Waft her, angels
The fascinating and unconventional artist Lorraine Hunt Lieberson died yesterday at her home in Santa Fe. We in New York heard her only infrequently in opera, most recently in Serse and La clemenza di Tito at the NYCO and Les Troyens at the Met. She was scheduled to sing Orfeo in a new production of Gluck's opera at the Met next spring; no word yet on the Met's website who might now be cast in these performances. In tribute to Ms. Hunt Lieberson, we will hear the mezzo-soprano in music from Handel's Theodora tonight preceding the regular program on "Unnatural Acts of Opera."
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5:09 PM
110 Comments:
what a lovely rare lady and artist,she will be greatly missed
"C'en est fait...achevons le pieuz sacrifice...Je sens rentrer le calme...dans mon coeur."
Didon, Les Troyens, Act V
(All is over...let us finish the holy sacrifice...I feel peace returning...to my heart.)
I still recall the choir singing "Gloire a Didon" as she entered with regal bearing and dressed in white when she sang in LES TROYENS a few years ago.
What a fine artist. May she rest in peace.
Joe
Her performance in Troyens is still so vivid to me. (The only time I saw her live) She was one of those rare artists who could express the joy and sorrow of being human.
Her Bach recording will be considered a classic, I'm sure.
Good-bye. God bless.
Uncommon artistry in a very common age!!
What a tragedy. I wondered why there were so many cancellations this year. I wish her husband an easy grieving process. Her recordings will live on. Bless you, Lorraine.
it it very tragic indeed. in all of her singing u could hear her soul ... and i think that will keep her recordings as great classics. sadly there are far too few, but her bach and handel have left an imprint on anyone who has ever heard them.
i have never seen her live (as both times i was supposed to see her last year she had to cancel...) but her irene on the theodora dvd is something that cannot be forgotten once seen.
Julienned:
"She was one of those rare artists who could express the joy and sorrow of being human."
Well put. I agree that her Bach recordings will be classics. Her Didon (the only time I saw her live) was maginificent. Not my ideal interpretation of the role but still one of the greatest live performances I've seen and heard. Her artistry was unique.
theodora shmeodora... doesn't anyone here remember lorraine hunt's performance of the title role in marc-antoine charpentier's unique opera, médée, proving that she had the soul and voice of a true tragédienne lyrique. and the pluck to make these off-repertoire challenges into focal points of her career!
i shall listen to her this evening singing those unforgettable words "et que le crime nous sépare/comme le crime nous a joint".
Ginevra, you are right the Médée is an incredible performance as is her Phaedra in the Hippolyte et Aricie (excuse the spelling I may have missed an accent there.) I only wish we had a chance to see her in these great French roles. Does anyone know if there are - please God say yes - video recordings of those performances out there. Maybe just maybe French television recorded them.
Willym
What a heavenly choir they must have....Nilsson, Rysanek, Merrill, Tebaldi, Callas, Moffo, Troyanos, and now Liebermann...gives me something to look forward to
She will be greatly missed. she was a very fine artist if still underappreciated. however I have one word for Gelb-PODLES- book this woman for Orfeo. she will sell out your house and you will have a great artistic success.
or daniels. what a miracle he was in chicago.
Is there any word what she passed away from? She wasn't old at all... I heard her live in recital a couple years ago, and her way with contemplative material and recitative was superb and magical. I even enjoyed her singing of Debussy, as I don't care much for his work, but I felt like I was in another world when she sang it. I wish her family my utmost sympathies. Hopefully if she was in pain she can now rest peacefully.
She had been battling cancer since 2000.
Obit from the London Times is here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,60-2259127,00.html
The obituary from the London Guardian is here:
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/obituary/0,,1813519,00.html
She was a heavenly artist in every respect. Beginning with the Sellars production at Pepsico as Sesto in GIULIO CESARE and then her magnificent Dido in LES TROYENS and so, so much in-between.
Word is out that Daniels will replace her. That's OK, but I'd rather they allow Ewa Podles to take over. Maybe Podles and Mark Morris wouldn't be the right chemistry. Surely Daniels and Morris will hit it off!
If the MET was smart, they would have Daniels and Podles both do Orfeo. That way many fans of both singers would see the opera twice.
There's no question for me that Podles should be, at the least, the Met's house contralto. After all, how many contraltos are there with the big voice that she's got? It's perfectly suited to the Met. She should be the Met's regular Ulrica, Erda, First Norn etc. She should also be hired to sing some mezzo roles. But the alto roles are a given. Of course, by the time the Met gets around to hiring her, the voice will be in decline. She's well into her 50s now and from the last time I heard her, there's already a bit of a decline in the voice, though it's still great. I believe that she hasn't sung anything at the Met other than Tancredi in the late 90s.
Just did a check of the Met database and it turns out that the Met has never presented Tancredi. Podles has only performed Rinaldo way back in 1984, and only two performances at the Metropolitan Opera House.
It is a shame that the Met is not utilizing the great Podles. I was lucky enough to see her in recital a few years back, and it was an amazing experience. She has one of the most wonderful and freakiest instruments. I was only 15-20 feet away, and I'm sure that at points the skin on my face was being blown backwards. At the same time, she could create some of the softest tones... A great, great singer. Oh well, the Met is missing out.
