Singing Wagner

This is the latest installment in the history of singing series.

Wagner didn’t invent the giant orchestra. I remember looking down into the pit at the Wiener Staatsoper during a performance of Weber’s Der Freischütz (1821) [that’s the opera in 1821 and not my viewing of it] and seeing about 20 French horns. This was probably bogus and would only have been used in the overture and hunting chorus. If memory serves, Berlioz produced pieces with giant orchestras, the earliest being the Grande Messe des morts of 1837. It is amusing to read that Berlioz didn’t like Wagner’s music.

Richard Wagner composed as possibly no other person. He liked a dense, roiling soup of sound that best resembled an endless development section of a symphony. He liked it to sound thick, an effect that is most easily achieved by adding a lot of sound in the middle of the chord. He even invented an instrument, the Wagner tuba, basically a low French horn, that enhanced this low groan that he preferred.

Above and in the midst of this thick groan of sound singers are expected to sing. Where Verdi intuitively thins the sound to feature the voice his orchestra is accompanying, Wagner pays no heed to the singers’ difficulties and does nothing to help. He cannot have been unaware of the problem, because when the Festspielhaus at Bayreuth was constructed, he arranged to have the orchestra virtually covered with a kind of lid. He knew what a problem it was to sing his music, and he didn’t care.

It helps with Wagner to have a bit of edge in the voice. A big loud voice with an edge manages best. Some try to get by with just big, but they are at a disadvantage. The low groan in the orchestra makes it necessary to have a heavy voice to balance it. The tessitura of Wagner roles is not as high as it is for Verdi and the Italians. A Wagner soprano might well develop from a pushed up mezzo like Waltraud Meier, or Janis Martin. To sing over the Wagner orchestra, the voice needs to be big, loud and have a knife like edge to it. There are technical implications to this, but if you are trying to do it on technique alone, you are going to be in trouble. In fact I would have to say that you either have the voice or you don’t, and should do the best you can to float above the orchestra instead of pushing through it. Even bigger generalization: sing up to Wagner, never down.

There is a story circulating on the blogs that Solti once asked Renée Fleming to sing Isolde. She wisely refused. What could he have been thinking? But try to remember that when Kirsten Flagstad came to him to be coached as a Wagnerian, she had been a soubrette. We’re all glad that Renée turned him down.

Nothing ever happens in a Wagner opera that requires a light tone. Wagner moved vocal technique to its heaviest and was matched only by Verismo.

Adler Fellows

	picked	D	me	sang	type
Susannah Biller,	yes	yes		Zdenka	soubrette
Sara Gartland,	yes	yes		Gilda	soprano
Maya Lahyani,	yes	yes		Carmen	mezzo
Ryan Belongie,	yes			Xerxes	countertenor
Brian Jadge	yes			Don Jose, Macduff	tenor
Tamara Sanikidze.	yes
Yohan Yi		yes		Aleko	bass-baritone
Michael Sumuel		yes	yes	Alidoro	baritone
Nathanial Peake		yes		Duke	tenor
Margaret Gawrysiak		yes		Joan of Arc	heavy mezzo
Suzanne Hendrix		yes		Cornelia	contralto
Kate Crist		yes		Eva	heavy soprano
Aleksey Bogdanov			yes	Tonio	baritone

From Opera Tattler these are the Adler fellows for 2010, the ones my friend D liked, the ones I liked, what they sang in the closing Merola concert and their voice categories. I probably liked more than this, but I liked these two a lot. It is amazing they picked the countertenor. Tamara Sanikidze wasn't in the concert or the booklet. Maybe she's left over from this year. The only person on the internet with this name is a pianist.

Der Vogelhändler in English

"The Nightingale Song" from the operetta Der Vogelhändler sung and whistled by Elisabeth Schumann. I couldn't recognize it at first in English. Where she says "once again" I remember "noch einmal." It's all coming back to me.

Interview with Cecilia

This interview is translated from Opernglas.

THE INTERVIEW
CECILIA BARTOLI

Cecilia Bartoli is full of the passion for action. This time it is about music for castrati. About her unusual new project she spoke with our coworker Dr. Thomas Baltensweiler. Selections from the interview.

