The item in the music lounge this week does not feature an ideal recording, because I still have to know a performance that comes close to ideal of the big Senta/Holländer duet, Wie aus der ferne – and I have listened to many and many recordings during the week. A great part of the fun in these big composite duets is the cavatina-cabaletta-ish structure that we can hear in works ranging from Mozart’s Così fan tutte via Rossini’s Tancredi to Puccini’s Tosca, but the “cabaletta” part in the Holländer duet is so impossibly difficult to sing that I’ve decided to go baby-steps here. Moreover, the duet is the centerpiece in the whole opera – and the dynamic between the cavatina-ish part and the cabaletta-ish part tells the whole story. First, Senta and the Holländer look at each other and they have the strong belief that their dreams have come true. What they see is exactly what they have imagined for a long time. And – as we’ve read so often in Romantic literature – relationships that need to be perfect to exist never last long and end horribly. And we can hear that in this duet – it is the first part that unleashes a powerful emotional discharge. When they get to actually speak to each other, we’re back to Carl Maria von Weber. Beautiful as it is, the second part feels conventional, flourished with ornaments and slightly athletic – it has more form than content. The audience soon realizes that the chemistry between Senta and the Holländer only exists in their minds. Or better: there is a strong connection between Senta and her imaginary Holländer and between the Holländer and his imaginary Senta. Maybe that is why the first part is the most important one – it is that moment, which by definition is brief, when one has the impression that objective reality finally looks exactly like one’s fantasy.
The very structure of the first part (from now on let’s call it just “the duet”) is like reading an electrocardiogram of Senta’s and the Holländer’s hearts at that moment. Wagner begins with the Holländer – we know that he has been banished from the world of the living and is practically a zombie himself. His only hope is to find a “faithful” woman ready to sacrifice herself in order to save him. In other words, if she really wants to save him, she has to die. No wonder he has never met anyone matching the job description to this point. But the Holländer has not reached that part yet. Here he is glamorizing his victim and, yes, we’re talking about a vampiric rapport. In the duet’s first bars, the Holländer is bloodless, a walking-dead. He doesn’t even has an orchestra to envelope his voice, and Wagner cleverly uses the less congenial part of the bass-baritone range to show that. It also feels really awkward – the harmony is ambiguous and most singers wouldn’t survive an intonation test there. But that’s ok – I really believe Wagner did it on purpose. We have to feel that the Holländer is struggling a bit there. But then he looks at Senta and realizes – she is the one. And we suddenly hear him coming back to live, the blood slowly starts to run through his veins. We hear that in the music – how the tessitura gets gradually higher and the orchestral sound swells and overflows.
Then we go to Senta. As we know, her starting point is a bit different. She is very much alive, she even has a boyfriend, whom she likes to torment just for the fun of it. Her problem is that she has no connection to her surroundings – she doesn’t care for the people around her or what they do and she feels a prisoner of her circumstances. That is why she chooses to live in her fantasy – and the Holländer represents everything she wishes for. He doesn’t belong anywhere and he NEEDS someone. Everything he needs in the world is one person. I don’t know if Senta has the clear notion that being this special person means sacrificing everything she has and is. In any case, that’s a fast track to being special. Somehow, for Senta, being special depends on something she doesn’t have, for, again, she hates everything around her. In her fantasy, it depends on him. That is why her first lines in the duet are so different in atmosphere: the music is serene and sweet. She doesn’t have to think a lot about it – it is just like her dream and it is happening now. She knows it, for she has lived this moment in her mind many and many times.
