Max Vredenburg (1904 -1976) werd geboren in Brussel en groeide op in een Nederlands-Joods gezin. Door de dreigende oorlog vluchtten ze naar Den Haag.
1922, na de middelbare school, ging hij werken voor een importbedrijf in gedroogd fruit, maar hij nam al snel ontslag. Zijn hart lag bij de muziek. Hij studeerde theorie en compositie aan het Haags Conservatorium bij Henri Geraedts, die hem adviseerde naar de École Normale de Musique in Parijs te gaan.
In 1926 en 1927 studeerde hij bij Paul Dukas en Albert Roussel, componisten die hem zeer hebben beïnvloed en die hem bij een van de belangrijkste uitgeverijen van die tijd, Editions Maurice Senart hetbben geïntroduceerd
In 1941 vluchtte hij naar Batavia en in 1942 belandde hij in de Jappenkamp. Hij heeft de oorlog overleefd maar een groot deel van zijn familie werd vermoord in Sobibor en Auschwitz.
Als componist liet hij een gevarieerd oeuvre na. Het Lamento componeerde hij in 1953 ter nagedachtenis van zijn zus Elsa.
Marcel Worms houdt zich een beetje schuil, zijn IJslandse collega alle eer gunnend om te brilleren. Maar ga maar goed luisteren en ervaar hoe ontzettend meevoelend zijn bijdrage is. Zoiets heet ‘partners in crime’, denk ik. Beter kan ik het niet omschrijven.
Vredenburg heeft ook muziek gecomponeerd voor de films van Bert Haanstra Spiegel van Holland:
En Panta Rhei:
Na de oorlog werkte Vredenburg als muziekrecensent voor bijna alle Nederlandse maar tegenwoordig is hij voornamelijk bekend als medeoprichter van het Nationale Jeugd Orkest.
Curious man, that Henze. Once flirting with communism and dreaming of a world revolution, he was also an aesthete and an erudite which – in part – made him decide to bid farewell to Germany and move to Italy in 1953.
His music has always been highly theatrical: he never liked the strict rules of serialism and felt a close connection with opera, which, unlike the hardliners of the avant-garde at the time, he had never labelled as obsolete. His discography therefore lists more than 20 musical theatre works, performed with great regularity.
DIE BASSARIDEN
Die Bassariden is among Henze’s finest and most important compositions. The English Language libretto, after ‘The Bacchantes’ by Eurypides, was written by W.H.Auden (does anyone remember the ‘Funeral Blues’ from Four Weddings and a Funeral?) and Charles Kallman.
It became a massive, through-composed score, anchored in the Wagnerian tradition (it is whispered that the librettists insisted that Henze, before turning to composing, study the ‘Götterdammerung’) and constructed as a four-movement symphony with voices.
The story of King Pentheus, who, by wanting to banish all sensuality, comes into conflict with Dionysus and his adepts and is ultimately torn apart by his own mother, serves as a metaphor for the conflict between Eros and Ratio.
The opera premiered (in the German translation) at the Salzburg Festival in August 1966. It became a huge success, even prompting one of the reviewers to cry that Richard Strauss had finally got a successor. Henze laughingly and rightly dismissed this with a simple “where are the man’s ears?!”
A few years ago, the live-recorded premiere performance (in German translation) was released by Orfeo (C 605 032 1). The highly emotional playing of the Wiener Philharmoniker, under the inspired direction of Christoph von Dohnányi, reaches unprecedented heights.
Kostas Paskalis is very credible in his role of Pentheus and Kerstin Meyer moves as Agave.
It’s just a pity no libretto was included, after all, it’s not everyday fare.
[Editorial: A later performance of the English Language version was released on the Musica Mundi label, conducted by Gerd Albrecht, but this revised edition omits the interlude]
Das Urteil der Kalliope, interlude from Die Bassariden :
L’UPUPA
Almost forty years later, a new (and also the last, the then almost 80-year-old composer claimed) [Ed: He would produce two more after this, in spite of ill health] opera by Henze was performed in Salzburg: L’Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe. It was a commissioned work by the Salzburg Festival, and its premiere at the Kleines Festspielhaus in August 2003 was recorded live for DVD (EuroArts 2053929).
The libretto, a fairy tale based on Syrian-Persian tales, was written by Henze himself. The three sons of The Old Man go in search of L’Upupa (a hop), a bird lost by the man with the golden feathers. The two eldest drop out immediately and amuse themselves by drinking and playing cards. The youngest, Kasim (an excellent role by Mattias Goerne), assisted by a Papageno-like ‘Demon’ endures all kinds of adventures, including an attempt on his life by his brothers. But he finds the bird and, in passing, a lover in the guise of a Jewish Princess (Laura Aikin) and returns to his old father. Only to leave again immediately, this time to fulfil a promise made. An open-ended ending, then, that also makes for beautiful imagery and moving music.
The text is at times very comic, but also very poetic. Jürgen Rose’s sets and costumes are truly dazzling, and Dieter Dorn’s direction very intelligent. There is also more than excellent singing and acting, especially by the truly inimitable John Mark Ainsley as the Demon.
DER PRINZ VON HOMBURG
On Arthaus Musik (100164) you will find another superb opera by Henze: Der Prinz von Homburg. It was recorded at Bayerischer Staatsoper in Munich in 1994 and Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s direction is truly inimitable.
The story of a daydreaming prince, who fails to follow orders properly during the war and is sentenced to death but is exonerated as soon as he accepts his punishment, is based on a play by Heinrich von Kleist.
François Le Roux seems cut out for the lead role, but the rest of the cast: William Cochran, Helga Dernesch, and Marianne Häggander is also particularly strong.
MEMOIRS OF AN OUTSIDER
I also warmly recommend the documentary about Henze made by Barrie Gavin in 1994 (Arthaus Musik 100360). It features – apart from the composer himself and his Italian friend – Simon Rattle and Oliver Knussen, who candidly confesses that his own music would never have become anything without Henze’s influence. All this is interspersed with music excerpts and with beautiful archive footage. As an encore, you get a stunning performance of Henze’s absolute masterpiece, his Requiem.
