Helmets off, here they come, those Beautiful Girls!
A galaxy of talent sufficient to cast an Arena di Verona production of Sondheim’s Follies assembles in the following recording. It’s the “Ride of the Valkyries” as sung on February 13, 2003 at a gala performance in Tokyo. Wotan’s daughters, in order of appearance: Alessandra Marc (Gerhilde), Eva Marton (Helmwige), Karan Armstrong (Waltraute), Agnes Baltsa (Schwertleite), Anna Tomowa-Sintow (Ortlinde), Gwyneth Jones (doubling Siegrune and Rossweisse) … and Jochen Kowalski (Grimgerde).
I’ve always had mixed feelings about Alessandra Marc. I did hear her sing a good final scene from Salome at Carnegie Hall a few years back though. She was the guest soloist with some orchestra…I forget the details.
What I do remember was my shock at her size. Actually, I think the entire audience was shocked. She was wearing dress with an elaborate top (brocade sort of thing) and a deep red skirt. A lot of her weight was in her lower body (hips, etc.) which gave the skirt part resemble an 18th Century effect…really more like a sofa with a torso attached.
I couldn’t help but feel very sorry for her. It must be a terrible thing to live with. I can’t imagine that the rest of the audience didn’t feel that way as well. It’s too bad. It overshadowed her singing.
which gave the skirt part an 18th Century effect…
sorry, hadn’t had coffee yet…
La Cieca,
I know this is a different topic, but I was listening to your Ballo Act II podcast (which is great btw), but WHO was the person recording the Giordani/Millo part you put in there? Labored breathing and yawning could be heard quite audibly… lol. Apparently even though they thought they’d record that night, they weren’t too amused by the singing.
I particularly noticed something that I don’t like about Giordani, and that’s the way he approaches each of the notes. I feel like he’s sliding all over the place, heaving his instrument around the scale, and a lot of times sharp in pitch. Millo, although with a wobble, is still the more satisfying of the two. It’s a nice addendum of a recording for the podcast though. I always will love my Pavarotti/Millo DVD for this opera. Great singing and production. I did see Giordani in this role with that same production when I was in NY a couple years back. The Amelia was Voigt, and though she wasn’t absolutely fantastic as we would like, she was still very magnetic. The baritone was very forgettable…
everyone is being so hard on this …. i think it’s quite enjoyable. it would be very strange in the middle of walkuere, but it’s no worse than the thousand libiamos we’ve heard at the ends of concerts.
i want to know the context. what else was sung? why in the hell were they all there? what did they wear?
I like most of what I’ve heard Alessandra Marc sing. Admittedly, I haven’t heard anything of hers in the past few years, but her American Diva album is excellent.
Butchest sounding bunch Valkyries i’ve heard in a long time. If they ever stopped singing they could become Gym mistresses or on the other side of the pond teach soft ball.
with all those once-renowned divas doing the warrior princesses, who should be the defunct divos slung over their horses?
regarding alessandra marc … i had a similar experience when she was singing mahler 8 here in the 90s. she hovered herself up the stairs in the royal albert hall and i thought she would not make it, she must have felt awful. i also saw her as turandot at the royal opera … luckily there they used the so-called ‘sweet trolley’. originally turandot was standing on a platform that was carried by four guys for her act 1 entrance so they carried turandot standing on the platform across the stage. apparently sharon sweet sang the role the year before and as she was too heavy to be carried they build some kind of trolley so the platform had wheels an could be dragged on a rope. obviously they used the same for alessandra marc. a turandot dressed in a blanket, calaf must have had an obsession for obese women, as the liu was angela gheorghiu … but he probably didnt go with her as she was to glam?!
voicelike i think marc has (had?) great potential, as the voice was big AND beautiful. but her scooping could take over a bit too much and her vowle sounds were always on the odd side. where is she now? i heard she had given up opera due to knee problems (no wonder with that weight!)…
According to Marc’s website, she appears to be still performing, albeit rather infrequently. For example, the schedule in the site indicates that she has performed Turandot in Florence and Japan in 2006.
Jones’s voice, as heard in the clip, wasn’t in too bad a shape. She’s often been criticised for her “wobble”, but, here, her tone was rather “straight” and focussed.
On the other hand, Marton’s wobble was really quite appalling…
i could not tell Jochen Kowalski’s singing from that wobble-fest.
the only ones missing among the big girls were Sweet and DImitrova, it seems. were they not available?