#25 catharsis: the classical collection

CATHARSIS: THE CLASSICAL COLLECTION
v. HILDESTEIN
23 songs (1.3 hours)
2010

1. Sonata No. 1 Theme from Brillante 3:48
2. March of Innocent Children 7:42
3. Tema di Lucia (bagatelle for piano) 2:04
4. Legenda ~ Cinta Opera 4:15
5. Sonata No. 3 Peanut Days 4:42
6. Overture to A Shopping Spree 4:41
7. Rapunzel (symphonic version) 3:06
8. Westporte Lonely Hearts Club (orchestral version) 4:10
9. Suwa Suwe Kemoning 4:50
10. Jangan kau menangis sayang (orchestral version) 1:23
11. Melur sekuntum (soprano) 2:04
12. Menderu angin bayu (soprano) 2:22
13. Snowflakes (chamber orchestra version) 2:20
14. Maddalena (string quintet) 2:12
15. Sonata No. 6 in your birthday suit 5:07
16. Waltz No. 1 in B minor 2:40
17. Mengalir air mataku (mezzo-soprano) 1:20
18. Waltz No. 2 in C 3:27
19. Sonnet No. 1 ''Rusticana'' 4:16
20. Lied No 7 Irasmu bertudung lingkup (orchestral version) 2:14
21. Cinta Alisa (demo version) 5:29
22. BONUS Snowflakes (Christmas bagatelle for piano & orchestra) 2:28
23. BONUS (Bukanlah!) Puteri Lindungan Bulan 2:56

download: http://www.4shared.com/file/u65hj0J7/Catharsis_The_Classical_Collec.html

#24 lied aus lotössblatter no. 2 breit über mein haupt (STRAUSS)

Breit' über mein Haupt dein schwarzes Haar,
neig' zu mir dein Angesicht,
da strömt in die Seele so hell und klar
mir deiner Augen Licht.

Ich will nicht droben der Sonne Pracht,
noch der Sterne leuchtenden Kranz,
ich will nur deiner Locken Nacht
und deiner Blicke Glanz.

Spread over my head thy raven locks
And turn thy head to me
so that thy gaze, so bright and clear,
will pierce my soul's eye.

I yearn neither for the Mighty Sun,
nor the crown of glittering Stars;
I only long for the night of your locks,
amidst thy radiant gaze.

(text: Adolf Friedrich, from Lotössblatter; translation: me)

***

The tempo marking is Andante maestoso. Despite this, a lot of singers seem to sing the lied faster, more towards Moderato. I am of the opinion that you cannot rush a plea to your lover lest she pick up her trestles and scurry away (though in retrospective, I am talking from a male perspective).

The piano marking is telling: molto legato. The line must be creamy, sweet and flawless: hence the breathing is to be controlled at all times. For example, it is always easier to let the line just fall down in the words schwarzes Haar, like a violin, and not let the chest come too much on Haar and make it sound like you're landing on muck.

 

Temptation is strong to accentuate strömt, but it is better to let the line just flow. Take a breath after so hell before flying into so klar. I like to add a crescendo-decrescendo (with lots of vibrato - wring it, baby!) at the syllable au of Augen Licht. And despite the arching phrase (typical of Strauss), it was actually quite easy on the lungs, PROVIDED you:

1. take a breath after so hell before crescendoing into und klar
2. don't spend too much time on klar, because the important part is deiner Augen Licht.

In fact I sometimes crescendo only on und; the klar I float: it gives an impression of light falling (the crescendo) and then shimmering (the float) on a glass of water (IMHO...).

Ich will nicht must sound a bit whiny. Make it sound that you already have a big toy to play with; why should you be given a new one? Usually I accent the syllable son- of Sonne (because it is a BIG thing, you know, the Sun) and the decrescendo on Pracht (with a little stress on PR-acht, because the word means strong). The next phrase should be delicate; you're talking about shimmering crown of stars, not the Halley comet. Although the crescendo is marked to start here, I usually shifted it into the next phrase: ich will nur deiner... because it makes more sense.

