It is said that it is the eye of the owner that keeps cattle fat. Kirsten Harms has barely left the direction of the Deutsche Oper and her production of Tannhäuser starts to decay – the relatively silent stage contraptions are now quite noisy, lighting was erratic, stage elevators were poorly used and those who were operating the stage ropes were not really sure which props should be lowered on stage (at a certain point, the safety curtain was lowered by mistake…). Maybe it was just an impression, but the second act’s singing competition has now a great deal of gags.
In any case, although the musical performance had its share of tiny glitches, Donald Runnicles offered a commendable account of the score. Conducting Wagner with small-scaled singers is a challenging affair – one the Deutsche Oper’s Musical Director has often failed to meet – but not this evening. The house orchestra played with fine focus and a lighter sound bright enough to have presence, and the maestro never missed the right opportunities to unleash his musicians when this should and could be done. Moreover, Tannhäuser is a specialty of the Deutsche Oper chorus – their singing alone is worth the trip to Charlottenburg. This is the third time I’ve heard them in this opera and it has been consistently excellent. The choristers were not alone in providing great singing this evening – Markus Brück is probably the finest Wolfram in the market these days. I have recently seen Goerne and Gerhaher in this role and, sensitively as they both sing the Abendstern song, Brück provides richness and roundness of tone without loss of ductility and flexibility and still avoids any hint of affectation. To make things better, he has a sizable voice and can hold his own against any Heldentenor. Not that this was necessary this evening.
The first time I have heard of Robert Gambill was in Bruno Weil’s recording of Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail, in which he sang Pedrillo. He could be seen next as Lindoro in Gelmetti’s DVD of Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri. Then, in 1999, he was singing Tannhäuser with Barenboim in the Staatsoper. Before he was billed as Siegmund and Tristan, he could record Graun’s Cesare and Cleopatra with René Jacobs – he even did a very good job with trills back then. I had tried to see his Tannhäuser at the Deutsche Oper, but he canceled twice. I had never seen him live before this evening, but I like the sound of his voice and his Mozartian background made me curious. Yes – it is a beautiful voice, not a dramatic one yet large enough, he can phrase with Mozartian poise and has excellent diction. All that below a high f. From that note upwards, he suffers from some sort of misconception that involves too backwards a placement, resulting an opaque and unstable sound that fails to pierce through. He has admirable stamina and by virtue of a steely breath support pushes his way through – but he predictably soon got tired. Things got so perilous that I was expecting for a replacement, but one has to concede Gambill something: he never gives up and very rarely cheats. I have seen healthier Tannhäusers who “forget” to sing some impossible notes during the concertati in the ends of act I and II, but not Gambill. Although he sounded tired, had to chop his phrases to get an extra helping of air, pecked at high notes mid-phrase, could be below true pitch in exposed acuti and finally employed a lot of acting with the voice, this tenor did sing more or less everything Wagner wrote. I just wonder if he enjoys this experience – not even Jon Vickers tried Tannhäuser (does anyone believe that whole “immorality” story?!). Why not Lohengrin? Walther?
I am not sure if Wagner is Manuela Uhl’s repertoire either. Her voice is too high for Elisabeth and, hard-pressed by having to produce a Wagnerian sound, it comes across as acidulous and fluttery. She could not find dynamic variety and sang a quite insensitive prayer in the last act. You can imagine by yourselves how her Venus was. Reinhard Hagen is always a reliable Landgraf and Thomas Blondelle’s Walther had no problem in presiding over ensembles, a lesson to his Tannhäuser: beefing up high notes is a very poor replacement for natural tonal brightness.
I HEAR VOICES 
Other than Johan Botha, is there another tenor who can sing Tannhauser’s music adequately? Now and then, such and such a tenor may have a good single performance. But in multiple-performance run, I have my doubts. (Vickers took a powder on the role, no question.)
I also wonder if we are reaching a point where certain operas (e.g., Tannhauser, Norma) are becoming generally unperformable and whether such works should be shelved until if and when we have enough singers in the cast who can provide at least a C+ effort? A good rendition of “O du mein holder Aberstern” is not enough to justify an evening in the theater when much of the rest of the performance is well below par or, worse still, excruciatingly bad.
I often wonder about that and came to the conclusion that a work should not be shelved until a great singer appears. Works are only alive when performed – and recordings alone don’t say everything about it. In those cases, both artists and audience have to be honest about that and embrace the very best effort. It is unfair to read a review trashing a soprano who sings Norma because she “is not Callas” . If she provides a decent vocal performance and – most important – is still able to offer an INTERPRETATION, then it is always a valid experience. Bellini’s Norma or Wagner’s Tannhäuser are not circus and we don’t go there to see if the guy propelled from the cannon is going to land on the right spot. In art, there are many possible “right spots” if the expression is sincere and the technique allows the artist to reach what is, for him or her, it.
