Edita Gruberová (23 December 1946 – 18 October 2021)

 The great coloratura soprano Edita Gruberová has died.  I believe in this performance she was 61.

Christa Ludwig (1928-2021)

The great mezzo Christa Ludwig has died.  I have actually blogged about her on numerous occasions.  I see only one listing for her at the San Francisco Opera.  In 1971 she sang Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier to Sena Jurinac's Marschallin.  I think I did not attend.

I love this wonderful picture of Joyce DiDonato and Susan Graham at the Opera News Awards 2014 bowing before Christa.  What a great picture.

I'm going to post some of my favorite films, which I have mostly posted before.  Here she is with Bernstein singing "I am so easily assimilated."

 

And here at last is the perfect performance of Bach's "Erbarme dich" by the great Christa Ludwig.  The tempo and the phrasing are all masterpieces.

I'm trying to cover a lot of ground in these selections.  Here is Christa singing "Nur wer die Sehnsicht kennt" by Tchaikovsky.

My favorite Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde with Leonard Bernstein and the incomparable Christa Ludwig.
Der Einsame im Herbst

 

Von der Schoenheit


Abschied part I

part II

part III

We are currently doing Fidelio in different incarnations.  Here is Christa.



My heart leaps. Doch. Die Liebe wirt's erreichen. This is the most rubato in Beethoven I've ever heard.
She was a very great artist.  Spend some time listening.

Freddie de Tommaso

 

Lise was pitching him, so I thought I would give Freddie de Tommaso a listen.  We don't get many real Italian tenors these days, so I liked him very much.  He is lyric, but might expand into more operatic repertoire.  His style is dead on.  I wanted a selection where you could see him singing.  Firenze.  I'd know it anywhere.  Near the Ponte Vecchio.

Lisette Oropesa takes a bis

  

This is "Addio des passato" from La Traviata.  I love that the encore performance is back in international opera.  Lisette gets better every year.

Jessye sings Mahler

  

This is Urlicht from Mahler Symphony #2, Resurrection.

New CD from Lise Davidsen

 Update:  It's out.  It's fabulous.  My son called it amazing, like something from a bygone era.

I am dangerously close to becoming a fanzine for Lise.  She announced her new album this morning.  It comes out here in the US at the end of April, and that's a long time.  I love the photo.  She is aiming for greatness and should succeed.

Track List:

1. "Absheulicher! Wo eilst du hin?" from "Fidelio" (Act I No.9)

2. "Ah! Perfido", Scene and Aria for Soprano and Orchestra Op.65 - Recitativo. Allegro con brio

3. "Ah! Perfido", Scene and Aria for Soprano and Orchestra Op.65 - Aria. Adagio

4. "Ah! Perfido", Scene and Aria for Soprano and Orchestra Op.65 - Allegro assai "Ah crudel! crudel!"

5. "Dei tuoi figli la madre"from "Medea" Act I

6. "Voi lo Sapete" from "Cavalleria Rusticana" (Act I; Romanza e Scena)

7. "Pace Pace" from "La Forza Del Destino" (Act IV Sc 2)

8. "Ave Maria, piena di grazia" from "Otello" (Act IV)

9. Wesendonck Lieder, WWV91 - Der Engel

10. Wesendonck Lieder, WWV91 - Stehe Still

11. Wesendonck Lieder, WWV91 - Im Treibaus

12. Wesendonck Lieder, WWV91 - Schmerzen

13. Wesendonck Lieder, WWV91 - Traume 

 

Sample.   I find this truly excellent.

 

Aida from Paris

 

Director -- Lotte de Beer 
Conductor -- Michele Mariotti 

Amneris - Ksenia Dudnikova
Aida - Sondra Radvanovsky
Radames - Jonas Kaufmann
Amonasro, Aida's father - Ludovic Tézier

We've all been warned.  This production of Aida from Paris is a puppet show, at least in part.  Sondra is dressed in black like the puppeteers.  The above picture shows her and her Aida puppet.  She sings, it acts.  The Ethopians have puppet representations and the Egyptians don't.  That means Amonasro also has a puppet.  I wrote about a different opera, The Abduction from the Seraglio, where two people played each character.  One sang, the other acted and spoke lines.  When I see this, I think they don't think singers can act. Of course now that blackface is forbidden, this might be a way to represent a different race.

Sondra was wonderful.  I believe that she is the best spinto soprano in Italian repertoire singing today.  I gave her a brava in "O patria mia."  Jonas's hair wasn't as straight as we'd feared. It took him a while to warm up.

