Cal Performances

As presented by Cal Performances, the event was a late addition to their 2024-25 Season, only announced late last October when the season was fully underway. Nevertheless, the occasion attracted the who’s who in the Bay Area’s classical and operatic music circle, and Davidsen sensationally rose to the challenge and presented a fully coherent and heart-warming program that certainly left the audience wanting more!

The Metropolitan Opera’s reigning diva rose to fame after winning multiple prizes at the Operalia, Queen Sonja, and Hans Gabor Belvedere Competitions in the same year a decade ago. Since then, Davidsen has graced the world’s leading opera houses before debuting at the Met in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Pikovaya dama in 2019. This was also her first public recital since the news broke that she’s pregnant with twins and that she would be taking a break after a run of Fidelio at the Met next month.

One would think that such accolades would result in some diva-ish behavior, but on Tuesday, Davidsen demonstrated none of that. She projected a glowingly warm and radiant persona, humbly and gracefully acknowledging the audience’s loud appreciation while interjecting—mic in hand—softspoken personal anecdotes about the numbers.

The concert began with something familiar: three songs from Edvard Grieg’s 6 Songs Op. 48, namely “Dereinst, Gedanke mein” (No. 2), “Zur Rosenzeit” (No. 5), and “Ein Traum” (No. 6). Davidsen recorded the whole cycle with Leif Ove Andsnes in early 2022 and had performed the same three songs in her recital all over the world, including the sold-out Met Opera concert in 2023.

From the first notes, Davidsen demonstrated why she is the world’s in-demand dramatic soprano. Clad in a flowing white gown with floral motives and no score in sight, she burst into Grieg’s songs with scorching intensity, glamorous phrasing, and intelligent reading of the texts. Her formidable voice sounded round, full, and elegantly booming in the vast Zellerbach auditorium. “Zur Rosenzeit,” in particular, was peppered with delicious pianissimi throughout the song. Most importantly, there was a much noticeable warmth in her delivery, even more so than in the 2022 recording. While maybe lacking Andsnes’s meditative interpretation on the record, Scottish pianist Malcolm Martineau – one of the UK’s leading accompanists – also displayed warmth in his excellent piano playing, and the duo gave the songs a synchronized yet elevated sense of hopefulness, betraying the fact this was their first playing together.

“Ein Traum” was incredibly dreamy, no pun intended. The song included “jumping” notes in each phrase that Davidsen performed so effortlessly, as if they were nursery rhymes. Furthermore, Davidsen and Martineau styled the song as a gigantic crescendo, both in dynamic and speed, bringing such a thrilling end to the Grieg set!

Two excerpts from two very different operas about “the fate of two very different women” followed: the famous “Dido’s Lament” from Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Elisabetta’s final aria, “Tu che le vanità,” from Giuseppe Verdi’s Don Carlo. While her diction might not be as crisp as one might like, her “Dido’s Lament” was particularly remarkable for the restraint she exercised throughout, proving that she was the master of her enormous instrument and that she was skillful in coloring her voice to suit any mood or temperament.

The Elisabetta aria was a completely different matter, the one that proved that I was wrong in my bias. Previously, I thought she excelled only in Austro-Germanic repertoire, and I have avoided catching her Italian roles live so far. Nevertheless, her take on “Tu che le vanità” completely blew my mind with considerable displays of technique, effortless singing, formidable legato, and, most importantly, a keen sensitivity to the text, giving an emotionally dramatic transition from longing to resignation and creating a tour-de-force performance that was easily the highlight of the night!

Cal Performances

Davidsen explained that her two “core composers” were Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner, so it made much sense to close the first part with a segment on Strauss, starting with “Es gibt ein Reich” from an opera that has become her calling card, Ariadne auf Naxos. I first encountered Davidsen in this opera at the Aix-en-Provence festival in the summer of 2018, and at that time, I was taken aback not only by the sheer volume of her voice but also by the dark mezzo-ish hue of her tone with the big, velvety low notes. Revisiting this aria seven years later, I was astounded by how bright her sound had become, and particularly at how at ease she sang this difficult aria. Interpretatively, she also found a different angle at the texts, imbuing them with a sense of lightness, almost playfulness, not just all doom-and-gloom. She capped the first part of the recital with “Befreit” from 5 Lieder, Op. 39, sending the audience into intermission at a fever pitch!

