Eis algumas interessantes considerações sobre o papel dos papéis de soprano:
«"Isolde is a severe test for the voice," the Norwegian soprano Kirsten Flagstad – Isolde on the famous recording under Wilhelm Furtwängler – once observed. "Either it can be completely destroyed, or it can grow, as mine did." But Isolde is a great acting part, too. "It isn't all loud and screamy like the stereotypes," says Bullock. "It's a Shakespearean role, really."
Not surprisingly, many sopranos are nervous when the idea of Isolde is first mooted. In the 90s, the late Sir Georg Solti asked American soprano Renée Fleming if she would sing the role for a production he was planning. Fleming looked at the score, decided that her voice would never be the same, and refused. A generation earlier, Dame Margaret Price was persuaded to sing Isolde for a recording under German conductor Carlos Kleiber. The result, made up from several takes, is one of the most outstanding recorded Isoldes. Efforts to tempt Price to do Isolde on the stage, however, never came to anything. "I'm not a long-distance runner," she insisted. "I'll sing it to my dogs."
Price's performance has had lasting effects on today's Isoldes. Before her, the role belonged to sopranos such as Flagstad and the late Birgit Nilsson, massive of voice, with a laser-like precision of tone. Price came from another, more Italianate vocal tradition. Bullock says: "Isolde wasn't something I was thinking of until I was asked. But listening to Price made me realise it could be done. I think if I had started by listening to Nilsson I would have committed suicide."
Stemme adds: "I thought my first offer of Isolde was a joke." Stemme, at that time, was more a lyric Mozartian singer than a dramatic Wagnerian. "But a seed was planted. I went away and studied the role and realised it would be possible."
The role can certainly take its toll on a soprano's voice. As a young woman, the Scottish soprano Linda Esther Gray won great acclaim for her exceptional interpretation of the role under the renowned Wagnerian conductor Reginald Goodall for Welsh National Opera in the 70s. But Gray was rarely the same singer afterwards and her career was sadly cut short. The fine Viennese singer Helga Dernesch was another whose career struggled to recover from Herbert von Karajan's decision to cast her as Isolde in performances and on record in the 70s.
But if Isolde can be unforgiving it can also be incomparably rewarding. If there is one singer whom today's Isoldes revere more than any other, it is the Berlin-born soprano Frida Leider, who dominated the role in the interwar years. "Ah, Leider, she is the winner," says Stemme. "She's got it all." Evans agrees: "There's never just one way of doing anything. But it's the vibrancy of her sound that marks Leider out. All those colours in the voice."
Leider's recordings – sadly only of excerpts from the opera – point a path to the heart of the role. In her autobiography, Leider explains with great clarity how she approached Isolde. "I always tried to sing in the Italian bel canto style, and above all, I endeavoured to incorporate this style into my Wagner interpretations. I put my enunciation under the microscope. I accentuated very sharply but tried to do this while sustaining my vocal line."
It all sounds so simple. But it is the key to climbing the Wagnerian Everest and surviving to do it all over again a few nights later. Isoldes of this class are rare. Price came close, but only in the recording studio. The late Hildegard Behrens, who made an extraordinary recording of the opera under Leonard Bernstein, was probably the best of the rest in recent times. Now though, there is another name to add to the list. When I ask Evans to name her favourites, she replies: "First Leider, then Behrens – and now Nina Stemme," she responds. "I think she is very special."»
Pela parte que me toca, além das clássicas, que se estenda um longo tapete vermelho às Senhoras Stemme, Voigt e Meier - todas elas no activo. E quem nunca viu a Isolda da Stemme, verdadeiramente, nunca tomou contacto com a plenitude wagneriana...
Stemme é a minha Isolde, sem rival alguma - e conto com cerca de uma quinzena das maiores da história!
A POLÉMICA ESTÁ INSTALADA... CHOVAM OS COMENTÁRIOS!!!