Your new CD is dedicated to music which was written for castrato. How did you come to this idea?

The title reads “Sacrificium” and goes on to say: Particularly in the 17th and 18th century Italian boys, who originated usually from poor families, were castrated by approximately eight years of age- in the hope they would have a singing career. They had to leave the family, train the voice, learn an instrument. Annually for music’s sake around 4000 boys were castrated, making 400,000 in 100 years. That is a tremendous sacrifice that was made for art, above all if one considers that perhaps only two or three of 4000 made a career.

With your CD you continue to a certain extent what you began with the album “Opera proibita.”

Yes, exactly. At the beginning of the18th century the Vatican had forbidden opera performances. In addition it was not permitted for women to appear as singers. “Opera proibita” contains music which was sung by castrati. These were the only ones who were allowed to sing the appropriate parts. And now imagine: The Vatican forbade the castration, although it permitted only castrati in the high voice parts. Later It became customary to use castrati. Women were not able to master a tessitura which extends so far up and down. Besides the castrati offered the possibility to clever managers of making a lot of money. They were at the mercy their occupation, which was like a prison, had no private life, and therefore the career was the only goal in their life.

Most opera singers bring albums out with popular arias. You submit one CD after the other with rare pieces, and all become a sales success. How can you explain to this?

Success is not to be predicted. I think it is crucial to really believe in the music one sings, in its message. And one must have a theme. Simply to produce an album with the most famous Händel arias does not do it. I believe, the public wants something to learn – about a composer, about a certain time, why a piece was composed and for whom. The public is curious. My CDs are more projects than only Recitals. Each needs time for investigation, and not many singers or at all musicians have this time. Not the time, not the patience and not the passion.

When I heard your Rossini concert recently in Zurich, I was fascinated that you sing with the same flexibility as at the beginning of your career. How do you retain your vocal Fitness?

It is crucial to select the correct repertoire. I try to respect my instrument and its boundaries. Perhaps one can best make this clear with a comparison. I am a big fan of Roger Federer. [Dr.B. Me,too.] He is a tennis player who has his body under perfect control; he would never force something. And I try this, too. If one is young, perhaps one can make steps, which are longer than one’s own legs. But that does not function on a long-term basis.

Your next new opera role is Norma. Can you tell us something about your entrance?

Norma is still part of my Malibran project. There is no Malibran version, but Malibran sang Norma. Bellini wrote a special Malibran version only for “I Puritani.” The first Norma was Giuditta Pasta, who sang also Mezzo roles; after Pasta, Malibran was the greatest Norma. With the conductor Thomas Hengelbrock, with whom I have already co-operated on “Sonnambula” in Baden-Baden, I would like to present “Norma” in such a way, as Bellini composed her. Not as in the 1950s and 1960s, as Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland and - somewhat later - Montserrat Caballé embodied the role. The same tenor, who sang in “Norma” in Bellini’s time, appeared also in Halévys “Clari.” It must sound light and lyrical and surely not as Mario del to Monaco. He was great, but stood in the tradition of the Verismo. Bellini however is the son of Mozart, not the son of Puccini. I want to try to return Norma to the Mezzo color, to the lyric coinage and to the dark pathos. Norma, though probably a young woman, is of a dark character. Again, as with the “Sonnambula,” historical instruments are to be used. Also with the dynamic markings I want to follow Bellini. “Casta Diva” is a prayer with a triple piano [ppp]. That is what Bellini wanted, and what I would like to realize, even if it contradicts the Verismo tradition of “Norma” performances.

[Dr.B. This is a blog and not a magazine, so I am permitted to put in comments about Roger Federer. I also get to say that I love her. The interview in the printed magazine is undoubtedly longer. I wish I had the whole thing. I loved her Sonnambula but cannot imagine Norma.

The other 3997 castrati, or at least most of them, I presume would have taken up positions in church choirs where they would have sung the alto and soprano parts.]

Singer of the Year

According to this article, Jonas Kaufmann has been named the opera singer of the year by Opernwelt, an opera magazine based in his home town, Munich.

