It’s time for the annual celebration of the birth of Leonie Rysanek (who, as you know, is your alte Jungfer’s Diva of Divas).  She would have been 89 on Saturday, 14 November.  I am happy to bring back parterre box favorite Die Frau ohne Schatten with the “core four” cast that introduced the opera to the Met in 1966.  This performance comes from the Salzburger Festspiele in 1974.  

Oddly enough, there are very few extant recordings of the opera with that remarkable ensemble: Rysanek, James King, Christa Ludwig, and Walter Berry with Karl Böhm conducting.  Aside from this week’s performance, I know of only the Met broadcasts of 1966 and 1969.  In 1971, Robert Nagy sang the Kaiser, and in 1978 Ursula Schröder-Feinen sang the Färberin.

An even bigger surprise is that the quartet never performed the opera together in Wien: Ludwig sang only one Färberin, in 1964 under von Karajan, and King didn’t appear as the Kaiser until 1977.

Fortune (and a real estate agent) has dictated that the streetcar line closest to my house is the one that goes directly to Wien’s enormous Zentralfriedhof, the Central Cemetery where Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Gluck, both Johann Strausses, Millöcker, von Suppé, Hugo Wolf, Zemlinsky,Schoenberg, Ligeti and a host of other composers are  buried.  It’s a lovely place for a walk, so I make the trip a few times each year.  Leonie is in a special section of Ehrengräber—graves of honor reserved for Austrian citizens who attained extraordinary achievements in their lifetimes.

I last paid Leonie a visit on the national holiday of Allerheiligen—All Souls’ Day—on 01 November.  The number of tributes was astonishing: the gravesite ablaze with candles and adorned with flowers (there always seems to be a vase of a dozen fresh red roses) and seasonal wreaths, to which I added one, as well as a weatherproof candle.  It’s nice to know that 17 years after her death, she still has a strong active fan base in Wien.

Richard Strauss: Die Frau Ohne Schatten

Wiener Philharmoniker
Karl Böhm, conductor
Salzburger Festspiele
16 August 1974

Der Kaiser – James King
Die Kaiserin – Leonie Rysanek
Die Amme – Ruth Hesse
Geisterbote – Martin Egel
Ein Hüter der Schwelle des Tempels – Maria Haug
Stimme eines Jünglings – Martin Schomberg
Die Stimme des Falken – Maria Haug
Eine Stimme von oben – Ingrid Mayr
Barak, der Färber – Walter Berry
Sein Weib – Christa Ludwig
Der Einäugige – Zoltán Kelemen
Der Einarmige – Lorenzo Alvary
Der Bucklige – Murray Dickie
Stimmen der Wächter der Stadt – Alexander Maly, Karl Neugebauer, Wolfgang Schneider