Elina sings Wagner

 
I have fallen quite by accident into a film of the Wiener Philharmoniker directed by Christian Thielemann with mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča singing Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder at this year's Salzburg Festival.  For many years these were my favorite Wagner.

This is something I sang myself.  Which means my head is full of ideas of how it should go.  Tempo, legato, etc.  It can't be helped.  Maybe it's just not Wagnerian enough.  I think it wouldn't have occurred to me that it should be like Schumann.  There's no evidence that she looks at him.  She's not required to, you know.  Now looking back at these songs I hear that they are not like a Wagner opera at all.  Perhaps she's right.  The orchestra claps and stands.

The concert goes on.

Arabella with Kiri

Conductor Christian Thielemann
Production Otto Schenk

Arabella: Kiri Te Kanawa
Zdenka: Marie McLaughlin
Adelaide Waldner: Helga Dernesch
Matteo David Kuebler
Mandryka: Wolfgang Brendel
Count Waldner: Donald McIntyre
Fiakermilli:  Natalie Dessay

For my first full opera on my year of Met on Demand I have chosen Kiri Te Kanawa in Strauss's Arabella, I believe from 1994.

They have given her a handsome, passionate Mandryka in Wolfgang Brendel. I promise not to review everything I watch, but this has to be an exception.  This is by far the most traditional production I have seen for Arabella.  The world has changed, and I don't suppose there are counts and countesses everywhere anymore.  There is certainly no Austrian emperor today.  So a traditional production seems suitable.

It is fun to see Natalie Dessay pop in for a moment.

Arabella wants the some enchanted evening experience where you suddenly fall in love across a crowded room.  Mandryka is even worse.  He falls in love with a photograph.  The mystery of Arabella is the Zdenka/Zdenko character who falls in love with one of Arabella's suitors, a young man named Matteo who sends Arabella flowers every day.  She knows she has to marry money, and she knows he doesn't have any.  No one pays any attention to Zdenko/Zdenka, a girl pretending to be a boy.  She almost ruins everything.  She writes love letters to Matteo.  She seems almost invisible.  Even her mother pays her no attention.

For me I love to see the same piece performed in very different ways.  I probably saw Kiri in this in San Francisco, but now I am more familiar with the opera.  Kiri is at the sweet end of the range of emotions.  Perhaps Anja Harteros is at the other.

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Lohengrin from Bayreuth -- the Blue Lohengrin

Conductor:  Christian Thielemann
Production:  Yuval Sharon

King Heinrich:  Georg Zeppenfeld
Lohengrin:  Piotr Beczala
Elsa von Brabant:  Anja Harteros
Friedrich von Telramund:  Tomasz Konieczny
Ortrud:  Waltraud Meier
Heerrufer:  Egils Silins

The complete Lohengrin from Bayreuth has been posted on YouTube.  Piotr replaced Roberto Alagna in the title role, probably because Christian Thielemann had worked with him in his debut in the role in Dresden.  Piotr is quite successful in this role.  Lohengrin doesn't take on the Heldentenor tone seen in later Wagner.  Anja Harteros is making her Bayreuth debut here.  In her interview she says that Thielemann never does anything the same way twice.

At the beginning of the opera Elsa is already bound as a prisoner.  You will note please that the wings some of the characters wear only appear on the ruling classes.  King Heinrich has them, as do Friedrich and Ortrud, and of course Elsa.  This makes them symbols of position?  When the duel begins, the fighters fly up into the air, which makes the ropes defining the fighting ring irrelevant.  Lohengrin steals Friedrich's wings and is awarded his own set to adorn his costume when he wins the battle.

Dresden Lohengrin

Conductor: Christian Thielemann
Production:  Christine Mielitz

Lohengrin:  Piotr Beczala 
Elsa von Brabant:  Anna Netrebko 
Heinrich der Vogler, King: Georg Zeppenfeld
Friedrich von Telramund:  Tomasz Konieczny
Ortrud, Friedrich's wife: Evelyn Herlitzius
Der Heerrufer des Königs:  Derek Welton

Netrebko's Elsa

From a Facebook comment on an Anna Netrebko post from the Sächsische Zeitung:

"Mr. Thielemann, probably on only three occasions was the Semperoper interesting for the international media: at the reopening in 1985, during the flood in 2002 and now, when Anna Netrebko sang her first Wagnerian role - are you satisfied?

