Mozart knew everything about voices. He grew up writing for voices and married into a family of singers. Composers like Mozart learned the craft of writing vocal music by listening to the demands of the singers who would perform his music for the first time and adjusting his creations to fit their voices. That is why singers with extraordinary abilities would invariably turn on all creative powers in composers like Mozart – his sister-in-law Aloisia Weber, for instance, had a truly exceptional voice and it is irrelevant that no one knows how it really sounded. You just have to hear the music he wrote for her to realize that – the roles of the Queen of the Night and Mme Herz (in Der Schauspieldirektor) and concert arias like Popoli di Tessaglia… Io non chiedo , k, 316, (yes, the one with the high g in alt), Vorrei spiegarvi, o Dio, k. 418, and Ah, se in ciel, benigne stelle, k. 538.
Ah, se in ciel is a true concert aria, in the sense that it was not written to replace any number or be inserted in an operatic performance. Mozart simply borrowed the text of an aria from Metastasio’s libretto L’Eroe Cinese so that Ms. Weber (later Mrs. Lange) could sing it in concert. In Metastasio’s plot, the aria is sung by Siveno, the presumed son of Leango, the regent of the Chinese Empire, in love with Lusinga, a Tartarian princess who has been made a prisoner by the Chinese. The aria appears right in the beginning of the opera. Lusinga receives news from her father, informing that the end of the war against the Chinese is near because both countries have made an agreement that involves her engagement to the heir to the throne of China. Both Siveno and Lusinga are puzzled because nobody knew about the existence of an heir of the deceased Emperor Livanio, whose family was supposedly massacred in a popular rebellion. Lusinga entreats Siveno to discover what is behind this mystery or else they might be separated forever. That is the moment Siveno faces the audience to sing “If there still are benevolent stars in heaven, then I can still hope for mercy. Either let me die or give me my beloved Lusinga”.*
I won’t be creative when I refer to Salieri for a comparison to prove how a coloratura aria can be boring – after 30 seconds, one has the impression to be overhearing a voice lesson rather than listening to music. If I had to explain why Mozart had the edge in his contemporaries in writing showpiece arias is, I would first say: he would invariably get the listener hooked by a catchy tune right in the beginning, often with a subtle harmonic twist in it. Second, he never forgot that the coloratura is a means to intensify rather than dispel expression. Third, he knew – probably by studying Handel and Bach – that one has to always keep an extra card on one’s sleeves. Singers are trained with vocalizes that make them develop an instinctive grasp of how to perform things like scales, arpeggi or certain figures that display a certain regularity. When the passagework requires irregular intervals, for instance, the singer might take longer to master the whole phrase and even then the listener will feel its awkwardness. Voices are more capricious than instruments because they require far more adaptations along its extension to give the impression of homogeneity. As a result, singers often find easier to perform an upward scale than a downward scale, will be able to produce a perfect trill or true mezza voce in certain notes but not in other ones. That is why a truly exceptional singer can be a source of inspiration. If he or she is able to deal with long intervals, phrases built out of irregular figures, unexpected harmonic twists inside a melisma, not to mention the ease with all kinds of ornaments, then the composer will be able to surprise his listener with new variations for each instance of coloratura. And Aloisia Weber was the woman for the job – not only was she gifted with a remarkable voice and outstanding technique, but also she was a complete musician, whose abilities were more than once compared to those of a “kapellmeister”.
In Ah, se in ciel, Mozart establishes a clear contrast between defiance and despair. In the A section (which is the longest part of the aria), Mozart marks this dichotomy in two words of the text: lasciate (to let) and togliete (to suppress), which are opposed in meaning. All fioriture are written in the word lasciate, which has the convenience of having the vowel “ah”. The word togliete on the other hand is used for very long and high notes, generally in moments when the harmony is tenser. Siveno laughs at the fact of adversity with his trill on the “ah” in lasciate and sobs with the possibility of loosing his Lusinga with the descending broken phrases on the “ay” in togliete. Ideally, the soprano should try to highlight this difference; this opposition lies on the foundation of any interpretation of this aria. We are here at the starting point of any classic tragedy – the moment a character decides to refuse his fate and tries to make things happen his or her way. Only Siveno is in love and is loved in return. He already has what he wants – he is afraid of losing it. And that makes him vulnerable – before he wages a hopeless war against the gods, he will try to negotiate. He occasionally roars, but here more often meows.
There are many singers who face the formidable technical challenges of Ah, se in ciel – most notably Natalie Dessay, who is a lesson in smoothness, homogeneity and style – but, to my ears, only Edita Gruberová clearly understands the dramatic situation and expresses the contrast essential to the expression of the text in this aria. She has two official recordings – the first one from the early 80’s in studio with the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra and Leopold Hager and the second one caught roughly ten years later live in concert with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. We are listening to the Harnoncourt recording, although I had to listen both tracks many times before I made that decision. In Hager’s recording, Gruberová’s soprano is fresher and at as its brightest, which can mean “metallic” for some ears. Compared to her full-toned radiance there, even Dessay sounds soubrettish in comparison, and the sheer energy of her singing there fits the concept. We’re speaking of Siveno, the prince in love with Princess Lusinga just after she said he’ll lose her if he doesn’t do something bold. Whatever a singer does here, it has to be grand. Singing runs can be difficult in terms of rhythm and a safer way to do this is to focus on the note on the beat to keep it a tempo. After a while listening to every soprano who recorded this song, the method starts to sound a bit obvious: Ah-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-Ah-uh-uh-uh… You can still hear it with Gruberová herself in her first recording, but not in the second. It is admirable the way she glides there through the coloratura almost in the same way a violinist does and with a consistent vowel sound. In the end, she gives you the impression that she is really singing the same “ah” connected to the consonant “sci” (sh) in the word “lasciate”. So that is why I finally chose the Harnoncourt, even if the orchestra sounds a bit recessed there.
Gruberová proves to have the right instincts about this aria, for she highlights the difference between the lasciate and the togliete attitude right in the first appearance of each word. Mozart helps her a bit by the way he writes the first togliete in a hiccup rhythm. Some would be tempted to say that this represents a sword stroke or something like that – but coloratura rarely is a biunique correspondence (as in Handel’s Ev’ry valley in The Messiah), the idea usually being of causing an impression, creating an atmosphere. And what Mozart wants you to understand is that Siveno is ready to die for Lusinga, but that is not what he desires: he wants the gods to stop this nonsense and return her right away to his arms. That is why the coloratura goes for lasciate, that is where his heart really is. The togliete part he speaks almost sotto voce, the words come out of his mouth with unease. But his voice flies when he tries to convince the gods that he and her together is the best thing for everybody. And we can hear that in Gruberová’s voice when she says o lasciate il mio ben for the first time. The tone softens, she sounds vulnerable there. You can’t beat the gods, but you can move them. No other soprano in the discography colors the voice so expertly as Gruberová does in this song. Mozart uses a very similar resource in Martern aller Arten (an aria in Aloisia Weber’s repertoire, although it was written for her rival Caterina Cavalieri) – first Konstanze threatens and then she mellows and implores. But as she knows she has the Pasha’s heart, she menaces more than she begs. That is not Siveno’s case.