Yes, Ewa Podles only appeared twice at the MET. She made her debut on 2-14-84, the same night that Carol Vaness first appeared on the MET stage. Sam Ramey was also there and made a great impression on the audience having only made his debut a few nights earlier. Of course, Carol and Sam were known quantities having both appeared many times at the NYCO. But Podles was totally unknown. She was the alternate for Jackie Horne (not an easy task) who had fought so hard to get the MET to do its first Handel opera. Why Podles never returned to the MET is a BIG question.....there have been lots of rumors.
I heard Ewa Podles sing La Cieca in Barcelona last fall, and she was fantastic. She sang in Das Lied von der Erde with the Philadelphia Orchestra/Chailly at Carnegie several years ago, and it was a performance I will never forget (partly because the tenor was ill and they only did the final "Abscheid").
The first time I heard Podles, she sang the alto lament from Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky. I was expecting a rich, genuine contralto sound but I was totally uprepared for what I heard.
I have been out of town for a week visting friends in a small town in Oregon (where my access to news of the world was unfortunately limited to CNN and local papers -- a blog subject in its own right), and just learned of Lorraine Hunt Lieberson's death a few moments ago when I did my first check of parterre box in days. I am completely devastated.
She had recently cancelled performances (and recording) of the Mahler Ruckert Lieder here with the SF Symphony. I had been anticipating this for months and was so upset at the cancellation. I assumed (and consoled myself) that it would be rescheduled next year. Now it will never be and I feel true loss.
I am so fortunate to have experienced several incredible live performances from this superb artist. She was the mezzo soloist in the SF Symphony's Mahler 2nd, available on CD. Her entrance in the unaccompanied opening of the Urlicht movement is other-wordly. She was Ottavia in SFO's Poppea. Her slow, stately exit offstage -- simultaneously regal, angry, despondent, weary, strong -- after an emotionally wrenching Addio Roma is emblazened in my memory. Her recital performance of Schumann's Frauenliebe und Leben may have been the most probing and intense conveyance of the essence of femininity that I may ever hope to experience as a man. I also saw her in Adams El Nino, and the honesty, intelligence and emotional integrity of that performance, as with the others, will remain with me always.
She was more than an opera singer. She was more than a recital singer. She used her voice and her musical integrity to serve an expressive communication on a rare level available to only a handful of artists. I will treasure the performances I saw and regret those that were not to be.
I am truly in tears. Thank you, Lorraine. I do not expect to see your level of artistry again.
How absolutely awful- such a gift but so many possibilities left unrealised we can never know what might have been.
Little wonder the saddness is tinged with the feelings of being horribly cheated. RIP Lorraine.
LHL was one of a kind. She had a way of getting into a song, aria, role, that was simply extraordinary.
I heard one of her last public performancs, when I was on business in Chicago back in March. She was the mezzo soloist in Mahler's Symphony No. 2. I later remember commenting to a friend that I thought she sang "as if God could hear her."
Lorraine is a great deal of the reason I am studying musicology--17th century and opera studies. Her Handel Collection with San Francisco's Philharmonia Baroque/Maestro McGegan is a wonder, as well as her Charpentier Medee, Mozart Idamante, her Handel and Bach. I've only come close to meeting her...and now i won't. I'm 25 and the ladies of song I adore are leaving me--Moffo, Nilsson, and now Lorraine... The powers that be have put her in the trilogy of special mezzo-sopranos that were taken in their prime: DeGaetani...Troyanos...and Lorraine. These ladies did so much to bring younger mezzos into the fore.
I'll miss you Lorraine.
"Angels ever bright and fair, take oh take her to your care" -Handel's Theodora, Act I.
Although she was with us much longer- I can't help thinking of another great who went far too early - Lucia Popp - still doing some wonderful work then suddenly gone..
And of course, Kathleen Ferrier. The parallel to LHL is heartbreaking, and all one can think is 'why?'.
It's been very comforting reading blogs and people's comments about the loss of Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. I was so saddened to hear the news. I had followed her career since 1984, when she sang a solo in Mozart's Mass in C with the community chorus I was in at the time (in Boston). I still remember the first rehearsal with soloists. Members of the chorus were sitting around drinking water and chatting. When Lorraine and the other soprano began the "Laudamus Te", people stopped what they were doing, turned around and listened very carefully. It was mesmerizing. Her voice, even then, was so big and so expressive. Everyone knew that something very special was happening. It was an exciting rehearsal and an exciting bunch of performances. I became a huge fan then and had the pleasure of seeing her perform a few times after that (not enough!).
I had tickets to the BSO's performance of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis in January of this year, which LHL was scheduled to sing, but she cancelled. How I will miss her! Like many, I felt such a strong connection to her singing and loved her as an artist. Thanks.
Medee DVD -
To answer an earlier question about Medee - there is a somewhat murky video (may be a dress rehearsal) from Paris of Medee that includes a short interview with Christie -not sure if it is from from French TV or recorded from the audience but it is a complete performance
Does anyone out there have a recording of the Met Broadcast of February 22 2003 that they could share? Lorraine Hunt's performance of Dido in Les Troyen - I travelled from London to New York to see her sensational performance.
Let me know here or at mh799@hotmail.com.
Many thanks,
Mel
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