Karen Almond

Leonore’s great aria “Abscheulicher! Wo eilst du hin? …Komm Hoffnung” comes from Act I, Scene 6 of Fidelio and is the defining locus of the heroine and therefore the opera. Leonore, disguised as Fidelio, has overheard the prison governor Don Pizarro try to bribe the jailer Rocco into murdering a political prisoner (Leonore suspects the unknown man is her missing husband Florestan) so that his presence will not be discovered by Don Fernando, minister of state, who is on his way to inspect the prison.

Rocco refuses to commit murder and refuses the bribe, so Pizarro decides to kill the prisoner himself. Rocco and his assistant “Fidelio” will dig a grave for the body. Leonore, in hiding, overhears the sinister plot. She fears the prisoner in the dungeon may be her missing husband and prays for the strength to save him. When Pizarro and Rocco exit the scene, Leonore has a solo scena that dramatizes her conflicts, fears and desires. Here is the libretto by Joseph Sonnleithner:

This scena is in a conventional grand 18^th century concert aria format – not dissimilar to Beethoven’s “Ah, Perfido!” or Mozart’s concert arias. There is a stormy dramatic recitative where the protagonist reacts to their situation in passionate declamation (“Abscheulicher! Wo eilst du hin?”). Then there is a lyrical aria section where the protagonist declares their love and devotion (“Komm, Hoffnung”) and then an allegro cabaletta in reaction showing resolve (“Ich folg’ dem innern Triebe”) with greater emphasis on vocal agility.

So, there are three contrasting sections each with different requirements for the voice. Each section reveals a facet of Leonore’s character – the first her vulnerability and moral outrage in the face of evil, the second part her inner faith and belief in goodness, and the last allegro section her strength of character fueled by love and faith. All these qualities are what spurs Leonore to confront Pizarro in the second Act and save her husband and highlight both the strong masculine side of Fidelio versus the vulnerability of the wife Leonore. The ideal Leonore voice has both ‘masculine’ heroic steel and ‘feminine’ warmth and radiance.

Beethoven was often accused of not really knowing how to write for the voice — sometimes vocal lines can seem better suited for a clarinet or a bassoon than for singers. This is somewhat true as there are awkward lines in “Abscheulicher! …Komm, Hoffnung” such as stepwise ascents into the upper register for Leonore which lie awkwardly over the upper passaggio of the soprano voice. The range is two octaves B4 (just below middle C) to the B6, two octaves above. However, all these extreme notes are highlighted in the vocal line which requires a resonant, rangy soprano whose voice “speaks” equally in all registers with weight and color. Also, dramatic declamation is required in the first section, exposed and lengthy legato middle and low register phrases in the andante section, and then high exposed scale work which has to be even, accurate and secure in the allegro finale.

The first Leonore (in all three versions of the score) was Pauline Anna Milder-Hauptmann (1785-1838) a student of Salieri who also was a protégé of Joseph Haydn who proclaimed to her, “My dear child, you have a voice like a house.” She also created Schubert’s Der Hirt auf dem Felsen (“The Shepherd on the Rock”) in 1828 which requires the agility and brilliance of a high lyric coloratura. The earlier versions of Leonore’s Act I scene from the 1805 three-act Leonore and 1806 two-act revision are more florid and brilliant in their vocal writing than the 1814 final version of Fidelio and also less conventional in format. Here is Gwyneth Jones (Vienna 1970 – Carl Melles in the pit) in the ur-Leonore aria – “Komm, Hoffnung” is already there is an earlier form:

Per Wikipedia: “Milder had a substantial influence on the final 1814 form of the opera in demanding modifications to her extended scena in Act 1.” Winton Dean writes, “Milder later told Anton Schindler that she had severe struggles with Beethoven over ‘the unbeautiful, unsingable passages [the Act 1 scena], unsuited to her voice’.” Later sopranos may be grateful to Milder for prevailing in this struggle, since the changes she insisted on made the aria easier to sing. But Dean also opines that Beethoven’s changes were a major improvement in the music itself, making it “terser and more concentrated.”.

