What Opera Are You Listening to Now?

[JBS]

Kammeroper aus Terezin

Its origins can be overemphasized. What this work is (in this performance)  is a postWeill chamber opera giving symbolic expression to a world given over to Death despite Death's objections.

[Tsaraslondon]

Die Feldmarschallin - Helga Dernesch
Octavian - Janet Baker
Baron Ochs - Noel Mangin
Sophie - Elizabeth Harwood
Faninal - Thomas Hemsley

Scottish National Orchestra and Scottish Opera Chorus - Sir Alexander Gibson

It's slightly strange hearing an opera I know so well sung in a different language, even when the language is my own.

I actually saw this production when it came to Newcastle-upon-Tyne the following year. By this time Scottish Opera had returned to the original German, Janet Baker had been replaced by Anne Howells and Elizabeth Harwood by Teresa Cahill, but Helga Dernesch was still the Marschallin and, to this day, she remains the most aristocratic and beautiful Marschallin I've ever seen live (and I've seen quite a few). Certain details of her characterisation are still embedded in my memory, and I saw ther production over 40 years ago now.

Janet Baker might seem an odd choice, but she had of course sung quite a bit of Strauss in recital and would go on to sing the composer in Scottish Opera's production of Ariadne auf Naxos (Dernesch as Ariadne this time), and her ardent, impulsive Octavian is gloriously sung. Elizabeth Harwood was luxury casting as Sophie, floating her high-lying phrases with lyrical ease.

Sir Alexander Gibson, Scottish Opera's founder, made a significant contribution to British musical life and he conducts with style and a sure sense of the opera's pace.

Sound is okay for a live 1971 performance, but can't compete with stereo recordings, my favourite of which is still Karajan's 1956 set with Schwarzkopf, which sounds aboslutely splendid in its latest deluxe Warner transfer.

Nevertheless, I've enjoyed listening to this set, especially for the contributions of Dernesch, Baker and Harwood.

[knight66]

We are, as so often, at one here. We have mentioned this set and the performances over the years. I may have been at this performance. I was at one of the first run nights, but don't recall whether it was recorded. Baker was excellent, well everyone was. I had an old guy....well, probably about the age I am now. He complained to me in the first act interval that he did not know the tunes, where were all the waltzes? He had the wrong Strauss.

That set is unfortunately no longer available other than second hand.

And for all the sets I have flirted with over 50 years, the first Karajan remains my favourite, by quite a distance.

Mike

[Tsaraslondon]

We are, as so often, at one here. We have mentioned this set and the performances over the years. I may have been at this performance. I was at one of the first run nights, but don't recall whether it was recorded. Baker was excellent, well everyone was. I had an old guy....well, probably about the age I am now. He complained to me in the first act interval that he did not know the tunes, where were all the waltzes? He had the wrong Strauss.

That set is unfortunately no longer available other than second hand.

And for all the sets I have flirted with over 50 years, the first Karajan remains my favourite, by quite a distance.

Mike

Looking through the cast list of the Ponto set, I noted that my singing teacher, the late Ian Adam, played one of the Marschallin's Lackeys.

Though I only saw the revival cast (Dernesch, Howells, Cahill, Langdon), listening to it has certainly brought back memories. It is still one of the most memorable evenings I have ever spent in the theatre. Antony Besch's production was also wonderful. I remember how the Marschallin's boudoir in Act I had mirrors on every wall (it must have been a nightmare to light). In the postlude to the act, rather than have the Marschallin pick up a hand mirror to examine her face, Dernesch just caught a glimpse of herself in one of them. She quickly turned away as if to hide from her reflection, but could not escape the mirror on the other wall. As the solo violin played the final phrases, her hands crept up to her face as the curtain slowly fell. I'll never forget it. There was hardly a dry eye in the house - and this was only Act I! We were all wrecks after the Act III trio.

I saw the production on a Saturday evening and was so overwhelmed that I went back on the Monday to catch the last performance of the run. I will never forget it.

[knight66]

Your memory is more detailed than mine, that is an evocative description. I remain amazed that Dernsch was willing to learn the piece in English. I see the new season for SO consists of three productions.

Mike

[Tsaraslondon]

Your memory is more detailed than mine, that is an evocative description. I remain amazed that Dernsch was willing to learn the piece in English. I see the new season for SO consists of three productions.