Some will prefer the Hager recording for the conductor’s less flexible beat – Harnoncourt gives Gruberová some leeway, as in 1’34’’, with the upward scales with the staccato notes on top of them. 2’53’’ is a crucial moment in the A section – here Mozart lets Siveno depicts in a new harmonic ambience the gloominess of the scenario in which the poor man dies without his Lusinga. It is here that we can hear the sobs in his voice. Gruberová-haters will say she scoops in the first interval (the Hager recording is “cleaner” in that sense). Yes, she does, but it works for this passage, it brings the affetto to life. Around 3’21’’ there is a tiny upward portamento, which is the single thing I would change here. It does not fit the character, but sounds rather coquettish. It brings us back to the concert hall in which this aria is being performed rather than transports us to imaginary China of Metastasio’s libretto.
The short B section is rather a “resting place” for the soprano. The tessitura is lower, the vocal lines sometimes sound recitative-like and the expression lies rather with the harmonic effects on woodwind. We almost don’t notice the return to section A, the “bridge” carrying the text of the first stanza. And what is really admirable here is how Mozart will use an entirely new set of coloratura for the repeat, with extravagant effects, even more difficult for the singer. I particularly like the 4’45’’ exploration of all soprano’s registers, what could be testing for Gruberová since lower notes were never her forte. But she is a shrewd singer and uses that for expressive purposes. And here she does it entirely on one breath (in the Hager, as almost everybody else does, she takes a short breath before the leap to the high note). We don’t see the same amount of variation in the togliete part. Now it is higher – and a bit riskier to sing – but that’s not what Siveno wants to say anyway. Mozart is preparing a spectacular ending to the aria, with many trills and writing that sounds a tad more heroic, a bit Donna Anna-ish (another role sung by Aloisia Weber) right in the end. And here Gruberová’s superbright edge sustains the challenge. That was a voice who had to be heard live – the effect of its amazing radiance (once described by Gerald Finley as similar to watching a scorching light through a keyhole) in moments like that was something hard to forget.
Edita Gruberová is a singer who seems to be the pet peeve of some important reviewers, such as Alan Blyth. She did have some mannerisms – as every singer has – but for some reason critics decided she had to be perfect. Maybe because she came so close… For younger generations, there is an extra problem: she overstayed her prime for too many years and, under the adoration of her fans, tackled roles unsuited to her voice in a phase of her career when she would have benefited from parts that could have still highlighted her best qualities without exposing the effect of ageing. But way before that she was a Mozart soprano of unusual technical finesse and the reference performer for the role of Zerbinetta in Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos. I often read nay-sayers saying she was overrated in the role. No, she wasn’t. I’ve seen her in a couple of operas just after her absolute prime – Elisabetta in Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux, the title roles in Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia and Anna Bolena and in Bellini’s Norma and La Straniera plus a concert in which she sang things ranging from the Mad Scene in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor to Adèle’s couplets in J. Strauss’s Die Fledermaus. And, yes, her last Zerbinetta in Vienna. I’ll be honest – the Donizettis and the Norma had its moments, but they did not rock my world. La Straniera was beautiful, a lovely performance, and the Zerbinetta – even with some small accidents – was an example of musicianship, intelligence and technical mastery.
As there is not too much of a good thing, I’ll embed here both recordings, for those who feel like comparing them. I urge you to listen to Natalie Dessay’s ultrapolished, double-velvet, absolute homogeneous singing in her studio recital with Mozart’s most devilishly difficult arias.
*Of course, Siveno discovers in the end that the heir to the Chinese throne is no-one other than himself, adopted by his natural father’s ally as a last resource to escape the massacre over his entire family.
I HEAR VOICES 
I have my reservations about Gruberova generally speaking but I’ve always thought she was a sensational Mozart singer (although I’m oddly enough not crazy about the Konstanze). One of the best things I ever saw her do was her Gunia in two different run about a decade apart. Now that’s a role that has several amazing interpreters documented, but she was staggering in person and did some glorious singing. She’s not my *favorite* Zerbinetta, personally I do think there’s a little more going on in the role that she doesn’t really dig into, but no one has sung the role even remotely as well as she has over so long a period of time and her charisma met an ideal match. As far as the Italian roles go, it’s a case by case basis sort of thing for largely dependent on how her timbre matches the nature of the role. I loved her Amina and Elvira when she was younger and I thought some roles like Gilda and Violetta she could make work for her on a good day in the right circumstances. The Lucia was a tad mechanical and slithery for my taste but still quite a feat. Norma, Roberto and the like not so much. So while the controversies surrounding her make sense, I do think she’s earned her place among the greats, at least in some things.
You must have read my mind because not only is the Harnoncourt Mozart concert one of my very favorite recordings of hers but that particular track is my favorite one and the best version of the aria I know of. AND I LOVE Dessay’s Mozart recording, it’s maybe her best solo recording and the Vorrei is my favorite rendition. God she could also be masterful during her own rather brief prime.
Hi, Peter!
1 – Early Mozart – Yes, for some reason, I have never been fully convinced of Gruberová’s Konstanze either – she has the flexibility and handles high notes as if they were nothing, but the role require a low register a little bit more solid. In the Solti studio recording, I think she tries to produce something a little bit more lyric, but still… I have never seen her sing Mozart live and know the Giunia from the Harnoncourt live recording. This was the kind of role that fitted her voice like a glove. I have the impression that there is no Aspasia from her – maybe Pallid’ombre would be a stretch, but I would be curious anyway.
2 – Zerbinetta – You’re not the first person who says that there was something “missing” in her Zerbinetta, and I guess I know what you’re talking about. I don’t see it as “missing”, but rather that she sees the role in a different way. At first, I thought that it was missing too – but now I kind of prefer the way she does it. Anyway, nobody did the trills, especially the notorious one when everybody just have to breathe before even getting to do it at all (the high d)
3 – Yes, as for the Italian roles, I guess this is where the whole controversy lies. I would say that the Italian roles she used to do since the beginning tend to be the ones that she could do better – Amina and Gilda in particular. She brought interesting things to VIoletta, but to my ears the sound was a bit “funny” for the role. On paper, Lucia was a good role for her and she sang it well, but, again, I don’t know, it felt as if Adèle strayed from Vienna and ended up in Scotland.
