The Cream of Operatic Crop: Highlights from the Bavarian State Opera (1997-2005)
Written: Oct 04 '07 (Updated Jan 08 '08)
Product Rating:
Pros: Great German & Baroque operatic numbers done by great artists of our time
Cons: No track from Mozart or bel canto opera!
The Bottom Line: Wagner and Händel ruled at the Bavarian State Opera from '97 to '05... and they ruled well! Great CD for lovers of German & Baroque opera. Not for opera newbies!
smorg's Full Review: Bayerische Staatsoper 1997-2005 Live / Mehta, Bolt...
Das Bayerische Staatsoper: 1997-2005.
This CD contains 12 live tracks from various stellar performances at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Germany between 1997 - 2005. The BSO is a repertory house with long tradition and stellar reputation in the German and Baroque opera, and so this disc is dominated by music from those 2 operatic genre (though Monteverdi’s opera are really from the Renaissance Period that immediately preceded the Baroque, and Verdi is a late contemporary of Wagner).
All the numbers are vividly performed and the sound well captured, though some tracks come with generous amount of background noises (the audience is nicely quiet and there are only a few coughs. Most of the noise come from the stage). It is hard to select just 12 numbers to highlight 9 seasons for such a distinguished opera company that puts on one marvelous performances after another. All the artists whose performance is included here are A-listers.... And it might be even more illuminating to note what A-list artists who regularly score show-stoppers there that are not even included; Edita Gruberova, Placido Domingo, Violeta Urmana, Diana Damrau, to name just a few
The Wagner & Verdi tracks are conducted by Zubin Mehta, and the Monteverdi & Händel ones by Ivor Bolton
TRACKS:
1. Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Vorspiel
2. Händel: Ariodante: 'Tu vivi' (Paul Nilon)
3. Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea:'Idolo mio, Poppea' (David Daniels)
4. Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea:'Pur ti miro' (David Daniels & Anna-Caterina Antonacci)
5. Händel: Xerxes: 'Crude furie’ (Anne Murray)
6. Händel: Giulio Cesare in Egitto: 'Se pieta di me non senti' (Susan Gritton)
7. Gluck: Orphée et Eurydice: 'Amour, viens rendre' (Vesselina Kasarova)
8. Händel: Rodelinda: 'Spietati' (Dorothea Röschmann)
9. Verdi: Otello: 'Canzone del Salice' (Anja Harteros)
10. Wagner: Tannhäuser: 'Oh du mein holder Abendstern' (Martin Gantner)
11. Wagner: Götterdämmerung: 'Trauermarsch'
12. Wagner: Die Walküre: 'Wehwalt heißt du fürwahr?' (Waltraud Meier & Peter Seiffert)
1. Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Vorspiel (Overture)
Even non-opera fans should have heard bits of this overture before. This splendid C major orchestral overview of the opera paints a lively picture of the locale this work is set at and gives us a glimpse of many famous Leitmotifs of the opera (the love motif between Walther and Eva, the Mastersingers’ Banner motif, a bit of Walther’s Prize Song, etc). Wagner opera, unlike the Italian opera, are musical drama. You listen to them the same way you read a book. Leitmotifs are specific melodic passages that stand for a certain ‘concept’ or character in the opera. Once you’ve identified what each Leitmotif stands for, then Wagner’s long opera will become more engaging to you as you can tell what’s going on in the story by the way the Leitmotifs are strung together into a narration from the orchestra. Anyhow, Maestro Zubin Mehta conducted most performances of German opera at the BSO, and this first number shows good evidence of his affinity for this music. The pace is brisk but no nuance is lost. And I love that, being taken from a live performance of the opera, the focus is in setting the audience in the mood for the opening scene of Die Meistersinger rather than really milking the number as a concert piece.
2. Händel: Ariodante: 'Tu vivi'
English tenor Paul Nilon gives a very lively read of Lucarnio‘s Act II aria. Lucarnio and his heroic brother, the knight Ariodante, have just been tricked into believing that Ariodante’s fiancée, Princess Ginevra (Guinevere of Scottland), have betrayed him romantically. Seeing his Ariodante in such a suicidal distress, Lucarnio sings this aria encouraging him to live on and not waste time on the unfaithful woman. As the story goes, his pep talk doesn't really work, but no one could say that Nilon's Lucarnio didn't do his best!
3. Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea:'Idolo mio, Poppea'
4. Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea:'Pur ti miro'
Tracks 3 & 4 from L’incoronazione di Poppea provide the perfect examples of music that is truly timeless. The opera was written in 1642, and yet these tracks would still be big hits if they were written today. The American counter-tenor David Daniels is a Nerone and is perfectly matched by the wonderful Italian soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci’s Poppea. The duet (#4) closes the long opus, as the evil couple (Nero and Poppea) have successfully disposed of his wife and her suitor in order to officially wed and rule together. It is such a divinely romantic duet sung by such a pair of well matched voice with such sultry sensuality that one feels guilty hearing and admiring it.
5. Händel: Serse: 'Crude furie’
Serse’s plan to marry his beloved Romilda was thwarted by her father (who gave her hand to another man whom she really loves), and Serse sings this song expressing his frustration upon learning that the ‘unfortunate event’ was precipitated by a letter from Amastre to Romilda’s father. It is a fast moving and florid aria with octave-jumping passages that render naked the delirious state of Serse’ mind. I’m afraid the British mezzo Anne Murray’s voice is not very pleasing to my ears and her wide vibrato is too noticeable on the few held notes that this bravura aria contains. Her dramatic conviction and enthusiasm make up for a lot, however. This is a living, fresh and blood Serse who is having quite a royal fit. She screams a lot (though perhaps the live in theater sound was better.... Some voices just don’t get along with the recording microphone).
6. Händel: Giulio Cesare in Egitto: 'Se pieta di me non senti'
The most famous of all Händel opera is, of course, Julius Caesar in Egypt. And a more fetching Cleopatra than the English soprano Susan Gritton would be a rare find. This is the passionate aria Slick Cleo sings upon realizing that she actually really loves Caesar rather than just pretending to love him for political gain. Hearing this drives home to me that life isn't fair... The woman was already a known beauty from a high pedigree with seriously uncanny political clout... getting to sing such beautiful music also is really an overkill!
7. Gluck: Orphée et Eurydice: 'Amour, viens rendre'
And while we’re on the subject of virtuoso singing, the amazing coloratura showpiece aria ‘Amour, viens rendre a mon ame’ from Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice can hardly be more vividly and heroically sung than by Vesselina Kasarova, the amazingly versatile Bulgarian mezzo-soprano. This clip is taken from the same performance that was recorded for DVD release. Orphée(Orpheus)’s wife, Eurydice, had died from snake bite. His distraught over it is so touching that Jupiter allows him to go to Hades to try to retrieve her from the Land of the Dead.... under the condition that he may neither look at her nor tell her the reason why until they have safely crossed back to the right side of the River Styx. So our hero breaks into this jubilant bravura song, summoning Cupid (Love) to help him accomplish the difficult mission (how do you get a dead diva to follow you across a river without looking at her anyhow?). The number features a fearsome virtuoso ending cadenza that was both written and first performed by the legendary composer/contralto Pauline Garcia - Viardot, though I have a hard time imagining how even she could have sung it better. Kasarova’s enthusiasm during the main aria is infectious (even when slightly rushed by Maestro Bolton’s tempo). Her coloratura passages are turned into heroic taunting of death, so that not even Doubting Thomas would dare to entertain the idea that this Orphée wouldn’t turn death into a pussy cat and come out on top in the end.
8. Händel: Rodelinda: 'Spietati'
We’re back to another Händel aria, where the German soprano Dorothea Röschmann makes mince meat of Rodelinda’s splendid rage aria ‘Spietati io vi giurai’. Having been made a widow by her husband’s rival, Queen Rodelinda is very understandably outraged by the villain’s proposal to marry her and allowing her young son to his puppet King. In this era-ful of soprani with beautiful voice who sing beautifully (so that you can hardly tell one from another by their singing), Frau Röschmann is a rare singer who never just sing the notes. Her Rodelinda has the beautiful tone and self-absorbed qualities that scream of ‘royalty’, and her defiance is so apparent that any Grimoaldo (the villain who deposed of her husband) would do well to leave her and her kid alone. A mother tigress with sharp claws whose every raging outburst is supported brilliantly by the orchestra’s trumpets.... and we all know how protective the brass guys can be of their soprano, ay?