- Yes, very. Anna Netrebko wanted to make her first Wagner with me, and I have proposed Dresden as a suitable location. Where else to hear "Lohengrin" because it indeed originated here. The orchestra has played so beautifully, the choir sang so beautifully, the soloists were top class. This "Lohengrin" with Anna Netrebko as Elsa was a stroke of luck - for us, for the house, for the audience. Guests came from around the world, the final applause after the fourth night lasted for half an hour. When do we have that?

The Russian has sung in German outstandingly well - are you surprised?

- I was generally surprised by how she threw herself at the role. I would not have thought it possible that the singer between the performances comes to me of her own volition to rehearse again, study further and iron out things. Such meticulousness made me very happy. And since we made four recordings, there is a version worthy of release. Whether it will be released, depends on our tests.

Are there any other plans to have the superstar soprano again in Dresden?

- Yes, there are some productions that I would like to study with her. Because of that, I now also have her phone number, it's preferable to discuss some things directly. But that will not be easy. She is much in demand and is committed for years in advance. To Dresden Elsa she dedicated one whole month and did not sing anything else. This unconditional will has also delighted me."

Cavalleria Rusticana

You can watch the brand new Cavalleria Rusticana from the Salzburg Easter Festival on YouTube. Here are some bits.




Conductor:  Christian Thielemann
Production:   Philipp Stölzl

Turiddu: Jonas Kaufmann (tenor)
Santuzza: Liudmyla Monastyrska (soprano)
Lola: Annalisa Stroppa (mezzo-soprano)
Mamma Lucia: Stefania Toczyska (contralto)
Alfio: Ambrogio Maestri (baritone)

I like both Kaufmann and Lyudmyla Monastyrska in this, Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana.

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I find that I want to comment on the production.  It was hard to understand exactly what was going on.  There was a conductor in the pit and an orchestra, and they were playing.  On the stage it seemed to be a film playing.  Up to six different screens appeared in two rows, and the scenes of people milling around outside the church for Easter services could have actually been films.  The gorgeous choral work could not be seen, and they didn't get a bow.

The only thing I could figure out was a large screen with films of live action which went on behind it.  The maybe four actual sets were shot and put together into what we were seeing.  It was hard to tell exactly since I am possibly seeing a film of a film.  Or who really knows? 

In the scenes with mama Lucia there were two mysterious men that came and went.  I kept rewinding to see what happened.  And who exactly were they?  Mama seemed to be working.

The plot was easy to follow.  It was only confusing if you wanted to understand how they did it.

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She's right.  You can't tell from a film, but my current guess is two rows of three boxes.  Sometimes they are only frames that make it look like boxes.  Turiddu is respectable but Santuzza isn't, though they live together and have a child together.

The street cleared and mama Lucia's box appeared in the lower row.  They must be rolled around backstage.  Maybe this would only work for the lower row.  One can't help wondering.

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There is a film also of Ruggero Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci which I find I don't like quite as much.  There is the same arrangement of two rows of boxes.  In this one when the play is being enacted in one section above, there are closeups projected on the section next to it.  Then at the end there is a big empty stage.  Curious.

Dirigent: Christian Thielemann

Canio:  Jonas Kaufmann (tenor)
Nedda:  Maria Agresta (soprano)
Tonio:  Dimitri Platanias (baritone)
Beppe:  Tansel Akzeybek (tenor)
Silvio:  Alessio Arduini (baritone)

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Strauss

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf recorded the Richard Strauss Four Last Songs twice, so why shouldn't Renée Fleming? If I am to do Renée Fleming properly, it must include the new recording with Christian Thielemann and the Muenchner Philharmoniker. On my iPod the album is called Strauss Sanger with a funny little "o" over the "a" in Sanger. I'm sure this is supposed to be dots.

One dreams with any music that someone will come who will immerse themself into a music until it permeates their soul, and with a singer also their body, to the point where it flows out in pure ecstasy. That moment has come. For those of us who worship at the shrine of Richard Strauss this is simply bliss. Her voice is fuller than the mature Elisabeth. Strauss is about the legato, refined to its ultimate degree, and Renée completely embodies this.

The musicians are on the same page. Gott sei dank.

The album is filled out with a long section of Ariadne's music from Ariadne auf Naxos. It works well on recording, though I can't quite imagine it in the opera house.

"Zueignung" gets a rapturous rendition with a few notes I don't remember hearing before.

The album ends with a wonderful excerpt from Die Aegyptische Helena, a work with which I am entirely unfamiliar. Goddesses of the past are no longer there for us to hear and worship--this goddess of the present will help us forget them.

There is a deluxe edition of this album with tracks not by Strauss. I didn't buy it.
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