When these two finally sing together – and we cannot forget that – they are singing simultaneously but not to each other. And Wagner shows us that by the way he kept them “musically” apart. While the soprano continuously soars in her high register, the bass is kept in the lower end of his range. Also, their lines never really match – the listener hears that they are in very different “musical” places. Naturally, the duet grows in intensity and by the end they are both singing high, but even then their lines rarely match – we hear her and then him and then her etc. In the climax of this duet, in order to keep the distance, Wagner makes the soprano sing high lines almost in bel canto style, while the baritone is in a more “German opera” recitative-like world. They only really sing “together” in the very end of this passage. There is, of course, an acoustic problem in this duet – it flatters the soprano voice in a way that makes it difficult for the audience to hear the bass-baritone at all. And I again see the point in Wagner’s invention here – it is Senta who is really going stratospheric in her imagination here. The Holländer has one line of self-delusion and then he remembers what he is doing there: Die düstre Glut, die hier ich fühle brennen, sollt ich Unseliger sie Liebe nennen? Ach nein! Die Sehnsucht ist es nach dem Heil: – würd es durch solchen Engel mir zuteil! (The somberly glow that I feel burning inside, shall a miserable man like I am call it love? Oh, not, this yearning is for salvation! Let it be given to me through an angel like her!). As you see, the Holländer sees in Senta only a means to achieve an end. An end that does not involve her at all…
If the duet is so well written, why is then that no recording does it justice? Well, Der fliegende Holländer is not yet mature Wagner. As a young composer, Wagner had not yet mastered the art of writing for voices and made unreasonable demands on his singers (check Die Feen or Das Liebesverbot). The parts of Senta and the Holländer are not unsingable as Isabella or Arindal, but they can be really tough to sing, especially here, when the writing demands so much in terms of tone colouring in lines that make, however, soprano and bass-baritone just concentrate on surviving. Singers are not the only casualties here. The opera is not over yet – the second part of the duet is arguably even more difficult to start with. So what conductors – rightfully – do? They help their singers: by keeping the orchestra under leash (what undermines the dynamic progression) and by giving them lots of time to breathe (what obstruct building intensity). As a result, listening to this duet live in the theatre feels rather like watching a very difficult surgery rather than a cathartic experience. In terms of recording, there is also bad luck. For some reason, we rarely see the right soprano for Senta paired with the right bass baritone for the Holländer. When they do, the conductor seems to be not in the mood. For instance, what comes closer to an ideal match is George London and Leonie Rysanek. London was one of the rare singers who sound as if the part of the Holländer is fully singable. In the opening bars, when every other singer seems to croon, he keeps a firm, rich, dark sound that he is even able to retain up to his high notes. He makes the role of the Holländer testosterone-high in his vocal exuberance. I don’t even know if this helps us to understand the dramatic development of the role – but it is irresistible. And that is what the Holländer is to Senta, and it works somehow. It is surprising to find a singer with such irregular technique as Rysanek praised as a model, but we have to remember high tessitura is what her voice craved for. And she gets it here. She sings with lyric fluffiness throughout. While everybody else sounds fixed or strained or wiry or desperate, Rysanek soars. She even ventures into some chilling mezza voce effects and keeps something very close to a bel canto legato line. She still has moments of dubious intonation, but she makes them expressive devices too. Does that mean that we’re listening to London and Rysanek then? No. Antal Dorati’s studio was my first recording of Der Fliegende Holländer, but I never really warmed to his conducting there. It is poised in a Mozartian way that, at least to my ears, does not provide what this utterly Romantic music requires – and it ultimately does not fit London’s and Rysanek’s personalities. But, hey, they sang it in Bayreuth! And, yes, I prefer the Bayreuth recording, but Sawallisch and his singers do not seem to be in the same wavelength there either, as if they were trying each to impose their tempo on each other. In the end, it sounds rushed. And this duet needs some repose – it is an ecstatic moment, yes, but it begins very intimately and its climax is also subdued, high notes nonetheless.
