Dame Gwyneth Jones, Strauss - Die Frau ohne Schatten Zürich 1985
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- čas přidán 2. 08. 2022
- Die Frau ohne Schatten Opernhaus Zürich 1985-11-24
Kaiserin und Färberin: Gwyneth Jones (!)
Kaiser: Hermann Winkler
Barak: Gerd Feldhoff
Amme: Reinhild Runkel
Chor & Orchester des Operhauses Zürich
Musikalische Leitung: Ralf Weikert
I read about this event in Opera News shortly after it occurred, and have been waiting the better part of forty years to hear it. You just earned yourself a subscriber. Thank you so much!
La nourrice est excellente !
I heard her sing two series of Turandot in Munich in the late 90s. She was past her prime, but still amazing in the role. One of the largest voices I've ever heard and a stage presence that was electrifying.
My wife and I trudged backstage to meet her on a snowy night after Turandot. She was lovely and gracious, and rather petite with a very soft speaking voice. When we left with our congratulations, my wife said, “I’m confused. Was that the same lady who just obliterated the entire orchestra and chorus?!”
I always half thought that this double performance was just a myth: I can't believe that I'm actually hearing it!
She is miraculous! I saw her many times in New York, but never in Frau ohne Schatten. This was big news because she sang both of the incredibly difficult soprano roles.
I saw Jones as the Färberin at San Francisco in 1987, and she was revelatory: Gone were the scoops, the wobble and the sketchy intonation, and the top notes had a laser beam quality reminiscent of Nilsson. In a contemporaneous radio interview she revealed that she had restudied her technique with a trusted coach, and this was the result. Of course, within a few years, her old bad habits had returned, but that San Francisco Färberin was glorious.
@@jasonhurd4379 She could vary from night to night. I saw her as a superb Fidelio, Marshallin, Salome, Elektra, Brunnhilde. But she was dreadful when I saw her as Isolde and Turandot. There didn’t seem to be a pattern since the great and awful performances were interspersed throughout the years. The trick was to catch her on a great night!
@@wotan10950 I only saw Jones as Elektra, the Färberin and the Siegfried Brünnhilde, and she was superb on all three occasions. In Siegfried she was singing through a cold, and she was magnificent. One of the most generous artistes I've ever seen, along with Rysanek and Jurinac.
I've been looking for this for YEARS! Thank you so much
Thank you for posting this!
Act 1: 0:00 (missing first minute)
Act 2: 1:05:10
Act 3: 2:02:09
Just a note: Although Strauss describes the role of the Amme as 'dramatic mezzo-soprano' in the score, and nearly every modern-day production casts the part accordingly, the creatrix of the role, Lucie Weidt, was a Viennese hochdramatisch famed for her Fidelio, Isolde and Brünnhilde. Weidt's recordings reveal a forward, bright instrument with a flexible top, a soprano with a lower extension rather than vice versa. It's unfortunate that the difficulty of finding a jugendlich and two hochdramatisches, all of the very highest quality, to participate in a production militates against casting the Amme with a dramatic soprano. When I saw FroSch at San Francisco in 1987, the Amme was Anja Silja, and she was fantastic: totally on top of the music and with the requisite rhythmic incisiveness not heard since Elisabeth Höngen essayed the role at Vienna in 1955. And Silja's stage presence was mesmerising: the last word in malevolence and smooth Mephistophelian cruelty, but with a touch of humanity in her love for the Kaiserin that actually made one feel sorry for the character. An unforgettable portrayal.
You’re right! I saw Frau a few years ago in New York, and the difficulty of the Nurse’s role shocked me. It’s certainly not written for a character mezzo, as it’s often sung, but for a dramatic soprano with a wide range.
@@wotan10950 I agree 100%. When you look at the score, each of the three leading female roles has its own sort of difficulty, but only the Amme requires a command of complex rhythms and time signatures that would have given pause to Stravinsky himself. Frankly, I don't see how any singer gets through the part. My hat is off to them.
@@jasonhurd4379 I’ve only seen it once onstage: Christine Goerke and Meagan Miller, Torsten Kerl, Johann Reuter, and Ildikó Komlósi (Finnish?) as an amazing Nurse. The opera, and this particular production, are extraordinary, although I’m not very familiar with the score.
@@wotan10950 Sounds wonderful! I've been very blessed to see it three times, all at San Francisco in 76, 80 and 87. Rysanek was the Kaiserin in 76 and 80, and Nilsson was the Färberin in 80. Böhm conducted in 76, and no one in my experience has ever conducted it better. It is my favorite opera.
@@jasonhurd4379 I’m obviously brain dead! I did in fact see it once before: at the Met around 1981 with Birgit Nilsson and Eva Marton. Of course it was a thrill to see Nilsson again, but the revelation was Marton, who was really at the start of her international career. I’m not a voice “size” person, but I can honestly say that Marton was the biggest I’d ever heard, before or since. A completely different sound than Nilsson or Jones, just a tidal wave of sound. It was before the days of subtitles, so I admit that I had no clue what was going on!
Tim Page in New York Times december 1985:
And - as if the story of the Richard Strauss-Hugo von Hofmannsthal symbolic opera ''Die Frau ohne Schatten'' weren't already difficult to follow - a Nov. 24 performance of the work at the Zurich Opernhaus featured the same woman singing two leading roles, simultaneously.
Gwyneth Jones, already scheduled to sing the challenging role of the Dyer's Wife, agreed, on six hours notice and with a one-hour piano rehearsal, to essay the equally taxing role of the Empress, a part she had never before sung or studied, when Agnes Haberreder came down with laryngitis.
Miss Jones sight-read the Empress's scenes from behind a darkened scrim, while an actress mimed her movements. In scenes where the Empress and the Dyer's Wife are both onstage at the same time, Miss Jones turned her face from the audience to sing the Empress's lines, which she had quickly memorized backstage. Fortunately, the Empress and the Dyer's Wife have very little interaction; the only portion of the opera in which the characters' voices overlap is the final quartet, and at that point another soprano sang the Empress's lines from offstage while Miss Jones, in the role of the Dyer's Wife, was on stage with the mimed Empress.
''I had really come in to save my own show,'' Miss Jones said last week. ''The only alternative would have been to cancel 'Frau' and put on 'Rigoletto.' And I'd invited 40 schoolmates of my daughter and really couldn't dream of disappointing them. If I had time to even think about it, I probably wouldn't have done it the first time.'' Miss Jones would not say whether she would receive two fees for her performance. ''I'm not really sure,'' she said, ''but I'll let you know when I receive my check.''
The missing bars in the opening of act 3 are restored!
wait, she sang both? The same evening? Who did she replace?
Agnes Haberreder fell ill....😯
I do wonder how Jones pulled this off. She certainly seemed to have the stamina, however, in the final close to 30 minutes (in all stagings I have seen the four principals are all paired with their respective partners) it would be interesting indeed to also have a video of this production to see exactly how this & other earlier scenes were worked out. After writing the previous text I found the answer to my earlier question by reading in another comment below regarding how Jones juggling act was accomplished. Quite a feat & I hope she was compensated well for her last minute efforts.
2:37:29 🥴