Out of ordure
“Ray Dull of Fresno, who recalls in the 1940s hauling manure as a teenager on his family’s Ohio farm as he listened to the Met’s Saturday radio broadcasts, understands the appeal of being up close in the movie theater.” [The Fresno Bee]
And remember, folks, we’ll be looking at those dinner plates at 10 in the morning, here on the West coast.
I, on the other hand, will be looking at them at 7 p.m., after having worked from 8 a.m, and with the temperature outside around -12 Celsius. I’m afraid I’ll end up having a good winter sleep…
Oh, Liana. Enjoy your nap!
Thanks, Cruz. Fortunately, the seats are very comfortable
.
That Bob O’Hearn production is looking every bit its 40 years. Hopefully we will get another decent production when it is replaced.
I just have to reprint this quote from that article:
“When a singer takes a breath, his or her eyes have to take a breath,” Clurman said.
This one of the dumbest things I’ve ever read about singing. I’m embarrassed to say I almost worked with her some years ago. Fortunately, it didn’t work out.
On Wednesday this Rosenkavalier was being filmed though not sure that the performance merited it save for the conducting of Edo de Waart and in part the lucious singing of Susan Graham though she certainly strained at times in the upper regions of Octavian’s melodies (a soprano role in my opinion).
Fleming, beautious of appearance and occasionally of tone was Renee Fleming attempting to be Schwarzkopf but what worked for Schwarzkopf in a slightly mannered way does not result in a very warm or natural Marschallin from Fleming -nothing spontaneous – just a bit too studied both vocally and dramatically. (Evelyn Lear also tried to imitate Schwarzkopf sometimes with a thread of a voice and it did not work for her either).
I thought Christine Schaefer to be one of the worst Sophie’s of my experience – no radiance on top at all – and I had thought Heidi Grant Murphy was ineffective.
No one else came up to standard – a weak Faninal from Thomas Allen, a not specially well sung Ochs of Kristinn Sigmundsson, a nasal tenor from Eric Cutler, 3 of the worst Orphans I have ever had the opportunity to hear – and from where does the Met get the 4 Lackeys ? Dreadful. After Graham and to some extent Fleming, Wendy White was the shining light of the performance. Wow !
Well it is Rosenkavalier – so this morning we played the Presentation of the Rose with Schwarzkopf (1947) and Streich (1958) just to hear a bit of radiance – radiant indeed !
Bill, forgive me, but did Schwarzkopf really sing Octavian in 1947? That IS news.
If she’s “studied,” well I am glad she is.
Well, as long as I am here, and I really hate to be ‘picky’ with you, but you really did give the Rosenkavalier a dash of cold water, so I would like to observe: Graham was announced as having a bad cold and I surely thought she sounded it; “nasal” was not at all the problem with Cutler — he had big problems for sure, but at about G his voice went way back in his throat and he simply meatballed out his top notes – those that he sang – I believe he left out the final B-natural; I understand Christine Shaeffer was not expecting to sing these Sophies and has said they are her last ones — sorry she (and we) had to go through that ordeal, as she has been a wonderful Bach-pure singer; Sigmundsson strikes me as a superior Ochs, his singing much lighter and more lyric than the usual basso buffo or basso profundo in the role; he was to my ear a rewarding Ochs vocally, whose low range well encompassed the required basso notes. Fleming’s soft-grained and warm soprano, with a good range of color, strikes me as about as close as you are going to get today to a real Marschallin voice, whatever you take that to mean. Her alleged Schwarzkopf imitation just does not hold water — I found her a bit stagy, but not too much and her singing was really splendid; if you want a colder harder voice try Isokowski and if you want really manipulated Schwarzkopf-esque mannerism try Schwanewilms — and they are both effective Marschallins. I think Mme F. was honorable and then some; she is a grand Marschallin, somewhat of the old school — and that is fine. It is amazing how good her German can be, for an American!
So Bill, I guess we disagree just a bit?
Cold or not, Graham has never had the voice for this role. Being always limited both in the upper and lower reaches of her voice, she was never suited for Octavian. She couldn’t sing it a decade ago, and she can’t sing it now.