Then we have the full bel canto roles, which she tackled a bit later. Roberto Devereux was the first opera I have ever saw her sing – and maybe it was one of the best, because Elisabetta is supposed to be a little bit weird and Gruberová made her downright insane and used vocal inadequacies to portray that. The final scene in particular was overdone, but she really enjoyed herself there and I couldn’t resist – it was a bit like when Leyla Gencer decided she wanted to sing like a pig and made very strange sounds. Lucrezia was wrong full stop – it requires an entirely different voice, Gruberová had to adapt the vocal lines in a way that Donizetti could have said “nice, who composed that?”. Norma… The Nightingale recording works for me in a very peculiar way – I particularly like the big scene with Garanca’s Adalgisa, when G. sings with real feeling and produces exquisite sounds. Live, yes, she could make it, but it felt as if she were wearing someone else’s clothes. The day I saw her sing Anna Bolena she was simply not in good voice, and I felt maybe it was high time for her to call it a career. But then I saw the Straniera, and she was in great shape and gave the role exactly what it required. It was the best bel canto role I saw her sing. Anyway, as much as we’ve discussed with Araiza and M. Price, I get that, after a while, you just want to explore new things. Gruberová had done all the roles for her voice – she went for stuff like Bastienne to start with – but still there was a side of her which IMO made her a special singer: she was musicianly, had crystal clear diction, was very sensitive to the text, she could really provide an all-round “perfect” interpretation. She even sang Schubert… And that makes me feel that she could have seriously tried roles like the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro or Pamina or even Agathe rather than Lucrezia Borgia or Norma. But anyway – I find it absurd that a serious reviewer could dismiss her “because she sang roles not meant for her voice” when she was so accomplished in roles meant for her voice that very few people sing as well as she.
4 – Mozart concert arias – I am glad I got that one right hahaha I like that recording too, but curiously I never liked Gruberová’s Vorrei, spiegarvi. Dessay offers something far more charming and vulnerable and at the same time accurate in an almost instrumental way. If hers is not my favorite recording, that’s because I just love what Abbado does with it in the recording with Christine Schäfer. Schäfer was no Dessay, but her tone matches the woodwind there and it just presses all the right buttons with me.
Yeah the Gruberova Vorrei is the notably weaker performance there, not bad at all but weirdly a let down in comparison to all the others. She did sing Sifare in concert and recorded it with Auger as Aspasia. It’s a fine piece of singing and she’s involved but I think she would have been a better Aspasia. Auger can’t not be great to my ears but I actually prefer her Sifare in the live Salzburg recording, which criminally cuts that remarkable second act aria and thereby depriving what surely would have been a remarkable auger performance. So while I think both she and Gruberova are a deluxe team, part of me wishes they had switched roles. Aspasia I think does need a bit more umph than Auger naturally commands IMO. Gruberova’s Kontanze just always seemed weirdly less nuanced and more blaring than she was in other mozart roles. Very much super charged in a way that to me seems a tad to unrelenting and leads to some of the poignancy in the most magical sections of that role.
You are right about the Zerbinetta, I should have worded it better. Its not that there’s anything missing, there are just certain singers that have a different way of approaching the role that made the character’s relationship to ariadne a bit more complicated than simply having a different worldview. Gruberova was certainly stupendous. Both commercial recordings featuring Dessay unfortunately do not represent her at quite her best only because when she first sang it at the met she was staggering and interpretively so rich. She never quite matched that run the other times I saw her. Gruberova’s best Elisabeth I think is probably her initial Barcelona run. By the time I saw her do it later the broadness of the line very audibly taxes her. Of course she had control over everything, but it’s really not just the sound I prefer in those assoluta roles and once you noticed the seams they became increasingly harder to overlook.
I can’t bear to talk about Schafer. I am alone in believing that she was a potentially great singer. I have no idea what went wrong there exactly but the speedy and rapid decline in her voice was bewildering and sad. It seems like she was always divisive among people, but I really did love her for a time.
1 – I am not an unconditional fan of Augér’s, although she did some exquisite things. I like the Sifare live from Salzburg, in which her coloratura is really exciting. I find her Aspasia – with Gruberová’s Sifare – bland. And I agree it would have been fun if they had shifted roles there.
2 – Gruberová’s Konstanzes live in Munich for Böhm and the one in Eurodisc are exactly as you describe. I wouldn’t use those words for the Solti, though. There she is nuanced, but in a very mannered way and her singing is rather a collection of tiny effects than a coherent performance.
3 – I never saw Dessay’s Zerbinetta live – and I am sure that she should have been terrific in the role. I know her take on the role from the Sinopoli studio and the live from Salzburg (with Polaski), which is better by a nose. In both performances, I find she sounds pretty and musicianly. But, for instance, in the “pretty and musicianly” slot, I guess I prefer Reri Grist in Salzburg. The voice had this nasal thing, but it’s really solidly and reliably produced. And she is so charming and feminine there, I find her hard to resist.
4 – Schäfer. You’re not alone. My first encounter was the Abbado disc – and I thought the Mozarts charming, faintly Edith Mathis-like but brighter and more spirited. And I really liked what she does in R. Strauss’s Wiegenlied. I always wished she could produce mezza voce, but other than this, I really thought she had a very personal way with whatever she sang. And I liked her Ute Lemper-ish singing of Lieder. She made all sound modern and fresh. Also, she really made Berg and Schönberg sound like… I don’t know… La Traviata. And she made Traviata a little bit Lulu-ish (I really like the production with Kaufmann in which she is made to look a bit like Edith Piaf). I saw her for the first time singing Konstanze – and it was a bumpy ride, but the high notes were still there. Then it was sad to hear her voice quickly going south. Two years later she could barely make it as Cherubino. I’ve heard from singer friends who claimed to know her that the whole thing had to with childbirth. But I can’t tell if that is true or not. Last time I heard about her was when she cancelled a Daphne (R. Strauss) that nobody really thought she could sing anyway. Sad.