Mike

Different times.

I remember that Scottish Opera's visits to Newcastle-upon-Tyne were always eagerly anticipated, and they usually brought at least three productions from their current repertoire. In those days I would go to see anything they were doing, whether I thought I would like it or not, and they introduced me to quite a wide range of repertoire. The year of that Rosenkavalier, they also brought Henze's Elegy for Young Lovers and Lucia di Lammermoor. I saw all three.

[Roasted Swan]

By this time Scottish Opera had returned to the original German, Janet Baker had been replaced by Anne Howells and Elizabeth Harwood by Teresa Cahill, but Helga Dernesch was still the Marschallin and, to this day, she remains the most aristocratic and beautiful Marschallin I've ever seen live (and I've seen quite a few)

.

Worth remembering that this later incarnation can be heard - in highlights only here:

[asin]B000025VII[/asin]

the advantages of bargain price and a solid studio recording add to having Dernesch's interpretation from this production enshrined as well as Gibson's sympathetic conducting.  No substitute for Baker but a useful addition/comparison.

[Tsaraslondon]

.

Worth remembering that this later incarnation can be heard - in highlights only here:

[asin]B000025VII[/asin]

the advantages of bargain price and a solid studio recording add to having Dernesch's interpretation from this production enshrined as well as Gibson's sympathetic conducting.  No substitute for Baker but a useful addition/comparison.

Yes, I have that too, but it's ony about 45 minutes of music, and, as you say, it lacks Baker's Octavian.

[knight66]

.

Worth remembering that this later incarnation can be heard - in highlights only here:

[asin]B000025VII[/asin]

the advantages of bargain price and a solid studio recording add to having Dernesch's interpretation from this production enshrined as well as Gibson's sympathetic conducting.  No substitute for Baker but a useful addition/comparison.

The Rosenkavalier plus the Scottish Opera Ariadne and Cosi are all available here....
_{https://operadepot.com/collections/janet-baker}


I have the double cd of highlights of Rosankavalier and Don Giovanni, mostly very good, a special reason for buying it is the singing of Teresa Cahill as Sophie, very much an under recorded singer.

Mike

[Tsaraslondon]

Do you know this recording of Elgar's Spirit of England? She's absolutelty glorious on it.

[knight66]

Yes, I am in it. I agree, it is probably the best recording of her. I have a couple of recital discs second hand, Alan/Elgarian prompted me to look for hard to find items. He knows her a bit.

Mike

[Roasted Swan]

 A recently acquired version

[asin]B0000025CE[/asin]

It really doesn't start very well.  Wixell is uninteresting and not in good voice throughout the opening scene with Domingo/Pinkerton.  The whole Dovunque al mondo/America Forever sequence fails to "lift" at all.  I must admit for sheer vocal beauty I doubt Renata Scotto would be anyone's favourite singer but things improve a lot from her entry on even if no-one could ever think she is 16 here.  The end of Act I love duet is still something of a disappointment but from that moment on when it really does become Butterfly's opera everything improves including Maazel's direction which is rather functional up to that point.  By the suicide at the end of the work Scotto has ratcheted up the drama a lot and its a very powerful ending.  No way would this be my favourite or even top 5 Butterflys but Scotto's performance demands attention.  I need to go back now and make the direct comparison with Barbirolli/Bergonzi.

[Roasted Swan]

Do you know this recording of Elgar's Spirit of England? She's absolutelty glorious on it.

Quite agree - Cahill is superb on this disc

[Elgarian Redux]

I have the double cd of highlights of Rosankavalier and Don Giovanni, mostly very good, a special reason for buying it is the singing of Teresa Cahill as Sophie, very much an under recorded singer.

Mike

There are times in one's life when one hears something that is life-transforming, and they are rare enough to be very precious indeed. I'd like to talk about two. Both occurred a long time ago.

The first was the highlights recording Mike mentions here. I bought it on a whim. I didn't know anything of Strauss, and wasn't very keen on vocal music at all, at that time. But this highlights record appeared in the shop, and it was cheap. So I took it home.