Ich will nur deiner Locken Nacht is the entire point of this lied. This is the Master Phrase, and it demands every single thing one can possibly have, and just a little bit more. Use the comma sign and take a HUGE GULP of BREATH before starting this phrase. Keep everything on the breath, and remember the line SHOULD FLOW. I think that the ff sign here is more of a demand of maximum colour as opposed to maximum volume i.e. it should be BIG AND BROAD, but IT SHOULDN'T BE TRUMPETED: think Leontyne Price as opposed to Birgit Nilsson. The descent from Lo- to Nacht in Locken Nacht should be delicate. I recommend holding Nacht on a beat (or at most for a dotted crotchet) and starting the portamento up to und on the next beat itself as opposed to waiting for a whole minim.

und deiner blicke Glanz is a bit like a mini Master Phrase. I don't agree with the accent markings on und deiner; it sounds weird and it tends to distort the phrase. I recommend a breath before BLICK- (Ideally, though, the entire phrase SHOULD BE IN ONE BREATH). Play with blicke any way you want it: the way that phrase was written it is OBVIOUS that it was meant to be caressed like so much vermillion silk. Glanz should sound something like a harp arpeggio: GL-a-ANZ.

#23 Op 29.3 "Cinta Alisa", re-arranged for soprano & orchestra

Vocal score: http://www.4shared.com/document/s0bGbBJP/Cinta_Alisa.html

#22 hallelujah!

Petrucci Library (the most awesome site in the world, barring La Cieca and Manga Fox) finally has a copy of the score for Bellini's last gift to humanity: I Puritani. Granted, the copy is a little bit blurry but nevertheless one must be thankful. Merry Christmas!

And while I do think the late and lamented Dame Sutherland's version of the polonaise in The Art of The Prima Donna album is basically the most ideal, Mme. Sills (another recent major loss to coloratura-dom) comes close with her infectious voce ridente, intelligent variations and that! - that beautiful trill. You flaunt it, girl!

#21 amazeballs

The Eighth Wonder of The World:

Qual guerriero in campo armato (BROSCHI)


Qual guerriero in campo armato
Pien di forza e di valore
Nel mio core innamorato
Sdegno e amor fanno battaglia.

Il timor del dubbio evento
Il dolore ed il cimento
L'alma mia confonde ed abbaglia.


Vivica GENAUX, goddess of coloratura


(apparently, this video/recording has reached legendary status, thanks to one admirer at Amazon.com)

#20 open up your voice and soar for ever more!

 

Recently I acquired Verismo Arias, the latest offering from Herr Kaufmann. The handsome German tenor - who recently made a sensational debut beside Angela Gheorghiu in a concertized Adriana Lecouvreur - sang excerpts from what I would call ball-breakers: very very heavy material that would have made Joseph Calleja cry.

Light lyric tenor jokes aside, the album is quite an experience. There are familiar extracts from Adriana, Andrea Chénier, La Gioconda & Cavalleria rusticana. There is a very sweet little song, Ombra di nube, which I have heard before only sung by sopranos, one of them the legendary Claudia Muzio. Of course Vesti la giubba is there also, along with Lamento di Federico from L'Arlesiana (which I totally adore from a purely musical basis). The conductor is Antonio Pappano, who had Kaufmann for his (might I say slightly controversial) 2009 Madama Butterfly with Gheorghiu. The orchestra is the greatest in this world, by which I mean the Santa Cecilia Academy Orchestra of course.

I hesitate to call this release a complete success. Unlike Kaufmann's previous releases this oeuvre is an experiment of sort, a baby duck dipping its feet into the waters. As wonderful his instrument is, and as large his resources are, there is something wanting. I particularly find it almost offensive that Kaufmann elected to leave out the crying after Ridi del duol che t'avvelena il cor in the Pag arioso: apart from it's written in the score ('piangendo'), it also marks out an important point which Canio, well, lost his mind. There is also an awkward top B near the end of Lamento di Federico. Ombra di nube is gorgeous, but suffers from an over-coperto-ing of the middle voice.

On the other hand, Kaufmann might be the only spinto voice capable of surviving these ball-breakers since Domingo, but then again Domingo is almost like a freak of nature. The rest are either too routine/full of bad habits (Giordani, Álvarez), too light (Calleja, Jovanovich, Beczala), or plain destroyed (Villazón). Maybe like Cunegonde, it is ignoble to complain. And ''surviving'' is perhaps too harsh a word: there are certainly moments of extreme beauty like the I Lituani rarity, the Vicino a te duet, the opening mamma! of Mamma, quel vino, and the Amor ti vieta. At the end of the day, one must accept that Kaufmann is no Corelli or not even a del Monaco, but certainly in a class of his own.