That is why I’ve chosen Klemperer’s live recording with Anja Silja and Theo Adam. I’ve never liked the recorded sound of the studio recording with the same forces and almost the same cast (James King appears in the live, while Ernst Kozub was recorded in studio). In terms of conducting, Klemperer offers a similar approach in both recordings, but the duet in the live performance benefits not only from the spacious broadcast sound, but also both Silja and Adam seemed plugged in. Actually, neither Silja nor Adam would be my dream casting for these roles and they are arguably ill-matched. We have an ex-choir boy (from the Dresden Kreuzchor) with a half-notorious Kunstdiva together, both coming from very different musical and theatrical backgrounds. But isn’t that the case with the Holländer and Senta? They have nothing in common (except for the fact that they really want to put an end to the way they have been living so far). And here one feels in the way their voices develop in the auditorium that they really don’t match. And I kind of like that.
Adam has a very peculiar voice. I had a good friend who horribly exaggeratedly called him “tenore profondo”, because his voice was – in his opinion – too clear for a bass and yet he had big low notes “that came from nowhere”. I disagree that Adam’s voice was too clear, but, yes, for someone who sang Sarastro he had a surprisingly operational high register. No wonder Wotan was his battle-horse. Anyway, Adam’s ease with low notes makes him one of the non-crooning Holländers in the beginning of this duet. The voice has it full color there, even if he is singing piano. Also, he really sings his lines there. Adam was never famous for seamless legato, but he does produce clean lines there and sustain the gradual increase in volume and in tessitura famously. Unlike George London, he does not sound very sexy in this music, one must acknowledge. Adam used to sing well some bad-guy roles, such as Pizarro and Kaspar, but he does not sound vampiric here either. He sounds serious. This Holländer clearly think only of his salvation.
Silja’s is probably the most peculiar voice in the history of opera. The fact that she sang the role of the Queen of the Night for Karl Böhm (with Leontyne Price as Pamina) in Vienna and later the roles of Brünnhilde and Elektra is just part of the story. She sang all her roles in a very unique way. Her soprano was unusually young-sounding in its metallic edge and its absence of fullness. And yet it lacked any lyric creaminess in it – and the fact that it usually sounded slightly sharp did not help it either. On the other hand, her singing of dramatic roles had an almost ghostly effect – her voice pierced through the orchestra without much ado, particularly her high notes, but in a bodiless way that made it almost eerie. It was a forceful yet weightless sound. I have seen her live twice – as Ortrud and as Herodias. And in the flesh it was just like in recordings. Especially as Ortrud, it sounded lighter than Melanie Diener’s as Elsa, but it was far more penetrating. What was beyond doubt is her magnetic presence. In any case, she kept the role of Senta for a long while in her repertoire and sang it practically everywhere. In a very strange way, it worked for her. It felt like Stephen King’s Carrie as Senta, and that is a valid approach too. Here she starts in a trancelike state, the voice almost reduced to whisper, but carrying in the auditorium. When it blooms, one hears it in all its acidity, her high notes effortlessly pressing one’s eardrums. While she keeps it as gently as she can, the very brightness of the sound prevents her from sounding wane. It gives the impression of girly nervousness, which is what basically is going on in the libretto anyway. And Klemperer frames these voices in warm orchestral sound. He does not press his singers but doesn’t kept energy sag either. The duet very gradually comes to life, Silja’s overbright soprano wrapped in rich string sounds. It is an example of how dynamic is not a matter of loudness, but of intensity. The orchestra never overshadows these singers or deafens the audience – the sound gains body and color in almost mathematical progression. It is a performance that achieves the paradoxical qualities of giving time for singers to relish the effect of Wagner’s melodic writing while slowly and firmly producing the effect of crescendo. Even the climax happens naturally. This is not the theatrical climax of the opera – it is just its Schwerpunkt. It is the moment when time stops and dreams seem to have come true. And Maestro Klemperer captured that. Is it perfect? No, if anyone knows perfection here, please let me know. And yet it works.
