Magic Flutes for Halloween

Hi there! I know, I've been such a bad girl, skipping for three whole weeks. I mean, I said I was human, but really? Three weeks? And the way I figure it, no one's reading this blog anyway, and even if they were, they would've been turned off by my formal writing style, so I'm just going to ditch my old habits and be casual. And yes, I do actually write in that formalish way from habit. So anyway, I believe the last time I wrote a blog, back in the days of stone tablets and chisels, I said the next one was going to be about "Die Zauberflöte."

"Die Zauberflöte" was the first opera I ever saw. It was magical. And I must say, if you ever want to convince someone that opera can actually be cool, "Zauberflöte" is one of the best operas for achieving that goal. It's funny, it has dazzling music, it has touches of drama here and there, and it's Mozart, for crying out loud! Nobody can say they don't like Mozart! Fun fact: "The Magic Flute" was actually the last opera Mozart ever completed before he died. On that note, I'll begin my review of this particular recording...

The cast is as follows:

Uwe Heilman (Tamino, Tenor)

Ruth Zeisak (Pamina, Soprano)

Michael Kraus (Papageno, Baritone)

Sumi Jo (The Queen of the Night, Soprano)

Kurt Moll (Sarastro, Bass)

Adrianne Piczonka, Anntte Kuettenbaum, and Jard van Nes (The Three Ladies, Sopranos and Mezzo-soprano)

Markus Leitner, Max Emanuel Cencic, and Michael Rausch (The Three Genies, Treble, Alto, and Mezzo-soprano)

Heinz Zednik (Monostatos, Tenor)

Lotte Leitner (Papagena, Soprano)


I'm just going to come straight out with it: I love Sumi Jo. She is amazing, and I desperately wanted to own a full opera that had her in it. When I thought about what I'd love to hear her sing, all I could think of was Die Königen der Nacht. Sumi was born to sing Die Königen. Her accuracy, pitch, agility, and grace are flawless. Naturally though, I sampled the other voices as well to make sure I was getting a good version, and they are all lovely. Uwe Heilman makes for a sympathetic, non-whelpish Tamino, a Tamino I find myself enjoying and rather than getting annoyed by (and believe me, I've heard some really annoying tenors!). Ruth Ziesak's voice is so delicate and lovely, you can't help but love her from the moment you first hear her sing. I'd also like to mention how fabulous the Three Genies and the Three Ladies are in this recording-- they're perfect! Their respective melodies and harmonies are so perfectly intertwined, and yet each voice stands out so clearly and uniquely. It's amazing. Lotte Leitner, I will add, makes a delightful and charming Papagena!


Now let's move on to the more negative comments, and mind, I am trying to be fair and not too harsh. Sir Georg Solti, the conductor, kind of rushes through the thing, which works on a lot of levels, but on other levels, it ruins the effect. For example, Pamina's aria "Ach, Ich fühl's" is very rushed, and as a singer who has tried "Ach ich fühl's," I know that the song is hard enough as it is without having to speed it up. If you take that aria too fast, it loses every bit of emotion, poignancy, and melancholy that Mozart wrote into it. Nonetheless, Ms. Ziesak carried it off beautifully, but I'm just saying, Mr. Solti could have given her some room to feel her way through the aria instead of making her push it. And another thing: Papageno is my favorite character in the whole show. For years, I listened to a copy of "Die Zauberflöte" in which a baritone by the name of Gottfried Hornik sang Papageno, and I still adore his performance. It was sweet, sentimental, and still hilarious, and his voice wasn't "comical." He was a regular, light baritone, and his acting was captivating just from the sound. Michael Kraus is more of what you'd call a "comic" baritone, but he is very funny, he sings his part very beautifully, and he delivers his spoken lines well. I have no issues with his pitch or accuracy-- he's a great singer! The other two male singers I haven't discussed yet are also wonderful performers. Kurt Moll is a great bass, but I think the reason I'm having a little trouble with his performance is that I'm not accustomed to his particular voice type. Like I said, I've been listening to a different version of this opera for a very long time, and to be honest, I only purchased this new version a couple of months ago. I think I just need to get used to his voice type, so I won't let that make me form a hasty, biased opinion and tell everybody out there "I don't like him" or something like that; that's not the case at all. Also, Heinz Zednik has a gorgeous tenor voice. I think my only issue there is that I can hear he wasn't acting when he sang Monostatos in this recording. Beautiful tone isn't all you need to be a great opera singer... You've got to have emotion, too. I say these things with the greatest respect for the performers and their efforts-- I know I couldn't do half of the things they can, and I sure as heck wasn't there during the recording session.