The best Octavian right now is Joyce DiDonato, not Garanca as some here have surmised. She gave a stunning performance of Octavian at SFO, and will soon be taking over the Strauss rep at the Met, including an on the books Composer in Ariadne, and the future Rosenkavaliers.
I can’t imagine Schafer being worse than HGM, but she has no high range either, and at least HGM could pull a sweet sound out of her ass every now and then. Schafer has never made a beautiful sound in her life. It’s unfortunate they didn’t have Miah do the broadcast.
I was in house on the 1st – Fleming had a cold then but sounded great to me. That performance stuck w/ me more than the one I saw in October. Will be at my local movie theater on Saturday for the HD.
Cassandra – Unlike you, I’ve not had the chance to see Garanca’s Octavian yet; in what ways was it inferior to DiDonato’s?
Mrmyster – no Schwarzkopf never sang Octavian – I was listening to the 1947 Presentation of the Silver Rose with Schwarzkopf as Sophie a role she sang in Vienna and London prior to switching to the Marschallin. In that recording, Karajan conducts and Seefried is the Octavian – the entire performance is breathtakingly beautiful, quite magical as is the 1958 under Boehm (Streich/Seefried) – both full of vocal wonder. Ms. Schaeffer’s Sophie really ruined the entire Presentation scene and I was surprised based upon her reputation in Germany – maybe she was simply out of voice on Wednesday
I like Isokoski as the Marschallin much better than Fleming – Isokoski is not as alluring in appearance but it is a straight forward presentation with considerable vocal control. I have not seen Schwanewilms as the Marschallin as of yet but she sang Arabella with a lovely voice last season in Vienna – perhaps not ideal but definitely a voice suitable for lyric Strauss. Sigmundsson had some phrases which he sang with lovely sound, almost lyrically, but his lower range is weak in my opinion.
I liked Schwarzkopf (unlike some posters on this blog) and she was a very stylish Marschallin – very controlled of course – not the warmth of a Claire Watson, not the Viennese charm of a Rysanek, not as melancholy as a Jurinac, maybe not as commanding as Crespin, not as tender as della Casa – I have seen most of the Marschallins (over 35 of them) starting from Varnay (but curiously missing Janowitz) and could not choose an absolute favorite but I find Fleming less moving than numerous others (though I liked Fleming’s Capriccio in Vienna last year) – I am neither an overwhelming fan nor a foe of Fleming though I think I found her absolutely best in Floyd’s Susanna – but I must admit that of recent Marschallin’s I preferred Isokoski over all others but also Denoke, Martina Serafin and a bit further back Studer’s (despite two flat notes) or Lott’s to Fleming’s. I truly wished all evening that I could enjoy Fleming’s rendition more than I actually did She moves well, but sometimes I think she is just posing rather than spontaneously feeling the character. I also liked Kiri better then Fleming and apparently Kiri did not know German at all. Oh – I never saw Voigt’s Marschallin but it was definitely not a big hit in Vienna.
Octavian is a soprano role in Richard Strauss’s opinion, too.
Oh boo. My met curse strikes again. I’ve been twice before and, much as I adore the place, both times I’ve seen less than prime performances. I’m seeing Rosenkavalier next Friday…
And SOOOOO glad that you love the Böhm Rosenkavalier which has always been negatively compared to the Karajan and Solti – for me Seefried and Streich are incomparable in the Presentation scene, closely followed by Jurinac and Güden (another wickedly underrated singer) on the old Kleiber set. You won’t hear either role sung better today, although Miah Persson was pretty damn good in Salzburg a couple of years ago. Schäfer’s Sophie was horrid with RF and SG at Covent Garden 10 years ago, so I can’t imagine what it sounds like now. How does she get the dates? She’s singing Asteria to Domingo’s Bajazet in London in April and it will be interesting to see which of the two has the most memory lapses.
Maybe Schaefer should rather sing Hysteria. I saw her do Pierrot Lunaire a couple of years ago and she seemed good in Sprechstimme, but with so many good (and young!) light-lyrics around, why they should cast her as Sophie is a mystery. Popp sang Sophie a little past her ideal sell-by date, perhaps, but one could forgive her anything.