I HEAR VOICES 
I LOVE Klemperer in this opera, but Silja and Adam are IMO a tall order for anyone who likes singing. At least on the studio recording retakes were on hand. Live I guess the atmosphere is upped a few notches, but my god how she sounds. Even as an actress Silja’s “magic” was largely a mystery until she switched into character roles. The Carrie thing you mentioned was how she did ALL her roles as a young woman and for me once past the initial strangeness, it ceased to count as acting and interpreting. For Senta it worked better than in other role I guess (her Elisabeth and Elsa have been praised but are horrible sounding and she was freezing onstage) but that Wagner career was nepotism incarnate. Later on I found her powerful in certain things, but the Weiland Wagner years were just that. I remember her Senta and Salome among others as basically static and icy looking and a lot the singing was almost literal screaming.
The London/Rysanek commercial recording is dull as dirt largely due to the conducting, but the 1959 Bayreuth recording, though messy, is as electric as anything and both voices are captured as well as they ever would be. Of course I don’t think she had any clue how a young village girl behaved, but she practically defined obsessive. And he was overwhelming.
Yes, although Silja is never an easy sell, the Elisabeth and the Elsa are particularly tough. Because of favourable reviews, I did make an effort to like her in these roles, but I couldn’t. I find her singing in these roles entirely without appeal and I find no particular insight in terms of interpretation. On the other hand, I find some interest in that Walküre recorded in Japan and the Elektra. It is still bizarre, but there’s something there. And I definitely agree that Rysanek and London are in top form in Bayreuth, where Sawallisch – even if not fully in control – is superior to Dorati.
I never saw/heard the Elektra. I’m curious. She was another one I thought got a lot of “oh she can’t sing but what an actress!” comments. But I thought Nilsson among other actually acted Salome better believe it or not and Rothenberger got Lulu to a much greater degree than Silja. And Rysanek at least gave all of herself to whatever she did, she was just crazy and misguided some of the time and her technique was what it was. There’s just only so far I can go with a singer who can’t even meet the basic demands and Silja qualifies for me in almost everything. I generally wonder if she was taught by anyone, I can think of almost no other singer so lacking in basic technique.
I do find the Brunnhilde fairly intriguing and a bit more together and singing. But Varnay, who was WAY past it when I saw her in that production, and Nilsson, the latter still undervalued as an actress, did so much more character wise.
Peter, we TOTALLY agree here. I have never seen NIlsson live, but whenever I see her on video I find her acting convincing in almost modern way. She doesn’t do empty gestures, she just foes for what works for her and that makes her convincing to my eyes. For instance, the Elektra from the Met – her facial expression is always alert, she really interacts there. But I’ve heard a lot that “she was not an actress”. In the Rysanek definition of acting, certainly not 😉
As for Varnay, I think she had the soul of an actress. It’s a pity that many judge her from the Böhm Elektra movie, in which she goes over the top. But few know that she herself disliked the direction in that video and embraced an approach she didn’t agree with in the first place.
Btw this is my one of my favorite moments in all of Wagner. There’s a certain “something” missing for the live Reiner Flagstad/Janssen recording (she’s hardly a Senta by nature, he’s light voiced, and the orchestra is chaotic) but it is mighty and they get swept up in the tumult of it all and we haven’t had that kind of line and ease of emission since before WWII.
I think the 1950 Met broadcast with Hotter and Varnay features some of their very best singing and pure singing and while she’s hardly the epitome of a country maiden and the lack of softness takes some adjusting, in terms of accuracy and security all of her recordings of the role must rank high and her artistry and sense of phrasing go a very long way in terms of putting the character over. Also in 1950 Rainer has a better orchestra and in peak shape. It’s a pretty tremendous met broadcast, the whole adds up to more than the sum of it’s parts.
Much as it shocks me, I also think Studer and Weikl do a commendable job during this stretch on the Sinopoli recording. Don’t know that it’s the most electric recording of the duet and he is certainly light voiced for the role and elsewhere not great. But you can tell the two of them worked hard for that stretch of the opera.