Clearly, Milder-Hauptmann had a voice of proto Wagnerian size and sonority with the florid technique of a coloratura soprano. Her other great roles included the title roles of Cherubini’s Medée in the Vienna premiere and Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride as well as creating roles for Spontini in Berlin.

This dichotomy of vocal qualities which is inherent in Leonore’s Act I aria also shows up in the casting of the role of Leonore/Fidelio in over a century of recorded performance. In the late 19^th century to the mid-20^th century, the role became the province of Wagnerian heldensopran singers on their night off from Isolde and Brünnhilde. Beethoven’s late classical score was given a Wagnerian big band makeover by conductors.

In recent years with a tendency towards lighter vocal casting utilizing period practice with historical instruments, Leonores have become slimmer, brighter and lighter – more Mozart’s Donna Anna or Weber’s Agathe. For example, Gundula Janowitz, a high profile Fidelio for Leonard Bernstein in the 1970’s, was a former Marzelline the decade prior. Sena Jurinac had followed the same path from Marzelline in the 1950’s to Leonore/Fidelio in the 1960’s. Even slimmer voices have essayed the role in recent years.

We are going to winnow down over 100 years of vocal recordings to survey the various faces and voices of Leonore/Fidelio in a handful of the greatest versions available on disc.

Lilli Lehmann

One of the earliest and best recordings of Leonore’s aria is by the famed Wagnerian Lilli Lehmann (1848 – 1929) who began as a light coloratura soprano singing Mozart’s Queen of the Night to Woglinde and the Waldvogel in the earliest 1877 Bayreuth Ring cycles for Wagner himself and graduating after a decade or so to Isolde, Brünnhilde, and also Leonore.

Lehmann recorded the great aria in 1907 in Berlin when she was approaching 60 years of age. It is a salient point that Lehmann not only had a basis in coloratura technique but also was an expert Mozart singer with an understanding of classical style – she does not Romanticize or Wagnerize Mozart’s music – i.e. her excellent, very classical and not stylistically dated recordings of Donna Anna’s two arias (dramatic and florid) from Don Giovanni. The same goes for Beethoven. Lilli Lehmann’s vocal wheelhouse includes both Mozartean elegance and Wagnerian power and drama. She also has classical agility combined with Wagnerian cut and breadth.

Lilli Lehmann is very grand in vocal manner but is capable of conveying vulnerability and inwardness. The voice is high set and projects cultivated head tones that are vertical rather than horizontal in attack. The vulnerability and emotions are powerful but kept strictly disciplined within the framework of Beethoven’s musical structure in classical style. The lower and middle voice show some tonal wear due to decades of service in the Wagnerian trenches but the top rings out true and pure.

Frida Leider

Leider (1888-1975) recorded the scena twice on the Grammophon label – once on a 1921 acoustic and later on a 1928 electric. The later recording, with Sir John Barbirolli, captures the voice and orchestra better and is more spacious in tempo. Leider has a huge voice that never loses a warm color and communicates both empathy and sympathetic warmth.

She is capable of intimate detail and has a wide range of color to project different moods from introspective to resolute. Leider also digs into the German text with clarity and purpose. As with her Wagner, Leider balances the goddess with the woman. She also balances the singing actress with the superstar vocalist.

Lotte Lehmann

Lotte Lehmann’s (1888-1976) debut performance as Leonore in Fidelio during the Beethoven Centenary in Vienna in 1927, was critically acclaimed as one of her greatest achievements and this performance comes from Berlin that same year with Manfred Gurlitt conducting. She sang the role for over a decade galvanizing audiences with her intensity. Eventually the tessitura of “Abscheulicher!” became difficult to sustain and she introduced a subtle half-step transposition to make the cruel final pages easier.

We hear Lehmann in two different performances – one done in the recording studio in her first year of singing the role abridged of the opening recitative. We hear a more youthful tone and this is a very human sized Leonore – not the grand tragedienne of her namesake Lilli. Her voice has a lower center and warmer tone than Lilli Lehmann but sits less securely on the breath – the long phrases of “Komm, Hoffnung” tax her but with an extra breath or two she manages well.

