Inaugural Edition, no. 5: Post tease: Has any operatic act begun more beautifully? (Not to mention suggestively?)

"My long hair descends all the way to the door of the tower"

Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Pierre Boulez, cond. CBS-Sony, recorded 1970

Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Ernest Ansermet, cond. Decca, recorded in Geneva's Grand Théâtre, August 1964

by Ken

I can't think of one. And my goodness, doesn't this mere minute's worth of music make you crazy to know what comes next? We're going to find out in today's main post, after we take care of business.

"Ah! I breathe at last!"

George Shirley, tenor; Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Pierre Boulez, cond. CBS-Sony, recorded 1970

Or, if we allow it some of its proper build-up --

"Ah! I breathe at last!"

Camille Maurane, baritone; Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Ernest Ansermet, cond. Decca, recorded in Geneva's Grand Théâtre, August 1964


ON FURTHER CONSIDERATION, I GUESS WE COULD
SLIP JUST A TAD FARTHER INTO OUR MYSTERY SCENE

First, let's literally continue on into the act with the performances we've been listening to. Both sopranos are quite good (Elisabeth Söderström indeed seems to me quite special in this role), and both conductors are cooking.

My long hair descends all the way to the door of the tower --
my hair is waiting for you the whole length of the tower,
and the whole length of the day, and the whole length of the day.
Saint Daniel and Saint Michel, Saint Michel and Saint Raphaël,
I was born on a Sunday, a Sunday at noon.

Elisabeth Söderström, soprano; Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Pierre Boulez, cond. CBS-Sony, recorded 1970

Erna Spoorenberg, soprano; Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Ernest Ansermet, cond. Decca, recorded in Geneva's Grand Théâtre, August 1964

Now we've got a couple of performances that turn out to be not what one might have expected -- pne for better, the othe for, well, not-so-better. Let's listen first and talk a little after.


Jeannette Pilou, soprano; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, James Levine, cond. Metropolitan Opera special edition, live performance, Jan. 22, 1983

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, soprano; RAI Rome Symphony Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan, cond. Broadcast performance, Dec. 19, 1954

I won't say that Herbert von Karajan's 1954 Rome broadcast performance has totally won me over, but it has a kind of musico-dramatic logic that carries it forward, and i've kind of warmed to Elisabeth Schwarzkopf's performance -- the preening vocal mannerisms are still there, but not as obtrusive as they once seemed to me, and she does some honest, lovely singing. Whereas the other performance, well, It's (for want of a better word) to hear the solo treated with such rhythmic freedom (I want to say "waywardness") as to have, really, no rhythm. Even if we asume that the character is singing during the performance of some kind of physical task (she is, and we can tell from the start of her song that she's in a tower and seems to be at a window), and lost in her own world needn't feel strapped into a metrical straitjacket, surely there is some kind of internal process going on with the character that drives her into this manner of expression.

THE 2021 "INAUGURAL EDITION"
(SUCH AS IT IS, SO FAR)

No. 1: "Wanna hear in full the marches we heard in part during today's (pitch-perfect, I thought) inauguration?" [1/20]
No. 2: "Post tease: Sarastro sings a mouthful when he sings, 'The rays of the sun drive away the night'" [1/24]
No. 3: "While I toil away at this week's Inaugural-themed post, let's hear the end of The Magic Flute in our five performances -- plus a couple of 'new' ones" [1/27]
No. 4: "It's not just Sarastro who sings to us about the miraculous restorative powers of the sun's rays" [1/29]
No. 5: "Post tease: Has any operatic act begun more beautifully? (Not to mention suggestively?)" [1/31]

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