I am an unconditional Auger fan in that I love her gifts so much that her weaknesses are comparatively easier for me to overlook. She was an amazing recitalist, probably her ultimate strength. I also had a couple of occasions to chat with her for decently long periods of time and she not only struck me as being a genius but also a deeply kind and thoughtful person. Prior to her career getting started she’d actually had a pretty rough life and I know despite her reputation as a musician she felt frustrated that her opportunities in opera were more limited. But I do think the tendency to sing very lightly in head voice in the highest notes, which probably is what allowed her to sing slightly above her pay grade, nevertheless works against her in roles like Aspasia and to a lesser extent Konstanze. I did see her sing the latter live in person though and I think the recording isn’t exactly representative of what she was like in person. Among the *light* singers in that role she was probably among the best. But on record while there’s much to admire it’s not a favorite of mine. I also love her other Hager Mozart performances (her Gunia is very different from Gruberova’s but just as wonderful IMO). The Aspasia is the one that is the closest to weak. On the live Mitridate I seem to be alone in thinking Pilar Lorengar actually is the MVP there.
All that being said my ultimate love for Auger is her Alcina, which was the greatest handel performance I’ve ever seen and as recorded is one of the few performances of a role that I think is literally definitive. Almost every Alcina on record is good and I’ve almost exclusively seen good ones, but there’s isn’t a single moment where I don’t immediately think of Auger’s sound in the role. As a characterization it is so complete and she sings is so beautifully. I think she must have known that this was a real diva role for her because it’s so totally her peak.
I also saw Schafer as Konstanze, in Salzburg (the one that was video taped). I personally did enjoy her in the role even though her limits are very clear and even then it was hardly effortless. I happen to love the Christie as an overall performance but I know it’s not an uncontroversial performance. I liked Schaefer’s first Violettas a great deal as well, thought she was a solid Alcina herself, loved her leider, and I thought before her voice really went she was a totally unique Cherubino in a good way. Her Lulu is also my favorite. In addition to chilbirth, there were other personal things that I imagine were difficult. Her husband past away not long after she gave birth and it was very sudden and unexpected.
Loved Grist and I have a personal fondness for Gueden even if it’s sort of beyond her at points.
1 – I generally dislike when Augér sang as if she were just marking in head voice. Sometimes it sounds even acidulous. I like her Konstanze in spite of its absolute lack of prima donna quality – it is absolutely instrumental and free of any strain. And that’s something praiseworthy. But you’re the first person I’ve ever met who has seen her sing the role live.
2 – The Alcina, especially in the video from Geneva, is really amazing, rich in unforced feeling, effective in every aspect. She is subtly seductive in Di, cor mio and the complete tragédienne in Mi restano le lagrime. I have to say that I like her Zerbinetta in that concert from Munich – it is even surprisingly earthy.
3 – I saw Schäfer’s Konstanze after the Salzburg performances. I’ve also heard a broadcast from an Alcina with her. She sang well, but I wouldn’t place her among my favorite – I find she fared better in Bach than in Handel.
4 – Funny you mention Gueden’s Zerbinetta. I find it masterly in comedy time. She really builds a sexy, funny character.
The Di’ Cor Mio is sung like no one else, the only one who fully “gets” that aria.
Schafer was fun as Alcina, I liked her, certainly she wasn’t one of the best. I wish Gauvin had made a commercial recording.
Yes I love Gueden. It’s a bit too much for her, but her voice in that role is a bit fuller than many others and she has so much charm but isn’t shallow of just cheerful. She sounds worldly wise. I actually like that entire Bohm performance a lot, it’s one of my favorite Ariadne’s
Peter, you’re reading my mind! When I got Schäfer’s Alcina (a broadcast from Amsterdam with Maité Beaumont), I got Gauvin’s at the same time (a broadcast with Ann Hallenberg). That is why when I think of Schäfer in the role, I always remember that I preferred Gauvin (whose only official recording curiously is in the part of Morgana).
That Böhm Ariadne is also one of my favorite – on paper, nobody is ideally cast (maybe Schock, I don’t know), but in the event it really works, all of them are expressive and it is very strong in terms of “theatre” (judging from the audio).
I will need to track down that broadcast I’ve only heard bits of it. Hallenberg is one of the greatest around as far as I’m concerned and her ruggerio is majestic. I appreciate Didonato’s Alcina but it’s crazy to me that Curtis didn’t cast Gauvin. Her Morgana steals the entire recording. At this point I keep waiting for her to get around to agrippina but she seems to have decided that Poppea is her role. If only the Didonato recording hadn’t just come out, someone could have been persuaded to recoded Hallenberg and Gauvin in that! Schafer I saw at the Drottningholm in the Audi production which was filmed much later with Piau. That was chilly production which suited her general vibe and the theater was small enough that it worked. Again, hardly the best but I enjoyed her there.
Yeah I think Della Casa, despite not having low notes and lacking some finesse is really captured in wonderfully healthy voice on that Ariadne and really gives one of my all favorite renditions of the final duet. Schock was probably as ideal as it was going to get at that point. It’s Bacchus, enough said. He can hold his head higher than many haha.
Hallenberg is one the best Ruggieros I’ve ever heard, I agree. There aren’t so many I truly like – the role is difficult, requiring contrasting expression in contrasting affetti etc. I’ve tried to like the Curtis recording – it is not bad at all, but I find it rather cold. DiDonato is always intelligent and in charge of technical demands, but she relaxes very little (in everything she does, I would say) and lacks charm in the end. Gauvin’s voice is naturally suited to the role and she relishes the flow of the music more spontaneously. I really love her disc with both Agrippina and Poppea arias – I find her there incomparable in every item.
I have to be honest about Della Casa – I don’t truly get the adoration. I find her best in items in the limit of her possibilities (such as the Chrysothemis) because there I can see the appeal of having someone so pure toned and poised in demanding music. When she can relax and have all the time of the world to actually display some finesse, I just find her blank.
I find most of Della Casa’s commercial recordings, particularly the mozart roles , fairly mediocre and blank, the exception being a live Mitropolous Elvira. Faulty breath control, a weaker lower register, and non-existent coloratura are the obvious issues and in studio circumstances shes usually a total blank. Live I only saw her towards the end of her career and the voice, though non attractive, has evident holes in it and could abruptly come to grief. However she was actually quite a good actress, her Countess was a wonderful characterization and her Marschallin was quite lovely as well and refreshingly sane and neurosis free compared to certain contemporaries who are synonymous with the role (…).
Personally I generally like many of her live Strauss recordings. The roles sits better for her, the demands more straightforward, and her personality is pretty apparent IMO, although she’s hardly the most precise or detailed singer. I do agree with you about sounding at her best in roles that paradoxically take her to her limits, that Chrysothemis is one of my personal favorites on record (as is that Elektra as a whole). Personally I happen to love her Von Karajan Marschallin quite a bit, one of the only items where the voice is even throughout the range and I think she comes by genuine feeling a lot more naturally than the Dame who she was replaced by.
