“Nein, nein!”
In the comments section of this post, you are invited to offer your opinion on why Renée Fleming‘s broadcast performance (as heard tonight, October 13) strikes you as not a great portrayal of the Marschallin.
The finest “Nein, Nein” response will win a copy of the Sony CD
Deadline for entries in this competiton will be midnight, Wednesday October 14 when the comments section in the “Ja, ja” and “Nein, nein” threads will be closed. In honor of Our Own JJ, all eligible responses should be 300 words or less, and, while your doyenne invites your comments, nominations and general egging-on, her decision as to the winning essays is final. She also reserves the right to substitute alternate prizes to winners residing outside North America.
Nein, Nein, simply because she’s not Lotte Lehmann!
What? Everyone’s thinking it!
Renee Fleming, the American soprano renowned for her portrayals of Strauss’ heroines, returned to the Met yesterday in the familiar role of the Marschallin. In recent years, critics have hailed Fleming’s opulently sung realization as definitive, likely due to her aesthetically alluring sound. Tuesday’s performance, on that note, asks an important question about her affiliations with the part. Is she is just another nice lady with a pretty voice, or, a wise and noble woman who holds the keys to understanding life?
Vocally, Ms. Fleming has brought a beguiling vocal presence to the Marschallin. But beguiling, for this listener, seems to be all that is expected of the singer. For instance, her rending of the character’s reflections and soliloquys leaves one reveling in the tone but not in the thought.
A great Marschallin should be able to communicate an almost nonchalant, yet faintly pained understanding of life’s fleeting brevity while conceding to the irrevocable idea that life is “so very much a mystery.” Although brief, this character probably holds the greatest storage of philosophical riches in the opera—Hofmannsthal has left a veritable gold mine for any great interpreter to turn her phrases into key points of wisdom. But Ms. Fleming seems to mistake glamour for grace, abrupt inflections for interpretive nuances, and controlled, almost static, gesticulations for nobility and graciousness. How wrong she is indeed.
Ms. Fleming is fifty. Her once velvety instrument has taken a slightly rough edge, her phrasing sodden with mannerisms asynchronous to Hofmannsthal’s poetry. She is undeniably a gifted vocalist, but such gifts have been wasted in an artistic vision that has jettisoned dramatic sincerity for inert perfection. Make no mistake. She is a good Marschallin, but for one who fails to draw out that cathartic apotheosis, can she be called a great one? Nein, nein.
“Does anyone else squintily read program notes during the Mid-Act Longeur of Act II?”
May I inquire as to the extremes to which you’re driven during the dismal ramp-up of Act III?
I, for one, love Act II, but I always find myself more interested in and sympathetic toward Octavian than I am Whatsername.
Does ANYONE like the bits where Ochs holds the stage (apart from the close of Act II with that glorious waltz)?
14 – Only when a great artist like Michael Langdon or Tomlinson is at hand. Never with Hun duffers like Weber, Edelmann or Moll.
Renee Fleming as the Feldmarschallin is like a meal consisting of hors d’eouvre and dessert without the main dish, with cheap champagne to boot.
You have to be a personality in order to be credible in this role. Is Renee a good singer with a solid technique? Indeed. Is she a great personality? On the basis of what I’ve just heard – nein, nein!
I am the biggest fan of Renee in roles such as Thais – I can’t think of any others at the moment, but there must be some. In Rosenkavalier she unfortunately sounds like a waitress in a hamburger joint and not like a princess. Her overuse of chest voice not only makes her character too course and earthy, she wallows in self pity and seems full of bitterness. In her time aria she seems on the point of a nervous breakdown. She is almost a Blanche Dubois character trying to pull herself together and pull through a la Scarlet O’Hara.
I think it’s not that she doesn’t sing well, but I think she totally misreads the part. Where is that silvery ecstacy of numerous other Marschallins? Where is the dignity? I think once Susan Graham has moved on to sing the Marschallin, Renee should consider singing Octavian. I spent a lot of the time last night not quite knowing which of the two I was listening to. And where is the Viennese ambience? The conducting was great, but poor Edo was on his own last night.
I think much of the problem is a vocal one – the voice while still beautiful in the upper range takes on a startingly different cast below the break – it sounds old and unsupported. But even if thats true, the dramatic “effects” she is using to cover the problem are so bizarre and ugly. The monologue in Act One was a truly awful sounding melange of a sort of Sprechstimme and slithery portamenti. It was just a caricature of what should be a moving moment. I heard exactly the same thing when she sang the Manon Gavotte during her special performance last year. Some idiot from Opera News wrote that she intended to do it that way as a “put on”. Compare her vocalism to that of a decade ago and you’ll hear a startling change in her technique – as I wrote to another poster its as if she doesn’t trust her voice anymore so she slathers on a feeling of “tristesse”and put on “effects” – if she would just sing – she still has a gorgeous voice in the upper range. But now its just so phony and even cheap sounding I don’t believe in anything she sings – I always keep hoping she changes back to the way sounded before – Wagner fan
I think Rosenkavalier is one of these rare birds, an “ensemble” opera, like Meistersinger, Dialogues des carmelites, Falstaff, Schicchi and Midsummer Night’s Dream, among a few others. It desperately needs a house style, emanating from the orchestra and radiating upon the stage to all concerned, to create that seamless sense of naturaleness. Well, based upon last night, the Met doesn’t have that style for Rosenkavalier, regardless of the language barrier, extremely intricate in this and Meistersinger. de Waart did a very nice job and tried it best, but it all seemed like very hammy comedy with some moments of pathos, which Rosenkavalier most certainly isn’t. As I’ve said earlier, only three houses in the world are really able to project this work in a really convincing manner, being Munich, Vienna and Dresden.