Persson and Kirschschlager’s presentation is pretty magical on DVD. I think the problem with the Bohm and Kleiber sets is that both suffer from a less-than-ideal Marschallin.
Gueden is a gorgeous singer, certainly- is she particularly underrated, do you think? I’ll get shot down in flames for this, but she is one of my favourite Gildas on record.
Regina delle fate – the 1958 Boehm Rosenkavalier has always been my favorite for the pacing and also the blending of the voices – the third act trio with Seefried-Streich-Schech simply cannot be matched on recording in part as the voices blend so well (on Karajan Ludwig-Schwarzkopf-Stich-Randall each have a bit more flutter in their voices when singing together – Seefried, with less vibrato, always blended well with other singers (particularly Schwarzkopf) – plus her Oktavian is probably the most characterful of all. Streich-Seefried is my absolute favorite Presentation of the Rose bar none.
On stage Streich did not have a large voice at all = its purity projected well – when I saw Streich as Sophie together with Ludwig as Oktavian the immense sixe of Ludwig’s voice slightly overpowered Streich and there seemed to be a bit of unevenness in volume (Ludwig did not modulate her voice sufficiently that evening – was better with other stronger voiced Sophies) – but Seefried does – Streidh and Seefried sing off each other just as they were in actual conversation. Breathtakingly lovely. Schech was a Marschallin of the older school – Konetznis, Reining – unfussy, singing straight – Schech sang a fair amount of Wagner but also (maybe thanks to Dr. Boehm and originally Rysanek was to have been the Marschallin in that recording but was ill) kept her voice (not always as controlled as the Schwarzkopf group) in check. Radiant – perhaps not – heartfelt -yes absolutely. Plus you have Kurt Boehme and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as Faninal.
I would not call Gueden underrated – surely not in Vienna – hers has been he Sophie I have probably seen the most frequently of all – it is a bigger sound than some others – Gueden’s Violetta, for example, was wonderfully successful (outsinging even di Stefano) though certainly not an Italian sound. But vocally and interpretively nothing was missing.
Jurinac was so beloved in Vienna – later in her career her voice was somewhat frayed – but I place her along with Seefried and de los Angeles as three of the most beautiful soprano voices I ever saw on stage. all with glorious middle registers and very even vocal production (and later all experiencing difficulty with higher notes). Streich and Seefried were both originally scheduled for the EMI Rosenkavalier recording under Karajan along with Schwarzkopf – Karajan wanted Seefried to be sure but Legge had Seefried (who was pregnant) put out in favor of the lesser known (at the time) Ludwig. Ludwig in an interview thought there was some difficulty also at the time between Seefried and Schwarzkopf perhaps as Legge had used Schwarzkopf for the Karajan Cosi when Schwarzkopf had not really sung the role on stage and Seefried for 13 years had been the only Fiordiligi in Salzburg and Vienna. Both Seefried and Schwarzkopf were under contract with EMI but about that time, Seefried, seeing no future at EMI with Schwarzkopf’s husband the main casting director, switched her allegiance to DGG.
Streich was also pregnant when the EMI recording of Rosenkavalier was made – and Stich-Randall was engaged. No matter – I think all 3 Rosenkavalier recordings of the 1950’s – Kleiber’s on English Decca, Karajan’s on EMI and Dr. Boehm’s on DGG are splendid and indicative of Rosenkavalier performances of that era (and Lisa della Casa who sang all 3 Rosenkavalier roles in the 1950’s was not involved in any of these recordings, nor Rothenberger).
I was thinking also that the the Rosenkavalier I saw on Wednesday with Fleming / Graham which was being filmed with cameras all over the auditorium may have altered the interpretations of Fleming / Graham slightly – with all the possible closeups which might be shown on Video – Fleming / Graham may have been acting in that particular performance more for the camera than for the audience. Sometimes Fleming was singing in the first act face forward rather than looking directly at Ochs with whom she was conversing – it seemed strange to me at the time and maybe it is why I found her characterization less than perfectly natural that evening.