The live 1936 performance not only has Toscanini in the pit to match her fire, but also includes the opening recitative – sadly the acetates are in bad condition with faded sound and crackles. Also, Lehmann takes a long pause before the final section – one thinks the recording needle dropped off or technical issues with the recording. Clearly Lotte Lehmann’s dramatic authority would have kept the audience riveted even in the long silence as she seems to gather her strength for the final outburst (with the half tone transposition). Lotte Lehmann’s performing style was very “in the moment” suggesting that what we are seeing is happening spontaneously before us for the first time. It is lived rather than performed. This is why the live performance here is so telling and crucial that I included it along with the studio recording in fresher younger voice.

In 1936, the Metropolitan Opera revived Fidelio but the chosen Leonore was the white hot new superstar Kirsten Flagstad, bypassing Lotte Lehmann. Lehmann was offended to not be given even one or two performances and never performed the role in America.

Kirsten Flagstad

Flagstad (1895-1962) is singing in broad heroic paragraphs with one stance of heroic grandeur with hints of delicacy under the surface. These undercurrents of fragility are more evident in live performances. But the Metropolitan Opera has always tended to prefer Stimmdivas to Kunstdivas (Milanov and Tebaldi over Callas) – and Flagstad is definitely stimm in her approach. The interpretation is in the singing and there is a tendency towards the generalized.

I chose both a studio recording — with Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra — and a live performance from the middle period of Flagstad’s career because it is less monumental and marmoreal than some of her studio and concert performances and catches a youthful quality to the tone. Supposedly, Bruno Walter was disappointed with Flagstad’s performance which he found emotionally superficial and told Rudolf Bing he would have preferred Zinka Milanov!

Hearing Flagstad both in the studio and live onstage at the Met, one wonders at the almost supernatural beauty of the tone – both ethereal and earth goddess like. Flagstad is entirely heroic and completely feminine at the same time. It’s all in the voice. Her high B naturals are a bit straight-toned and hooty on both recordings. One wonders if they were better in house. Flagstad has recordings ranging from 1937 with a Met broadcast from 1938 up to performances in the early 1950s with Furtwängler at Salzburg. All are worth checking out.

Christa Ludwig

Ludwig (1928-2021) is the only mezzo-soprano in this line up. There have been several mezzos turned sopranos, sopranos who turned mezzo early (Margarete Matzenauer, Martha Mödl, Helga Dernesch, Waltraud Meier, et al.) as Leonore with only a handful of career mezzos who have taken on the role. Marilyn Horne recorded the big aria on a London recital album (it’s on YouTube).

Ludwig is more successful than any of them. Ludwig took on the role during her early mezzo period and into her brief flirtation with dramatic soprano repertoire in the mid-1960’s and 1970’s before reverting back to a mezzo in the late seventies. I love the dark color of the voice. Ludwig fills out the middle and bottom better than many a larger voiced soprano. Her vocal technique allows her to conquer the high passage work at the end with high B’s many sopranos would envy. The tensive quality she brings to the soprano tessitura makes her Leonore a canny fighter rather than a radiant goddess à la Flagstad. There is a sense of what the stakes are throughout and her immersion in the drama is complete. Ludwig has little or no repose – she is always leaning into the drama. Her intelligence illuminates each note and she is equal to Leider and Lotte Lehmann in her trenchant delivery of the text.

Lise Davidsen

Interestingly, Davidsen (born 1987) spent most of her twenties singing as a mezzo (in non-operatic music) and only studied seriously as a dramatic soprano in her thirties. On her 2021 London recital album she has the richness and tonal depth of the best mezzo-soprano combined with the expansive radiance of a Wagnerian goddess at her peak while emanating humanity and warmth. She has voice everywhere. It is one of the best sung versions on record and one eagerly anticipates hearing her live this month.

What’s your favorite version of “Abscheulicher!”?

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