really be an issue when we’re talking about vocal standards at the most important theaters.
She’s singing Turandot? You’ve got to be kidding…
All I can say is I hope she at least brings more listeners into the opera scene in the few years that she lasts, ’cause this artform could use an infusion of some young devotees…
thank GOD baryton francais speaks up as well as obaysch…we need to put it to the managerial staff or whoEVER is in charge that the public aren’t operatic dummies…we’re schooled as to what we know, and don’t put Erika up against Kirsten or Birgit OR Helen…my ears hear what they hear, and no PR machine HOWEVER savvy will retrain those…..whoever is in charge of Erika’s PR machine had better remember the claque in Italy, hope it better NOT come to NY, and shake in their BOOTS…there’s no WAY Erika could even lick the boots of Hildegard Behrens in her prime !…SHEESH!
I was just expressing a wish.