By the way, the cover is stifling hot! That jacket is to kill for!

#19 addio, tigre

Shirley Verrett, amazing mezzo-soprano (who defied wisdom and laid siege to the likes of Tosca, Norma and Desdemona), the Azucena and Orpheus for the ages, passed away yesterday.

What a woman. What a lady. What an artist.

#18 crazy in love

Am right now listening to Birgit Nilsson's Salome, in that set with Gerhard Stolze, Garce Hoffmann & God himself, Georg Solti. Apparently there had been some advising me that the penultimate section of the finale (the murmurs Ah! ich habe deinen Mund geküsst, Jochanaan) is NEVER to be listened to after dark.

 

I tried. God, I tried.

#17 an era endeth

Sutherland went away yesterday. Fare well, Stupenda.

#16 silver age

O wär' ich schon (Marzelline) - Fidelio (van BEETHOVEN)

O wär ich schon mit dir vereint  

Und dürfte Mann dich nennen!  

Ein Mädchen darf ja, was es meint,

Zur Hälfte nur bekennen.  

Doch wenn ich nicht erröten muss, 

Ob einem warmen Herzenskuss, 

Wenn nichts uns stört auf Erden - 

Die Hoffnung schon erfüllt die Brust, 

Mit unaussprechlich süsser Lust,  

Wie glücklich will ich werden! 

In Ruhe stiller Häuslichkeit  

Erwach ich jeden Morgen,  

Wir grüssen uns mit Zärtlichkeit, 

Der Fleiss verscheucht die Sorgen 

Und ist die Arbeit abgetan, 

Dann schleicht die holde Nacht heran, 

Dann ruhn wir von Beschwerden. 

Die Hoffnung schon erfüllt die Brust, 

Mit unaussprechlich süsser Lust, 

Wie glücklich will ich werden!

The Very Best of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, EMI 2003

#15 libertà, finalmente mia!

Exams are like the Ring Cycle: it never seems to end. Fortunately, today marks the end of my fourth block examinations. After three grueling weeks of hammering things like names of various testosterone preparations, why old men leak a lot but never spray, and the wonderful things you can grow from vaginal discharge, I am finally free!

On the other hand, it also marks the first day of the study leave. The finals are looming, and I... I never know what to do for these things. I have very short attention span (more reason to love Bellini-esque melodies!) so it's almost impossible to stay attached to the desk and read tomes heavier than my head. At the end of the day I just hope I do well enough to satisfy powers that be.          

Speaking of which, I have been watching both seasons of RuPaul's Drag Race back-to-back, watching beautiful people doing beautiful stuff. The tension's worthy of an atonal opera, and if only these people were the costumiers of the recent-est Met mega-flop, maybe it wouldn't have been so bad.

My favorite contestant for first season is Shannel. She has such energy in every performance that it's impossible to look away. She had a dramatic run too: losing her wig during lip-syncing, costumes that burn into your mind, and proposing herself for elimination. I don't know why but I understand that: there comes a time when other people's judgement just sounds like bullshit. And those eyes! The only thing that scares me more is Jessye Norman's mouth!

The second season is like dripping in drrrrama sauce! But my fave is easily Pandora Boxx. She's such a pleasant girl, but she really draws you in, kinda like a Liù with a very well-acted death scene. And funny, too! Her Carol Channing kills! I don't know if she was booted out due to ageism or anything, but she looks like 21 going on to 16!

Oh God. I am really easily depressed right now. But no matter, because recently I have purchased one of Leontyne Price' greatest works, the legendary Blue Album (Leontyne Price). It was aural Eden: the cover was extremely classy & timeless (unlike Gheorghiu's Verdi Heroines, where the green cover just look like bile splashed on her face), and the singing was... Lordy. And she actually changed the whole timbre of her (well, heroic) voice for Sogno di Doretta aria! It was amazing! And well, after Moffo, her Tu che di gel sei cinta was as close to perfection as you can get. As for the Verdi excerpts, they were testament to why she was the Verdi soprano of the 20th century. Clever, also, putting Aïda excerpts as the first three tracks. You can have the 1997 remastered version here, where they took the Il Trovatore scena from another 1959 recording.