The chorus members wear masks while singing.  That's a first for me.  I greatly enjoyed the singing but was unenthusiastic about the concept. Here's a sample.

Queen of Baroque - Out Today

Note:  I have finally received my copy and listened to about half.  Once again Cecilia displays her greatest talent--the ability to assemble a fabulous program.  Her whole career is shown.  Enjoy.

Amazon says today is the day.

Cecilia Bartoli announces a new CD from Decca:  Queen of Baroque.  It will be released on December 18, 2020.  Pre-order now by clicking below.  It can be delivered in time for Christmas.  It's described as:

A collection of the very best of Bartoli's treasured recordings of musical delights and discoveries of the 17th and 18th century. Featuring two previously unreleased world premiere recordings of forgotten jewels by Leonardo Vinci and Agostino Steffani. With guest appearances from Philippe Jaroussky, June Anderson, Franco Fagioli and Sol Gabetta.  Here is a track list.

Steffani
I trionfi del fato: “E l’honor stella tiranna”*

Vinci
Alessandro nelle Indie: “Quanto Invidio…Chi vive amante”*

Handel
Rinaldo: “Lascia ch’io pianga”

Broschi
Artaserse: “Son Qual Nave”

Pergolesi
Stabat Mater, P. 77: 1. Stabat Mater dolorosa feat. Anderson

Vivaldi
Griselda: Agitata da due venti

Steffani
Niobe, regina di Tebe: “Serena, o mio bel sole… Mia fiamma…” feat. Jaroussky

A. Scarlatti
Il Sedecia, Re di Gerusalemme: “Caldo Sangue”

Handel
Serse: “Ombra mai fu”

Albinoni
Il nascimento dell’Aurora: “Aure andate e baciate” feat. Sol Gabetta

Graun
Adriano In Siria: Deh, tu bel Dio d’amore…Ov’e il mio bene?

Steffani
Stabat Mater: “Eja Mater, fons amoris… Fac, ut ardeat… Sancta Mater… Tui nati, vulnerati” feat. Fagioli, Behle

Caldara
Il Trionfo dell’Innocenza: “Vanne pentita a piangere”

Handel
La Resurrezione (1708), HWV 47: “Disserratevi oh porte d’Averno”

Porpora
Germanico in Germania: Parto ti lascio, o cara

Steffani
I Triondi del fato: “Combatton quest’alma” feat. Jaroussky

Handel
Rinaldo: “Bel piacere”

*Denotes a world premiere recording

And here is a sample.

Beethoven's Birthday

  

For the occasion of Beethoven's birthday I have chosen this film of The Ode to Joy from the 60th anniversary celebration of the found of the German Federal Republic.  "All Menschen werden Brueder."

Lise sings Ariadne

 

 

Tell me again how you don't like Ariadne.

Die Entführung aus dem Serail from Vienna

Musical Direction - Antonello Manacorda
Production - Hans Neuenfels

Bassa Selim - Christian Nickel (spoken)
Konstanze - Lisette Oropesa (soprano)
Konstanze - Actress - Emanuela von Frankenberg
Blonde - Regula Mühlemann (soprano)
Blonde - Actress - Stella Roberts
Osmin - Goran Jurić (bass)
Osmin - Actor - Andreas Grötzinger
Belmonte - Daniel Behle (tenor)
Belmonte - Actor - Christian Natter
Pedrillo - Michael Laurenz (tenor)
Pedrillo - Actor - Ludwig Blochberger 

Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail  (The Abduction from the Seraglio), 2020, comes to us from the Wiener Staatsoper.  It is directed by Hans Neuenfels, one of the more scandalous regie producers.  One of his characteristics is to dress the chorus all in the same outfits.  Here in spite of the fact that they are a mixed chorus, they are all dressed as men in black.

This is a Singspiel, which means it comes with spoken dialog in German.  In the original version of the opera there is a character, Bassa Selim, who does not sing.  Everyone else both sings and speaks.  So Neuenfels has seized on this and doubled all the rest of the cast.  So in addition to the singers, he has cast a whole other cast who play the rest of the roles and only speak.  He has also added more words.  This is hard to follow.  Two people in the same outfits are the same person.  You get a lot of easy to understand German from the actors and beautiful singing from the singers.  The actress Blonde occasionally speaks English.  "Me too."

Lisette is singing a very serious aria, and a young man in his underwear is holding a giant snake.  Huh?  What you would want to keep from this is Lisette and her arias.  "Martern alle Arten" is especially great.  She changes the opera completely.  Suddenly it is enormous.