Bill thank you for the warm words aboud Seefried and Gueden. May I suggest what is for me the perfect 1950s Rosenkavalier trio of ladies: Della Casa, Jurinac and Gueden. They all sing on the Karajan live 1960 show from Salzburg. And they are indeed magical. At that stage Gueden had slight problems with the uppermost reaches of Sophie, but the sound and approach are so RIGHT. Jurinac is my Octavian of choice, though of course I adore Seefried and Minton, who is perhaps the most verbally acute – she studied the role with Alfred Jerger.
The Bohm is cherished first and foremost for the contribution of the stunning Staatskapelle Dresden. I guess I will never hear such playing again, though they play wonderfully well too on the Haitink recording and for Luisi in Tokyo. The concluding violin solo under Luisi has got to be heared. Karajan achieved wonderful results with VPO in Salzburg, very idiomatic and mightlity preferable to the Philharmonia studio.
As a first choice audio Rosenkavalier, I’d certainly choose the Kleiber pere 1954 effort. By that Stage Reining was a shadow of her former self, which you can well hear on earlier live recordings – but what a shadow! IMHO the best German lyric of the 20th century, and the heart is still there even if the tone is tarnished. But Kleiber masterminds everything with such lucidity and naturaleness that it’s quite difficult to listen to the contrived Karajan-Legge patches afterwards. Karajan live 1960 doesn’t have that much affection and flow, but the cast is great and it’s clearly a document of a great night.
On DVD, the Carsen / Bychkov from Salzburg is a magnificently theatrical achievement, the updating to the early 1900s does wonders for a piece which never really belonged to the period prescribed. Pieczonka steals the show, but Hawlata, Kirschchlager and Persson are formidable too. The Luisi Dresden-in-Tokyo show is very charming in a more sedate way, and has a bit more heart. Schwanewilms is a plausible modern alternative for Pieczonka, both infinitely better than the cold and mannered Fleming. Mori is a sparky Sophie and Vondunk is very good as Octavian, even if she doesn’t quite succeed in inhabiting the role. The Munich Thielemann on Decca is a rather sordid affair, despite the starry cast. I don’t really like both Kleiber versions, as the cast is less than idiomatic. Neither Lott nor Jones are quite at ease and into the music and text. And Kleiber, though exciting and virtuoso, is a bit shallow and not a patch on his father. You are constantly made aware of whatever he is doing. The Solti from CG has shitty playing and I keep it as a memento of Te Kanawa’s very humane Marschallin, though it’s nice to have the young Bonney as Sophie.
Cerquetti–
The Te Kanawa/Bonney recording from CG is conducted by Haitink, and strangely engineered. I find it hard to listen to for that reason. The Solti recording is with the Vienna Phil, and the playing (IMHO) is far from “shitty.”
OY vey, what a mess.
There appears to be a slight confusion between versions and media.
1. 1969 Solti with Crespin, Minton, Donath. My ‘first’ Rosenkavalier and in many ways an excellent version. Of course the VPO are not shitty in any imaginable way! I love all the ladies and wish the conductor would trust the score more and be more ‘in the background’.
http://www.amazon.com/Rosenkavalier-24BT-Otto-Wiener/dp/B000YCLR7O/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1262963840&sr=8-4
2. The Solti CG VIDEO has Te Kanawa, Bonney and Howells. The playing is rather ghastly and so is, I’m afraid, Solti. He was going through a VERY bad patch in the early 1980s.
http://www.amazon.com/Richard-Strauss-Rosenkavalier-Haugland-Schlesinger/dp/B00014NE4Y/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1262963840&sr=8-3
3. The Haitink is on EMI CD and is a very good set, again with Te Kanwa but von Otter is the Octavian and Hendricks, woefully miscast and stolid, totally ruins practically every scene she appears in as Sophie. A shame, really. The playing, courtesy of Staatskapelle Dresden, is incredibly glorious, as it is on the Bohm set.
http://www.amazon.com/Strauss-Rosenkavalier-Hendricks-Grundheber-Haitink/dp/B000002RS8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1262964064&sr=8-1-catcorr
There is no Haitink / CG version that I know of, audio or video, commercial or otherwise.
Here’s a snippet of the Solti / Schlesinger 1984 Rosenkavalier from CG. Sloppy and vulgar.
Right you are…sorry, I should have looked up that Haitink version.