As Tannhäuser I don’t need a bright tone but I do like beautiful singing. I was a bit disapponted with Jess Thomas’ whining in the 1960’s but not nearly as turned off as I got from Richard Cassilly & James McCracken as Tannhäuser in the 70’s & 80’s, both of whom represented the exact antithesis of what I feel an ideal Tannhäuser should sound like. I remember Jon Frederic West, Wolfgang Schmidt & William Johns as decent (for my tastes) Tannhäusers in the 90’s, but my favorite was Reiner Goldberg, I don’t remember Gambill very well. I do recall him in Parsifal somewhere and I think he did a Tristan broadcast too, but no vivid recollection. I am curious about the Baden-Baden DVD with Gambill as Tannhäuser, but recently I have been unable to find any reliable information about German DVD recordings actual recording dates, i.e., whether they were recorded in scheduled performance before a live audience in attendance. Everyone seems to have all the answers except that one. They have been releasing Bayreuth DVDs for years claiming they were live but almost all of them I have investigated were recorded at rehearsal (of course they were ‘live’ performers, i.e. not dead yet!). I prefer theTeatre Liceu DVD recordings; they always give the actual dates of the recording and the ones I have were recorded during scheduled performance with audience.
Well, I guess you got the Manuela Uhl blues; I’ve had them before so I know what you are going through. Conversely I enjoyed Uhl very much as Chrysosthemis earlier this month in a broadcast of Elektra from Teatro Real in Madrid. So far, Chrysosthemis is the best role I’ve heard Uhl sing. But I can imagine how disappointing she can be in Tannhäuser: most all of Elisabeth’s music after the Dich teure halle lies in the middle range.
Hi, Jerold! Maybe I haven’t said it clearly – I didn’t mean to say that a Tannhäuser has to be bright-toned, but that a properly placed and well supported voice naturally acquires brightness in its higher notes, even when the tonal quality is dark (e.g. Giuseppe Giacomini or James King or even Jonas Kaufmann in a lighter Fach). What I meant to say is that manipulating the voice production to make it artificially darker inevitably brings about loss of projection. Many lighter tenors on heavier Fach (e.g. Araiza) tried this with various degrees of failure. As for the Tannhäuser DVD, I guess the microphones might be kind to Gambill’s voice, whose high notes will probably have a “velvety” sound as recorded.
As for Tannhäusers, I’ve had only two good experiences: Johan Botha (rather bright toned for your taste maybe) and Stephen Gould (whom you don’t like, if I’m not mistaken). In that video from Bayreuth, Spas Wenkoff makes a good job out of it, but I have no idea of how it was live.
Manuela Uhl. Hers is a high-lying voice – forceful, but still high-lying – and it works better in these Straussian roles such as Chrysothemis and the Empress. In Wagner, a stronger middle-register makes all the difference of the world.
I also liked Botha’s Tannhauser. He is an excellent singer, it is only the tonal quality of his voice and much of his technqiue that I can’t seem to fit into the italian rep.
Gould is a major player and should be singing [Siegfried] more often, but he darkens his tone a bit more than apparently you notice. I remember his Tannhauser as satisfying the old-fashioned traditional belt-it-out crowd at that time, but I also remember how excellent his phrasing was. He is a good musician and even though his technique eludes me, I enjoyed his performance as the Kaiser in Salzburg.
You mention Araiza, whom I did like very much (and I was not the only one) particularly as Don Alvaro in Forza del Destino, Lohengrin, & Walther. Yes, his artifically darkened tone did not project like Botha or Gould, but he was an elegant singer and his smooth delivery (with its lack vocal surges & outbursts) provided an even-scaled structural insight into the music.
But my favorite tenor on a good night was Giuseppe Giacomini, whom you also mention above.
Again, thanks for your reviews… enjoy them very much!
Well, Jerold, you don’t need to defend Araiza for me – I have an immense admiration for him, a true artist who sang in the grand manner. He is my favourite Schubertian tenor and his rendition of Non temer, amato bene (from Idomeneo) for Harnoncourt is my example of Mozartian singing. I saw his Lohengrin in 1999 – it was not perfect, but the more lyrical passages in that part were sung with really good taste and imagination.
Gould has a big, heavy voice and his singing of roles like Siegfried and Tannhäuser is never as “spontaneous” as Mozart is for a lyric tenor. That is why it is even more commendable that, as you say, he has such clean phrasing [and stamina].
Unfortunately, I never saw Giacomini live – a truly impressive voice.
No, RML, simply don’t! On what drug were you on when writing that review on Gambil?!!! Unforgivable. I cannot recall a worst tenor in Wagnerian roles that I’ve seen. At least he is consistent on that. Terrible Tristan in Milan and Berlin, even worst Tannhäuser in Berlin, simply horrible as Sigmund. And yes, I’ve seen them all, live. So I guess I have a right to say: please get him out of Wagner operas!
On a more positive note: Stephen Gould was a fantastic Tannhäuser in Berlin. And Botha was also very impressive in the same role in Vienna. I guess I would prefer Botha. The voice is more beautiful and there is more lyricism in it, but Gould is a better actor than Botha (not much of a challenge there!). I wonder how Dean-Smith would sound as Tannhäuser. I dont know if he ever tried that, but his is one of the most beautiful voices around. Maybe he could make a remarkable Tannhäuser. I don’t know. Perhaps it was just wishful thinking.
Apart from that mess about Gambil being a good Tannhäuser, great review, as always. Congrats.
NO ONE is a better actor than Botha. I mean Olivier back in the day perhaps. Vickers on a good day might have gotten close….
I heard Robert Dean-Smith as Tannhauser in Zurich this past winter and he was very good. Not epic but sustained good tone and generally endured the experience rather successfully – again in little (theater and orchestra wise at least) Zurich.
It took you long to say anything! 🙂 Believe me: I’ve seen worse than Gambill, but I agree that these heavy roles are not for him. No doubt about that! And we agree about Botha/Gould.