Oh...no. This was worse than I thought it would be. I do like some Studer recordings -- I think the Tannhauser and the Salome are quite good, and I like the Semiramide because overall it's such strong cast and Marin has such a great instinct for the score -- but this, man. That's really...well, if I'd paid money for it, I'd have been upset.
Yeesh. I like Studer, generally, but this is just...you can just see the record engeneer throwing his hands in the air and saying "there isn't enough digital fixing in the world to make this sound good"
There are definitely some cringe-inducing moments and it's not a great performance by any means. But, it's not all that awful either...
I once (ages ago) heard her Isolde's Transfiguration. She couldn't sustain the line. As the piece got more and more difficult, the piece overwhelmed her.
Studer's problem was that she thought that she could sing everything. And for some reason, record companies allowed her to record everything...(?)
when was this recorded? sounds like a later, past-prime Studer...
like kashania said, she's one of those that tried to record everything. you want to hear filth? ever hear Caballe's immolation scene????? the woman sounded like she was drowning, which in fact, she was, totally swallowed up by the orchestra (conducted by Mehta).
I refuse to make ANY comment about Studer's singing in this clip - I think I have said QUITE ENOUGH in my Blogger Battles with Marschallin about my sentiments towards the gullet of CS.
I am certainly NOT surprised to see that Caballé sang the Immolation Scene...I haven't heard anything more than the tiny clip on the site provided by Doug. However, I do have to say that my vote for favorite Immolation Scene is between two ladies: Flagstad live with NYPhil and Bruno Walter...and Eva Marton's recording on her Wagner Scenes album with Arpad Joos conducting - simply FLAWLESS. And the one woman I just WISH had sung the scene at least ONCE for posterity...Leontyne Price. But then again, she refused to sing Don Carlo, Otello, and a couple of other things that she would have kicked ass!
I was in the audience when Caballe sang the Immolation under Mehta at Avery Fisher Hall in 198(2?). She was stunning--it was her sudden "Wagner everywhere" period--and not at all drowned by the orchestra.
If we're talking concert-only Immolation Scenes, we can't forget to mention some of my favorites:
Farrell Horne Ludwig
Can't remember right now if Verrett ever did it. She certainly could have.
I fantasize about Leontyne having done it one time, too. Too bad. I secretly think she learned the Immolation Scene and the Lucia Mad Scene for possible inclusion on the Prima Donna discs.
i don't think Verrett did it, but both Arroyo and Bumbry have. i have Bumbry's version (she tends to shout a lot), from Holland, with Gergiev.
Arroyo, i was told, did it in concert in the South somewhere...
as for Caballe, at least from the Mehta recording, she sounds like she's drowning to me, because the voice just doesn't have the weight for this part. that's just my impression. it's not how loud you can sing, but the weight of the voice, isn't it? i mean, you could give Battle a microphone and tell her to scream into it and she could sing this too.
Gregory presents, or at least implies, a specious argument. By this reasoning unless you are Moshe Safdie you cannot critique a house, unless you are Jacques Pepin you cannot say a meal is lousy, or unless you are Olivier you cannot judge that Keanu Reeves is a crap actor. This is so much silliness. - And for that matter, there are a lot of singers that hang around these here parts.
Why do some people think they can sing anything? I don't get it. I mean, Studer obviously (at least at some point) had a "good" voice, but just because you can sing some things really well doesn't mean everyone everywhere wants to hear you sing everything. (*loud_cough**RENEE**loud_cough*). And the goat vibrato. ie: her ineffective attempt at trills, makes everyone laugh, I know, but I can only wonder at it all - Was it that SHE really wanted to do it? Or was she pushed into it? I think there is a lot of bad singing in this business because the singer wants to make everyone happy, and someone in charge said to her - GILDA!!!! DO IT NOW!!!! YOU CAN DO IT!!! STOP THINKING ABOUT IT SO MUCH AND JUST SING IT!!!!! And inside, she was probably dying a little and thinking, OMG, I totally should be singing this, but they are all telling me it's great, and mybe I am being too critical of myself, and maybe its better than I think it is... I don't know. The above scenario DOES happen, and perhaps she knows it's cringe-worthy.
Bumbry's Immolation SCene was posted on operashare (yahoogroup). here's the original message:
Hello,
here's Grace Bumbry singing Brünnhilde's Immolation Scene from Wagner's GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG.