And of course, a drop of greatness from an ocean of art:

Off now to study, love.

#14 why singers wake up late

Because they'll wake up with the squillo built in! As opposed to waking up earlier and having to warm up the voice and all, they wake up at 4 p.m. and lo and behold! they're ready for the stage!

#13 facial expressions in singing

Cecilia Bartoli. Kathleen Battle. Some times, Diana Damrau.

What do these three ladies have in common, besides being examples of perfection of vocal art in their respective fachs?

(SO-CALLED) EXCESSIVE FACIAL CONTORTIONS!

In fact, they at Parterre Box coined Bartolitis for such an occasion where a singer (usually a lady singer, but sometimes Tom Hampson falls to the axe also; weirdly, countertenors are never alleged of this crime - you'd thought with all that falsetto going around their faces would be a war zone) struggles with her cheeks and brows to emit a tone.

I was watching the divine Mag Kožená singing Più non si trovano at Youtube, when I scroll down and detected diatribes against her facial expressions. I don't know why, but these comments incurred a passion in me that I had to stop drawing Microbiology slides - which I have to send in tomorrow! Talk about conflict of interest.

FYI, I like Magda but not too much. Her voice has a kind of unstability that makes one always think it wants to veer everywhere but on pitch. Maybe it's the quick vibrato. Magda is like Debbie Voigt - mezzo version. But I acknowledge her artistry, her industrious talent and her musical scholarship. In the clip she displayed a certain amount of facility in her facial muscles, but not unpleasantly so. This incurred one comment that Her facial expressions ruin it... they're wayyy too distracting. 

The point here is not how the tone is produced. It is easy to forget that the main purpose of everything - technique, training, concentration etc - in Classical singing is to produce a legitimate tone. Beautiful or not, that is another matter altogether - Callas vs Tebaldi, anyone? - but the main purpose of every shit that they do is to produce a tone which responds to every whim of the singer, every beck and call of the score, and maybe a few extrapolated notes here and there. In other words, babeh, the end justifies all means possible.

According to the proper ideals of bel canto - I remember reading a book by an lady Italian pedagogist, who had direct links with the son of Manuel Garcia, Maria Malibran's daddy - the proper position of the lips in singing anything is in a smile. A smile! Tell me, is it proper for a Lucia to be smiling while she's singing the mad scene? She is supposed to be crazy, yes, but should you smile when you're singing Il fantasma, il fantasma? Tell me, is it proper for a Maria Stuarda to smile when she's screaming Meretrice, indegna oscena?

Maybe we should blame TVs and videos of live performance, where cameras and other paraphernalia of visual recording are practically shoved down the throats of singers. Long time ago, the only medium to experience this art was via the theater, where over a long distance any contortions of the face became blurred and the overall effect on the performance as a whole was thus minimal. Over TV, HD performances and DVDs however, even a flick of the jugular is magnified thousandfold, leaving one somewhat exhausted after 2 hours of staring at blowed-up cheeks, wrinkled forehead and oh Lord, beads of sweat, before one lauches into a cavatina.

What I want to say is, if a singer requires that his/her face be contorted in order to achieve a sonorous projection / a big acuti / perfect legato, why not? After all, Classical singing is the art of singing with one's all, from the crotch all the way to the scalp. And if a pursed up lips can help the soprano  a little to reach the high Eb, so what? And finally, who are we to question the artist, who are vessels of the sublime?

#12 bitch

Some people are just so damn ungrateful. I wrote to them tenderly, and they gave me back scorn. Well, vafuculo! 

#11 lady gaga: alejandro video

I have always been intrigued by Lady GaGa. Her melodies are very contagious - in a good way, babeh! - and her exuberant style refreshing. Pop is not my forte, but I admire GaGa for the most basic of her talents: the creation of hooks and lines which stick to one's mind.

Her new video, Alejandro, is out. It is dark, it is raw, it is funny (machine gun bra? LOLS), it is open to myriad of interpretations: as GaGa always is. You may think it excessive, but after all that German personenregie, this is a trip in Central Park.