Taking Joseph II's Side

According to Wikipedia, Austrian Emperor Joseph II was very much interested in establishing the Singspiel, a German language musical theater, in the Austrian capital. This theater form descended from the English ballad opera and the opera comique of Paris and was considered a popular entertainment with simple songs.

One of the Singspiel commissioned for Vienna was Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio, an opera written in German with spoken German dialog.

So here is the quote: "The Emperor Joseph II commissioned the creation of The abduction from the Seraglio, but when he heard it, he complained to Mozart, 'That is too fine for my ears — there are too many notes.' Mozart replied, 'There are just as many notes as there should be.'"

So let's suppose the Emperor was not an idiot. What he got from Mozart was an Italian opera translated into German with all the set piece coloratura arias one would have expected from an Italian opera and not at all the sort of ballad-like numbers expected of a Singspiel. He paid for a Singspiel and had every right to expect to receive one. I think it's time to stop picking on him.

Blogging

I was curious to see that when the curtain rose in Abduction from the Seraglio, I recognized the set. The final Merola concert was done in this good-for-any-opera-at-all set. Each short scene was staged in the scenery that looks like a small, old fashioned theater with small boxes on each side.

The Abduction of Mozart

In the period of about 1780-1820 the idea of the confrontation of an eastern Moslem man and a western Christian woman was quite appealing, and formed the basis for three well known operas:

• July 16,1782, Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) by Mozart,
• May 22, 1813, L'italiana in Algeri (The Italian Girl in Algiers) by Rossini,
• August 14, 1814, Il turco in Italia (The Turk in Italy) also by Rossini.

The basic idea here is that the traditional eastern man is very much attracted to the open, bold western woman who would not even consider for a second living in the prison-like seclusion of an eastern harem.

Here we concern ourselves only with the Mozart opera which was presented last night at the San Francisco Opera. Mozart had not yet begun his collaboration with Da Ponte. Mozart is constantly being attributed ideas about opera which are similar to Gluck's. The truth can be seen in this paragraph, stolen from Wikipedia, from a letter from Mozart to his father:

"I would say that in an opera the poetry must be altogether the obedient daughter of the music. Why are Italian comic operas popular everywhere — in spite of the miserable libretti? … Because the music reigns supreme, and when one listens to it all else is forgotten. An opera is sure of success when the plot is well worked out, the words written solely for the music and not shoved in here and there to suit some miserable rhyme ... The best thing of all is when a good composer, who understands the stage and is talented enough to make sound suggestions, meets an able poet, that true phoenix; in that case, no fears need be entertained as to the applause — even of the ignorant."

These are not the opinions of a confirmed reformer. Abduction is supposed to be a Singspiel, a semi-popular work in German with spoken dialog. What it actually is is a series of fair to good arias in the Italian style strung together with bits of separating German dialog. It's a little bit funny but not much. The arias are not that good. Fidelio and Magic Flute are closer to the Singspiel genre. "Martern aller Arten" is as close to a hit tune as this opera provides. As Mozart goes, it is hardly better than juvenilia.

His years in Houston have led David Gockley to a great depth of knowledge of international operatic talent. I was most familiar with Anna Christy as Blonde, having seen her before as Lisette in La Rondine and as Bianca in Bianca e Falliero. She is a fine soubrette coloratura.

Also excellent were Mary Dunleavy as the depressingly serious and noble Constanze, and Matthew Polenzani as her lover Belmonte.

None of these singers is German, and the opera company spared itself the thankless task of trying to teach them proper German theater pronunciation in spoken dialog. The arias were performed in incomprehensible German, and the spoken dialog was in English.

I don't honestly think this opera deserves the attention it gets in major houses. However, in its defense Wikipedia says it was Mozart's first hit in Vienna. I think Da Ponte saved Mozart from historical obscurity as an opera composer.  This contradicts the above quote.

The standard classical orchestra is augmented with the instruments needed for "Turkish" music: bass drum, cymbals, triangle and piccolo.

Christa Ludwig

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


For the tenor parts you can't beat the already posted versions by Jonas Kaufmann.

Twitterdammerung

You've all been waiting for this, right? It's a sample of the opera that is being composed on Twitter.