I think it’s really only dumb if you’re only willing to take it literally, and I also think it’s more of a remark about acting than singing. If you’ve got five seconds to ponder what might actually might be meant here, it’s fairly easy to see that it’s a fairly trenchant observation about musical phrasing and facial nuance being inextricably linked as expressive tools… something the moviecast close-ups allow one to appreciate.
Cassandra – Garanca’s Octavian is mighty fine but few people probably would have seen both Garanca and Di Donato for comparison as neither (to my knowledge) has sung the role in the same city as the other. You would have to ask Isokoski who has sung the Marschallin with both Garanca and with Di Donato. Octavian is a strange role in that some dramatic sopranos have done it such as Jeritza or Jones or Moedl and soprano spinto types as Lehmann, Lemnitz, Gruemmer, Zylis-Gara and more lyrical sopranos such as Seefried, Jurinac, della Casa, Soederstrom, Novotna and of course nowadays, a slew of Mezzos – my favorites, Seefried, Jurinac and Ludwig in that order and for a few good years 1960-65 they were all singing Octavian with such luminous Sophies as Gueden, Sreich, Lipp, Rothenerger, Popp, Muszely, Stich-Ramdall ua
Cerquetti/Farrell – I did not mention the live Karajan Salzburg DGG recording but Lisa della Casa is absolutely essential. Karajan only conducted one single Rosenkavalier in Vienna, a regular repertory evening – he did not want to do it actually, but the King of Denmark was in Vienna and insisted upon Karajan so they rustled up a repertory cast (Schwarzkopf, Seefried, Gueden, Edelmann, Kunz, Gedda) and all six plus Karajan were given the Verleihung des Koeniglich Daenischen Ritter-von-Dann-brog-Ordens 1 Klasse by the King. Would love to have a tape of that performance.
I think that Karajan always conducted cut performances of Rosenkavalier but the Boehm DGG 1958 Rosenkavalier recording from Dresden is supposedly uncut and was recorded in Dresden in the unheated bombed out Lukaskirche in December of 1958 which Seefried says was a “chilling experience”.
Maria Reining was beloved in Vienna (also after the war as she apparently had been neo-Nazi)- if her Kleiber Marschallin does not show her at her best, the 1944 live Boehm Ariadne certainly does, and one must remember she made her debut in 1931 and her farewell Feldmarschallin was in 1956 followed a week later by a final farewell as Elisabetta in Don Carlo, only two years after the Kleiber recording was made.
Jurinac was so popular in Vienna when she started there in 1945 (engaged by Boehm in 1944 for the season which was cancelled as the Staatsoper was bombed )that she sang 158 performances in her first year alone at the Staatsoper in Exil – far too many, but wonderful for those fortunate enough to have been there to see and hear her at her freshest.
Cerquetti/Farrell your postings are much appreciated.
“Maria Reining was beloved in Vienna (also after the war as she apparently had been neo-Nazi.”
Bill – was not Reining anti-Nazi?
So what good movies are out? Avatar? I think I might go and watch the first act of Rosenkavalier and then sneak into another theater to watch another movie until the final trio. I can easily just skip everything in between…
Avatar’s ok for the first two hours and then it becomes a giant free for all, every sfx that cameron can throw at the screen with blue faces hither and yon. I actually fell asleep at one point.
I thought Robin Guarino did a fine job of staging Act II and the beginning of Act III. She kept my interest.
As for Judith Clurman, maybe it’s a dumb remark on her part but I participated in a choral workshop with her and she was fantastic.
Don Munro is a good friend of mine–he’s THE arts section of the Fresno Bee.
“first two hours and then” Good Lord, how long is it? And people always give opera shit for being too long. At least opera has the excuse that it takes longer to sing something than speak it.
ok, I Googled it. Two hours forty minutes. if you don’t count intermissions, that’s longer than many operas.
As for Rosenkavalier, the only spot I thought the Met production dragged (in the fall at least) was the part with the police commissioner, which *always* drags, partly because you can feel the trio coming.
Avatar is fascinating for about the first five minutes they go into Pandora in 3D. The florae and faunae are interesting. It’s downhill from there, and the dialogue, if you can call it that, is so ham fisted as to be totally unbelievable.
