Oberon's Glade

Category: Opera

  • Rosette Anday

    Anday-Rosette - Copy

    The Hungarian mezzo-soprano Rosette Anday made her Vienna State Opera debut in 1921 at the age of 18 as Carmen. Franz Schalk, the Company’s director, had first heard the young mezzo-soprano in Budapest, where she studied at the local conservatoire whilst also taking violin lessons. Schalk engaged her immediately, and following her highly successful debut, she went on to become one of Vienna’s most beloved stars. Richard Strauss – no less – was Ms. Anday’s accompanist when she gave her first lieder recital in the Grosse Musikvereinssaal in Vienna soon after her debut.

    Rosette Anday’s roles included Mozart’s Cherubino and Dorabella, Verdi’s Preziosilla, Amneris, and Azucena, Wagner’s Fricka, Erda, Waltraute, Brangane, and Adriano in RIENZI, Laura in GIOCONDA, Dalila, and Klytemnestra. She was one of the youngest singers ever to be named ‘Kammersängerin‘.

    Banned from the stage during the Nazi occupation of Austria, Ms. Anday was able to resume her career immediately after the war, joining the renowned ensemble at the Theater an der Wien. In 1961, she celebrated the 40th anniversary of her debut with a performance of Klytemnestra.

    Also beloved as a concert artist and recitalist, Rosette Anday toured North and South America and appeared in Berlin, Paris, and at the Salzburg Festival. She passed away in 1977.

    Rosette Anday – Erda’s Warning ~ RHEINGOLD – 1948 – with F Frantz

    Rosette Anday – Printemps qui commence ~ SAMSON ET DALILA

    Rosette Anday – Mahler’s Urlicht

  • My First TANNHAUSER ~ 1978 @ The Met

    ONTannhauser1984

    Above: Richard Cassilly as Tannhauser and Tatiana Troyanos as Venus

    I saw Wagner’s TANNHAUSER for the first time in 1978 in The Met’s classic Otto Schenk/Gunter Schneider-Siemssen production, conducted by James Levine. Here’s what I wrote in my opera diary the morning after:

    “TANNHAUSER – first time – great!! Really a superb production (equal to the LOHENGRIN, but the opera is less exciting…) The sets, costumes, direction, and choral work were all excellent. Levine had some bombastic moments, and some places where he covered the singers, but his pacing was excellent and the orchestra played beautifully.

    Kathleen Battle was the very fine Shepherd – she sounds a bit like Reri Grist, which is a huge compliment. Vern Shinall made an exceptional impression as Biterolf, and Richard Kness (most likely the cover for the title-role) sang powerfully as Walther.

    Moll

    Kurt Moll, repeating his Met debut role as the Landgraf, brought his warm, velvety bass to the music – a great pleasure to hear his clear and steady tones, wonderfully resonant in the deep notes.

    Weikl

    Bernd Weikl as Wolfram (above) looked as handsome as he sounded. His voice is lyrical, and he projected superbly in the big hall. An outstanding performance! This was my first time hearing Weikl, and he immediately became a favorite. 

    Z-g

    As Elisabeth, Teresa Zylis-Gara (above) began with an exciting “Dich teure halle“, followed immediately by her thrilling singing in the duet with Tannhauser, wherein she conveyed subtle emotional changes convincingly. Zylis-Gara’s portrayal of the saintly woman as she searched desperately among the pilgrims for her beloved, and her subsequent downcast expression, were extremely poignant. She sang the Prayer with haunting expressiveness, and then walked slowly and sadly up the hill to her fate. It’s great to have Zylis-Gara moving into heavier German repertoire – the voice is satiny and strong; I would love to hear her as Elsa, Ariadne, Chrysothemis and, eventually, as Sieglinde.

    Richard Cassilly was a powerful, committed Tannhauser. His voice is not tonally beautiful, but he makes great use of it. The role is vocally grueling, almost sadistic in its demands. Cassilly was able to summon great reserves of sound, but he could also be subtle at need. He not only sang tirelessly, but made the character come vividly to life. His manic joy as he described the Venusberg to the stunned court, and later his crushed, agonized acting as a returning pilgrim were particularly well brought off. Cassilly’s potent rendering of the Rome Narrative, with his mocking of the Pope’s voice, was superb. He really deserved the huge ovation…bravo! 

    Tatiana Troyanos was electrifying as Venus, possibly her best role. She looked absolutely gorgeous, and her portrayal abounded in sensuous allure. Her wrath when she rejected Tannhauser was so intense, and her brief appearance in the opera’s final scene was simply spectacular. Her vocalism, which could smoulder alluringly one moment and blaze forth the next, was stunning. Troyanos was a stand-out in an outstanding cast.

    There were tumultuous ovations during the curtain calls, with the singers basking in the audience’s vociferous praise at the end of this glorious performance.”

    Tannhauser-1

    ~ Oberon

  • Verdi REQUIEM ~ Warsaw National Philharmonic

    Giuseppe-Verdi

    The Verdi REQUIEM, as recorded by the Warsaw National Philharmonic.

    Kazimierz Kord conducts an all-Polish quartet of soloists: Teresa Żylis-Gara, Krystyna Szostek-Radkowa, Wiesław Ochman,and Leonard Andrzej Mróz.

    Listen here.

    Leonard_Andrzej_Mroz

    As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I found this performance of the Verdi masterwork by happy chance while looking for recordings by basso Leonard Andrzej Mróz (above). It instantly became one of my favorite recordings of the REQUIEM.