It’s the Arabella that I guess you just had to have been there for. I think the Solti recording is weak sauce, specifically on her end. I find her quite moving in the main on the Kielberth recording (and it’s one of DFD very best performances) and she was striking to behold. But I don’t think it was ever actually her best role and there are several woman who I think have her considerably beat vocally. Her lack of firm breath and iffy intonation a really distracting on that role. Plus she was maybe a bit too piss elegant and reserved, as legendary as she was in the role. Several others had a more personal stake in the part and made it count for more. The Grafin worked dramatically but had similar issues to the Arabella, though the live Salzburg performance has its moments. Personally I think Zdenka and Sophie might have been the best fits from a purely vocal perspective.
Basically I liked her quite a bit but don’t know that I’d personally have classified her as being among the greats. Frankly a lot of that generation of Viennese singers had some evident failing people cheerily ignore today. Della Casa is preferable IMO to a certain lady but I don’t think the discography really benefits her.
Well, della Casa vs. Schwarzkopf. Although I tend to judge Schwarzkopf’s recording case by case – without having ever head any of them live – I tend to go for Schwarzkopf. For instance, I find Schwarzkopf’s Mozart more consistent than della Casa by far. I share with you the lack of enthusiasm for the Marschallin. I don’t know how contemporary audiences perceived her performance, but it sounds museological for today’s standards in its “telefono bianco” affectation. That said, I like both Schwarzkopf’s studio-only Strauss performances – especially the Arabella in the excerpts for EMI. As for della Casa, I’d have to listen again to Karajan’s live Rosenkavalier. The Solti Arabella is a mystery to me – I find it blank, blank, blank. Even if the voice was past her prime, in the Keilberth, I can hear the charm and understand the reputation in the role (and, yes, DFD, as in many recordings those days, is excellent). I can see – from the short video excerpts on YouTube – why the scenic side of her interpretation was so appreciated. She was beautiful, moved beautifully and her acting style was almost modern in its economy of gestures. And she had glamour. Arabella is a tough role – it is really difficult to find someone and call her “the model” for the role. I personally never saw anyone of whom I could say “she fulfilled my expectations”. You’ll probably disagree – but on recordings – Kiri Te Kanawa, even with the all-purpose delivery of the text, has the vocal appeal for the role and I liked her acting there too. But I have the impression you won’t agree with me here 😉
I love young Schwarzkopf in Mozart and in general find her preferable to Della Casa there. I think her Donna Elvira, especially the two latter runs for Furtwangler, to be a reference and while she kept it in her rep a bit too long, I think all of her recordings of that role are wonderful. I adore the German Countess for Furtwangler and while I’m not crazy about the other recorded iterations of that role I think they have their strengths and are preferable to Della Casa, at least on record. I personally can’t stand either commercial Fiordiligi but think the live 1956 recording mighty fine. It was the only mozart role of hers I saw live and that was late and she was not particularly great, the role was beyond her technically at that point (and was never effortless) and I think that it was the role that suffered most when her whole approach to singing calcified. But I generally do find things to appreciate in her Mozart and the earlier recordings (including the Lieder, though Seefried is my go to there) are among the best things she did.
The Strauss is more equivocal more me, again I think once she became fully set in her ways there wasn’t much to love. I do like her Scala Rosenkavalier for Von Karajan (with Della Casa’s Sophie and Jurinac) and I actually really enjoy the Ariadne. I think she’s the only one who actually gets the dirty jokes in the text and is intriguing throughout. Vocally it’s slightly too much for her but she was still in her prime so it’s healthy singing. The Arabella is OK, I just do think vulnerability isn’t exactly in her arsenal and Metternich is the real star there, I think it’s the best Sung account of that role and later reissues cruelly cut his solos which are divine. But I adamantly do not like her Marschallin’s from the recording on for reasons that would take too long to get into. But her reputation in that is frankly due to EMI, she was almost never well received in the role in person and I thought it was a paradoxically mannered yet reductive interpretation of the role. Ditto the Grafin, though I never saw her do it. That’s an opera I personally don’t have real strong feelings for and I think all her nuances and fru-fru just make it even more pretentious than it really is, which might have appealed to Strauss but which seems suspect to me.
All of that being said she’s not one of my favorites. I think it was a very hedged technique dependent on a lot of manipulation and control and I wouldn’t be surprised if that informed how she interpreted her roles. I like the actual sound of her voice, but it find it hard to listen to her. The best thing I saw from her was a recital, which was a cold experience but she basically demanded you to pay attention to her and somehow made it work. I also will plead guilty that it’s hard for me to project my opinions about her as a person into much of her singing. I saw a masterclass where she was so arbitrarily abusive and brutal in a way that was so lacking in self awareness it kind of disturbed. Her technique was one she created to deal with a recalcitrant voice so to see her being so spiteful of others really blew my mind.
Yeah we probably wouldn’t agree Te Kanawa. I do think that on a purely vocal level she had the upper hand over Della Casa and her basic manner was in fact probably closer to what I would have preferred in the role. I have not listened to Te Kanawa’s recording in a while, although I don’t remember being that impressed. Live I just though she phoned it in and without going into it, only Pav and Caballe could sleepwalk their way through a role, blithely forgetting half of it, to a greater degree than Kiri. So that just immediately takes her out of the running for me, however magnificent the endowment might have been early on (and I think it’s debatable that her actual singing and tonal beauty really lasted as long and some think to).
Well, we don’t disagree very much about Schwarzkopf then! 😉 I can’t really tell what comes first there – the egg or the chicken – it is a very peculiar technique and I wouldn’t be able to tell the extent of her potential purely in terms of voice. When she was young, she sang some very difficult roles, but then she started to develop all kinds of notions and the whole interpretation mambo jambo came afterwards. You mention Lieder – I really dislike her Schubert. But other than this, there is much to cherish in her Hugo Wolf, for instance. In other words, she transformed her whole method into something very complicated that often worked against herself. I don’t think I would have wanted to have her as a teacher – it is something made after her own measures and it worked only intermittently.