This scene is special. It is just a pity that it rarely works live (and, as we’ve just seen, very seldom in studio). As for the recordings you’ve just mentioned:
1 – Flagstad/Janssen – Even if Flagstad is too “self-possessed” for Senta, the sound is marvelous. And she keeps it very lyric and natural. Janssen is not comfortable there – and the orchestra is subpar.
2 – Varnay/Hotter – I had never listened to that one before. I like Hotter’s voice in the days when he recorded it with Viorica Ursuleac. In 1950, I already hear the “rye fever” thing in his voice and find it unappealing. On the other hand, you’re right – this is the best I’ve heard from Varnay in this duet. I generally like her, but I find her too steely and grand-dame-ish for Senta. But there she works hard for some lightness and does beautiful things. The orchestra is superior to the one from London, but even then Rainer misses the steady building in intensity as Klemperer does.
I’m not shocked about your opinion on the Sinopoli recording. I find Senta just the right role for Studer – always at best in jugendlich dramatisch roles. Although she was not anyone’s dream Verdian soprano, she did sing her share of Italian opera and one hears that in the way she deals with the difficulties in the duet. If you’ve sung the Miserere in Il Trovatore you probably have the technique for this duet. As for Weikl, yes, not the voice for the role, but he was really shrewd and the tone quality was always pleasant. I really like his Italian recordings – the Pagliacci and particularly the Elisir d’amore in Eurodisc.
I don’t understand why Sawallisch’s video from Munich was never released on DVD. I’ve seen ages ago only once – and remember that I liked Varady there. I have a faint memory that Robert Hale got a bit tired at some point, but still I remember that I found his singing convincing. I did buy the VHS out of sheer frustration, but I don’t have a VCR… It’s just there on the shelf as some sort of trophy. To tell the truth, my greatest frustration about this opera is that the young Jessye Norman did not record the role of Senta. The video with her ballad (at the Avery Fisher Hall?) is priceless.
I think Hotter is amazing opposite Ursulec, it’s one of his best performances and Clemons Krauss is also magnificent. Ursulec is better there than other performances but frankly that’s a sound only a mother could love. Hotter is one of my beloved singers with Modl where one has to be something of a masochist to really conjure with them because some of the noises they emit would send Alien invaders running away in fright. But I can’t help it hahah, I just love him. And he was THE most incredible actor to watch. Varnay on the other hand I think was something of wizard. Her timbre limited her in certain ways but her artistry is such that while I don’t think I would take her Senta to a desert Island, in the moment I think she conjures up something pretty potent.
I think Janssen does enough of the role well and it’s a beautiful enough voice that I tend not to mind even though it’s clearly not a Hollander sound. The most beautiful Dutchman I ever heard was Crass, who sounds like a million bucks on the Scala pirate opposite Rysanek. He’s not very personable but in terms of sound and ease of emission only Schorr is better.
There is sadly no real great stereo Hollander. Van Dam was terrific in person and had a much better Senta than the lady he’s stuck with for the Von Karajan studio. But that recording is quite bad. So the Sinopoli is underrated in relation to the later recordings even if it has serious weaknesses. But he was a conductor who I thought could always pull off odd ideas. As for Studer she might have had an ideal sound, but I think it’s pretty debatable that Senta is a jugendlich role. It’s almost an impossible role, similar to Salome IMO (though obviously different) because it has a very specific set of requirements and one is never going to find someone who has them all. Studer’s timbre brings to mind the character but she was small for that role and never came close to singing it that well in person. I just think it’s impressive how well she manages the duet, I actually don’t think she sings the rest of the role as well and is elsewhere quite vacant. But her and Weikl (who I personally loved at his best) really rise to that duet. It’s the highlight of the recording.
I liked Varady a lot in Munich, but I’ve never seen the video. She had a certain “set” vocal production with a “flip” to get to the highest notes. So I don’t think the duet was actually the best part of her Senta (but as we’ve pointed out, it almost never is) and I guess one could fault her for seeing almost too sane and subdued. But I always go back and forth with her depending on my moon. Sometimes when looking back I love her and her flaws don’t exist and other times her quirks irritate. And in terms of musicality and accuracy she is almost definitely a cut above the rest.