Utrecht January 6, 1993 Rotterdam philharmonic Orchestra Valery Gergiev, conductor
I've uploaded two versions - the original in 256 kbps and one version with hiss reduction (but still 356 kbps). Choose which ever you feel is the best. I tend to like the hiss reduced better. But it's a personal choice.
if you caught Alberto Innaurato's article on ON about her, he describes also a private concert in which she sings the Immol. Scene and the last scenes of Troyens. must have been quite a concert...
From what I've been told, artists seldom go to recording companies and suggest they do such and such a role- it is more often the case that the recording companies and their producers who initiate cast lists. I'm also told that Ms Studer was one of those artists whom they put under extraordinary pressure to record "everything in sight". Nice to see our own "witches chorus" dicing and slicing someone other than Rennay for a change :)
It's not the worst Caro nome I've ever heard; frankly at the very beginning I was expecting something much more like FloJo, but those top notes sound very... um... spread to say the least.
I bought (and sold) her Lucia a few years ago. I don't think I've ever found a Mad Scene as boring in my life... maybe it was only a Slightly Peeved Scene!
Recital: Richard Strauss Lieder Semjon Skigin, piano
Masterclasses -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bayreuth, Villa Wahnfried, Wagner's music room and library, 3 August 2007
Recital: Richard Strauss Lieder Semjon Skigin, piano
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seoul (South Korea), 27 November to 7 December 2007
Member of the jury of the Third Seoul International Music Competition
I am very much looking foward to watching this Immolation Scene with Gracious Brambleberry (I just love her!) - but haven't had a chance as of yet. The ironic thing is that I went to bed last night after opting to not watch the long scene...only to turn on the tv to the Covent Garden telecast of Goetterdaemmerung and caught, ironically, the Immolation Scene!
Actually, I'd like to share a GB anecdote that I was just told a few nights ago by a rather well-respected musician who was witnessed this display. Turns out, Gracie decided to walk off the stage during a concert performance of Salome with Solti conducting. She left the stage just prior to the 7 Veil Dance and by the time anyone realized that she missed her next entrance, she was already in her hotel room. I don't recall where this took place...but ultimately Solti put down the baton and everyone went home.
I wonder if Grace ever mentioned this or was questioned about it in any interviews? Has anyone else heard about this?
I think its a bit sad to see Studer actual schedule. After being a main performer at the Bayreuth Festspiele (I do think that her Elsa and her Elisabeth were really good), now singing a recital at Villa Wahnfried, not even at the Markgräfliches Opernhaus (Bayreuths Opera House and one of the most beautiful in the World).
I also heard that her students in Würzburg are very fond of her and she seems to be a very charming person.
Still another fault in voice production is the tremolo. It is the overambitious singer, the singer who forces a small, light organ to do heavy work, who develops the tremolo.
The tremolo is a sure sign that the vocal chords have been stretched beyond their natural limits, and there is only one thing can cure this. That is absolute rest for some time and then beginning the study of the voice, first singing with the mouth closed and relying entirely on very gentle breath pressure for the production of the sound.
The pupil suffering from tremolo or even very strong vibrato must have courage to stop at once and to forego having a big voice. After all, the most beautiful voices in the world are not necessarily the biggest voices, and certainly the tremolo is about the worst fault a singer can have. But that, like almost any other vocal defect, can be cured by persistent effort of the right kind.
Not that Studer was suited for soubrette repertoire, but LT's pretty clear here that you can get away with singing inappropriate rep. for only so long. Well, we'd call a "tremolo" a "wobble" today, I believe, but what her voice does here is no better. Such a shame--she does have a considerable amount of talent.
2005 - January 2008 posts for parterre box presents La Cieca. Cher public, here you will find all the classic content and caustic comments you remember so well from those days long gone by.
30 comments:
Haha! I remember mentioning this around Marschallin way back when. Seriously, is she trying to impersonate a goat?
blech why did Studer bother with this role
Is this the rendition from the Levine Recording? because if so...
Now let's not be too hard on her. We've all had things in our throat we later wished we didn't have. With her it just happened to be Gilda
Oh...no. This was worse than I thought it would be. I do like some Studer recordings -- I think the Tannhauser and the Salome are quite good, and I like the Semiramide because overall it's such strong cast and Marin has such a great instinct for the score -- but this, man. That's really...well, if I'd paid money for it, I'd have been upset.
Yeesh. I like Studer, generally, but this is just...you can just see the record engeneer throwing his hands in the air and saying "there isn't enough digital fixing in the world to make this sound good"
Studer's Gilda (with Pavarotti) is beyond doubt MUCH MUCH worse. (Has anyone ever heard the recording of Studer's Isolde? I died laughing).
