Who’s that woman?
Faithful and sharp-eared member of the cher public reedroom notes, “…an observation about the Levine 40th Wozzeck CD (Anja Silja/Jose van Dam)—the second CD (acts 2 and 3) has to be a different performance, different cast and different year. It is undoubtedly Hildegard Behrens on the 2nd CD. I don’t know who the baritone is but it is NOT van Dam. The orchestra/stage balance is different on the 2nd CD and it sounds like a “better” orchestra too. Am I nuts? “
Here’s a comparison of a couple of snippets of the two discs, with a brief silence in between. Any ideas what’s going on here?
Buster -- I never heard Elisabeth Hoengen as Marina in Boris which she sang in Vienna (alternating with Jurinac both singing in German) from 1947 to 1955 but after the Staatsoper reopened in 1955, Boris (along with other Russian Operas after the occupation was over) was not in the repertory of the Staatsoper for 20 years when Birgitte Fassbaender sang it (alternating with Jurinac).
Hoengen was a great artist to be sure -- and widely admired by her colleagues.
The first Boris after the war under Krips in 1947
(probably as a courtesy to the Russian occupiers) had
Anny Konetzni as Marina, Schoeffler as Boris,
Jurinac as Fjodor, Seefried as Xenia, Dermota as
Schuiski, Elena Nikolaidi as the Nurse, Max Lorenz as
Grigori, Rosette Anday as the Innkeeper, Herbert Alsen as Pimen. After that George London and Ludwig Weber
also sang Boris and Martha Moedl sang only 1 Marina
with Clemens Krauss and Kempe also conducting the opera at times.
There has been a long line of important Mezzos in
Vienna with Anday, Hoengen, Ludwig, Baltsa and now
Garanca all singing for decades (save Garanca) and all doing a wide variety of roles. Simionato sang there a great deal as well but only for a decade and
in her usual roles (plus Cherubino). Grace Hoffman and Ruth Hesse were regular guests as was Jean Madeira somewhat earlier and Resnik too. Cossotto and Zajick made only occasional guest appearances -- and Borodina will make her belated debut there next season, reportedly in a new Aida conducted by Muti.
But Hoengen sang almost everything and with her 117
Marcellinas in Figaro managed to keep Famous Quickly from essaying her most celebrated Met rendition of the part entirely from the Vienna public. Famous Quickly must have been livid not to have been able to wrestle Marcellina away from Hoengen in Vienna.
.
Thanks a lot Bill -- much appreciated!
Stayed away since the nastiest bout of Brit-bashing, still read what’s going on with interest but had to pop up to clarify what’s happened here, since you’re more than a little offbeam.
In short, on the white-label copies I have, it’s Behrens on BOTH CDs. How could anyone not hear that? So they’ve labelled it wrong. At least I’d take a bet on that.
So who IS the Wozzeck? Definitely not Van Dam.
Both sets are riddled with problems. Some DVDs are multi-region,others aren’t -- purchasers in the UK beware.
OK, here are the facts from the Met’s representatives for the set: ‘the Met mistakenly sent CDs with the January 19, 1985 performance with Christian Boesch and Hildegard Behrens. They will correct this error by replacing the CDs with the performance intended featuring van Dam and Silja in the sets. Of course the Met deeply regrets the error. Their plan is to send replacement CDs to those who have already purchased the complete set. Going forward the sets will have the correct 1980 performance.
The complete cast on the incorrect CD [sic - in fact both CDs are of the same performance, as discussed above] is:
Wozzeck……………..Christian Boesch
Marie……………….Hildegard Behrens
Captain……………..Ragnar Ulfung
Drum Major…………..Richard Cassilly
Doctor………………Franz Mazura
Andres………………John Gilmore
Margret……………..Isola Jones
Apprentice…………..James Courtney
Apprentice…………..Russell Christopher
Fool………………..Andrea Velis
Soldier……………..Dennis Steff
Townsman…………….John Hanriot
Child……………….Joel Chaiken
Hope that helps.