As for Norman…well idk. Mixed feelings, as much as I would have loved to have heard her sound the role I think it’s fair to say some passages of that duet would have been a bit beyond her and I don’t know that I would have loved to have heard her ending lines. But I think I’m just a grouch, again she’s a singer whom I loved but kind of gave up on at some point and I think she had some pretty obvious issues that are cheerfully ignored when she’s being used to bash other singers.
1 – Hahaha I see your point both about Hotter and Mödl. At their best, they were really out of this world. She – as she herself acknowledged – was variable, while he, I don’t know, in his prime, could offset the wooliness in a way it just added some velvet to the tone. Later, it basically was his sound. It’s not uncommon. When singers are young, high in stamina and all muscles are fit, small glitches just lurk in the background. As for Ursuleac, yes, it is not bad, but the sound is not what one expects for Senta.
2 – Crass was probably the Holländer with the most dulcet voice. It was almost a bit too beautiful for the role – and his personality was rather tame for it. I have his La Scala under Sawallisch with Ingrid Bjoner, who has the voice for the role, but not the personality.
3 – I like what you say about Sinopoli. He tended to the cubistic – in terms that the way he cared for detail usually distorted the ensemble, but he could show a great deal in a score nobody had noticed before. You’re right about Studer too – the role is a bit heavy for her and, as much with Rysanek, the duet flatters her high register. In any case, even overparted, she was able to produce this impression of vulnerability and youth and that’s interesting for Senta.
3 – Varady is a singer whom I adore in the small picture and whom I am suspicious of in the big picture. She does many admirable things at moments, only to do some bizarre things in the next second – especially in what regards her almost absolute indifference to pronunciation and a tendency to emphasise things in a way that disturbed rhythm and legato. But again – she was capable of handling very difficult things admirably (again only to mess up with things everybody else get right). But I remember liking the way she didn’t blast a dramatic acuto and span instead round notes in the more exposed passages. I don’t remember how she handled the duet in the video. I just have an overall positive memory.
4 – Norman. I don’t think she could have sung the role after a while. I’m thinking of her earlier Elisabeths. The duet would be high for her, you’re right there. But she had a very particular way of making things make sense for her. I agree with you that there were issues there that I wouldn’t call technical, but rather risks and decisions she took in building her voice that did paid off for a while. Later the price she had to pay for them was obvious. Don’t worry – I don’t use her to bash other singers 🙂 I just find that, when she was in a good day and in a good part, she made unique things. She had unusual intelligence and musicianship – and, even a bit overfabricated, it was truly a special voice.
Yeah there was an odd paradox with Varady. She had a very “set” way of producing her sound and aristocratic attitude but always seemed to be aping a kind of go for broke mode that could be counterproductive and made her very odd approach the words and her somewhat bizarre moments of Cabelle-esque sloppiness stand out even more so than they would in other singers like Rysanek who was always nuts. I think you described it perfectly by saying you adore her in the small picture and are suspicious of the bigger picture. I find her timbre haunting and because she was so versatile and had the ability to be good in so many different things, it’s initially easy to not realize how much oddness is going on with her singing. I kind of loved her in a way but she was definitely a cult singer at the end of the day, personally I’d put her a few slots away from being truly great, though her batting average was among the highest. The jury is out, again my mood depends on my mood. Sometimes even the same performance gets a different reaction from me.
Oh and FYI at her best I adored Norman and thought she was absolutely tremendous. I just thought that it was kind of contrived sound in a lot of ways and I think she could have stood to develop certain things a bit more. It’s not that I don’t think she didn’t have high notes and up to a point she had a way of handling them that really didn’t call attention to how she manipulated them. But they were always somewhat smaller than the rest of her voice and singing softly up there was not something she could consistently do. But I loved her Elisabeth, her initial Sieglindes and I always wished she had been Janowski’s studio Brunnhilde.