In 1999, Véronique Gens was named singer of the year by the French ‘Victoires de la Musique’, but her career began 13 years earlier, when she was introduced to William Christie.
Her voice was not yet trained and that was exactly what he was looking for. In 1986, she made her debut as a member of his famous baroque ensemble Les Arts Florissants. Very quickly she became an established singer of baroque music and she worked with the biggest names in the circuit: Marc Minkowski, Philippe Herreweghe, René Jacobs, Christophe Rousset and Jean-Claude Malgoire.
Gens sings ´Ogni vento´ from Hàndel’s Agrippina, conducted by Malgoire
It was Malgoire who gave her her first Mozart roles: Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro) and Vitellia (La Clemenza di Tito), but if anyone had predicted to her 20 years ago that she would one day sing the Contessa from Le Nozze or Elvira (Don Giovanni), she would surely not have believed it.
Véronique Gens as Donna Elvira in Barcelona:
She always wanted to sing, but her family of almost exclusively doctors and pharmacists didn’t like it. No steady income, no pension… So she studied English in her hometown Orléans, and then at the Sorbonne.
Since then, she has made hundreds of recordings – many of them award-winning – and her repertoire is constantly expanding: after Mozart came Berlioz – she sang the role of Marie in L’enfance du Christ, for instance – and for her recording of Les Nuits d’été she was chosen as the ´Editor’s Choice´ by English Gramophone.
Her CD titled Nuit d’étoiles with songs by Fauré, Poulenc and Debussy was also very enthusiastically received everywhere.
Tragédiénnes
For Virgin, she had embarked on a voyage of discovery through the mostly unknown treasures of the French Baroque in 2006, and the result is quite something.
Accompanied by the Ensemble Les Talens Lyriques, conducted by Christophe Rousset, she recorded arias from the operas of Lully, Campra, Rameau, Leclair, de Mondonville, Royer and Gluck. The so-called “tragédie-lyrique” was inspired by the great classical plays, in which the tragic element was considered the most important. It also contained long dramatic scenes, which allowed the divas of the time to display the whole range of emotions.
It fits her all like a glove. She takes us on a journey of discovery, in which a lot of forgotten gems provide immense pleasure. But however wonderful they all are, she reaches the absolute climax in ‘Dieux puissants que j’atteste…’, Clytamnestra’s poignant cry of the heart for her daughter, from Gluck’s Iphigénie and Aulide.
There she soars with the speed of a rollercoaster to enormous heights, leaving the listener gasping and palpitating. Brava.
Tragédiennes Arias from early French operas by Lully, Campra, Rameau, Mondonville, Leclair, Royer, Gluck; Les Talens Lyriques conducted by Christophe Rousset. Virgin 346.762
Néère
For her album Néère, named after the title of Reynaldo Hahn’s opening song, Veronique Gens has made a more than brilliant selection of the most beautiful songs by Reynaldo Hahn, Henri Duparc and Ernest Chausson.
They cannot be called cheerful: they all exude a very wistful and melancholic atmosphere and are – how could it be otherwise when the French talk about ‘amour’? – all ‘tristesse’.
The beautiful mélodies fit Gens’s dark-toned and slightly-veiled voice with its sensual undertones like a velvet glove.
Trailer:
Nothing but praise too for the pianist. Susan Manoff plays more than sublime and in her accompaniment she sounds like Gens’ twin sister: the perfection with which she manages to transpose the rich colours so present in the singer’s voice (and there are many!) to the keys is truly unimaginable.
Rare beauty.
Néère; Songs by Reynaldo Hahn, Henri Duparc and Ernest Chausson, Alpha 215
Visions
No one can possibly ignore this CD. Palazetto Bru Zane is long overdue for a fame that transcends all countries and borders! Just look at their programming and all their releases! They are so very special!
Not only is their repertoire extremely rare and extraordinarily fascinating, their releases are done to perfection. Something that deserves not just kudos but the highest awards.
Their latest project, Visions, also exceeds all expectations and desires. At least mine. The CD is bursting with unknown arias from unknown operas and oratorios by largely lesser-known and/or forgotten composers. All the pieces collected here have the motto ‘religious visions’ and exude an atmosphere bordering on sanctuary and martyrdom but served up with the extremely grand gesture that only opera can offer.
Trailer of the recording:
Véronique Gens sings the arias with a great élan and an enormous empathy. Her delivery is dramatic, sometimes even a tad too much. That the arias call for a healthy dose of hysteria is rather obvious, but a little more devotion and piety would have made the result even better, even more impressive.
There is no point in speculating what a singer like Montserrat Caballé could have done with all this material: first, she has never sung it (apart from Massenet’s La Vierge) to my knowledge, and second, singers of her calibre really don’t exist anymore.
Montserrat Caballé sings ‘Rêve infini, divine ecstasy’ from Massenet’s La Vierge:
In this context, Véronique Gens is more than up to the task. Not only because of her exemplary diction and intelligibility, but also because her voice has developed into a true ‘Falcon soprano’ and has reached a level that more than lends itself to this repertoire.
Visions; Arias from the operas by Alfred Bruneau, César Franck, Louis Niedermeyer, Benjamin Godard, Félicien David, Henry Février, Camille Saint-Saëns, Jules Massenet, Frometal Halévy, Georges Bizet; Munich Radio Orchestra conducted by Hervé Niquet; Alpha 279
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (Florence, 3 April 1895 – Beverly Hills, 16 March 1968) was born into a Jewish family of Sephardic descent (Jews expelled from Spain in 1492). He was extraordinarily creative, to his credit he worked on all sorts of things: piano works, concertos, operas…. His compositions were played by the great: Walter Gieseking, Gregor Piatigorsky, Jascha Heifetz, Casella.
Heifetz plays Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s second violin concerto: ‘I Propheti’. Recording from 1954:
Today, we know him mainly for his guitar works, nearly a hundred in all, mostly written for Andres Segovia. Segovia plays the Guitar Concerto No.1 in D major, Op. 99; live recording from 1939:
In the beginning of the 1930s the composer began to explore his “Jewish Roots”, which was intensified by the rising of fascism and the racial laws. His music was not performed anymore. Helped by Arturo Toscanini, Castelnuovo-Tedesco and his family were able to leave Italy just before the beginning of World War 2.