As for Te Kanawa – I saw her just twice and I notice that people who witnessed one of her sleepwalking performances tend to be more unforgiving about her… What I like about her Arabella – other than the voice itself, which for me is ideal for the role, is that all her instincts are all right there. I watch the Met video and everything I see there corresponds to what I myself believe about the role. I know it’s not fruit of her imagination or interpretation powers. It works on a purely non-rational level – and that is why I find it so convincing. It is not an opera lucky in recordings: in spite of all my love for Janowitz, I find her unsuited for the role (and poorly recorded in the Solti film), Varady has the wrong voice and attitude and I really can’t stand Fleming in it. I have a broadcast – in very bad sound – from La Scala, in which I find Felicity Lott really convincing. It is a pity she never recorded it properly. And – although the video from Tokyo doesn’t show Popp in ideal scenic conditions (she looks really off there) – she does beautiful things throughout in terms of singing. I have the impression that live it might have been a little less ideal, for the voice is a bit on the light side for the role. Mattila – in the video from Paris – does many interesting things, but the part (at least there) tests her. The duet with Mandryka in particular is beyond her. I had hopes for Harteros and made a point of watching her in Munich, but I don’t know, I found her ill at ease in terms of acting and vocally anonymous. I’ve seen her sing far better than that.
And, yes, Metternich is great in the Schwarzkopf recording.
Fleming is a horrible Arabella, it’s maybe her worst role. Outside of the Grafin I actually don’t care for most of her Strauss, the music comes too easily to her so she’s apt to indulge in her Fleming-isms. She grew into the Marschallin a bit but was never “great”. As for the rest, Janowitz was apt to be dull and that Video is so-so. She was better and more animated in the role live but it’s not a favorite role of hers for me. Popp could be great in the role, when I saw her in Munich she was lovely, but of course there were always moments of strain in the heavier roles and ideally an Arabella does have more thrust up there. I enjoyed Varady while acknowledging it was hardly an Arabella sound or manner. She was fun and engaging. Donath and the conducting aside, there’s not much reason to track that recording down. Harteros was dull IMO and unwieldy sounding when she did it munich. She can be engaging but again I just think there’s something the role needs she doesn’t have and she might have gotten to it a little later than she should have.
I see what you are saying about Mattila, although I don’t know that I’d say the duet is “beyond her”. But she’s my favorite of the ladies you mentioned. I think the sound at that time as captured on that video is unbelievably gorgeous, basically ideal for the role and that music. And I think she makes sense of the role and gives the most complete characterization imaginable. Its the one, like the Te Kanawa video is for you, that corresponds with how I view the role most. And I don’t think anyone sings or expresses the final closing pages the way she does. I mean the role has moments of real heft and those were always a bit beyond Te Kanawa, I have to say I saw her do it several times in person and as pure singing it was never smooth sailing either. I think the tone is dry and fairly juiceless on the video and she does enough borderline marking that basically was inaudible live. That run was better than the earlier one with battle I thought, but I guess it’s just a matter of taste. She gave numerous interviews basically saying she hated the role and thought it was too long and boring and that’s what I see when I was watch her. A woman longing for retirement who’d rather be elsewhere. I just never bought her as someone who’d buy into the notion of putting her happiness in a stranger she noticed on the street. That dilemma or practicality vs. danger which IMO is embedded in the music itself was all over Mattila’s work. Arabella isn’t as together and smart as she thinks she is. And I think the te Kanawa shortcuts are still decently evident on that video.
But at the end of the day, my Arabella will always be Steber. The met broadcast in English is one of the vocal Strauss miracles. Her singing is perfect in basically every way and I don’t know of a singer singing in an English translation who sings with the clarity Steber does there.
Hi, Peter! I see you’ve had more luck live with Arabella than I. I don’t know how often Mattila sang Arabella, and I would like to hear in a performance different from that one, for I find Bonney a bit past her prime and I don’t “buy” Hampson’s Mandryka. But we don’t essentially disagree – I find Mattila always interesting.
As for Fleming, I’ve seen her sing only two Strauss operas live – Capriccio (in which she was fine) and Daphne (which she sang very well, probably the best Strauss I heard from her).
Yes, Kiri is past her prime in that video from the Met, but I like her there nonetheless. Of course, those videocasts from the Met are always very flattering for singers and it is hard to say how they actually sounded in the theatre. But anyway. I have never seen the role of Arabella from the point of view you describe – which is interesting (and I don’t mean that in the “polite” meaning of the word) – and fits Mattila’s personality.
I am tempted to hear Steber after reading your words, but I hesitate before the English translation. What do you think of Claire Watson inthe role? I’ve listened to a broadcast the other day and found it better than I could have imagined. She is not a singer I keep in mind, and I just stumbled upon a broadcast.
Arabella is a tough role that requires things that rarely go together. That is why it is so fascinating, I guess.
If you can find it I think the Steber Arabella is absolutely worth tracking down because the entire cast is amazing (Gueden and London much better than for Solti) and Kempe conducts the not-great met orchestra like he’s god (only Crauss is better). The translation is what it is but by the standards of 1950s met opera English translations they come way worse and the clarity and intention of purpose from everyone in the cast puts it over.
The premiere of the 2008 Vienna Capriccio was the best thing I saw Fleming do Strauss wise. Why they waited to film that cast when they were all noticeably faded years later is beyond me. The Grafin was also the best Strauss I saw from Te kanawa at SFO, that DVD is one of her very best IMO.
I adored Watson, she was like the Lott of her generation in that it wasn’t a voice anointed from above and because she got an even later start not many recordings exist and the ones that do were probably for the most part recorded a little late. But her Arabella broke my heart and she was so touching and stylish in all of her Strauss roles regardless of the lack of “specialness of her sound”. It was probably the best “acted” Arabella I’ve seen along with Mattila. She was also a total sweetheart in person, so I’m biased. Again I’m not sure she qualifies as one of the greats or anything, but she was lovely. I’ve never heard a recording of her in the role however, her Ariadne in concert is pretty wonderful, the later Marschallin finds her voice going a tad but is moving in its way.
OK, I’m not hard to convince anyway: Arabella In English, here I go… 🙂
I have always been curious about Watson as Arabella, because I thought her background would qualify for the role. And there’s a famous story about her getting stuck in the set’s staircase and being able to sing the closing scene to the end without missing a note haha Yes, the voice has not inbuilt magic in itself, but it is pleasant enough and has the right color for the role. There is a recording of her Arabella live in Vienna in 1969 with Miljakovic and Wächter under Klobucar. I’m listening to it while I write – she keeps the voice as light as possible and emulates all “Viennese soprano” features, especially pecking at notes and resorting to mezza voce whenever she can. In any case, It is a beautiful recording. And she is the very opposite of Fleming’s, in the sense that she does not try to sound provocative or knowing. I agree with you – Arabella is not supposed to sound smart at all. She’s been playing a part her whole life because she had the physique du rôle and she frankly is clueless about who she is – she just wants someone to let her be whatever she might be. And that is exactly what Mandryka tells her in his last line. He is evidently himself and is not asking forgiveness for what he is – and I guess that is what made Arabella notice him in the first place (and that’s why Hampson is wrong for the part with his pointed delivery of the text and “cultured” vocal production).