Re: Silja-Adam Der fliegende Holländer duet: that would probably be my favorite choice (if you are referring to the 1968 Royal Albert Hall London live recording).
_ Never cared much for Rysanek, although in her early career (from live recordings I have heard) she had quite a beautiful voice. She sang a great deal in California in the 1950’s but she never sang during my time there (1962- 1968); I heard her only in New York from 1969 on and found her harsh, raspy, hollow tone irritating despite her iconic perfect pitch high notes (above her break). Never heard George London, who also never sang in California during my time there. Many years ago I listened to that Antal Dorati recording you refer to above. Do remember liking Geroge London but also remember disliking Leonie Rysanek. Found the recording, like Rysanek’s commercial recording of Verdi’s Otello, rather static yet over-dramatized.
_ Back to Silja and Adam. Maybe fate deems that we have luck with some performers yet are not so fortunate with others. I have wonderful memories of both Silja and Adam. Adam seemed almost perfect to me. First saw him as Onegin at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden; later as Wotan and Hans Sachs in New York. He never forced his beautiful clear voice. Found his vocal interpretations remarkable — he never forced nor marred the vocal line, yet he was more dramatically compelling than most. His voice reflected his personality — a great deal of sincerity, particularly in his Act 2 “Wie duftet doch der Flieder” monologue followed by the “Gut’n Abend, Meister!” duet with Lorengar (New York 1969).
_ First heard Silja as Salome in 1968 (SFO). The overpowering brightness of her voice (with no apparent undertones) is what I remember most along with her laid-back rather undramatic interpretation. Later, I bought her 1965 live performance CD of Salome from Wiener Staatsoper with Zdeněk Košler conducting and practically wore it out listening. It was in that recording wherein I came to the realization that the first half of the opera has most of the jewels, particularly the long duet Salome-Jochanaan which remains one of my favorites to this day. The famous soprano monologue in the final scene seems almost anti-climactic. Like many singers, Silja crafted her skills as her career went on and later on emerged much better for it. My favorite live performance memories of her are as Marie in Wozzeck and Ortrud in Lohengrin. The last time I saw her (in Schönberg’s Erwartung) she was as compelling & mysterious as the 1st time I saw her. But as you note above, she was disappointing as Elisabeth & Elsa early in her career in those Bayreuth recordings. Her bright tone was dimmed from constant effort to sustain the lyric lines of those roles. At heart she was a dramatic soprano and the rhythmic declamatory lunges in the Holländer-Senta duet suited her so very well.
1 – Yes, Jerold, I believe we’re speaking of the Royal Albert Hall. I’m glad I got that one right 🙂
2 – Rysanek is not my cup of tea either, but she has her moments. As Peter wrote in her comment, I guess that the whole Rysanek experience involved seeing her live freaking the hell out and tossing big high notes one after the other. For home listening, it can be a bit testing. But she had her moments. I find that the Senta/Holländer duet is one of them. I just can’t adjust to Rysanek in Italian opera, although she had some early recordings in German, such as excerpts from Aida, which are beautiful.
2 – Adam. I’ve never seen his life and in the end of his career the voice was pretty unstable, but I find him really above the competition as Kaspar and Pizarro, and he had the voice and the attitude for Wotan, I guess nobody doubts that. He did have a voice for the Holländer too, albeit too… I’ll use your word… “sincere” for it. It’s a role that requires a little bit more seduction. And the voice was too clear for that and his manners, a bit too stiff.
3 – Silja is so idiosyncratic that I guess there will never be consensus about her. And also she was inconsistent – she had some good days and some appalling ones. Both times I saw her she was in good voice. The Elisabeth and the Elsa were just bad ideas – the roles have nothing to do with her voice and manners.