#10 exams week / Op 24 Waltz No 1 in B minor

The last few days had been incorrigible. I was almost certainly dead by Monday - and Tuesday was Microbiology! Lord in heavens!

One of my favourite-est persons in the world, Mas, celebrated her birthday on Saturday. It was also Pharmacology exam, so I didn't manage to buy her a proper present. I asked her what would she like, and she answered: a song, like last year!

I made a waltz for her.

Personally I hate the waltz, except a few divine ones, including Strauss' Frühlingstimmen - which Kathleen Battle sang with maestro von Karajan in a 1990 Neujahrskonzert in Wien album - and the theme to The Stepford Wives, which was really camp (the movie), but was an absolute bomb - I don't know why, but I'm blaming Kidman's immobile brows.

Anyway, waltz is one of those things that had been done to the death, and its blatantly romantic nature allows very little opportunity for my dramatic streak - such as they are, IMHO -  but I tried. I cheated a bit: the transition between the middle part and the recap was in common time, but hey, rules are made to be broken babeh!

You can hear it here. The score, all rights @fUGA arts limited 2010, is here.

Unfortunately, such joyful creation may accost me my Microbiology exam results. And I'm strangely feeling unaffected. Tralalala~!


Enough playing. I recently downloaded Gheorghiu's DVD of the now legendary 1994 Traviata with Solti. I cried like a baby, many times. I already had the audio track for a few months, but the thrill of watching a live performance is on a different plane altogether. Now I understand why Gheorghiu was such a phenomenon when she burst into scene. Ah, of things that could have been!

#9 The Office S06 E25 The Chump

I like sitcoms. They are probably the only thing I understand better than classical music. I used to watch The Nanny all the time and I tell you, that thing taught me - a lot - on employing the nasal resonance.

As of this decade, perhaps the show that I like the most is The Office, the US version. Nothing else can be as sweet and repulsive in one shot. Michael Scott is like the most idiotic person on the planet, but most of the time you'd end up rooting for him. The sixth season of The Office has recently concluded on a rather lame-ish note, but that's according to the reviewers! I was watching the last four episodes back-to-back at 2 a.m. last morning and let me tell you, my laughs must've been louder than Azucena's final scream of triumph!

I must say my favorite episode of the whole season is Episode 25 The Chump. And a lot of them seems to like it also. Favorite scene: Dwight's crotch attack! OMG if that isn't funny! Poor Angela. I also like the part when Phyllis is acting all disgusted with Michael - if that isn't a diva-esque moment I don't know what is.

Fave exchange:

DWIGHT : Are you warmed up?
ANGELA : No. (pronounced as naw, as in miaow; I swear that's what made this one-liner works.)
DWIGHT : God, why is that always my responsibility?

Oh. My. God.

Maybe I'm a dirty-minded guy after all.

#8 Turandot - Birgit Nilsson, Franco Corelli, Anna Moffo, Leopold Stokowski

Puccini is a hard sound to fathom. In one piece - take for example Manon Lescaut - he can be so sweet and enchanting (Intermezzo), and then turn 360° into a desperate raving maniac who tears voices to shreds (Sola, perduta, abbandonata!). It's safe to say that you can learn Puccini to the death, but real Puccini singers are ultimately born, not made.

Turandot is a great work, there's no denying that. But its greatness is sometimes overwhelming. Here is the last cry of the great Italian dramatic tradition, and what a cry it is: long arching lines at impossible tessitura sung at impossible dynamics and competing against impossible orchestrations. A Turandot is a rare animal, a precious phoenix, one in a generation. As of now, if I were an impressario the only singer I would trust with a Turandot assignment would be the lovely Lise Lindstrom (that is, if she develop her chest voice more!)

But at 1961, Leopold Stokowski assembled what would become the greatest cast of Turandot ever assembled. Well, the greatest cast of the characters that matter: the Emperor has so often landed in the lap of Wobbly Jobless it hardly concerns anyone anymore.

Birgit Nilsson had a gift. Her soprano was like a weapon: a spear-thrust, a laser beam that could cut through anything. And I mean anything: just before Tre enigmi m'hai proposto, her voice sailed over a brass-chorus chorale like a latter day Noah's ark, overwhelmingly secure and relentless. On its own, it was like listening to a silver trumpet: Straniero, ascolta! was almost instrumental in its perfection. Critics often ventured that her tone sometimes veers towards the sharp side of the note, but happily that occasion in this release is rare. In fact that may be her strength in this repertoire: it made her voice more chinoise in terms of timbre.

