parterre box

34 comments

• MontyNostry says:

  Steber is not a singer I’ve grown up with, but the clips I’ve seen of her are, indeed, impressive. Can anyone explain why you would never get a soprano today who produces that kind of sound? It’s definitely a period instrument — quite straight with a very firm core, maybe just a little bit matronly. Does anyone else find it vaguely reminiscent of Flagstad?

  on October 5, 2009 at 3:15 PM
• kashania says:

  Add me to the Steber Queens Club.

  on October 5, 2009 at 3:51 PM
• richard says:

  MontyNostry, I’m a huge Steber fan myself. I don’t think I would use the term “matronly” but I think I know what you mean. She’s NEVER girlish.

  Many years ago I heard her in an radio interview, she was quite forthright. She talked of her Met debut in 1940. Management was leaning towards having her debut as Oscar in Ballo . She resisted and made her debut as Sophie in Rosenkavalier. She commented that it was a narrow escape from disaster, if she had actually sung Oscar she would have ended up on the “garbage pile” (her words)

  She must have been stunning as Sophie at least vocally and she might have pulled off a bit of “girlishness” to boot.

  I think she was least sucessful in the Verdi/Pucccini rep . Her Tosca from the Met is truly matronly, and she’s a bit too tough.
  Elisabetta in Don Carlos was better but still
  less than ideal.

  But she was a stupendous Konstanze in the Met premiere of Abduction , radiant Arabella in the MEt’s first Arabella, and wondeful also in the MEt’s first Wozzeck. She was best in Mozart and Richard Strauss.

  I heard her sing a few times in the early 70s but her voice was a bit dried out and brittle.
  But a lot of the authority was still there.

  She was a game diva , that’s for sure. She sang at NY’s Continentals BAths, surrounded by queens wrapped in towels. Bette Midler wasn’t the only one to do that.

  on October 5, 2009 at 7:07 PM
• Lindoro Almaviva says:

  well, for the Steber queens:

  Deh vieni, the best rendition of the aria AFAIAC
  http://files1.mailboxdrive.com/mp3s-new/t/tenore23@yahoo.com/942910.mp3

  Dove sono. Listen to the effective use of appogiaturas; this at a time when the generalized view of Mozart was that you did not do that.
  http://files1.mailboxdrive.com/mp3s-new/t/tenore23@yahoo.com/942912.mp3

  Mi tradi: Again, fantastic use of appogiaturas. The conductor by the way is Bruno Walter in the Giovanni and Figaro selections.
  http://files1.mailboxdrive.com/mp3s-new/t/tenore23@yahoo.com/942914.mp3

  Enjoy!

  on October 5, 2009 at 7:52 PM