Like most Jewish composers who fled Europe, Castelnuovo-Tedesco ended up in Hollywood. Where, thanks to Jascha Heifetz, he was appointed composer of film music by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
At Rita Hayworth’s special request, he composed music for the film The Loves of Carmen starring Hayworth and Glenn Ford. Below is the dance scene from the film:
During this time, Castelnuovo-Tedesco also composed new operas and vocal works inspired by American poetry, Jewish liturgy and the Bible: America offered him opportunities to deepen and develop his Italian musical heritage and his Jewish spirituality. He dreamed of hearing his Sacred Service “once in the synagogues of Florence”. It was premiered in 1950, at New York’s Park Avenue Synagogue.
Dating from 1956, the opera Il Mercante di Venezia after Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (Castelnuovo-Tedesco was a great Shakespeare lover) was performed at Maggio Musicale in Florence in 1961. Toscanini conducted and the leading roles were sung by Renato Capecchi (Shylock) and Rosanna Carteri (Portia).
In 1966, he composed The Divan of Moses Ibn Ezra. It is a setting of nineteen poems by Rabbi Moses ben Jacob ibn Ezra, also known as Ha-SallaḠ(‘writer of penitential prayers’).
An illustration of Ibn Ezra (centre) using an astrolabe
Born in Granada around 1055 – 1060, Ibn Ezra died after 1138 and is considered one of Spain’s greatest poets. He also had a huge influence on Arabic literature. Castelnuovo-Tedesco composed the ‘Divan’ (meaning; a collection of poems) to the modern English translation.
Roberta Alexander sings The Divan of Moses Ibn Ezra
Channa Malkin and Izhar Elias in ‘Fate has blocked the way’:
The composer wrote his Cello Concerto for Gregor Piatigorsky, the premiere took place in 1935, with Arturo Toscanini conducting the New York Philharmonic. And that was it. Since then, the concerto was totally forgotten for all of eighty years. Until Raphael Wallfisch took it on.
Raphael Wallfisch plays the Allegro Moderato from Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Cello Concerto
After World War II, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, like several Jewish composers who were forced to flee and seek refuge in Hollywood, was accused of conservatism and sentimentality. That he was inspired by Spanish folklore in many of his works, was not appreciated either.
Song of Songs
In 2022, in celebration of Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s birthday on 3 April his official website presented a long-buried treasure: a recording of the world-premiere of The Song of Songs, which took place in Los Angeles on 7 August 1963
Castelnuovo-Tedesco: “In my life I have written many melodies for voice and published 150 of them (many others remaining unpublished) on texts in all the languages I know: Italian, French, English, German, Spanish and Latin. My ambition and, indeed, my deep motivation has always been to unite my music with poetic texts that stimulated my interests and feelings, to express its lyricism.”
In 2019, his biography was filmed in the movie Maestro. Below is the trailer:
From 1960 on, all operas performed at Glyndebourne were recorded live. The more-than-valuable archive began to be polished off and transferred to CDs in 2008.
It was no coincidence that it was precisely Figaro’s Wedding that inaugurated the new series: after all, that opera gave the go-ahead to the new festival in 1934, which is now among the most prestigious in the whole world.
Gabriel Bacquier does not immediately associate you with Almaviva, and the Contessa is not the role you think of in connection with Leyla Gencer, but they both sing beautifully, with a great sense of nuance. The rest of the cast is also fantastic, headed by Mirella Freni (Susanna), then still at the beginning of her career, and the very young Edith Mathis as the ideal soprano-Cherubino. (GFOCD 001-62))
Elisir d’Amore Glyndebourne 1962
Adina marked Mirella Freni’s international breakthrough. Understandable, when you hear how beautifully she gives shape to the role: charmingly and wittily she lets her beautiful lyrical young girl soprano blossom and her height is radiant.
Luigi Alva’s velvety timbre and perfect coloratura technique made him a Mozart and Rossini tenor who was much in demand at the time, and Donizetti also fits him like a glove. His ‘Una furtiva lagrima’ may sound slightly less sweet-voiced than Tagliavini’s or Schipa’s, but his interpretation of the character of Nemorino is formidable.
Sesto Bruscantini is easily one of the best Dulcamaras in history and Enzo Sordello a very masculine Belcore.
La Bohème
MET 1965
Mirella Freni made her debut as Mimì at the Metropolitan Opera in September 1965. Her Rodolfo was another debutant: the (how unfair!) nowadays almost completely forgotten Italian tenor Gianni Raimondi. For me, he is preferable to Pavarotti. I find his voice more pleasant and elegant. And he could act!
Freni’s and Raimondi’s renditions were captured on a wonderful film, directed by Franco Zeffirelli and conducted by Herbert von Karajan. An absolute must (DG 0476709).
“O Soave Fanciulla” with Freni and Raimondi:
MET 1973
Many opera lovers will probably agree on one thing: one of the best Bohèmes ever is the 1973 version recorded by Decca under von Karajan. With Mirella Freni and Luciano Pavarotti.
Rodolfo has always been Pavarotti’s calling card. For years he was considered the best interpreter of the role – his fantastic legato, the smoothness and naturalness with whih he sang the high notes are truly exemplary. Incidentally, as befitted a typical Italian tenor of the time, he sang the end of “O soave fanciulla” at the same height as the soprano. Not prescribed, but it was tradition!
Freni was undoubtedly one of the most beautiful Mimi’s in history. Tender and fragile, with her heartbreaking pianissimi and legato arches she managed to move even the greatest cynics to tears.
Von Karajan conducted theatrical and passionate way, with ample attention to the sonic beauty of the score. As the Germans would say “das gab’s nur einmal.”
In 2008 we celebrated not only Puccini’s 150th birthday, but also von Karajan’s 100th. Moreover, it was 35 years since the famed conductor recorded La Bohème: a cause for celebration! And lo and behold – Decca has released the opera in a limited deluxe edition (Decca 4780254). On the bonus CD, Mirella Freni talks, among other things, about her relationship with von Karajan and about singing Puccini roles. It is really fascinating.
