As I am listening to the 2nd act...
I would like to know when exactly Deborah Voigt stumbled and fell during her entrance and hojotoho-ing, because I would like to be fair in my critique. I will say what I heard, regardless of the incident: I was afraid she wouldn't make it through without something cracking. At the end of the act they say she tumbled just before her Hojotoho.
Her hojotohos were average and the high C's (as is usually the case with all Brünnhildes) were unsatisfying (at least to me). Her "Dir rat ich, Vater, rüste dich selbst..." etc. was...not so good. Her voice sounded brittle and her German is just not up to scratch. One of her Ho's was missing all together. I was shocked .
She makes many musical mistakes and forgets the text a lot. I guess that can happen, but. I am convinced she, at one point, was the best singer out there. Maybe this one was just too much of a biggie.
She definitely sounded best in the Vierte Szene, but only for a moment. It's hard singing "against" Jonas Kaufmann. Here he sounds totally like a baritone, and a good one at that.
Terfel and Blythe are making soothing sounds. With Blythe you hear a line through all of her singing. She really narrates. Her German and articulation are wonderful. I really enjoy this singer. Her voice sometimes sounds similar to Merilyn Horne's in the lower passages.
Terfel has a great, warm bass-baritone sound. His German is immaculate. I hope his movements fit his voice and he abandoned his "little boy with the wind wheel hat - sucking on his lollipop and pulling his Radio Flyer cart" interpretation from Das Rheingold. LOL
He paces himself so well. Wow.
His "Brünnhilde" in the phrase "der Welt weisestes Weib gebar mir, Brünnhilde, dich." was genius.
I can understand virtually every word.
Margaret Jane Wray has a very good voice and made a convincing entrance . But if she's supposed to be a mezzo my name is Heidi from the Alps. Her Siegmund calls were quite desperate. I liked them.
And OMG again, Jonas Kaufmann is just wonderful. His "Schwester! Geliebte!" - how beautiful. His baritone sound in the 4th scene is lush and his "umfängt Siegmund Sieglinde dort?" is heartwrenching. I don't know how his physical interpretation was, but vocally he sounded very protective of Sieglinde.
Bryn Terfel's threatening calls to seize the escaping Brünnhilde were a great closing, spanning the arch to the final act.
For now that's all folks. I hope I get to listen to the 3rd act soon.
To be honest, I hadn't listened to Act 2 until now. I thought Bryn Terfel was clearly the star of the night. Way above the others, in my opinion. Fricka was also very good. Voigt wasn't as bad as most people predicted, I think. I thought she did reasonably well. It's a very difficult role, of course. Jane Wray was more than adequate. Kaufmann adapts Siegmund to his own voice, instead of the other way around. Too slow, too technical (cultivated), too lyrical, no real bite. In my humble opinion, that is. A beautiful voice of course but I just don't think it's a real Siegmund voice. It doesn't get to me. It should. I'm curious to see how he developes Siegmund in the years to come, should be very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI guess I didn't take part in the Voigt performance predictions, since I wasn't expecting anything. The role is difficult, yes. But either one is born to sing Brünnhilde or not (my opinion). In her case I think she somehow thought she could miraculously graduate into it. I don't like the old lady brünnhilde sound.
ReplyDeleteTerfel's musicianship is so great.
I want to hear act 3: The valkyries and my all-time favorite theme, which returns in Waltraute's narrative in Götterdämmerung: Wotan's love for Brünnhilde.
I've been thinking about Brunnhilde. It looks like a very difficult part. I would also think you're either born to sing it or not. But the curious thing is a lot of singers think you can grow into her. First you have to do a lot of other things and in the end, like the peak of your career, you get to sing Brunnhilde. I don't think it's as easy as that. Even a mature singer as Voigt does have her difficulties. I didn't like her giggles, by the way. It also seems to be a kind of prestige thing, you're really something when you've sung Brunnhilde. The same applies, to a certain degree, to Isolde. I think, this being the first performance of Die Walkure, it's likely to improve along the way. As far as I can tell Kaufmann is quite intelligent and he'll also try to improve, as the other singers will. As he gets more confidence in the role he might loosen up his usual singing style and (vocally) adapt more to the Siegmund character. I'm sure he will, in the long term.
ReplyDeleteI revised my critique because it was a bit harsh. I need to be more objective, especially since singers like D. Voigt have accomplished so much in their lives. I'm just waiting for a great Brünnhilde, I guess. And I keep on waiting.
ReplyDeleteAct 3:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mediafire.com/?2156r7xdvv97d34
Thank you very much. I had found it earlier. Finally finished listening to it.
ReplyDelete