Franco Corelli was what he is: the greatest romantic-dramatic tenor of the '60s. His phrasing was heaven in itself: for example Il mio nome non sai was almost a sexual caress, while Non piangere, Liù was an affective flashback - hearing him I can understand why Liù would have fallen in love with this guy, which is saying a lot considering the Calafs strutting onstage these days. Usually what Italian tenors have ended with a sweet timbre and adept phrasing, but with Corelli it is so much more than that.

Anna Moffo is a sweet-yet-tough Liù, the sort of characterization Asians would have no problem identifying: the loyal servant tied by bonds of love. Her Lasciatemi passare! was so heartfelt, and her Tu, che di gel sei cinta was what vocal art is all about. I can safely say she is the only Liù I cried with when she died.

However this release is not perfect: it was after all a live occasion. The Emperor, Alessio de Paolis, almost destroyed it with his vibrato-laden voice. Anna Moffo dragged the entire end of Act 1 all by herself (starting in the middle of Non piangere), robbing necessary drive from Ah, per l'ultima volta. The Ping (Frank Guarrera) was quite good - sadly the rest of the P*ng trio were not. And I don't know what had happened but at the end of Act 2 all the trumpets were suddenly out of tune! It was unfortunate because the whole thing was fortissimo, so what was supposed to be a grandiose cadence turned into a very loud castrated duck, with the poor thing still bleeding lots.

The chorus was adequate, but at times they were very good: the reading of the Liù death scene was very electric. Maybe I am biased: I always think that Liù's death music is the best death scene music in opera. The orchestra was polished, save for a few occasions like the one above. Stokowski was a singer's conductor, probably because he knew what he was dealing with: operatic divinities.

Verdict: very highly recommended especially to Turandot virgins, even over any studio recordings: this is perhaps the best wedding night you'll ever get. Not so for operatic first-timers: you'll end up getting awakened in the middle of the night for a few weeks to Nilsson's Straniero, ascolta!

TURANDOT (1961)
GIACOMO PUCCINI
LEOPOLD STOKOWSKI conductor

TURANDOT                        Birgit Nilsson

CALAF                               Franco Corelli

LIÙ                                    Anna Moffo

TIMUR                               Bonaldo Giaiotti

ALTOUM                            Alessio de Paolis

PING                                 Frank Guarrera

PANG                                Robert Nagy

PONG                                Charles Anthony

CHORUS & ORCHESTRA : THE METROPOLITAN OPERA NY

GOLDEN MELODRAM OPERA LIVE

#7 Rapunzel (symphonic version) / sweet nothings

Breaking my embargo on strings, here is a symphonic arrangement of one of my piano pieces, Rapunzel suite. Here is the piano score of the piece, all copyright @fUGA arts limited 2010.

Tomorrow is such a busy day. But I'll try and post my review of the legendary 1961 Stokoswski Turandot with Nilsson, Corelli and Moffo, which is basically the most perfect cast one can dream in this monster hit.

#6 happy birthday beverly sills!

The eponymous American diva was born 81 years ago today (well, around this time, with the time difference and all). I love you Bubbles, you who dared to challenge your voice - even though you lost, you certainly walked out smiling.

#5 the villazón dilemma

Not a lot of singers incurred my domestic dislike quite as much as this one. Perhaps this was what a Tebaldi queen would've felt listening to a Callas bootleg: What is this bitch doing singing opera? But then we're not one of his adoring - and more importantly, paying - public, so it really isn't my place to say anything, save to say his records will be safe from my grimy hands.

Here is the greatest tenor on current stage, fighting with his appoggio - no, no. Here is Rolando Villazón, from Zurich with love for his fans.

Credits to cara Opera Chic.