SIMON BOCCANEGRA 1977
In 1971, Claudio Abbado conducted a magisterial and now legendary performance of Boccanegra at La Scala. It was directed by Giorgio Strehler and the beautiful sets were designed by Ezio Frigerio. In 1976, the production was shown at the ROH in Covent Garden. Unfortunately, no official (there are ‘pirates’ in circulation) video of it was made, but the full cast did fortunately go into the studio, and thus the ultimate ‘Simone’ was recorded in 1977 (DG 4497522).
Abbado treats the score with such love and such reverence as if it were the greatest masterpiece of all time, and under his hands it really does transform into a masterpiece without parallel. Such tension, and with all those different nuances! It is so, so beautiful, it will make you cry.
The casting, too, is the best ever. Piero Cappuccilli (Simon) and Nicolai Ghiaurov (Fiesco) are evenly matched. Both in their enmity and reconciliation, they are deeply human and always convincing, and in their final duet at the end of the opera, their voices melt together in an almost supernatural symbiosis:
Before that, they had already gone through every range of feeling and mood, from grievous to hurtful, and from loving to hating. Just hear Cappuccilli’s long-held ‘Maria’ at the end of the duet with his supposedly dead and now found daughter (‘Figlia! A tal nome palpito’).
José van Dam is an exquisitely vile Paolo and Mirella Freni and Jose Carreras are an ideal love couple. The young Carreras had a voice that seems just about created for the role of Adorno: lyrical with a touch of anger, underlining Gabriele’s brashness. Freni is more than just a naive girl; even in her love for Adorno, she shows herself to be a flesh-and-blood woman
Gounod: Faust
Gounod’s Faust with Plácido Doming, Mirella Freni and Nicolai Ghiaurov was recorded in 1979 by EMI (now Warner) and it is easily one of the best recordings of the work. The orchestra of the Paris Opera is conducted by Georges Prêtre, one of the best conductors of French repertoire.
The cast is finger-licking gorgeous: Mirella Freni is a fragile and sensual Marguerite and Nicolai Ghiaurov a very impressive Méphistophélès. In the small role of Valentin we hear none other than Thomas Allen.
Fedora 1996
When she was sixty, Mirella Freni included Fedora in her repertoire and she gave a series of performances in Italy and Spain, finally coming to the Met in 1996. It became an enormous success. No wonder, because La Freni’s voice was extraordinary. I have never before seen her act with such intensity; it is a performance of the highest level.
Ainhoa Arteta is truly delightful as the flirtatious, spirited Olga; her performance provides the necessary comic note. As the Polish pianist, Boleslao Lazinski, the real piano virtuoso appears: Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Not only can he play the piano very well, but throughout his performance he convinces as a real primadonna, it is very entertaining to watch. Domingo also portrays a perfect Loris: tormented and oh so charming!
The staging is conventional, with lavish, larger-than-life sets and real snow behind the stage-sized windows. It is just beautiful (DG 0732329).
When this CD came out in 2010, it was greeted with quite a lot of suspicion, but the combination is really less strange than you think. Nowadays, Fleming is mainly associated with Mozart and Strauss, but her career began with singing (among others) Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini.
Fleming grew up in a musical family; both her parents were singing teachers. It was also her mother, who gave her her first singing lessons. She achieved her first major success in 1988 in Houston, as the Contessa in Nozze di Figaro, but her international breakthrough came in 1993, when she performed Armida at the Rossini festival in Pesaro, a role she subsequently repeated at Carnegie Hall. She has also not only recorded, but also performed scenically, the lead roles in Maria Padilla, La Sonnambula, Il Pirata and Lucrezia Borgia.
“When I started singing, I thought bel canto operas were the foundation of every singer’s repertoire. All the singers I admired then: Sutherland, Callas, Caballé, Sills, Scotto sung them. It was quite shocking to discover that in the professional world of opera there was such a thing as a ‘Mozart/Strauss soprano’, and that that soprano never sang bel canto.”
“If I had to count them, there are seven complete bel canto roles I have sung live. I learnt most of them in the early years of my career, when I often worked with Eve Queler. But I also learnt a lot from Montserrat Caballé. We sang together in Il Viaggio a Reims and we discussed the repertoire many times. Marilyn Horne also meant much to me and I learned my high notes from Joan Sutherland at her home”.
The “Bel Canto” CD is just wonderful. The music is magnificent and Fleming’s interpretations superior. Her creamy soprano and exquisite height may be widely known, but her colouraturas and expressiveness are just as fine. Her fabulous breathing technique allows her to spin out the longest arches into the finest pianissimi.
Philip Gossett is a specialist in nineteenth-century opera. He has worked with Renée Fleming many times before and especially for her he ‘reconstructed’ the ornamentation in the well-known cabalettas, including those from La Sonnambula. The result is very surprising and exciting, although one has to get used to those different notes.
ARABELLA
Optically, Fleming is just about the most beautiful Arabella ever. Not just beautiful, but so full of herself: you can see her asking the mirror “mirror, mirror on the wall”, so to speak…. I can no longer ask Strauss, of course, but I suspect she could have been the model Arabella for him. Also her velvety way of singing as if you landed under a down duvet….
Julia Kleiter is a good Zdenka, but Morten Frank Larsen (Mandryka) is simply Danish. He looks Danish and he sings Danish. Too bad, because the direction by Götz Friedrich (Zurich 2007) is extremely exciting.
Below is a scene with Renée Fleming and Julia Kleiter:
CAPRICCIO
Carsen moved the action to Nazi-occupied Paris in 1942, the time of the opera’s creation. The setting is the entire Palais Garnier, including the majestic staircase, the long corridors and the boxes in the auditorium. I assume video technology was used, but I don’t really get how it is done. So it is with bated breath that I watch the Countess, who looks admiringly from her box at her alter ego singing on stage. A truly ingenious invention for the final scene, in which she was originally supposed to sing her long final monologue in front of the mirror.
