Following On From Female/Castrati Voices

[PeterRS]

Those of us interested in opera or just the vocal arts will certainly have their favourite singers. The discussion in the Boy's Penis thread concentrated on castrati and mezzo-soprano voices. So I want to add a couple of favourites of my own, to add to the wonderful Teresa Berganza who passed away a couple of years ago. I had seen her as Cherubino in Salzburg and also at the Edinburgh Festival where a few years later she had a stunning triumph in her debut in the role of Carmen.

But sometimes we come across voices that we have not heard before and which make us wish we had. During the pandemic I heard one which I have raved about ever since. The Staatsoper in Munich was streaming a lot from their back catalogue. One was Gluck's Orfeo from around 20 or so years ago. I had never before heard of the Bulgarian mezzo Vesselina Kasarova who sang the title role. In her mid-20s she had won one of the world's top singing competitions and immediately been engaged by the Vienna State Opera. She was to sing in all the world's top opera houses including the Royal Opera in London and New York's Met and at many of the major Festivals. Yet she did not want to spend her whole life singing and preferred to dedicate part of it to helping her husband and raising their son. Some years ago she returned to Bulgaria to take charge of the Opera in Sofia. Now aged 58 she has returned to the opera and recital stage. Clearly she is not only a stunning singer, she is also a consummate actress.

I'm going to add two clips from this Munich Orfeo. I believe the version is that arranged by Berlioz who absolutely adored Gluck's operas and was to become his champion in France. The first is the aria at the end of Act 1. This is a regie-theater style production - i.e. modern stage directors who want to say something, often totally at odds with the music. At least this aria is sung in front of the curtain.

I have heard this sung by several mezzos including the great Dame Janet Baker. But none comes anywhere close to this version. Even Dame Janet sounds slow and rather 'heavy' when she sings it. 

The second excerpt is arguably Gluck's most famous aria. It takes place just after Orpheus has been down to Hades and led Euridyce back to earth. But he forgot the instruction that he must never look back or he will never see her again. Overcome with emotion, he does just that and Euridyce is gone. Back on earth he wonders what life will be like without her.  

Often known as "Che Faro" it became popular in the UK in the 1950s thanks to the great English contralto Kathleen Ferrier. Ferrier had a unique voice and after WWII her career took off spectacularly. In 1953 she gave the first of what were to be four performances of Orfeo in English at the Royal Opera House. Not known to most of her colleagues was that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer some months earlier and had undergone a mastectomy. Although the first performance was a major success, she had been physically weakened by prolonged radiation treatment. At the second performance her femur partially disintegrated. With the help of other cast members, she managed to complete the performance before being rushed to hospital. She died later in the year at the early age of just 41.

The public was shocked at the news and tributes flowed. Perhaps the greatest came from one of the top conductorsof the age, Bruno Walter.  He said, "The greatest thing in music in my life has been to have known Kathleen Ferrier and Gustav Mahler - in that order." Many rushed to purchase her recording of this aria which she had made some years before the staged performances.

And one last video. Talking with a conductor a good 15 years ago, he suggested I try and hear the Polish coloratura contralto Ewa Podles, another singer of whom I had heard nothing. He had just made a recording with her and spoke glowingly of her three octave voice. Since then I have found several you tube videos and curse myself for not having mde more of an effort to hear her. somewhere. She is now retired. This is the same first Act aria from Orfeo in a concert performance recorded in 1994. It is very different from that of Kasarova, but equally mesmerising for what she does with the voice.

[PeterRS]

I hope some others may wish to post vides of their favourite classical singers here. One of the excellent features of this Board is the wide range of topics it permits even though there is no specific connection to gay guys and gay sex. But many gay men and women do have a special love of opera.

Two more from me - and both happen to be sopranos. When I first heard the von Karajan recording of Die Walkure way back in the 1970s, I was blown away by the crystalline purity of Gundula Janowitz' voice in the role of Sieglinde. This is a short aria from Part 1 of Haydn's masterpiece The Creation recorded in the 1960s with Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic. (He made a second recording quite a few years later which is nowhere near as good). In May 2009 I had the great joy of being present at the quite glorious Haydnsalle in Eisenstadt where Haydn premiered most of his works (although not The Creation) for a special performance of the work on the exact date and time of his death 200 years earlier.

Ms. Janowitz was by then retired and the soprano did not quite match her performance. But it was a perfect morning and an amazing experience!

The other is in my view one of the greatest voices of the 20th century - and sadly very underrated. I believe this is because, unlike most opera stars today, Dame Margaret Price decided to spend most of her time in very few Opera Houses - Cologne, Munich and San Francisco - with only occasional appearances elsewhere. Initially known as a Mozart singer she took on heavier roles as her career progressed. When the great conductor Carlos Kleiber was finally persauded to record Tristan und Isolde in 1982 with the Staatskapelle Dresden he told the Deutsche Grammophon producers that he did not want a heavy soprano voice as isolde. He wanted a lighter, more pure sound. Having worked with Dame Margaret in Munich he wanted her, even though it was a role she could never sing on stage.

Often regarded as the finest conductor of the 20th century, Kleiber was adored by his musicians and singers and loathed by managements - because he was by nature a very difficult man. He proved this again as he walked out of the Tristan recording sessions vowing never to return and to withhold his permission for DGG to issue anything from the sessions. Fortunately DGG had enough recorded material either completed or from rehearsals. The engineers were able to piece together a complete recording which was issued a year later. Kleiber dd not sue! In terms of the orchestral playing, Kleiber's conducting, the orchestral playing and Dame Margaret's singing, this version of Tristan is one that most Wagner lovers treasure and the closing "Liebestodt" is wonderful.