#4 sonata no. 6 ''in your birthday suit''

This sonata for piano in E minor was debuted last fifteenth of May, which is my birthday, as part of my tradition of presenting a new piece each year on my birthday (last year I made a wind orchestra piece). Not too shabbs, huh? It was dedicated to my dad and a good friend, Hafizuddin Jailani, who's doing Meds in Indonesia (both also May boys). It was also one week after the passing away of Giulietta Simionato, one of the greatest voices to walk on earth.

sonata no. 6 in your birthday suit

Vincence Hildestein | MySpace Music Videos

#3 The Art of The Prima Donna - Joan Sutherland

Some albums are shit, like Fleming x Mackerras Rusalka (the Fleming portion). Some you can tolerate - like Leontyne Price' Return to Carnegie Hall, because at that stage she could probably have run amok down the Broadway and people would still have gushed at her. Some are testaments. Living, breathing creatures of the celestial: immortal daughters of the Sacred Flame we all live to serve. These types of albums literally make careers. One such type is The Art of Prima Donna.

The Sutherland brand is eponymous to perfection. Those who adores her, though, will concede that she perennially frustrate you with such terrible diction! Anything post-that wonderful Esclarmonde is an exercise of (undoubtedly technically very sound) vocalism - or rather vowel-ism. But at 1960, Sutherland is literally perfection personified.

There is that wonderful voice, going to deep abysses in Mozart's Martern allen arten, a convincing parlando and atmosphere-invoking limpidity in Verdi's Canzon del salice. Then there's the Bellini gems Care compagne... Come per me sereno and Son vergin vezzosa (favourite track! XXX), and then she literally explodes with Bel raggio lusinghier and Sempre libera. It's hard not to gush. Very. Hard.

I however always find it strange that the Dame ever undertook Norma under her repertoire. The only thing she brought to the table was clearly only her coloratura, because no other Norma has lost my attention to the Adalgisas of the night. That said, her Casta diva is appropriately a prayer, in the tradition of lyrical approach to the role. One also find a certain warmth lacking in her Let the bright Seraphim, probably because the tessitura never goes down, but this is a very minor patch.

Other tracks are essentially textbook references of what a properly trained 17th-18th century voice would have sound like. The most perfect trill in Ah! je ris de me voir si belle, a very clean staccatissimo (she would have performed it at a slower tempo in ten years) in Caro nome and O beau pays de la Touraine (at killer tessitura, no mistake), and properly stylized da capo variations in Son vergin vezzosa and Sovra il sen (with a crazy Db acuto right out of nowhere!).

The Covent Garden crew appropriately plays divinely under Molinari-Pradelli, whom I usually hear in more verismic works like Pagliacci. There was a certain Englishness all about it, of course - the Händel and Arne excerpts are so correctly played (Hey, I'm performing a period piece in proper style! So suck it!) it was almost cold. Make no mistake here who is the prima donna though; sometimes the orchestra throws it out full blast and the Sutherland will always come soaring above it all: here is a true dramatic coloratura at work, the voice that later will battle with Turandot-type orchestrations - and win.

Verdict: they don't make divas like this anymore. Sadly.

THE ART OF THE PRIMA DONNA

JOAN SUTHERLAND soprano

FRANCESCO MOLINARI-PRADELLI conductor

Best Classical Performance Vocal Soloist, Grammy Awards 1962

Disc 1
1. Artaxerxes / Act 3 - The soldier tir'd of war's alarms
2. Samson HWV 57 / Act 3 - Let the bright seraphim
3. Norma / Act 1 - Sediziose voci...Casta Diva...Ah! bello a me ritorna
4. I Puritani / Act 1 - "Son vergin vezzosa"
5. Semiramide / Act 1 - Bel raggio lusinghier
6. I Puritani / Act 2 - "O rendetemi la speme...Qui la voce...Vien, diletto"
7. La Sonnambula / Act 1 - Care compagne...Come per me sereno...Sovra il sen
8. Faust / Act 3 - Ô Dieu! que de bijoux...Ah! je ris de me voir

Disc 2
1. Roméo et Juliette / Act 1 - "Ah, je veux vivre"
2. Otello / Act 4 - Mia madre aveva una povera ancella...Piangea cantando (Canzon del salice)
3. Die Entführung aus dem Serail, K.384 / Act 2 - "Martern aller Arten"
4. La traviata / Act 1 - "E strano!...Ah, fors'è lui...Sempre libera"
5. Hamlet / Act 4 - A vos jeux, mes amis, permettez-moi
6. Lakmé / Act 2 - Ah! où va la jeune Indoué? (Chanson des clochettes)
7. Les Huguenots / Act 2 - Ô beau pays de la Touraine
8. Rigoletto / Act 1 - Scena ed Aria. "Gualtier Maldè...Caro nome"

#2 Salzburg Recital - Kathleen Battle

First and foremost, Kathleen Battle has always occupied a special place in my heart. She was my dictionary definition of a soubrette, and nothing (including the crazies!) ain't gonna change that!