The opera’s final scene:
It is mentioned at the beginning of the opera that the text and the music are like brother and sister, and so too are the two rivals, the composer Flamand and the poet Olivier; they end up sitting fraternally in the opera’s lounging sofa, looking tenderly at their joint child: a symbiosis of words and notes. An opera.
A better Madeleine than Renée Fleming can hardly be imagined. With her endless legato, her round, creamy soprano and (not least) her scenic presence, she portrays a countess with narcissistic traits: beautiful, self-conscious, aloof and very admirable. Her brother, portrayed by Dietrich Henschel, is a match for her, and though he does not physically resemble her, his traits betray the family ties.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to choose between the two gentlemen in love, as both Gerald Finley (Olivier) and Rainer Trost (Flamand) look very attractive in their well-groomed suits, and neither their voices nor their acting can be faulted.
Franz Hawlata is a phenomenal La Roche, and the delightful Robert Tear portrays an entertaining Monsieur Taupe.
Anne Sofie von Otter is unrecognisable as the “diva” Clairon – her entrance, with which, accompanied by a Nazi officer, she causes a lot of commotion, evokes memories of the great actresses of the 1940s.
The direction is so brilliant that you simply forget that this is an opera, and not the real world. Everyone moves and acts very naturally, and the costumes are dazzlingly beautiful. Were it not for the occasional, but very prominently portrayed, Nazis, one could imagine oneself in a utopian world of serene tranquillity.
Was this what Richard Strauss’ world looked like back then? Perhaps that was the message? I leave the conclusion to you.
Renée Fleming sings Berg, Wellesz and Zeisl. A must buy!
There is no shortage of recordings of Berg’s Lyric Suite. Both in the version for string quartet and in the version for chamber orchestra: the choices are many. Whether it was Berg’s intention we cannot really know for certain, but we assume it was: the last movement, the Largo Desolato, may also be sung.
Theodor Adorno, Berg’s pupil and confidant, considered the work to be an almost latent opera and that makes sense. Adorno was one of the few who knew about Berg’s affair with the married Hanna Fuchs, for whom he composed the work. For Berg, Fuchs was not only his lover and muse, but also his Isolde and his Lulu.
It is not the first time, by the way, that the poem by Baudelauire, the source of inspiration for the last part of the quartet, is actually sung. The Kronos Quartet and Dawn Upshaw had already recorded the version in 2003, there is also a recording by Quator Diotima with Sandrine Piau. The “Emerson”, however, offer us both versions: with and without vocals.
The decision to link Berg’s Lyric Suite to the songs of Egon Wellesz is nothing less than genius. Both composers had received their training from Schönberg, who had taught them not only the twelve-tone technique, but also to use a large dose of expressionism. Something you hear very clearly in the cycle Sonette der Elisabeth Barrett Browning.
That the songs are not performed more often is not only strange, but also a great shame. Of course, this has everything to do with the “once forbidden and then forgotten” attitude, which has also been fatal for Eric Zeisl. His short song Komm Süsser Tod makes us long for more: couldn’t there be some Zeisl added to the CD? It’s not the lack of space: at just 56 minutes, the CD is very short.
Renée Fleming’s creamy, cultured soprano and her mannerism fit the songs like a glove. The result is a beautiful cross between Gustav Klimmt and Max Beckmann. The very imaginative and expressive performance by the Emerson String Quartet adds to the overall experience. A must.
Decca 4788399
Ladies and Gentlemen, Miss Renée Fleming
The life of an opera star is no bed of roses. You are born with a voice that you then try to mould into an instrument that will always obey you. Throughout your life, you work on your technique, take language and acting lessons and you keep your body in shape because appearance is also very important, especially for a woman. And should you not only be wanting a career but also a family life, then things get tough. No wonder that at some point you start to question what is most important in your life and where your priorities really lie.
In the wonderful documentary by Tony Palmer (the maker of more wonderful documentaries, just think of the film about Maria Callas), Renée Fleming, one of the greatest opera singers of our time, talks at length about her fears and doubts. We see her during rehearsals and performances, we admire her dresses, watch home videos showing an apparently happy family life and wipe away a tear listening to her rendition of ‘Amazing Grace’ at Ground Zero.
At the presentation of a new creation from the master pastry chef: a chocolate treat called ‘La Diva Renée’, we get slightly moved. And she well deserves it.
Some forty years ago, I paid a real fortune for those two badly copied cassette tapes of Saverio Mercadante’s Il Giuramento, recorded live in Vienna on September 9, 1979. And now that the Austrian broadcaster ORF is digging up one after the other live recorded opera from their archives and transferring them to CDs, this splendid opera also came on the market – for little money and in an excellent sound quality (Orfeo C 6800621).
Il Giuramento is, just like La Gioconda, based on Victor Hugo’s play ‘Angelo, Tyrant de Padoue’, but there is a world of difference between the two works. La Gioconda is a very passionate, at times overwhelming, opera and contains a selection of (over)famous arias. Think of ‘Suicidio’ or ‘Cielo e mare’. Il Giuramento is smaller and more intimate. Think of Bellini with a touch of early Verdi.
The whole opera is really nothing but a succession of the most beautiful melodies, which force you to listen without even wanting to sing along. Or it must be ‘Compita è ormai la giusta e terribil vendetta’, a beautiful aria sung with much melancholy and elan by Domingo.
Domingo rehearsed the role, which was completely new to him, in four days (!) and stepped in – after only one rehearsal – for the sick Peter Dvorsky. Who else would be capable of pulling this off?
Mara Zampieri, unlike many of her contemporary colleagues, had a very individual sound that you may or may not like, but you cannot not possibly confuse her with anyone else. Her silver-coloured, sensuous soprano blends in beautifully with the golden velvet of Agnes Baltsa (then still without the ugly register break that marred her later performances so much) and in ‘Oh! Qual nome pronunziaste’ their voices melt together into a wonderful unity that is so beautiful it hurts.
ATTILA
There are those performances where everything is just in perfect harmony and you get the feeling that it could not be any better. People keep talking about them and they become legends.
Verdi’s Attila was such a performance, at the Vienna State Opera on 21 December 1980. It was Giuseppe Sinopoli’s debut in the house, his name was still virtually unknown, but the initial reluctance of the audience turned into frenzied enthusiasm from the very first bars. Verdi’s score – not the strongest – has never been heard before with such warmth, fervour and tenderness.
