Tristonho e Isolda

«I heard Ms. Voigt make her debut in the role of Isolde at the Vienna State Opera in 2003, a splendid performance captured in a superb recording on Deutsche Grammophon, conducted by Christian Thielemann. Bringing her portrayal to the Met was a major step.

Voices alter as singers mature, and whether through that natural process or as a result of Ms. Voigt’s significant weight loss in recent years, her vocal colorings have changed. She may have lost some of the sumptuous beauty of earlier days. But her sound is now brighter, more brilliant. And in the sheer energy of her singing, the unforced power of her soaring phrases and the fearlessness of her top notes, she seems more confident than ever.

In scenes with the alluring mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung, who excelled as Brangäne, Isolde’s sisterly maid, you could sense these two American colleagues urging each other to take dramatic risks and flesh out their portrayals. But Ms. Voigt, understandably, was somewhat tentative in scenes with Mr. Mac Master, especially during the long, crucial love duet in Act II, “O sink hernieder,” when, as night descends, Tristan and Isolde slip into their death-wish embrace.»

Queiramos - ou não -, Heppner, nos nossos dias, é insubstituível: como Tristão, Grimes, Florestan and so on!

O grande tenor canadiano, vitimado por uma infecção na garganta, teve de anular a sua prestação nesta reprise d'A Ópera wagneriana. Já agora, Heppner estreou esta mesma produção, há cerca de cinco anos, com a infeliz e desajustada Eaglen, como Isolda.

Previsivelmente, o substituo de Ben Heppner... não esteve à altura!

Entretanto, enquanto Mattila não se decide, Isolda continua a escrever-se, na América, com V - de Voigt - e com S - de Stemme - e M - de Meier -, na Europa.