parterre box

51 comments

• Harry says:

  It is funny how we might be hearing what we consider is ‘the same sound’. Yet each of our ears are different. Years ago there were people objecting to the way they personally ‘heard’ Gwyneth Jones around the early 70′s. One critic after reviewing her Kundry (under Boulez recording) I remember, stated …it was time for her to go back to the vocal repair shop. Yet listening to it, I find nothing pesonally objectable! I accept that experience of a flutterly sound sensation. As the years went on, I was able to ‘look through it’ and appreciate the whole cotribution she was bringing to a performance. On the other hand Rysanek as say Sieglinde has always sounded ‘a older woman’ to me , just from picking up on various individual aspects of her singing. At the same time, I cannot critise her performance per sec. Janowitz had what is kmown as a ‘V rocket sound’ to many…you heard the vibrato before you heard the fundamental. No thanks! That ‘crrrrrrrrr…boom sound’ type of sound. As for Vicker’s Siegmund, just go and listen to Lehmann & Melchoir….the benchmark and a Master Class singing lession for all!
  One cannot listen to Vickers without thinking ‘one type Vickers whine….. fits all roles’. His unique quality? Can one ever imagine Vickers in Barber of Seville,or Falstaff? He was vocally, the biggest camp ‘neurotic dramatic ham ‘ of any tenor in the last 50 years. High Art….get out. ‘Vickersionics’!.

  As for jam 2063 ‘wanting to take vonkarajan over any modern conductor in wagner, just remember Von Karajan started his Ring Cycle ‘doing it in a chamber music mode’ was what he publicly professed- I.E 4 harps instead of 6 in Rheingold…. but as he progressed to Siegfried and Gotterdammerung, that concept got thrown out the door.

  on October 30, 2008 at 8:42 PM
• Regina delle fate says:

  I saw Janowitz in only three roles, Fiordiligi, Donna Anna and Amelia Grimaldi. She sang quite a bit of Verdi but only in the German/Austrian houses, including Aida, Elisabetta (from Vienna on CD with Corelli, Ghiaurov & Grace Melzia) and, astonishingly, Odabella in Attila. I can’t really imagine that, but her Amelia was gorgeously sung, not as warm, feminine and vulnerable as Freni, nor as vocally glam as Te Kanawa or Fleming, but purely as singing she represented that kind of “blonde” Germanic voice, such as Rethberg, perhaps, who made successful forays into Verdi. A pity she is mostly recorded in Mozart, Weber, Wagner,and Strauss roles – although I imagine there are loads of pirates waiting issue on disc.

  on October 31, 2008 at 9:59 AM
• Thackeray Gnomey says:

  Regina – wasn’t it Shimmering Shirl rather than Gorgeous Grace in that Vienna Don Carlo? She must have had Gundula for breakfast. The thought of Kleine Guetige Zwei Schuehe in Verdi seems deeply anomalous to me.

  on October 31, 2008 at 11:17 AM
• armerjacquino says:

  TG, this is getting dangerously close to fighting talk… Janowitz makes a sumptuous Elisabetta and sings the hell out of Tu Che le Vanita. You’re right though, it is Verrett not Bumbry.

  Regina- I have a Jonowitz concert on DVD where she sings Odabella’s aria very excitingly. And there’s a CD of a Verdi Requiem, too, which is radiant.

  on October 31, 2008 at 12:55 PM
• Often admonished says:

  I head Janowitz in Attila (in Berlin early 70s) with Van Dam, Franco Tagliavini and Wixell. She didn’t shout but the clarity and speed of her attack was very convincing. In the house her focus and clean placement carried very well.

  In Mozart and Strauss, she was the last Walter Legge-class soprano. Maybe Isokowski gets close now, but does not really make it because the diction isn’t as good.

  on October 31, 2008 at 2:06 PM
• Buster says:

  Maybe she should get herself a “little Walter” like Rita Streich had.

  But I am envious you heard her in that Attila.

  on October 31, 2008 at 2:19 PM
• Thackeray Gnomey says:

  Often – Purely vocally, Isokoski reminds me of a hybrid of Schwarzkopf and Margaret Price. She’s another one who doesn’t really do it for me (though I am definitely a Margaret Price fan, if a bit allergic to S’kopf), though she is a very fine singer.

  on October 31, 2008 at 2:43 PM
• Thackeray Gnomey says:

  Sorry, Freund armer, I will shut up about Gundula. The first time I heard her was when I was about 15 on the Karajan Schoepfung, which I bought because I was studying the work for O level. Even at that impressionable age, I just didn’t fall in love with her.

  on October 31, 2008 at 2:46 PM
• kashania says:

  That Don Carlo with Corelli/Janowitz/Ghiaurov may just be my favourite recording of the work. Gundula is not typicall Italianate but still wonderful. I especially love the way she soars in the high-lying parts of her first aria (the one when her lady-in-waiting is dismissed).

  on October 31, 2008 at 3:14 PM
• willlmer says:

  Don’t forget JV’s doing the guy in the bear suit in Bartered Bride.

  on October 31, 2008 at 6:58 PM