Nicolai Ghiaurov was a great Attila. With his sonorous bass, he gave the character not only the allure of a general but also the gentleness of a loving man.
In her role as Odabella, Mara Zampieri proved that she is not only a fantastic singer with a radiant height and a dramatic attack, but also a great actress.
The stretta ‘E gettata la mia sorte’ in the second act requires the baritone to sing the high b flat. Piero Cappuccilli hit it with ease and suppleness, and then was forced to encore by the frenzied audience, something one seldom experiences in opera. A rare occurrence.
Met Plácido Domingo in La Fanciulla del West
Mara Zampieri sings verismo
And try to find this one, You can’t live without this recording, believe me! Just few examples
The present recording offers a great opportunity for a musical game. The composer came from Spain, the orchestral sound is Wagnerian and the sung text is in (Old) English: who, oh who?
Isaac Albéniz (because this is about him) lived for quite some time in London where he befriended Lord Francis Burdett Money-Coutts, a wealthy banker with great ambitions and literary aspirations. His greatest dream was creation of an English counterpart to the Ring of the Nibelungen, and the story of King Arthur lent itself perfectly to that.
Albéniz received all possible support from the librettist/commissioner and in 1897 Merlin was created, which should have been the first part of the trilogy. The opera was never performed in its entirety and the score lay scattered between Madrid and London. That it was found and restored is thanks to conductor José De Eusebio, who, bolstered by a star-studded cast, was also allowed to record it for Decca.
The truly great cast is led by Plácido Domingo at his best as Arthur. As Merlin, we hear Carlos Álvarez: a dream of a baritone, warm, round and blessed with an almost old-fashioned morbidezza
If you want thunder and lightning in your Fidelio: choose for Daniel Barenboim’s
recording. Here, not only is the orchestra (Staatskapelle Berlin) of almost Wagnerian proportions, so are the singers: Waltraud Meier (Leonore), Plácido Domingo (Florestan), Falk Struckman (Don Pizarrro), René Pape (Rocco), Kwangchul Youn (Don Fernando).
On the other hand the roles of Jaquino (Werner Güra) and Marzelline (Soile Isokoski) are wonderfully lyrical (although more heavily cast than usual). The tempi are solid but never punishing, and Barenboim conducts with verve.
Bretón La Dolores
I know Tomas Bretón as one of the best zarzuela composers and his La Verbena de la Paloma regularly ends up in my CD player. From La Dolores, I knew – until not so long ago – only one aria and a single duet, as those belong to my Domingo collection.
Plácido Domingo sings ‘Jota’ from La Dolores:
This CD was a very exciting and very pleasant first encounter with the complete work and I sat up straight at the very first notes. The beautiful colours that the orchestra here displayed could only be the work of an important maestro.
The prelude strongly reminded me of Cavalleria Rusticana, which was only reinforced by the choral part that followed. But just when I thought I had heard it all before (besides the already mentioned ‘Cavalleria’, I also thought I recognised ‘Carmen’), it took a totally different turn.
Yes, it is unmistakably Spanish and often I was also reminded of El Gato Montés by Manuel Penella Moreno, especially in the brilliant scenes preceding the bullfight. But what most surprised me: why was La Dolores not recorded earlier? The first performance in 1895 was a huge success and the opera was even filmed.
Manuel Lanza (no relation) has a beautiful baritone voice that reminded me strongly of Carlos Álvarez.
Tito Beltrán has recorded a few solo CDs since 1993, when he won the Cardiff Competition, and it felt good to hear him in a complete opera recording.
And Plácido Domingo is, as (almost) always, superior.
Alberto Ginastera
The music of Alberto Ginastera, arguably the most important Argentine composer, is still terra incognita for most of us. Warner Classics has collected several of his vocal works on a new CD, with shining contributions from Plácido Domingo and Virginia Tola. The scenes from ‘Don Rodrigo’ are no less than a gift, but: why only these two scenes? There is still no official recording of the opera, which is best described – in terms of musical structure – as the Argentine Wozzeck.
Plácido Domingo already sang the lead role at the opera’s US premiere in 1966 (!), at the New York City Opera. It is hard to compare his voice then and now, but his great aria “Señor del Perdón”, still rings as clear as a bell.
Domingo sings”Señor del Perdón”, recording from 22 February 1966:
In 1966, the role of Rodrigo’s beloved Florinda was sung by Jeannine Crader, an American soprano who was also the first to record Ginestera’s cantata Milena.
In the new recording, Domingo is joined by the brilliant Argentine soprano Virginia Tola. Her voice is childlike naïve and dramatic at the same time. Her last words after Rodrigo’s death will continue to haunt you.
Händel Tamerlano
A production directed by Graham Vick and conducted by Paul McCreesh was recorded at the Teatro Real in Madrid in 2008 (Opus Arte OA Bd7022 D). The cast was undoubtedly good, with Sara Mingardo leading the way as an outstanding Andronico.
Plácido Domingo (Bajazet) was making his debut in a baroque opera, but even he, my great idol, could not prevent me from falling asleep all the time. At his ‘Figlia mia non pianger’, I woke up and was momentarily moved, but that was it.
Much of the boredom is undoubtedly down to the director. Vick’s production is bare, bleak and (I assume?) aesthetically pleasing.
Below, Domingo in ‘Figlia mia non pianger’
Mare Nostrum: Plácido Domingo honours the Mediterranean Sea
Plácido Domingo recorded this CD in 2016. The ‘Mar’ in this case is the Mediterranean Sea. The singer who never takes a break, as Domingo is widely known, has collected songs from numerous Mediterranean countries. A surprising selection…
The Romans called the Mediterranean Sea ‘Mare Nostrum’, our sea. And that is true: the sea belongs to all of us. Domingo states on the album: “I bow before your grandeur. I am deeply grateful for the privilege of having been born in Spain, the land that is always caressed by your waters. I honour you in the only way I can: by singing your songs.”
