(Imported from Oberon’s Grove: an excerpt from a much longer article about a performance of Strauss’s FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN at The Met on November 7, 2013.)
Tonight’s FRAU was a great personal triumph for Christine Goerke (above) as the Dyer’s Wife. This singer has now ventured into opera’s heaviest soprano roles – Ortrud, Elektra, the Brunnhildes – and she is an exciting exponent of this repertoire. The voice is vibrant and expressive, and she knew how to use it to maximum effect to sustain this demanding Strauss role from start to finish.
Power and subtlety were both Goerke’s to command, and while the fiery outbursts of this high-strung character (the role starts on a high B-flat) were delivered with total assurance, it was in the more reflective passages where Goerke showed that there’s more to the role than bitchy selfishness. In fact, the Dyer’s Wife’s transformation is actually more moving than that of the Empress; Goerke seemed to realize this and put a lot of colour and nuance into her vocalism, drawing on the more sympathetic aspects of the unhappy wife.
Ms. Goerke’s first illuminating passage came as she quietly tells Barak that, while they have been married for over three years, she has not become pregnant: in this scene, less than a minute long, the soprano touched on the rift between husband and wife with candid simplicity. Soon after, dazzled by the prospect of jewels and a handsome young lover that the Nurse has conjured up, Goerke sailed brilliantly into the magnificent “Welt in der Welt, traum im wachen!” (‘World within the world, o waking dream!’) with searing power.
Moving on to the character’s most vivid and powerful scene, at Act II’s hair-raising conclusion, the Dyer’s Wife reveals that she has nearly sold her shadow (“Barak! Ich has es nicht getan!”) but she has stopped short of the act, and – overcome by guilt – she begs her husband to kill her. Goerke whipped up tremendous excitement in this scene, both in terms of vocal generosity and emotional fervor. In Act III, the soprano reached yet another high point in the great duet ‘Mir anvertraut’; she and Johan Reuter sounded wonderful together and their joint melodic outpouring was nothing less than thrilling.
Christine Goerke’s solo bow at the end of the evening was very pleasing to behold – and to be a participant in the avalanche of cheers that greeted her was its own reward. She had given her all, and the audience repaid her with massive enthusiasm. I look forward to my second FRAU – which will feature Meagan Miller’s Met debut as the Empress – and to actually seeing the Goerke Farberin. Ms. Goerke, a soprano who once blew up a harpsichord on the stage of the State Theater, always delivers. And now may we ask for her Isolde, Elektra and Ortrud at The Met?
~ Oberon
Oberon's Glade 