Yeah Fleming’s Arabella was misconceived on every level. I just wish she had a better idea of what her strengths were. She can’t do youthful vivaciousness and guile so if her Arabella had been done in a way that played more to how she could be comfortable it *might* have worked. But it was like watching someone trying to emulate some sort of concept of the role they had in their mind and not fully not be able to get that across comfortably or naturally at all. And vocally its bizarre how weak she sounds in the role compared to her other Strauss.
Watson is interesting because like you said, she definitely cultivated that Viennese flair that to my ears never sounded excessively mannered because her American-ness never quite went away. She tended to be on the reserved side but not in a cold or aloof way. I’ll need to track down that broadcast because like I said her commercial stuff is all fine without being exceptional and while it was never a star sound she wasn’t quite as starchy and prim sounding live. My feelings about Arabella are, like a lot of Strauss, complicated because the glorious moments are so glorious. But it’s hard for me to get a read on what exactly the point of it all is and there’s some IMO deadly stretches with some characters who really do border on the insufferable.
1 You can find the Watson Arabella on OperaDepot.
2 – Yes, one of the reasons why I like Kiri as Arabella is that she gets the insufferable part of the role right hahaha
3 – Fleming – I don’t know. Sometimes I think it’s just a lapse of taste, sometimes I believe she was trying to sound different from anyone else, sometimes I believe she was trying to make it modern – but I always think that the problem is that is always about her, her and her. The character comes in 5th place. But I’m no Fleming hater – she has some beautiful recordings and live I had mostly good experiences watching her.
Oh I thought Fleming was a sensation when she first broke thru, I just think for some reason she stagnated post 2000 and I just lost interest and became increasingly frustrated. I’m sure she had her reasons but it all descended into cooing and saving and wayward project choices that might have satisfied her personally but which I didn’t feel paid many rewards. But there are a handful of performances I saw her give in the late 1990s that were just staggering and while she was hardly ever a genius interpreter and could be stiff onstage her generosity of spirit and love of singing was always lovely and charming to see in and old school Steber sort of way if without the same boisterousness. The Strauss in particular was so disappointing because her scene recording is just divine. But the actual roles when done complete never lived up to the potential she showed there. Her weird coyness as Arabella and the bizarre mannerisms there were just beyond musical good taste. She’s evidently a bit of a genius in a way and her gifts were bountiful but the increasing stinginess (ditto Te Kanawa albeit in a different way) just became to much for me.
I felt Kiri was a sensation when she first started out as well. I mean as a pure sound and vocal production in mozart especially she’s about a close to ideal as anyone ever has been. That’s undeniable.
Yes, there is plenty to cherish in Fleming’s discography, especially early on: the Rossini Armida is really admirable, for instance. I don’t think she had a voice for that kind of role, but she delivered a grand performance there. With the exception of one or two numbers, the Paris Alcina is also beautiful. Ah, mio cor is even great. In the Handel album, Ritorna o caro is exquisite – I once converted a friend to opera with that track. The Glyndebourne Countess Almaviva is also praiseworthy. I am less appreciative of the Solti Fiordiligi, but nobody can say it is not well sung. As mentioned, I really like the Daphne.
To keep with the comparison, I find Te Kanawa’s tonal quality and phrasing superior to Fleming’s. She tends to be more anonymous than Fleming too – what can be good considering Fleming mannerisms. The thing with Kiri is that she increasingly seems to have fallen out of love with complete opera performances, but curiously got involved in things that required more and more from her (and that ultimately had nothing to do with her voice and personality) such as Manon Lescaut, Tosca, Traviata. There was a point in which she clearly wasn’t there spiritually speaking and then it was a bit late for her to go back to… Mozart? For me she was always best in aristocratic roles that require cool, poised singing. That came really naturally to her and she could even infuse a pop-like spontaneous musicality that pleases me. I don’t think it is a voice for Italian opera at all – her only Italian role that I like is Amelia in Simon Boccanegra. But I would say she left beautiful recordings in all her good roles and also sacred music (the Mozarts are almost incomparable) and even in some Lieder (what is surprising even to me!).
(I hope you don’t mind my keeping this conversation going – it’s been fun!).
I think it’s a shame that Fleming’s commercial mozart recordings don’t really show her at her best. The met run of Fiordiligi was on a purely vocal level probably the best I ever saw, kind of miraculous given what that role is and how big that house is. The Solti is the earliest example of her indulgences. He apparently worshipped her and I think he might have just let her free in a way that’s no to her benefit. She was not that croony and coy at the met. Ditto the Donna Anna, which was amazing in person but underwhelming on both the CD and the DVD. I find the Christie Alcina ends up being less than the sum of its part due to the boxy sound and the rather sloppy way that different performances were evidently spliced together. For a live run it comes across weirdly studio bound. The live clips on YouTube are in a different category and while I don’t Fleming was an “ideal” Alcina her sound was obviously something else and I appreciate how much she gave herself over to conductor and director and really tried to stretch herself. I liked the Daphne in person and it’s a good recording. I do kind of admit that a more inherently girlish sound and manner are preferable to me but it was nevertheless quite impressive. Among her recordings I happen to love the Berg she made for Levine even if she’s unimageable in those roles onstage. The 1996 Carnegie Hall Armida, though mannered and saddled with conducting from hell was stupendous and considering it was a concert it was one of the most comfortable times I saw her onstage. She really did summon up the requisite command and glamour. I’d probably take Fleming’s sound first but only just barely. I think there are more overtones to the core sound and she had a much stronger lower register. She was a fantastic Desdemona when younger and an excellent Amelia on the ROH broadcast.