I'd never heard Rosenkavalier before, but when I heard the Presentation of the Rose I recognised almost immediately that it constituted an entirely new musical experience for me. Those two voices, intertwining with each other and the orchestra ... I can't explain it. It felt like a glimpse of heaven - as if I were inhaling the perfume of the Rose itself. It didn't occur to me then to take much notice of who was singing - I jumped into Rosenkavalier itself, rather than tracking the performers.

Fast forward a few years. I'd saturated myself in Elgar since late childhood, and was besotted with the orchestral works, the chamber music etc, but had always struggled with the vocal works he'd written. But I stumbled across the Chandos Spirit of England, and bought it on a whim simply because I'd never heard of it. I listened in tears. It ripped me apart. Here was a side of Elgar I'd completely missed, and that voice - that soprano voice - seemed completely at one with the spirit of the music, operating like a channel, straight through to Elgar's meaning.

This time I took note: Teresa Cahill. I flipped though all my other recordings looking for the name, and there it was, on the Rosenkavalier highlights record. Lightning striking twice, conducted through the same channel.

Since then I've listened to every recording of Spirit of England that I've found, but I've never found one that could match hers. And I've listened to some dazzling Rosenkavaliers, but Teresa Cahill's Sophie still affects me to a degree none of the others approach. I can't compare techniques - I don't know enough. But for me it's not a technical thing. It's a 'touched by the gods' sort of thing, and that's all one can say, really.

[ritter]

Very nice and very touching post, Elgarian.

[knight66]

A recently acquired version

[asin]B0000025CE[/asin]

It really doesn't start very well.  Wixell is uninteresting and not in good voice throughout the opening scene with Domingo/Pinkerton.  The whole Dovunque al mondo/America Forever sequence fails to "lift" at all.  I must admit for sheer vocal beauty I doubt Renata Scotto would be anyone's favourite singer but things improve a lot from her entry on even if no-one could ever think she is 16 here.  The end of Act I love duet is still something of a disappointment but from that moment on when it really does become Butterfly's opera everything improves including Maazel's direction which is rather functional up to that point.  By the suicide at the end of the work Scotto has ratcheted up the drama a lot and its a very powerful ending.  No way would this be my favourite or even top 5 Butterflys but Scotto's performance demands attention.  I need to go back now and make the direct comparison with Barbirolli/Bergonzi.

I used to have the Barbirolli on LPs. I recall enjoying the conducting, but not so much the singers. I will be interested in your thinking on it. Barbirolli said that the difficult areas were the non-famous bits, especially transitions.

Mike

[Tsaraslondon]

Another in Mackerras's excellent series of Janacek operas, made for Decca. Søderstrøm is again the leading role, with other roles played by native Czech speakers, which is of paramount importance in such a wordy, conversational opera. Vèc Makropulos, usually translated as The Macropoulos Affair is a harder nut to crack than, Jenufa, Katya Kabanova or The Cunning Little Vixen, the central character being much less sympathetic than the heroines of those other operas, but Søderstrøm doesn't overdo the bitchiness, and gives her a humanity which finally engages our sympathy.

[Tsaraslondon]

I used to have the Barbirolli on LPs. I recall enjoying the conducting, but not so much the singers. I will be interested in your thinking on it. Barbirolli said that the difficult areas were the non-famous bits, especially transitions.

Mike

I also used to have the Barbirolli on LP, and I rather liked Scotto's Butterfly and Bergonzi's Pinkerton. It was always amongst my top three Butterflies, the others being Callas/Karajan and De Los Angeles/Santini (the earlier of her two recordings). I should seek it out again on Spotify.

The second Karajan I like less. Yes, of course it's gorgeously played and sung, but I find it all too easy to just get lost in the sensuously beautiful sounds coming from the speakers and forget about poor Butterly's tragic fate.

[JBS]

This morning

Found this yesterday in the used CD store. I have the recording with Alagna, which I last listened to a few years ago.

[Tsaraslondon]

Sound is a bit muffled, but there is some thrilling singing here, especially from Heather Harper, who is a gleamingly tireless Kaiserin. Dernesch is a wonderful Dyer's Wife, but soon after these performances she took a break from opera to retran her voice, re-emerging as a dramatic mezzo, and it has to be admitted that she is somewhat taxed by the upper reaches of the role.

I don't know the opera that well, but it strikes me that Solti's speeds, as so often, can be on the fast side. My guides for Strauss are generally Karajan, Böhm and Sawallisch.