There are definitely some cringe-inducing moments and it's not a great performance by any means. But, it's not all that awful either...
I once (ages ago) heard her Isolde's Transfiguration. She couldn't sustain the line. As the piece got more and more difficult, the piece overwhelmed her.
Studer's problem was that she thought that she could sing everything. And for some reason, record companies allowed her to record everything...(?)
What audacity! What shamelessness! What guts! To sing like that. Verdi is spinning in his grave.
when was this recorded? sounds like a later, past-prime Studer...
like kashania said, she's one of those that tried to record everything. you want to hear filth? ever hear Caballe's immolation scene????? the woman sounded like she was drowning, which in fact, she was, totally swallowed up by the orchestra (conducted by Mehta).
caballe recorded an immolation scene?!!! now THIS i have to hear! I'm guessing it was late in her career, around the isoldes?
http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/1238176/a/Wagner:+Highlights+from+%22The+Ring%22+%2F+Mehta,+New+York+PO.htm
personally, i think it's got its moments :)
I refuse to make ANY comment about Studer's singing in this clip - I think I have said QUITE ENOUGH in my Blogger Battles with Marschallin about my sentiments towards the gullet of CS.
I am certainly NOT surprised to see that Caballé sang the Immolation Scene...I haven't heard anything more than the tiny clip on the site provided by Doug. However, I do have to say that my vote for favorite Immolation Scene is between two ladies: Flagstad live with NYPhil and Bruno Walter...and Eva Marton's recording on her Wagner Scenes album with Arpad Joos conducting - simply FLAWLESS.
And the one woman I just WISH had sung the scene at least ONCE for posterity...Leontyne Price. But then again, she refused to sing Don Carlo, Otello, and a couple of other things that she would have kicked ass!
well you bitches try singing this aria. i'm sure we'd hear worse than goat tones.
I was in the audience when Caballe sang the Immolation under Mehta at Avery Fisher Hall in 198(2?). She was stunning--it was her sudden "Wagner everywhere" period--and not at all drowned by the orchestra.
If we're talking concert-only Immolation Scenes, we can't forget to mention some of my favorites:
Farrell
Horne
Ludwig
Can't remember right now if Verrett ever did it. She certainly could have.
I fantasize about Leontyne having done it one time, too. Too bad. I secretly think she learned the Immolation Scene and the Lucia Mad Scene for possible inclusion on the Prima Donna discs.
i don't think Verrett did it, but both Arroyo and Bumbry have. i have Bumbry's version (she tends to shout a lot), from Holland, with Gergiev.
Arroyo, i was told, did it in concert in the South somewhere...
as for Caballe, at least from the Mehta recording, she sounds like she's drowning to me, because the voice just doesn't have the weight for this part. that's just my impression. it's not how loud you can sing, but the weight of the voice, isn't it? i mean, you could give Battle a microphone and tell her to scream into it and she could sing this too.
Todd: I'd love to hear Bumbry with Gergiev. Didn't even know it happened. Can we trade?
Gregory presents, or at least implies, a specious argument. By this reasoning unless you are Moshe Safdie you cannot critique a house, unless you are Jacques Pepin you cannot say a meal is lousy, or unless you are Olivier you cannot judge that Keanu Reeves is a crap actor. This is so much silliness. - And for that matter, there are a lot of singers that hang around these here parts.
Why do some people think they can sing anything? I don't get it. I mean, Studer obviously (at least at some point) had a "good" voice, but just because you can sing some things really well doesn't mean everyone everywhere wants to hear you sing everything. (*loud_cough**RENEE**loud_cough*). And the goat vibrato. ie: her ineffective attempt at trills, makes everyone laugh, I know, but I can only wonder at it all - Was it that SHE really wanted to do it? Or was she pushed into it? I think there is a lot of bad singing in this business because the singer wants to make everyone happy, and someone in charge said to her - GILDA!!!! DO IT NOW!!!! YOU CAN DO IT!!! STOP THINKING ABOUT IT SO MUCH AND JUST SING IT!!!!! And inside, she was probably dying a little and thinking, OMG, I totally should be singing this, but they are all telling me it's great, and mybe I am being too critical of myself, and maybe its better than I think it is... I don't know. The above scenario DOES happen, and perhaps she knows it's cringe-worthy.
doug,
Bumbry's Immolation SCene was posted on operashare (yahoogroup). here's the original message:
Hello,
here's Grace Bumbry singing Brünnhilde's Immolation Scene from
Wagner's GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG.