The Amelia was the first time I ever saw te Kanawa and the SFO broadcast remains one of if not my favorite performances of that role. I don’t get much from her Solti recording and I thought she was totally checked out at the met and mostly droopy sounding. I only ever saw her Desdemona late-ish and didn’t care for it but I think the impromptu Met debut shows an obvious star in the making. Among her recordings I love the Mozart Concert Arias recording best and individual tracks on the solo recitals are wonderful, though some sound like she fully doesn’t understand what she’s singing about. The Solti Countess is fine but I think the earlier recordings are superior. I liked her a lot in the role when she was young but there were just many others I preferred and that was a classic “phone in” later on. The Elvira was in my experience either way too recessive or too campy by turns and I don’t get much from either recording, though the second one is beautifully intoned. There’s a Paris performance that is fantastic. For a time I thought she was up to Fiordiligi as well as anyone and the challenges of the role led her to throw caution to the wind more readily and really go for it. I like the Colin Davis ROH live recording best but the Lombard recording though dull is ideally scrumptious from the ladies and the dullness has more to do with the conducting and studio circumstances than anything lacking on her part. I’m afraid to say I just can’t with the Strauss recordings, as beautiful as some of the sounds she makes are. The Solti Rosenkavalier is her best go at that role but in person I thought she was the definition of dull and forgot parts of it on multiple occasions. The SFO Grafin was lovely but I think she’s dismal on the recording and was actively struggling to even be heard at the met. I guess it just depends on what you are looking for. I thought she was vacant in most of those roles and her German just too rote to make any substantial points consistently.
The Violetta live was one of the most disgraceful things I’ve seen from a singer ever on a stage. She didn’t know any of it (literally, she forgot the words AND the music multiple times in each act) and seemed almost gloating about it. I think the Manon is a party tape, he can barely cope and she sounds stoned. She’s more alert on the video but totally out of her depth.
Long is good, it’s nice to chat about these things during a pandemic.
1 – Now you made me curious to check at the Met website if I can hear one of these early Fiordiligi from Fleming. She was definitely well equipped for it.
2 – The recorded sound in Christie’s Alcina. Well, that makes us two. It is so poor, I never really understood why. Sometimes I feel like using excerpts from that performance as example, but I always give up. The engineering is almost amateurish.
3 – I saw Fleming’s Desdemona ages ago and I remember I liked her there, but I guess the one I saw (with Botha) was already a bit jazz-y. I didn’t know about the Simon Boccanegra. I’ll look for it.
4 – Yes, I prefer Te Kanawa’s earlier Mozart recordings over her later ones – the voice was gorgeous back then and it is not like she’s acquired extra insight later. As for the Rosenkavalier, yes, this was never my favourite Strauss with her. I liked her stage presence in the Solti video, but the singing is too abstract in terms of interpretation. I never fully enjoyed any performance of her in the 4LL either, especially the Solti CD. I’d go for the SFO Capriccio (she acts well there too) and for the Arabellas (yes, I know we disagree here).
3 – As for that amnesic Violetta, yes, everybody talks about that. Let’s not forget she got Mi tradì all wrong in that gala at the Met. I remember a friend who was watching it with me who said “Hasn’t she sung that like a zillion times?” Well, it seems she had some sort of stage fright (I remember an interview in which she said she often felt “nervous” and hated people asking her how she was doing before a performance).
5 – My take on Kiri: as much as with Arabella herself, people tended to project things on her and she was raised to live up to other people’s expectations because she had so much potential. But the point is – I don’t think she really wanted all that responsibility herself and also living up to that potential costed her a lot of energy. When she was young, she could conjure it somehow and make it happen (in her biography, she says something about being called “lazy” and that annoyed her), but with age the whole thing became a bit like Amfortas and the holy grail. Anyway, when she really lived up to her potential, in my opinion, she was great. So – not having seen her often on stage – it is easier for me to judge her from her best, as in the recordings I’ve mentioned before. She had a natural – and this is rare – ability to portray poised, classy roles. And I find this admirable – most singers in roles like that look (and often sound) unconvincing (actually, very few women like this type of role).
Sadly I don’t believe there’s is a broadcast Fiordiligi, not sure why. It was a very brief run, I think she split it with Vaness or someone, and it was also I believe the last time she sang it. I think both she and Dessay suffer considerably as recorded on that Alcina, the pirate clips show much more bounce and color than is capture on the commercial. The Amelia used to be on YouTube, I think the aria is still up. The Desdemona from the 1995 video is the one I’m thinking of. It’s her least mannered singin and the most natural. It’s a refreshingly straightforward and genuine performance.
Yeah I see what you are saying about te Kanawa, I’ve never heard the Solti leider but I do think the Davis recording is perfectly fine and finds her in scrumptious form. I just wish there was more soul in her singing though she’s not indifferent there exactly. The beauty of her sound and ease of her singing for a certain time is so indisputable I always feel very harsh when criticizing her. Maybe it just was that her gifts were so great it was hard to not feel disappointed. There just are a lot of singers with less beauty and ease that just now me so much more that she’s just not someone I listen to all that much. It just seemed like she both limited herself but also became kind of aimless, maybe like you said because she didn’t want all the responsibility. But of course it was a delux sound and just perfect for Mozart. I think the similarities between her and Fleming are that basically they got to call the shots to a degree that even more authoritative conductors never seemed to push them. Fleming wasn’t aimless at all but i think like you said her goals were so much about what she wanted that it just became to hard to get a beat on her career.
Honestly neither one of them are favorites haha. I don’t spend much time listening to either of them. There are other sopranos who were more flawed in mozart but she who just shone in that music for me to a much greater extent.
I have to thank you, Peter, for pointing me out the Kempe Met recording. I am wary of performances in translation (esp. to English, I’m afraid), but this one – you’re right – is something else. First, some conversational passages sound a bit Broadway-like (that’s what I usually dislike in opera in English), but the big arioso passages work fine. The broadcast sound is very good and, yes, Kempe really works some magic out of the orchestra, even the violins soar Viennese-style. With Gueden and London, this is truly a Golden Age cast. And there’s Steber.
Yes, you’re right. Vocally, she is above the competition. She could stand in the dictionary in the definition of “golden tone” – it rings freely, fluffily, richly and spaciously in every register. I’ve known her from the Böhm FroSch, but in this Arabella one can see her natural feeling for cantabile. And the closing scene is a culmination – glorious, effortless singing. It just crowns the whole performance. Arabella is a tough role – it’s rather central, but the high passages are really high. And Steber’s middle register is rock-solid. In terms of interpretation – judging from audio only (and a photo of Steber in costume, I’m afraid) – it seems quite Doris Day-ish to me (no offense, I love DD, even if some of the orchestrations in her recordings are quite kitsch). Maybe because she is so vocally in charge, she gives me the impression of being in total control of what is going on at every second. And my view of the role involves someone rather trying to understand what is going on. That is why the key moment in the libretto, in my opinion, is when Arabella says: Zdenka, you’re the best among us. It is Zdenka who teaches her that there is nothing like “Mr. Right” or perfection of any kind – we make the best of what we’ve got and it’s going to be good enough because we’re working on it rather than because it was “printed in Heaven”. Anyway, I’m rambling – I doubt that any other recorded Arabella would sound as efficient live as Steber does here. Thanks again!