This album was recorded during Battle's middle period, back when it won't be too far from the truth if I say she was the most beautiful voice of the world. It includes selections from Purcell, Mendelssohn and Fauré, basically the stuff that made her recitals famous. Some Mozart and Strauss standards (though I have to say Schwarzkopf's Ridente la calma is somewhat superior to Our Kathy's) and of course, spirituals. Now, I am of the Marian Anderson school of spiritual singing i.e. deep, deep and deep-ah, but I would venture to say that Battle's rendition of Witness is the best there is.

Voice = sterling. The runs were executed like silk. Ich wollt' ein Sträusslein binden was especially lovely. But Battle is a lyric soprano, and in lyrical singing she excels most: her Mozart is exemplary, and the only lovelier Music for a while I had heard was Philippe Jaroussky's (but then I had a bias for countertenors, but I digress). And let me just say: the high notes are orgasmic! Some anti-Battleites say her high notes had a prison siren-like quality to them. If only jail alarms were half this good!

Accompaniment = perfect. Then again, Levine and Battle were the dream team for about ten years. The playing was limpid, but suspiciously slower (in volume) than usual. But those who know Battle would know the fact that her instrument, for all its beauty, is very frugal dynamically. Levine knows this (perhaps more than anyone else), and adjusted - which makes for the perfect partnership one often found wanting in other recital albums.

The only downturn? Well, you have to turn up your volume full, because at 50% volume Battle basically disappears. Which makes it even more precious!

SALZBURG RECITAL
KATHLEEN BATTLE soprano
JAMES LEVINE piano
Best Classical Vocal Solo Performance, Grammy Award 1988

01. Come All Ye Songsters; The Fairy Queen, Semi-Opera, Z. 629
02. Music For A While (From 'Oedipus'), Song, Z. 583-2;
03. Sweeter Than Roses (From 'Pausanius'), Song, Z. 585-1
04. O Had I Jubal's Lyre; Joshua (Oratorio) Hwv 64
05. Bei der Wiege ('Schlummre! Schlummre und Träume von Kommender Zeit'), Song For Voice & Piano, Op. 47-6
06. Neue Liebe ('In dem Mondenschein'), Song For Voice & Piano, Op. 19a-4
07. Schlagende Herzen ('Über Wiesen und Felder ein Knabe Ging'), Song For Voice & Piano, Op. 29-2 (Trv 172-2)
08. Ich wollt' ein Sträusslein binden, Song For Voice & Piano (Or Orchestra), Op. 68-2 (Trv 235-2)
09. Säusle, Liebe Myrthe!, Song For Voice & Piano (Or Orchestra), Op. 68-3 (Trv 235-3)
10. Ridente la calma, Song For Voice & Piano, K. 152 (K. 210a) (Spurious, By Myslivecek)
11. Das Veilchen, Song For Voice & Piano, K. 476
12. Un moto di gioia mi sento, Aria For Soprano & Orchestra, K. 579
13. Mandoline, Song For Voice & Piano (Cinq Mélodies 'de Venise'), Op. 58-1
14. Les roses d'Isfahan For Voice & Piano (Or Orchestra) In D Major, Op. 39-4
15. En prière, Canticle For Voice & Organ (Or Orchestra) In E Flat Major
16. Notre amour, For Voice & Piano, Op. 23
17. Honor! Honor!
18. His Name So Sweet
19. Witness
20. He's Got The Whole World In His Hands

#1 renaissance

I'm back!

And, since I can't find anything appropriate to say, why don't I say inappropriate things about other people?

I'm re-creating this blog as a linking place, or whatever the term is, that would lead to some of the most gorgeous operatic albums ever produced. Wherever applicable, I would try and review the release myself. Of course, it would be an opinion piece only and not a fool-proof judgment! To each his own Rossini, I'd say.

Have fun! And keep the drama quotient VERY high!