The countries that surround the sea are all different and you can hear that in their songs. Domingo’s choice is surprising. Besides the not very exciting ‘Torna a Surriento’ and ‘Plaisir d’Amour’ (both in a new arrangement by Robert Sadin), he sings, among others, the Spanish classic ‘Del Cabello Más Sutil’ by Fernando Obradors, one of the most beautiful songs ever.
Very exciting and surprising are the Corsican polyphonic ‘Anghjulina’, sung with Barbara Fortuna and ‘Potho Reposare’, a beautiful love song from Sardinia.
I am less happy with ‘Aranjuez’, which in my opinion has already been completely milked dry, although the arrangement here is very refreshing. In its place I would have liked to hear something from Greece, because the traditional Cypriot song ‘To Yasemi’ certainly tastes like more.
There are more things of beauty on the CD. ‘Adio Kerida’ for example, sung in Ladino, one of the best known songs of the Spanish Jews.
Or the Israeli ‘Layla Layla’ by poet Natan Alterman, sung in perfect Ivrit. Or ‘Lamma Bada Yatathana’, a ‘muwashshah’ from Arab Andalusia, from the 12th century, with a typical North African rhythm (samai thaqil).
Trailer:
Mozart Idomeneo
In 1996, Deutsche Grammophon (4477372) recorded the opera conducted by Maestro James Levine with just about the Metropolitan Opera’s biggest stars of the time. No idea if it is idiomatic, but I find it HUGE!
Levine’s muscular conducting brings out hidden treasures and in no other performance can you hear how progressive the music is! The tempi are obviously brisk, but nowhere rushed, and most of the voices are overwhelming.
Plácido Domingo’s Idomeneo is exactly what we expect from him: with his beautiful, warm tenor, his regal recitation and his commitment, he makes Idomeneo a very emotional and mostly very humane king.
Rossini Barbiere di Sevilglia
In 1992, Deutsche Grammophon (4357632) presented a very special recording of the work: in fact, the role of Figaro was sung by none other than Plácido Domingo.
He does it very convincingly, proving that he has not only a beautiful voice but also a comical talent.
Arias by Verdi, but now as a baritone
The Domingo phenomenon …. No, I am not going to bombard you with facts and trivia, all of which you will have known for a long time because the press can’t get enough of them.
It so happens that, besides being a real fan, I am also a critical listener and I do my best not to let my ratio and my anima get in each other’s way. Whether I succeed is up to you, my reader, to judge.
Shaking my head, I read what some of my colleagues write about Domingo. He is blamed for singing baritone roles when he is not a real baritone. No, he is not (do I hear anything about Ramon Vinay?), but what bothers me most is that those are the same critics who have never even considered Domingo to be a real tenor. Everything, and certainly a human voice is mostly a matter of taste. But how you construct your criticism (or not) is more than that, it’s also about decency. And now back to what this is all about: CD of baritone-Verdi arias by tenor/baritone Plácido Domingo.
Domingo has a Verdi curriculum to match, so he had already sung live in most of Verdi’s operas. But there is more, as he has also recorded all his major tenor arias.
It is a bit of an unreal experience to hear him now; singing his former rivals or the fathers in the same operas. His advantage: he knows the operas inside out. Your advantage as a listener: a totally different approach to those roles than you are used to. He understands the other side too!
That his Simon Boccanegra makes the most impression is not surprising: he has had that role in his repertoire for a few years now and has performed it all over the world (no, not in the Netherlands, somehow the Netherlands no longer count as part of “the world”).
Domingo sings ‘Plebe! Patrizi’ from Simon Boccanegra (Met 2010):
‘Ecco la spada’ is of such intensity that it renders me breathless. In this, he is assisted by (among others) Angel Joy Blue, a soprano who also partnered him at the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam. We are going to hear more from that lady.
His father Germont (La Traviata) and Rigoletto also betray a his powerful experience of the stage: in ‘Cortigiani, vil razza dannata’ he sounds no less than heartbreaking. He has also made Luna (Il Trovatore) his own by now. ‘Il balen’ already sounds impressive, but in ‘Qual suono’, with the more than excellent contribution of the Valencia choir, he lets himself go all the way and the result is stunning.
The Orquesta de la Comunitat Valenciana conducted by Pablo Heras-Casado sounds very competent and it gives the star all the space he needs to shine, which he amply does. The making of:
Bonus
Plácido Domingo in “The Enchanted Island” (2011): “Who dares to call me? – Gone forever”
Korngold, Braunfels, Goldschmidt, Zemlinsky, Ullmann, Schreker, Schoenberg, Toch, Weill, Krenek, Spoliansky, Holländer, Grosz, Waxman, Haas, Krasa, Schulhoff, Klein… a litany of names. Labelled “entartet” and banned by the Nazis, vilified, driven away, murdered. The composers who survived the war were forgotten, just like those who were murdered. Has this all really been the fault of the Nazis?
Today I want to tell you more about Berthold Goldschmidt, as it is his 120-th Birthday. Goldschmidt was born in Hamburg in 1903. He studied philosophy and art history, as well as composition (with Schreker) and conducting. He served as Erich Kleiber’s assistant for the premiere of Berg’s Wozzeck in 1925. His musical career began in earnest during the heyday of the Weimar Republic.
In 1925, Goldschmidt achieved his first major success with his Passacaglia which earned him the prestigious Mendelssohn Prize. Hailed as one of the brightest hopes of a generation of young composers, Goldschmidt reached the premature climax of his career with the premiere of his opera Der gewaltige Hahnrei in Mannheim in 1932.
And then…. And then the Nazi’s came to power and he became “Entartet. In 1935 Berthold Goldschmidt left Germany and travelled to London. During World War II, Goldschmidt worked for the BBC and served as the Music Director of its German Service in 1944-47. While taking jobs in conducting, Against his better judgement he kept composing, but his works remained unperformed. In 1951 Goldschmidt won an opera composition contest with Beatrice Cenci, which had to wait until 1988 for its first concert performance.
In the 1980s, stimulated by the renewed interest in his work, Goldschmidt started to compose again. His Rondeau from 1995, written for and performed by Chantal Juilliet, was recorded by Decca, together with his beautiful Ciaccona Sinfonica from 1936. This CD has been out of print for years now, and the composer’s works have all but disappeared from the concert platform.
