Another Great Gone

Yesterday another one of the 20th centuries great opera singers died. I recall a picture in Opera News magazine of Elisabeth Söderström as Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier back in 1959. It captured my heart and then I heard her sing and that began a love affair that was to last to this day. (photo: Annelisse Rothenberger as Sophie, Elisabeth Söderström as Octavian - Rosenkavalier, Glyndebourne 1959)

I missed my one chance to see her on stage in Beethoven's Fidelio at Glyndebourne in 1979 - the compensation that year was Frederica von Stade in Ulisse - but the video of that performance became one of my favorites. Unfortunately the only YouTube version of Leonore's great aria is badly synced and I would have posted it but with a great singing-actress like Söderström you need the body language to go with the voice.

However one of the loveliest passages in the score is the canon from Act I. Leonore has disguised herself as a man - Fidelio - and takes a job at the prison where she believes her husband is being held as a political prisoner. Marzelline (Elizabeth Gale), the daughter of Rocco (Curt Appelgren) the jailer, has fallen in love with the young man to her father's approval but much to the dismay of her admirer Jacquino (Ian Caley). In this beautiful quartet - Mir ist so wunderbar ["A wondrous feeling fills me") - each character voices there own thoughts about love using similar words but the music expresses their own feelings. In a performance such as this one conducted by Bernard Haitink and directed by Peter Hall it can be one of the most moving moments in an opera filled with emotional highs.



Söderström was not only a great singer but according to others a wonderful colleague and very giving person. Her appearances on BBC and European television were filled with joy, wit and music and her master classes where real lessons in the art of the singer.

Her career at the Met was an odd one - long gaps between bursts of activity and though she did sing some of her better known roles, no Janack and of the Strauss only Rosenkavalier. In 1983 New York rediscovered rather late why she was a European favorite. Her Janacek and Strauss cycles at Glyndebourne were legendary as was her Mélisande for Boulez. She had only sung the Marschallinin Rosenkavalier on tour with the Met but when she, Von Stade and Kathleen Battle took to the stage the day of the Met Centennial for that final trio the house went crazy. All the artistry of her 36 years on the stage went into her portrayal of the older noblewoman who stands aside and allow her young lover to marry the young girl of his dreams.



Apparently her final years were plagued by bad health, I can only hope that someone who brought such joy and music into the world left it peacefully.

tack så mycket Elisabeth

21 novembre - Presentazione della Beata Vergine Maria

Overwhelmed... Continued

For a few days last week Reggio Emilia was the centre of talk in the European operatic world. Claudio Abbado, 75 and in not the best of health for several years now, was making a rare conducting appearance in Italy at the splendid Teatro Valli. His son Daniele is Artistic Director there. And for the first time in his career he was tackling Beethoven's only opera Fidelio. Given the maestro's reputation the expectations were high. I managed to get a ticket - not the easiest task, though getting a hotel was even harder - and made the four hour train trip up for last Tuesday's performance.

The Maestro(centre) taking a bow with his solosists, (l to r) Jorg Schneider, Giorgio Surjan, Albert Dohmen, Julia Kleiter, Abbado, Anja Kampe, Clifton Forbis, Diogenes Randes, Ilker Arayurek and Levente Pall.

So was it worth the time, effort and money? Well let's just say it was one of the most exciting evenings I've spent at an opera in the past 20 years. From the first notes of the overture (the wonderful Mahler Chamber Orchestra)Abbado's Fidelio had a drive and dramatic tension which made the more introspective moments even more moving. The Canon was lyrically breathtaking and the Prisoners' chorus (the men of the Arnold Schoenberg Chor)heartbreaking in its simplicity. The great second act hymn to freedom was almost hysterical in its joy but both Abbado and stage director Chris Klaus told us that joy was to be short-lived.

This was Klaus's first opera production and in many ways it showed. The action had been moved forward to the French Revolution and the guillotine was an ever present threat. At times it also became a senseless distraction - Giorgio Surjan was totally upstaged as one was assembled behind him when he launched into his "Gold" aria. But many of Klaus's images where disturbing and beautiful, often at the same time - the hooded, faceless prisoners crawling on their bellies from darkness into the light of spring; a wheelchair bound Don Pizzaro(a chilling Albert Dohmen), his body as crippled as his mind; Marzelline (Julie Kleiter) turning in horror and disgust from the unmasked Leonore; the constant grovelling and money grabbing Rocco (Surjan)as ready to turn on his old master as he is to grovel for the new; and the final image of the chorus that had been so joyfully hymning freedom once again trapped and overshadowed by guards and a rank of guillotines. Florestan, now the new prison governor, had learned nothing from his imprisonment and nothing would change. It was chilling but all of a piece with Abbado's dark view.

Both conductor and director where blessed with singers who committed themselves to this bleak vision. Anja Kampe's Leonore (right) was strongly drawn and sung; and if her blazing Absecheulicher! garnered no applause it was because Abbado would countenance none as he pushed the drama on. Though Clifton Forbis had all the required power for Florestan's great aria I found his voice tight and there was a constriction in much of his phrasing. The discovery of the evening was Kleiter - Mozart-like in her exchanges with Jorg Schneider (Jacquino) her voice blended beautifully with those around her and her Marzelline was a completely drawn character. Klaus achieved that with all of the singers - they delivered their lengthy spoken dialogue with conviction and only occasionally lapsed into operatic acting.

Ultimately the evening - despite the ensemble curtain calls I wrote about previously - was Abbado's vision of Fidelio - raw and terrible in its darkness. And I repeat it was one of the most exciting evenings I've spent in an opera house in 20 years.

The production photos are by Alfredo Anceschi. This production will play several performances each in Madrid, Baden-Baden,Ferrara and Modena over the next year. It will be interesting to see how it develops over that time - I may just head up to Modena to see it again next year.

13 aprile - San Martino Ignacio

Overwhelmed

I just got back from Reggio Emilia and I'm still excited - yes I know I'm over using that word but I don't know how else to describe it - by what I experienced last night. I'll post a more extensive comment tomorrow but let's just say that it was an overwhelming experience that ended in a gigantic love fest!

The entire ensemble on stage before a cheering audience. This was taken just before Claudio Abbado made his appearance - at which point the house went wilder.

It was very much an ensemble evening and to make that point there were no solo bows. First the Extras took their bows, then the two choruses (men of the Arnold Schoenberg Chor and the entire Coro de la Comunidad de Madrid) with their chorus masters, followed by each soloist, then the entire Mahler Chamber Orchestra came on stage followed by Maestro Abbado. Flowers peppered the stage and in a lovely gesture many were thrown back into the audience. The ovation went on for 25 minutes and they rang down the main curtain three times and even as I was leaving a third of the audience was still there voicing their approval. My hands were red from applauding, my voice a bit hoarse from yelling Bravi and to be honest my eyes still a bit watery from the emotional impact of the evening.

More to follow.

09 aprile - San Antonio Pavnoi