One more funny little thing: I think they brought in separate actors to be the "Speaking voices" of Die Königen der Nacht and Papagena, because the speaking Königen sounds nothing like Sumi Jo's speaking voice, and either they brought in an older lady to play Papagena in disguise, or Ms. Leitner is very good at manipulating her voice to sound old! 


Overall, this recording is truly magnificent, and I would highly recommend it. Some other time I'll talk about the other version of "Die Zauberflöte" that I used to listen to, but for now, if you want a really good copy of "The Magic Flute," this Decca Records recording is probably the one for you. So long!

~R.M.
 

A First Taste of Elixir

This week, I'd like to review a copy of Gaetano Donizetti's "L'Elisir D'Amore" that I recently purchased. It stars Ileana Cotrubas as Adina, Placido Domingo as Nemorino, Ingvar Wixell as Belcore, Sir Geraint Evans as Dulcamara, and Lillian Watson as Gianetta, with John Pritchard conducting at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.


Let's start with Placido Domingo, the star of the show. I have heard Domingo sing many, many roles over my short five years of being an opera fan-- a sweet and slightly foppish Alfredo (in Verdi's "La Traviata), a manly and dashing Manrico (Verdi's "Il Trovatore"), a frustrated and bitter Faust (in Gonoud's "Faust"), and a broken-hearted yet vindictive Canio (in Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci"). He can manipulate his voice to such a great extent! I must say, after all of the roles I've heard him sing, it was refreshing and pleasantly surprising to hear him do Nemorino. He sounds so youthful, so credulous, so sympathetic! You just listen to him and think, "Aw, poor Nemorino! He's such a nice guy-- Adina should treat him better!" His acting is beautiful, and he hit notes verging on the falsetto range with ease. I've listened to clips of other tenors singing Nemorino, but, truth be told, Domingo is the most charming Nemorino I've yet heard, with Joseph Calléja following close in his footsteps.

Next, Ileana Cotrubas. I am a huge fan of hers! I love how full her voice is, and how delightfully she acts. She makes the perfect Violetta (Verdi's "La Traviata"), and her rendition of Tatyana in Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" is superb (I listened to her do the Letter Scene on Youtube). There is a youthful but very soulful quality to her voice, and it adds real depth to every character she sings. I really enjoy listening to her sing, and she did a great job with Adina, but I'll make a confession: The first couple of times I listened to "L'Elisir," I thought, "What's Violetta doing in this opera?" But that could be because I listened to her and Domingo in "La Traviata" for probably a year before I got my mitts on any other operas on CD. 

Let's hit the lower voices! You've probably guessed by now that I adore Ingvar Wixell, so that's a no-brainer. Getting to listen to him is a pleasure and an honor in itself. His introduction is very suave, and he's very playful and mischievous during the scene where he enlists Nemorino. Sir Geraint Evans is a side-splitting hilarious and puckishly charming Dulcamara! Hearing him go on about how he's known through the whole universe "and...and... and elsewhere, too!" and when he says "Musica, amaretto!" and "Si, Briconna?" makes me smile and sing along (which might be annoying or just plain weird to the people around me as I listen to my headphones, but so what?). These two are dead on in their roles!

I would also like to make note of Lillian Watson's excellence! Her voice is so sweet and pleasant, the listener is immediately whisked away to the pastoral locale of the opera, just from hearing her sing.

I have one qualm with this particular set, however: there is no physical libretto. The second disc of the set contains the libretto along with the second half of the opera. In other words, to read the words and translation, the listener must import both discs onto their computer, start the music, and open up the libretto from the second disc while it's still in the drive. I find this very frustrating, because I'm the kind of person who  figures out what's going on solely from reading the libretto, and also the kind who loves to look up the exact words of a certain aria at any given moment. Can't really do that if you're playing the opera from an ipod, boombox, or portable CD player. But, this is a really beautiful recording with a terrific cast, and I highly recommend it. 

Next week: "Die Zauberflöte" No. 1!

Until then, friends, I remain,

Yours truly,

~R.M.