(Nina Stemme, como Isolde - Glyndebourne)
«"Isolde is a severe test for the voice," the Norwegian soprano Kirsten Flagstad – Isolde on the famous recording under Wilhelm Furtwängler – once observed. "Either it can be completely destroyed, or it can grow, as mine did." But Isolde is a great acting part, too. "It isn't all loud and screamy like the stereotypes," says Bullock. "It's a Shakespearean role, really."
Not surprisingly, many sopranos are nervous when the idea of Isolde is first mooted. In the 90s, the late Sir Georg Solti asked American soprano Renée Fleming if she would sing the role for a production he was planning. Fleming looked at the score, decided that her voice would never be the same, and refused. A generation earlier, Dame Margaret Price was persuaded to sing Isolde for a recording under German conductor Carlos Kleiber. The result, made up from several takes, is one of the most outstanding recorded Isoldes. Efforts to tempt Price to do Isolde on the stage, however, never came to anything. "I'm not a long-distance runner," she insisted. "I'll sing it to my dogs."
Price's performance has had lasting effects on today's Isoldes. Before her, the role belonged to sopranos such as Flagstad and the late Birgit Nilsson, massive of voice, with a laser-like precision of tone. Price came from another, more Italianate vocal tradition. Bullock says: "Isolde wasn't something I was thinking of until I was asked. But listening to Price made me realise it could be done. I think if I had started by listening to Nilsson I would have committed suicide."
Stemme adds: "I thought my first offer of Isolde was a joke." Stemme, at that time, was more a lyric Mozartian singer than a dramatic Wagnerian. "But a seed was planted. I went away and studied the role and realised it would be possible."
The role can certainly take its toll on a soprano's voice. As a young woman, the Scottish soprano Linda Esther Gray won great acclaim for her exceptional interpretation of the role under the renowned Wagnerian conductor Reginald Goodall for Welsh National Opera in the 70s. But Gray was rarely the same singer afterwards and her career was sadly cut short. The fine Viennese singer Helga Dernesch was another whose career struggled to recover from Herbert von Karajan's decision to cast her as Isolde in performances and on record in the 70s.
But if Isolde can be unforgiving it can also be incomparably rewarding. If there is one singer whom today's Isoldes revere more than any other, it is the Berlin-born soprano Frida Leider, who dominated the role in the interwar years. "Ah, Leider, she is the winner," says Stemme. "She's got it all." Evans agrees: "There's never just one way of doing anything. But it's the vibrancy of her sound that marks Leider out. All those colours in the voice."
Leider's recordings – sadly only of excerpts from the opera – point a path to the heart of the role. In her autobiography, Leider explains with great clarity how she approached Isolde. "I always tried to sing in the Italian bel canto style, and above all, I endeavoured to incorporate this style into my Wagner interpretations. I put my enunciation under the microscope. I accentuated very sharply but tried to do this while sustaining my vocal line."
It all sounds so simple. But it is the key to climbing the Wagnerian Everest and surviving to do it all over again a few nights later. Isoldes of this class are rare. Price came close, but only in the recording studio. The late Hildegard Behrens, who made an extraordinary recording of the opera under Leonard Bernstein, was probably the best of the rest in recent times. Now though, there is another name to add to the list. When I ask Evans to name her favourites, she replies: "First Leider, then Behrens – and now Nina Stemme," she responds. "I think she is very special."»
Pela parte que me toca, além das clássicas, que se estenda um longo tapete vermelho às Senhoras Stemme, Voigt e Meier - todas elas no activo. E quem nunca viu a Isolda da Stemme, verdadeiramente, nunca tomou contacto com a plenitude wagneriana...
Stemme é a minha Isolde, sem rival alguma - e conto com cerca de uma quinzena das maiores da história!
A POLÉMICA ESTÁ INSTALADA... CHOVAM OS COMENTÁRIOS!!!