An absolute must is the DVD entitled ‘Verbotene Klange. Komponisten in Exil’ (Capriccio 93506). It is a documentary on German and Austrian composers who, as the commentator puts it, “instead of being revered, were despised”. And who, thanks to emigration, survived. With interviews with, among others, Ernst Krenek and Berthold Goldschmidt: the latter we meet at the very first recording (after 50 years!) of his string quartets.
And the almost centenarian Krenek says something that could be called typical for that generation: “I am caught between continents. In America I don’t really feel ‘heimisch’, but I would never consider going back to Europe. There is no home for me anywhere. Not anymore.
A recording of Halka from the Theater an der Wien was released on DVD in January 2022. In the title role American soprano Corinne Winters, who had been steadily gaining fame in Europe in previous years. The recording dated from 2019 and Winters’ career had been at a low ebb since then as a result of the Covid epidemic. But 2022 was going to be a great year for her. For those not yet really familiar with Corinne Winters, now first a retrospective.
Born in 1983, she first performed in a professional production in ….. 2011. That was a late career start and this fill-in for a pregnant Mélisande in St.Louis turned out to be the starting point for a real catch-up. Winters was advised to audition for ENO and in 2013 she sang Violetta there in Konwitschny’s production of La traviata. There seem to have been quite a few casting directors and intendants in the premiere audience, including reportedly Sophie de Lint. Be that as it may, her performance attracted strong attention. Bachtrack wrote about it: ‘Corinne Winters was an outstanding Violetta, who proved capable of controlling the various aspects of vocal technique demanded by Verdi’s operatic tour de force.’ And on the Planet Hugill blog we read: ‘Winters is a lyric soprano, but one with the resources to not only sing La traviata without an interval but to take her through Act 3 with flying colours. She did everything asked of her and more, and was simply mesmerising. She has quite a bright voice, without excessive vibrato so that it was a beautifully clean expressive performance. I do hope that we hear her again soon in the UK.’
Winters with Michael Spyers in Benvenuto Cellinii in the ENO
The wait didn’t last too long: in 2014 Winters sang in that madcap production Terry Gilliam made of Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini. Bachtrack: ‘Corinne Winters, returning to the Coliseum after her spectacular debut as Violetta last season, wowed us once again as Teresa. Her Act I aria “Hearts full of love” was wonderfully sung, but the cabaletta which followed treated us to a cascade of coloratura, glittering with diamonds. Winters displayed bags of personality, including a knack for comedy.’
Interest in Winters was piqued among European casting directors and engagements at Opera Vlaanderen followed as Donna Anna and Desdemona, and then also the role she had already performed in America: Mélisande. A recording of that performance in Zurich has been released on DVD. Soon after, she made her debut at the Royal Opera House as a brilliant Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte, also released on DVD. From then on, she has definitely managed to add Europe and the very best opera houses to her field of activity.
Of course, there were also performances in the United States, including, in 2017, her role debut in Seattle as Katia in Janáček’s Katia Kabanova, which would become her signature role. A review said: ‘Maryland soprano Corinne Winters was vocally secure and dramatically intense, in the challenging role of Katya. Winters conveyed the soul-searing turmoil of a woman with deeply-held religious belief that extra-marital sexual thoughtsare mortal sins, yet who accedes to a liaison with Boris while her husband is away.’ ‘
My first meeting with Corinne Winters dates from 2019 when I saw her as Rachel in Halevy’s La Juive. It was a production by Konwitschny which I saw in Gent. I wrote about it: ‘In the big scene with her rival Eudoxie, Rachel sings from the auditorium. This creates a literal rift between the two. Soprano Corinne Winters used the parterre row 6 and was immediately in front of me. She had a very big voice, never forced herself and was always in control, with her wonderful timbre and no trace of any vibrato. In the revealing scene her acting was also very strong, she was truly convincing the audience of her disbelieve and I got the impression that she was on the verge of berating Léopold in a very ranting Italian.’
La Juive:
Shortly afterwards came Halka and what immediately stands out in that production is her great range. She initially ‘was’ a mezzo and decided to make the transition to the soprano profession. But this has not come at the expense of the low register. Most of the time, as Halka, she is just a real mezzo who can also handle the heights effortlessly. And, what I find so important: she can sing very softly in all registers
I have never heard and seen her as Butterfly but I can hardly imagine her Cio-Cio-San cutting through the soul even more than Halka does. It is the most moving performance I know of her to date.
Meanwhile, we are back in that stellar year 2022 when I got to experience Corinne Winters as Giorgetta and Suor Angelica. This was a production of Il trittico at La Monnaie Brussels. Due to the Covid epidemic the premiere was sung by a colleague but fortunately I was in the audience for the last performance and she totally lived up to my expectations.
Those Puccini heroines were all role debuts and right after followed another: Jenufa in the opera of the same name. This was a production by Tatjana Gürbaca in Geneva, where Winters would return later in the year for Gürbaca’s Katia Kabanova. That it would become her signature role has been proven by now, especially after her debut as Katia at the Salzburg Festival where she was so very successful. We will surely see her there more often in the future, be it not in 202
Kat’a Kabanóva:
Jenufa:
:
The year ended with Les dialogues des Carmélites in Rome. She sang Blanche de la Force there in a production by Emma Dante, and with great success. Jenufa is scheduled for januari 2023 in Valencia but since she was already there she had to jump in last minute as Mimi in La Bohème at the end of December ’22. This lady is a real jack of all trades and although Katia has become her calling card, I hope that in the future she will give us many more performances of all the other roles in her repertoire: Yolanthe, Tatjana, Fiordiligi, Desdemona and so on.
Les dialogues des Carmélites;
When asked, she was able to tell on her fanpage that a DVD of Katia in Salzburg will probably be released in due course: ‘stay tuned’. That is something to look forward to and in the meantime, of course, there are those recordings with her Mélisande, Fiordiligi and Halka. Corinne Winters has made it all the way and that is worth some heartfelt congratulations.
Basia con fuoco 