Other than that, it’s “Dancing in the Matrix with Smurfs.”
Buster – wrong phrasing on my part – Reining was anti-Nazi and it was known during the war as well.
Thanks Bill – I thought/hoped you meant that!
Javier: Good movies? Try A Single Man — it’s about the best around. Brothers was deadly and so jumbled in its casting; Up in the Air is a game try at making a serious movie on a very serious subject, though it takes a while for that to come home, and when it does in the end the movie is depressing and pretty much a downer; but it is quite well done — in every detail, and Clooney shows he’s a real actor, as does the entire excellent cast. And then there is Sherlock Holmes, which the NYT very aptly said “it’s not a movie it’s a franchise.” Is it ever! And it exemplifies every vulgarity in movie production Hollywood can think up – and that’s more than a few. Loud in the extreme, obviously digitalized mise-en-scene everywhere, everything over-stated and hyped up — no thoughtful scenes, no repose, just massive hyperkinesis. Utterly unrelated to Conen Doyle’s sensitive intellectual detective. I was exhausted when it was over and had nothing positive to show for my effort — a long bad film that is making zillions. Art counts for very little.
Serious Man NOT Single Man!
Jack J–the husband and I made that mistake two nights ago and saw A Serious Man (a Coen Brothers film about a 1960s suburban midwest equivalent of the biblical Job who loses everything he has) instead of A Single Man, the Tom Ford film adapted from the Isherwood novel. They are two radically different movies.
The picture with Fleming and Graham looks fantastic!
Just a note – Seiji Ozawa, it has been announced, has cancer and has cancelled all his engagements until August of 2010. Wish him well.
John Dickie, a lyric tenor and character tenor, the son of Murray Dickie, has died at the age of 56 – he sang 987 performances in Vienna at the two houses during his career.
Walter Raffeiner, a tenor eventually singing Wagner, and most associated with the Frankfurt Opera, has died at the age of 62.
Maria Reining like Daniza Illitsch put her life on the line to aid the Allied forces and the underground while the future Dame Frau Dr. Legge was drinking champagne out of Gestapo officers’ shoehorns.
I heard Christine Schaefer’s US debut as Sophie in 1993 in SF with von Stade and Flott and she was not distinguished then either. Lulu seems to me her only really successful part… and others have sung in better, Patricia Wise for one.
Kronuslav / Bill that makes me appreciate Reining even more!
BTW are you familiar with the Toscanini Meistersinger from Salzburg? The sound is terrible, but Andante managed to somehow make it listenable. Reining is perfection personified as Eva. The sheer sound is unbelievably beautiful and the musicianship and verbal acuity makes her the best Eva I have ever heard. Betty tried to emulate it in Bayreuth but it worked partly, maybe because the heart wasn’t really there. One of my opera-buff friends discovered Reining lately and we keep fawning over her recordings
Here’s Reining as Elsa
Interesting to compare with the roughly contemporary ueber-Nazi Tiana Lemnitz. The voice is utterly beautiful if interestingly darker, the reading more complex and ‘pointed’, but also less sincere and spontaneous.
And here’s something for the future. Emma Vetter, who needs to work on her German but apparently has the goods:
CF: She is indeed great on the Toscanini Meistersinger – I have that cheap German reissue, is the Andante worth all the extra money?
For Eva, in the end though, I prefer Hilde Scheppan, closely followed by Elisabeth Grümmer.
Another great Eva – and having the benefit of being very much alive, is Barbara Haveman.
Buster yes I believe the sound is preferable on Andante, and the presentation is delicious.
Hilde Scheppan is on the Abendroth 1943 (?) from Bayreuth? Well, I made a habit of banning all 1939-1945 recordings from Germany / Austria. Actually with one exception – the Welitsch Salome Schlussgesang from the Austrian Radio under von Matacic. It is IMHO one of the greatest vocal recordings ever made and Welitsch sings like a genius. It is on a different universe than her other recordings, and I know most of them (Karajan, Reiner, various live ones). So that’s the only exception…
Thanks a lot CF – I asked, because I tried the Toscanini Falstaff on that label (coupled with a frigid Karajan Falstaff), and that was unlistenable. I might save for the Meistersinger, though.