I can think of only one semi-legitimate reason for this double casting.  Singers have careers that take them all over the world.  This is why the performing of operas originally in other languages but sung in the local language of the opera house is a practice that has pretty much died out.  We perform Hansel and Gretel and Magic Flute in English, but that is pretty much it.  The singer learns the role with the original text and then sings it everywhere with only some brief rehearsal.

So Neuenfels wanted to add a lot of new German dialog, and in order to have extended rehearsals, he assigns these new words to local people he can rehearse for a long time.  This is the only thing I can think of.  We don't care about this added dialog.  Maybe Neuenfels doesn't really like opera.

They love only Lisette.  As do I.  Serious booing for Neuenfels.

Cecilia again.

Here is a film I haven't seen before. It's from Rossini's Semiramide.

I've often wished Cecilia would sing this role.

Erin Wall (4 November 1975 – October 8, 2020)

 

 

 

This is what I wrote about Erin when I first saw her at the Santa Fe Opera in 2007.

"Since she was by far the best singer at Santa Fe, (Daphne in Daphne) I thought it would be nice to know more about Erin Wall. She's from Alberta, Canada, and has competed in the Singer of the World in Cardiff."  The full review is here.

I've seen her in some wonderful things over the years.  My favorite was her Arabella at Santa Fe.  Most recently she sang Donna Anna in San Francisco in 2017.

I enjoyed everything I saw and wish I had seen more.  She has died of cancer.  I feel it is a loss.

Giusto Ciel

Early in my madness for Cecilia Bartoli this tune by Rossini was one of my favorites. It's just shown up on YouTube.

To Feel Better about Life

 Four Songs  Part 1


 

 Four Songs Part 2


 

Four Songs Part 3

 

Four Songs Part 4

Fidelio from the Royal Opera 👍🏻

Tobias Kratzer ....  Director

Antonio Pappano ... Conductor

Lise Davidsen .. Leonore

David Butt Philip ... Florestan

Simon Neal ... Don Pizarro

Georg Zeppenfeld ... Rocco

Amanda Forsythe ...Marzelline

Robin Tritschler ... Jaquino

Egils Silins ... Don Fernando

I found access to Beethoven's Fidelio from the Royal Opera Covent Garden in March of this this year.  Look on Opera on Video.  This was supposed to include Jonas Kaufmann, but he dropped out.  This was early in the pandemic and he caught it.  Remember, I first saw him in Fidelio in Zurich.

The overture is staged, and if you pay attention you will see Lise appear dressed as a woman.  I didn't realize Lise Davidsen was so tall.  The guys are her size, which makes her believable as a man.  She makes this performance.  Her rendition of the big aria gives me shivers.  The staging is a distraction.

For me the saddest thing about the pandemic is the absence of all the planned Fidelios.  It's one of my favorite operas.  Die Liebe wirt's erreichen.  I love it because he loved it.  You can feel it.  Beethoven would never have spent so much time on something if he didn't love it.  It's a new style of opera with heavier voices.  Die Liebe wirt's erreichen.

In modern day stagings operas that come with spoken dialog frequently get their dialog rewritten to suit the director's whim.  That has happened here.  Marzelline learns the truth about Fidelio much sooner than usual.  For me the worst offense was the Fidelio from Salzburg where there were sound effects instead of talk.  At least they say understandable things.

Marzelline has a black eye in this production.  Jaquino seems always angry, so perhaps he has punched her.  There's no hint that they will get back together.

Our Florestan is chained to a rock in a well lit room where he is surrounded by men and women watching him.  He expects to meet Leonore in heaven.  I imagine that Jonas would have been rather different.  The staging of the ending is badly muddled.  There is no scene change before the celebration. When they sing "O namenlose Freude," you feel it. Marzelline shoots Pizarro.

This is a great role for Lise.  She should sing it all over.

Here's a sample.

 

Carmen - L’amour est un oiseau rebelle - Stéphanie d'Oustrac

Stéphanie d'Oustrac is one of my more recent interests.

Lisette and the Jewel Song

It's been quite a while since I went mad for a singer, but Lisette Oropesa is definitely worth it.

Lorraine sings Dido

Lorraine Hunt Lieberson has left this to comfort us.  This is the first time I have felt a singer truly understood this aria.

Sure on this shining night

This is Samuel Barber's "Sure on this shining night."  Our Lisette Oropesa, she does it all.  Her legato is perfection.