Cal Performances treated this event as a Gala, using it also to honor Gordon P. Getty, who was bestowed with the Cal Performances Award of Distinction in the Performing Arts. Jeremy Geffen, Cal Performances’s Executive and Artistic Director, gave a heartfelt speech at the start of the second half, detailing Getty’s dedication and generosity over the years to Cal Performances, and Davidsen herself echoed the sentiment afterward.

The concert’s second half was dedicated to only two composers, Franz Schubert and Wagner. Davidsen traded her appearance with a full-length black gown, and, irritatingly, a stand with a tablet was placed on stage.

Davidsen admitted that she only recently returned to Schubert’s songs (after starting with them initially) and that Martineau was essential in learning the pieces. While her voice was still as impressive as ever, interpretatively, her presentation on the first two Schubert lieder, the famous Der Tod und das Mädchen, D. 531, and Der Zwerg, D. 771, failed to catch fire. The biggest issue was that both were delivered in a declamatory fashion, and they lacked the storytelling aspect so crucial in almost all of Schubert’s Lieder. This was particularly evident during Der Zwarg, a song about a dwarf murdering a queen who betrayed him. The Lied was styled as a conversational piece between the dwarf and the queen, but by performing it with such force, the nuances between each side get lost. It also didn’t help that she was glued to the tablet during these songs, projecting her voice downwards and lacking the expressivity of, for example, the Grieg sets.

Cal Performances

Luckily, things improved significantly for the next song, the delicate Du bist die Ruh, D. 776. Davidsen clearly responded well to Friedrich Rückert’s gorgeous texts, performing the song with such gentle tenderness and full of soft arm gestures. Her voice also sounded exquisite and ethereal, and Martineau was a great asset here in creating a perfect atmosphere. An innocent rendition of the famous Ave Maria (D. 839) rounded out the Schubert segment.

That brought us to Wagner, her other core composer. As announced before, the Met is planning to debut her Isolde next season and her Brünnhilde starting in the 2027-28 Season, all in new productions by Yuval Sharon and conducted by the Met’s music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Such preferential treatment was undoubtedly due to her special affinity for Wagner and her acclaimed performances of his heroines worldwide. On Tuesday, that close bond was in full display with her heavenly takes on “Allmächt’ge Jungfrau” from Tannhäuser and “Der Engel” and “Träume” (plus the encore “Schmerzen”) from the Wesendonck Lieder, all of which appeared in her first two solo albums for Decca Classics, the 2019 self-titled album and the 2021 Beethoven, Wagner and Verdi album. The poise, glamorous voice, command, and, once again, effortlessness of delivery were all significant yet necessary assets in Wagner’s repertoire, and she had them in abundance.

Davidsen and Martineau gave the Bay Area audience a special parting gift: her very first public performance of “Liebestod” from the finale of Tristan und Isolde (she previewed Act II last November in Munich with Simon Rattle and Stuart Skelton) a fact that excited the audiences. To my ears, it was definitely a work in progress. She got the phrasing and the dynamics right, but the end result felt a little disjointed. A big part of it was that she breezed through the piano accompaniment (that Martineau played with Herculean efforts) without a sense of the usual “struggle” against the gargantuan orchestra. I had no doubt she will present an altogether different point of view by the time Tristan und Isoldearrives at the Met!

After the concert, the audience showered her and Martineau with lengthy applause, and the reception visibly moved her. It was a great introduction to one of the finest dramatic sopranos in the world, and no doubt Bay Area audiences wished to see more of her. (Lucky LA audiences get to catch this program tomorrow). At the very least, it definitely would whet the appetite for the Met Opera’s new production of Tristan und Isolde next season. For me, I’m starting counting the days for her next Don Carlo(s) to rectify my past mistakes!