(Nina Stemme, como Isolde - Glyndebourne)
10 comentários:
Se eu pudesse viajar no tempo, iria sem dúvida, ver a Flagstad e a Nilsson ao vivo, pois admiro-as imenso. A Stemme é uma grande surpresa e verdadeiramente uma "herdeira do trono". Tem um timbre cheio e ao mesmo tempo doce e acho que ligeiramente mais dramático que o da Voigt, que também aprecio muito. Em termos de expressividade e movimentação cénicas, penso que a Stemme, neste momento, ganha uns pontos mais que a Voigt.
Penso não haver oposição. A Stemme faz parte da grande tradição que compreende a Leider, a Callas wagneriana e de quem tenho um cd onde pudemos afirmar que é a melhor cantora do mundo em termos de versatilidade , a Flagstad, a voz do século, a Nilsson, a Voz, e depois outras quase tão grandes como as anteriores e só rivalizando entre si, a Modl, a Varnay, a G. Jones e finalmente a Stemme. Conclusão:quatro nórdicas, duas alemãs e uma inglesa.
A voz da Meier já foi, embora eu achasse que os seus agudos saíam um pouco difíceis e estridentes. A actriz, porém, dá uma lição a todas as grandes, com excepção da Leider, pelo que me parece.
Raul
Continuando:
Não à Behrens, nunca a ouvi e duvido da sua substância vocal para a grandeza do papel. Quanto à grande cantora Margaret Price, eu pergunto, se apenas cantou uma vez a Isolda, quando a gravou, por melhor que o tenha feito seja, fê-lo de certeza em várias sessões. Será que se pode considerar uma Isolda ? Não, acho que não, pois caso contrário seria desonesto.
Raul
Acho que a G. Jones é Galesa. Em suma é Inglesa ou Britânica para o efeito. Li um comentário muito bonito da Tomowa Sintow relativo à morte da Behrens de quem era comadre! Os filhos de ambas apaixonaram-se quando acompanharam as respectivas mães que cantavam em Salzburgo casaram e constituiram familia.
Acho que, quer queiramos quer não, a Stemme
é a Isolde do momento, não existem duvidas quanto a isso. Mas não sei se a nova Sra. Irene Théorin, dona recente do papel em Bayreuth e já com uma carreira nas majors houses do mundo, lhe irá alguma vez fazer sombra. Embora já conte com um registo DVD RING Copenhagen (Decca), nunca a vi neste, nem em nenhum registo televisivo e ao vivo ; só a ouvi na Rádio nas récitas do último Ring Met Otto Schenk da Primavera que passou. Para lhe fazer verdadeiro juz teria que vê-la ao vivo, o que muito me agradaria.
Todos nós gostamos de Stemme que se adequa perfeitamente ao papel; fora a Meier, pôs definitivamente fora de cena e competição a “chaimite” que era no palco Jane Eaglen, nesta época em que toda a cantora que se preze tem que caber no tal e famosíssimo BLACK DRESS :-)…
…mas… já repararam na BOCARRA de Stemme quando ela abre a goela em pleno palco??… desfigura quase completamente a sua facies e torna-se desagradável e nada sedutor olhá-la todo o tempo sendo ela o centro da récita em si.
Nesta época de cantores Top Model… também não lhe abona nada, a bem da verdade.
Desde ontem já tive acesso na Net a Reviews desta nova produção Royal Opera House. Nada de novo: O Eurotrash vigente de “encenadores” que se fazem passar por encenadores… :-/
Anyway, os monstros sagrados que carregam atrás de si lendas imorredouras e que são Leider, Flagstad, Traubel, Varnay, Modl, Nilsson e G. Jones são VERY VERY HARD TO BEAT.
LG
Nina Stemme on the ROH's Tristan und Isolde
NUNO,
Please, try again... O endereço não leva a parte alguma :(
http://www.musicalcriticism.com/interviews/stemme-0909.shtml
Nuno,
THANKSSSSSSSSSSSS ;-D
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