Scheppan is indeed on that wartime Meistersinger – understand the dilemma – the same year Furtwangler conducted it there, but Abendroth’s recording is complete, unlike Furtwangler’s. And he has the better cast (Schoffler, Kunz!).
The Arabelle is from Vienna 1947.
Reining I discovered late one night at 17, on a Telefunken grab bag LP: Elsa Act II. I was so mesmerized that I listened to it 6 or 7 more times back to back.
For those intrigued, try the 1944 ARIADNE with Seefried, Noni and Mrs. Claggart in his guise of Melanie Frutschnigg a/k/a/ Mela Bugarinovic.
Also the DAPHNE excerpts on that Vienna live series on Koch.
I love Reining’s earlier recordings. Even her Rosenkavalier from Salzburg 1949 with Novotna/Gueden/Prohaska/Szell has her sounding fresher and less wan than the Decca recording from five years later.
The Daphne exists (I think) in a complete version released on Preiser as does a Magic Flute from Salzburg on Myto.
there are many bits and pieces on the May live cylinders from Vienna, mostly very fine but occassionally Reining’s voice poops out at a climatic passage (the quintet from Meistersinger, etc)
I was fascinated by the way both Reining and Hilde K
sang on the Koch Swann set from Vienna; like the similar Lemnitz (but how repulsive that woman was), they use a creamy tone that was completely unpressured. This was something very, very unusual to me. To hear Hilde sing the Kaiserin without pushing her sound at all was very different to someone who first heard this kind of music using the very different approach of a Rysanek.
Reining’s sound was more round and lyrical than Hilde’s and much less slithery than Lemnitz. I was very taken after hearing her various excerpts on the vienna set and bought the recordings I mention above plus the much more well known Arabella and Ariadne. If it weren’t for her occasional mishaps, I would find these pretty much ideal.
Much more off the beaten track are a German wartime Trovatore (an exquisite D’Amor Sull’Ali) and a very fine Euryanthe.
Of course, Legge and all his coterie and fans of Dame Death badmouthed Reining’s honest, moving late-afternoon-career work in the E. Kleiber ROSENKAVALIER.
Since I got the Karajan / Salzburg 1960 and the Kleiber 1954 (which is incidentally complete and uncut, a very brave thing to do back in the 50s) I feel no urge to take the Karajan / Dame Death 1956 “celebrated” version off the self and listen to it. It’s so contrived. But I re-bought the Solti and the 24 bit remastering is so much nicer. If only the’d release the STUPENDOUS, most impressive ever original LP booklet, all in colour and having the wonderful colour drawings of set and costumes for the first performance, plus some three articles and a libretto with fully notated leitmotifs. ARGHH. I’d pay a lot for this. Instead of releasing so many silly Bartoli extravaganzas…..
The two most unexpected pleasures I had listening to recordings last year both involved Maria Reining. One was the live Kleiber 1952 Rosenkavalier from the Prinzregentheater with her, Elisabeth Grümmer and Erna Berger. The other one, the Knappertsbusch Rosenkavalier live from Vienna, from 1955, with her, Hilde Güden and Sena Jurinac. On both sets she is much more alluring than for Kleiber in the studio – so age cannot have been her problem on that set. She was probably always more of a stage singer than a studio one.
I also love her Arabella for Böhm.
Reining I find one believes *from the first moment* as Arabella- she understands and embodies her completely. And there is much beautiful singing. However, at every “big” vocal moment, she has spectacular troubles due to her short breath line — the ends of both “Aber der Richtige” and “Und du wurst mein Gebieter sein” are, sadly cringeworthy. Alsom Hotter is out of it until Act Three. Too bad this was not done in the studio– though it’s true, the later Marschallins are better live, so who knows. Still, if not a “first” ARABELLA, the Reining is one people who like the piece should hear. You also get della Casa as Zdenka, a pleasure.
How I wish the Varady/Donath/Sawallisch set used perhaps Weikl or Brendel as Mandryka!
Now watch the Vicar enlighten us as to how Miss Joan Carlyle was better in both soprano roles…