Utrecht
January 6, 1993
Rotterdam philharmonic Orchestra
Valery Gergiev, conductor
I've uploaded two versions - the original in 256 kbps and one version
with hiss reduction (but still 356 kbps). Choose which ever you feel
is the best. I tend to like the hiss reduced better. But it's a
personal choice.
Rada
http://rapidshare.com/files/15901900/Grace_Bumbry_-_Immolation_Scene_-_930106.mp3
http://rapidshare.com/files/15902071/Grace_Bumbry_-_Immolation_Scene_-_930106-hissred.mp3
if you caught Alberto Innaurato's article on ON about her, he describes also a private concert in which she sings the Immol. Scene and the last scenes of Troyens. must have been quite a concert...
here's the Innaurato article:
http://www.metoperafamily.org/operanews/_archive/301/underpressure.301.html
From what I've been told, artists seldom go to recording companies and suggest they do such and such a role- it is more often the case that the recording companies and their producers who initiate cast lists. I'm also told that Ms Studer was one of those artists whom they put under extraordinary pressure to record "everything in sight". Nice to see our own "witches chorus" dicing and slicing someone other than Rennay for a change :)
It's not the worst Caro nome I've ever heard; frankly at the very beginning I was expecting something much more like FloJo, but those top notes sound very... um... spread to say the least.
I bought (and sold) her Lucia a few years ago. I don't think I've ever found a Mad Scene as boring in my life... maybe it was only a Slightly Peeved Scene!
Isenburg (Germany), Hugenottenhalle, 19 May 2007
Maria Callas Memorial Concert
(with Michalis Doukakis)
Athens TV/Radio Symphony Orchestra ERT
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
St. Petersburg (Russia), 23 to 27 June 2007
Recital: Richard Strauss Lieder
Semjon Skigin, piano
Masterclasses
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bayreuth, Villa Wahnfried, Wagner's music room and library, 3 August 2007
Recital: Richard Strauss Lieder
Semjon Skigin, piano
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seoul (South Korea), 27 November to 7 December 2007
Member of the jury of the Third Seoul International Music Competition
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jerez de la Frontera (Spain), 15 February 2008
Recital: German Romantic Lieder
Jonathan Alder, piano
Last update: 25 January 2007
Great. Fabulous. Terrific. Now see what we've done!
I am very much looking foward to watching this Immolation Scene with Gracious Brambleberry (I just love her!) - but haven't had a chance as of yet. The ironic thing is that I went to bed last night after opting to not watch the long scene...only to turn on the tv to the Covent Garden telecast of Goetterdaemmerung and caught, ironically, the Immolation Scene!
Actually, I'd like to share a GB anecdote that I was just told a few nights ago by a rather well-respected musician who was witnessed this display.
Turns out, Gracie decided to walk off the stage during a concert performance of Salome with Solti conducting. She left the stage just prior to the 7 Veil Dance and by the time anyone realized that she missed her next entrance, she was already in her hotel room. I don't recall where this took place...but ultimately Solti put down the baton and everyone went home.
I wonder if Grace ever mentioned this or was questioned about it in any interviews? Has anyone else heard about this?
I think its a bit sad to see Studer actual schedule. After being a main performer at the Bayreuth Festspiele (I do think that her Elsa and her Elisabeth were really good), now singing a recital at Villa Wahnfried, not even at the Markgräfliches Opernhaus (Bayreuths Opera House and one of the most beautiful in the World).
I also heard that her students in Würzburg are very fond of her and she seems to be a very charming person.
Luisa Tetrazzini once wrote:
Still another fault in voice production is the tremolo. It is the overambitious singer, the singer who forces a small, light organ to do heavy work, who develops the tremolo.
The tremolo is a sure sign that the vocal chords have been stretched beyond their natural limits, and there is only one thing can cure this. That is absolute rest for some time and then beginning the study of the voice, first singing with the mouth closed and relying entirely on very gentle breath pressure for the production of the sound.
The pupil suffering from tremolo or even very strong vibrato must have courage to stop at once and to forego having a big voice. After all, the most beautiful voices in the world are not necessarily the biggest voices, and certainly the tremolo is about the worst fault a singer can have. But that, like almost any other vocal defect, can be cured by persistent effort of the right kind.
Not that Studer was suited for soubrette repertoire, but LT's pretty clear here that you can get away with singing inappropriate rep. for only so long. Well, we'd call a "tremolo" a "wobble" today, I believe, but what her voice does here is no better. Such a shame--she does have a considerable amount of talent.
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