    Mr. Mróz, as it turns out, passed away recently – in December 2020 at the age of 73. He was a native of Warsaw who began his career by winning voice competitions at Wroclaw, Munich, Geneva, and Amsterdam. He joined the Grand Theatre, Warsaw, in 1972 and sang there for many seasons.

    The basso’s international career took him to Glyndebourne, New York’s Carnegie Hall, Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Moscow, Paris, Parma, Mexico, Sofia, Philadelphia, London, Lisbon, Cleveland, Leipzing, Dresden, Paris, Berlin, and Moscow, as well as opera centers in Great Britain, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, and Italy.

    After retiring from the stage, Mr. Mróz  taught at the State Music School Fryderyk Chopin in Warsaw and at the Academy of Music in Poznan.

    Leonard Andrzej Mróz sings Rachmaninov’s Zdes’ khorosho here, the Death Scene from BORIS GODUNOV here, and Banquo’s aria (and murder) from Verdi’s MACBETH here.

  • Elīna Garanča @ the 2011 Vienna Opera Ball

    Garanca

    The Latvian mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča sings at the 2011 Vienna Opera Ball.

    Watch and listen here.

  • Christopher Lowrey ~ Ombra Mai Fu

    Snapshot ombra mai fu

    Counter-tenor Christopher Lowrey and Voices of Music perform “Ombra mai fu” from Handel’s SERSE.

    Watch and listen here.

  • Brahms Viola Songs ~ Kožená/Grosz/Rattle

    Magdalena_kozena

    Mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená (above), violist Amihai Grosz, and pianist Sir Simon Rattle perform Johannes Brahms’ Zwei Gesänge für eine Altstimme, Viola, und Klavier for Arte TV’s Hope@Home series, in April, 2020.

    Watch and listen here.

  • Lise Davidsen ~ Du bist der Lenz

    Snapshot lise

    Soprano Lise Davidsen sings Sieglinde’s “Du bist der Lenz” from Act I of DIE WALKURE, from a concert given by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra in 2019.

    Watch and listen here.

    In December 2019, my friend Adi and I met Ms. Davidsen after a performance of Tchaikovsky’s QUEEN OF SPADES at The Met.

  • Lisette Oropesa @ La Scala ~ 2020

    Lisette scala gala 2020

    When the COVID-19 pandemic forced the Teatro alla Scala to abandon their planned opening night performance of a new production of LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR with Lisette Oropesa in the title-role, the theatre instead honored their traditional opening date – December 7th, the Feast of Saint Ambrose – with a televised gala featuring a number of prominent singers performing arias pre-filmed on the Scala stage, without an audience.

    Lisette, wearing an Armani gown, sang Lucia’s Act I aria. Watch and listen here.

    The Cuban-American soprano is currently in Barcelona for performances of Verdi’s LA TRAVIATA.

  • Sara Leland Has Passed Away

    Scanned Section 1-1

    Above: former New York City Ballet principal dancer Sara Leland has passed away.

    In the Autumn of 1974, I had moved into TJ’s dorm room at Sarah Lawrence College, pretending to be a student; he and I were making frequent trips into Manhattan for the opera. We’d spent the Summer on Cape Cod, performing with a small ballet company. I had never liked ballet until I got caught up in it by dancing in COPPELIA. Now that we were living within range of Lincoln Center, TJ began taking me to see The New York City Ballet.

    It was a heady time at NYCB, with Kay Mazzo, Patricia McBride, Karin von Aroldingen, and Violette Verdy as reigning ballerinas. And on our third visit to the House of Mr. B that season, Suzanne Farrell returned to the Company after five years in exile following her falling out with Balanchine…yes, we were there that night.

    Whilst these lovely ladies were giving one spectacular performance after another, both TJ and I had a special affection for Sara Leland, a truly unique ballerina. I first saw Sara in the Valse Mélanconique of TCHAIKOVSKY SUITE #3; a few days later, she danced the third movement of SYMPHONY IN C in Farrell’s return performance. 

    In May of 1975, I saw my first JEWELS, and it was RUBIES that most dazzled me, with Ms. Leland and Marnee Morris, another favorite, in the leading roles. Robert Weiss stepped in on very short notice for Edward Villella that night. Read about it here.

    Helgi and sara

    We went on to see Sara Leland in Balanchine’s UNION JACK (above, with Helgi Tomasson), SYMPHONY IN THREE MOVEMENTS, and VIENNA WALTZES, and in Robbins’ DANCES AT A GATHERING (in Apricot), SCHERZO FANTASTIQUE, GOLDBERG VARIATIONS, AN EVENING’S WALTZES, and THE CONCERT.

    Both TJ and I were especially fascinated whenever Sara danced with Bart Cook. They had a kind of offbeat sexiness, and they somehow could be both edgy and poetic at the same time:

    C2-1

    Another of Sara’s frequent partners, John Clifford, posted a film of SYMPHONY IN C, third movement; watch it here.

    Iwm weslow sara leland

    Sara Leland’s romantic side shines thru in this lovely photo of her with William Weslow in Balanchine’s LA VALSE.

  • Richard Strauss ~ ‘Epheu’

    Snapshot strauss

    Soprano Julia Smith sings a Richard Strauss rarity, ‘Epheu’, with Jonathan Fisher at the piano, at the Elizabeth Harwood Prize Competition at The Royal Northern College of Music in March 2020.

    Watch and listen here.