9. Verdi: Otello: 'Canzone del Salice’
Jumping a full Century (and a bit more) ahead for Desdemona’s famous Act IV ‘Willow Song (Piangea cantando)’ from Verdi’s Otello. The German soprano Anja Harteros serves notice of her rosy future as a marvelous Verdian soprano. In this number, the depressed Desdemona tells Emilia (Iago’s wife) the trials of being abandoned by her husband Otello. She turns to the willow and spills her gut to it. And when Anja Harteros spills her gut to you in a song, even a tree responds and cries with her (courtesy of the very sensitive conducting of Zubin Mehta and the wonderfully sensitive orchestra and its harp soloist. You can even hear the leaves quake and the weeping willow if you really listen ).
10. Wagner: Tannhäuser: 'Oh du mein holder Abendstern'
The ‘Ode to the Evening Star’, is perhaps the most popular baritone aria from any Wagner opera. Wolfram von Eschenbach, a Minstrel Knight, has a gloomy premonition regarding his beloved Elisabeth (who loves someone else) after overhearing her prayer, so he muses to the Evening Star of the tragic state of the love triangle. I’m not very familiar with Martin Gantner, but the tenderness and sincerity this Wolfram exudes is very winning. I generally prefer a true baritone for this role, but Herr Gantner makes a good case for a bari-tenor voice as Wolfram.
11. Wagner: Götterdämmerung: 'Trauermarsch'
Siegfried’s radiant C major Funeral Music from Götterdämmerung (the last ‘Ring’ opera) is essentially the character’s audio-biography. Those who have heard Siegfried (the previous Ring opera) at least twice should be able to recognize many musical themes from that work and earlier in Götterdämmerung associated with the events in the hero’s life. It is so pictorially performed that Siegfried’s life does flash through my eyes when I listen to this track... It isn’t much of a life and the music makes too big a deal out of him (in my not so humble opinion), but substitute your idea of Siegfried the opera character with a real tragic hero of your choosing, and you’ll find it hard not to hit the ‘replay’ button on the stereo once the last note is sounded.
12. Wagner: Die Walküre: 'Wehwalt heißt du fürwahr?'
The CD closes with the exquisite performance of the introduction duet between Sieglinde and her long lost twin brother Siegmund. They do not recognize each other, and she is now married to the brute that is hunting him down, so he introduces himself as ‘Wehwalt (Woeful). The German fireball Waltraud Meier makes a good case here for a mezzo-soprano Sieglinde, and tenor Peter Seiffert is a convincingly wretched Siegmund, though I don’t like the shaky vibrato he has on held notes in his upper voice register much (one main reason why I’m not a fan of Wagner opera.... the loud modern orchestra have a way of ruining even the most beautiful and powerful singing voice over time, and sooner or later, they all develop that shaky vibrato/tremolo up high).
This CD is a great ‘sampler’ for those who love Wagner and the Baroque opera. I am surprised that no excerpt from an opera by Richard Strauss is included, since the distinguish German composer was a local hero in Munich. All the same, what is included testifies in favor of the BSO’s status as one of the most revered opera houses in the world. The track selection is also relatively friendly for lovers of classical music who are new to opera music, though it probably isn’t a very engaging mix for those who are not used to listening to classical music in general, much less the operatic ones.
1 CD. Case lining includes track list and a brief note on the Bavarian State Opera. No printed libretto.
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For those who are new to the opera and want to get some ideas of the kind of music included in this CD, try:
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFeneyJa6_Q (Track 7, ‘Amour viens rendre’ from this disc is taken from this performance. And Kasarova is the Orphée to remember )
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiU9alaW_v8 (The duet ‘Pur ti miro’ from L’incoronazione di Poppea. Anna Caterina Antonacci & David Daniels)
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0aeutiyv-0 (Bryn Terfel sings Oh du, mein Abenstern)
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LzynrjbTxM (Siegfried’s Death & Funeral Music from Götterdämmerung, Sir Georg Solti conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra)
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