Seriously though, I believe the hoch refers both to high in the sense of high note, as well as high in the sense of elevated, the maximum, the top of the line. So the Hochdramtisch was the summit of what a singer could/would aspire to and hence had to be prepared for anything and everything, any demand or difficulty had to be met, hence the requirements for a high C as well as plunges to the bottom of deapair as in Act II of Gotterdammerung. Those requirements are met only by a technique of the highest order, hence Hoch.

Kashania, Senta only goes to B but is written brutally awkwardly, and hence it is extremely difficult. Behrens told me many times that Senta was one hell of a lot more difficult than Gotterdammerung. And of course Elektra is vocally the MOST difficult role in the soprano repertoire, bar none. Talk about exposed high Cs!!!!!

I agree that the tessitura of the final lines of GD were not kind to Jessye. It’s been years since I listened to her Wagner album from the 80s (with Tennstedt) so I’ll listen to it this weekend and let you know. But generally speaking, if Jessye were to sing any part of Brünnhilde, it should have been Walküre. I can imagine a very regal and moving Todesverkundung. But it really wasn’t her role.

Seriously though, it took a phrase of less than one minute to remind me how glorious La Maria was as Violetta, really even after several years of ignoring her, Maria demands your attention, she really was from heavens…….

First, Traubel certainly sang both the Siegfried and Gotterdammerung Brunnhildes; at the Met she sang 15 performances of the first and 25 of the second. This is easy to find information in the Met archives. Presumably
she left out lots of high notes, she even transposed ho-jo-to-ho in some performances. She recorded the Dawn Duet from Gotterdamerrung under Toscannini and evidently he insisted she sing the high c but it is very flat.

Flagstad first undertook Brunnhilde when she came to the US. Her first Walkure and Gotterdammerung Brunnhildes were in her first Met season. She was also supposed to do the S Brunnhilde but was indisposed and so made her role debut at the SFO instead where she sang regularly. But this point in her career, she was already ducking certain high Cs. Her Siegfried Brunnhilde braodcast from the Met 1938 lacks the final high C as does her 1939 Gotterdammerung broadcast. She made a recording of the Gotter prologue duet under MacArthur and sounds glorious but the high C is slightly underpitch. Even by around 1940 she was also ducking one of Isolde’s high Cs.

So my point is both ladies were significant Brunnhildes and both made as little as possible with the character’s high Cs, pretty much to luvtennis’ point.

I did think of you when writing about Jessye, but sorry, sorry sorry, she had many talents but I don’t believe she could really ever SUSTAIN the tessitura of ihn zum slingen und schlossen von ihm in maechtichter Minne….. even in her greatest day. Remember what Simionato said to some idiot who told her, you are a soprano, you have a high C. And she responded all well-trained singers should have a reliable high C, but it is a question of tessitura, where the voice feels comfortable, and I am a mezzo soprano. Christa Ludwig said something similar after singing Leonore in Fidelio. How many times did she do it?

As you note, it might strain Violetta’s abilities to freshen up in just, say, 6-10 hours time. I might argue that a person of Violetta’s expertise and stature would be expected to have freshening down to a science, but that is really projecting a lot of subtext into Verdi’s and Piave’s work.

Armerjacquino reminds us that Flora’s invitation is to a party that same night. Of course, as La Cieca cautions, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the party of Act II, scene 2, is this same party of Flora’s invitation.

My, this is a lot of noting, reminding, and cautioning, isn’t it? Time for a lunch break.

the first scene of Act 2 (i.e., the country house) is meant to be a fairly shallow set

Tell that to Franco!

Invisible again.

BTW, I’ll be in san Francisco within the next month, how about meeting in front of the Napa Valley Opera house?