Release Date: 01 January 2000
Label: Naxos - Historical / Naxos Historical
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 3
Barcode: 636943105825
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: WAGNER, R.
Description
Richard Wagner(1813 - 1883)Die Walkure A music drama inthree acts to the composer's libretto, second of the four parts of Der Ringdes Nibelungen Saturday 6th December 1941 was amomentous afternoon in the history of the Metropolitan OperaHouse, New York,The opera - Die Walkure - was well enough known to the theatre and radioaudiences that day, but this particular performance was eagerly anticipated asit saw the role debut of Helen Traubel as Brunnhilde - itself an auspiciousenough occasion. Making his first Met appearance in his role that day was AlexanderKipnis, singing Hunding, a part in which he had already been acclaimed inseveral European opera houses; undoubtedly that too caused much interest in NewYork operatic circles And as Sieglinde the audience was expecting to see LotteLehmann, widely admired for her vivid interpretation of this most lyrical of Wagnerian'heroines'. It was just a fewhours before curtain-rise that Lehmann was taken ill and a replacement had tobe found. The only available substitute was a 23-year-old soprano who had neverbefore appeared on any stage and who had been studying singing for a mere fouryears; it was simply luck - what luck - that it was the operas of Wagner thathad been her subject. Astrid Varnay was to make her world debut before a radioaudience of millions, a debut that brought her immediate fame and was thestarting point of a memorable forty-year career. Apparently notcontent with singing her first Sieglinde, Varnay astounded the New York public when, six days later, she sang Brunnhilde inthe same opera, this time replacing Helen Traubel - another first, of course! Traubel herselfmade rather slower progress up the Wagnerian ladder. From 1935 until early 1941Kirsten Flagstad had enjoyed almost complete supremacy in that repertoire atthe Met and it was only on her departure that the field was opened for others.Traubel was waiting, and for the next fourteen years she performed Wagner withspectacular success, floods of glorious tone and some of the world's finestsingers as her colleagues. One suchcolleague was the bass Friedrich Schorr. Although only 53 at the time of thisperformance, his voice had already lost much of its earlier glow. It had becomehard and unwieldy, but with sufficient moments of glory to remind today'slistener, sixty years on, of what it had been at its best, which wasmagnificent. Another colleague that afternoon - Alexander Kipnis - was still athis peak His rich bass resonated uncharitably as Hunding, reluctantly welcominghis unexpected guest, Siegmund; in the 1940s at the Met, Siegmund almost invariablymeant Lauritz Melchior. Here he is, as so often, on glorious form, disgracefuland endearing in the liberties he takes with his long-held 'Walse's in the firstact. Perhaps he was determined not to be overshadowed by the debuts of his twoleading ladies.We are notallowed to forget that he is an experienced Siegmund. After all, he sang therole 83 times with the Met
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Tullio Serafin
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