parterre box

78 comments

• 71
  Lindoro Almaviva says:

  October 15, 2009 at 3:04 PM

  Much as I love Nina Stemme, I do not think she is a Hoch Dramatic; a Jungendlich at best. The color of her voice reminds me more of a lirico-spinto than a dramatic soprano. Let’s not fool ourselves, she started singing roles like Desdemona and Mimi, within 5-6 years she was singing Senta and the dramatic soprano roles. Do you really think it is a natural progression?

  Furthermore, if you look at the Hollander final scene, you can see how the body tenses up as she punches out the high notes like she was batting at a baseball practice. Do you think true Hoch dramatisch have that much touble with that?

  I do not hear a Brunnhilde in her voice, I hear a Marschallin, a Desdemona, maybe Amelia, Donna Anna, Manon Lescaut, Lina, Seglinde, Alceste (maybe); but the Brunnhilde of the Immolation scene?, no way.
• 72
  Jay says:

  October 15, 2009 at 3:12 PM

  @68, Harry, I heard Nilsson live many times and she could go sharp. But she was such a presence no one really gave a damn. Same with Rysanek. We overlooked her vocal imperfections because she was such a compelling artist. Just as people are increasingly doing with Mattila.
  Vocally peeling paint, a chronic wobble, continually scooping and/or veering off pitch and other chronic vocal issues are another matter, especially when a singer doesn’t have the kind of outsized personality that Rysanek had.
• 73
  Harry says:

  October 15, 2009 at 3:34 PM

  Krunoslav is right. Widdop was a very good Wagner singer indeed, judging from his recorded performances.If only …he was around today!

  Lindoro Almaviva: I also agree that Nina Stemme is being too ambitious, too quick. This fast track ‘great -hope anticipation’ when a singer gets on the operatic ‘grid’ today, is a big killer of voices. This ‘Brunnhilde ‘ fascination is like a singer is daring to go for ‘Gold’ at some Olympic marathon voice – race. From just some simple announcement ‘of the possibility’, the casting machine and the fans start pushing and shoving as they all go into media overdrive. They all want to ‘be there’-to get the ‘first look in’.

  Most times the ability of a singer to actually ‘endure’, is the last consideration. For many, they fall over with a mouthful of gravel rash in their mouth…..and burnt vocal cords, as their prize. And off they then go, in relative oblivion or quick retirement.

  Turandot’s one big riddle for operatic women: role of ‘Brunnhilde’!

  Puccini’s riddle for operatic women: the role of Turandot! The Calaf may lose his head. She can lose her voice.
• 74
  Harry says:

  October 15, 2009 at 3:46 PM

  It all depends how the individual sound of a voice also hits our ears. I admire Rysanek, but always found her vocal ‘histrionics’ brought a funny ’sobbing like’ quality to my ears – as Sieglinde.
• 75
  CerquettiFarrell says:

  October 15, 2009 at 8:19 PM

  I agree that Stemme is a Jugendliche at best, but WHAT a Jugendliche! Reg legendary (or not) 50s-80s singers, it’s basically a question of taste. Also, I fear that most singers whose recordings I adore and whom I have never heard, alas, live, would have proven to be variable and sometimes infuriating if experienced live, like Callas, Rysanek, Jones, Moedl et al. Alternately, I often ponder that maybe people I don’t care that much about, like Nilsson, would have given me the excitement of a lifetime, live. When hearing singers at home in a laidback environment you tend to nit-pick. So Nilsson, despite the obvious resplendency, laser qualities and utter vocal ease, strikes me as not exactly musical, not singing “inside” the notes or the music. Not a question of being flat or sharp, but tracing the musical line with enough colour or gradations. I can’t really explain it, but it seems much less “musical” and intelligent than Varnay, or Moedl. Flagstad seems to be detached at times, etc etc. But, repeating what I’ve said earlier, all this is a function of home listening. Isokoski, for example, sounds on record a bit sharp and has a pronounced vibrato, but live it is a magical voice. We had to be there. Based only on recorded evidence, however, I greatly enjoy Varnay, Moedl and Behrens as a living room presence. Alive, attuned to the situation, intelligent with words and music alike, whereas Nilsson doesn’t deliver, as I’m not such a high-note fanatic. On an aside note, and interestingly enough, Nilsson and Sutherland, besides having both recorded their most substantial output for the DECCA label, have made markedly similar career decisions. Both seems to have abandoned on purpose the warmth and integration of the middle register for the sake of those gleaming high notes. Sutherland, furthermore, deliberately forsook the careful distinction between consonants in order to strengthen her top. She sounds very different in her Giulini Giovanni and the Art of the Primadonna. Likewise Nilsson, who sounds like an utterly different singer in Kliber’s live Fidelio from 1956. Much more to my liking, in fact. The middle is buch better supported and has more colour.
  Regarding Gwyneth Jones, it seems to me that the verdict as to her being a giant-voiced full lyric is actually close to the mark. Her 1964 Leonora, her 1968 (is it?) Aida and her DECCA debut recital are very different from the highly problematic, if fascinating, hochdramatische of later years. So maybe the move into heavier stuff was erroneous. Still, we have her blazing Goetterdaemmerung Brunnhilde, and her generally demented Elektra. And I love her, warts and everything. So I can’t really complain, can I?
• 76
  CerquettiFarrell says:

  October 15, 2009 at 8:27 PM

  Staying with Jones, let me add that during the late 60s she was probably the best Fidelio Leonore around, Rysanek notwithstanding. And she still sounds marvellous in the Boehm recording, perhaps the most convincing interpretation of this difficult role that I have ever heard.
• 77
  ellerveira says:

  October 15, 2009 at 10:10 PM

  I never thought Behrens had the vocal power or physical presence to be a good Brunhilde. You need a powerful voice that doesn’t have to be forced for the role: Flagstad for that reason was and is unbeatable.
• 78
  CruzSF says:

  October 16, 2009 at 12:30 AM

  Flagstad was unbeatable, but she’s been dead for longer than I’ve been alive, and (according to rommie), I’m not young.

  Who would be worth hearing as Brunnhilde who is still singing?

  I should repeat that I’m looking forward to hearing Stemme in this role in 2010.