DOKTOR GLAS.- HJALMAR SÖDERBERG.- (28 augusti) Jag sade ingenting, och det blev tyst. Kyparen serverade champagnen med en tempeltjänares allvar. Musiken började förspelet till Lohengrin. Den gångna dagens skyar hade drivit undan och lagrat sig i rosiga strimmor vid horisonten, men däruppe hade rymden blånat till ett djupt oändligt blått, blått som denna underbara blå musik. Jag lyssnade till den och glömde mig själv. (...)
Martin Öhmans stipendium (1990) - 2000/01 – "Operapriset" av Tidskriften OPERA (2000-2001) – Svenska Dagbladets operapris (2001) – Hovsångare (2004) – Kungliga Musikaliska Akademiens Interpretpris (2007) – Lunds Studentsångförenings solistpris (2007) – Ledamot av Kungliga Musikaliska Akademien (2010) – Litteris et Artibus (2011) – Hedersdoktor vid Luleå tekniska universitet (2014)
En annan som också tillhör den absoluta världsklassen i sitt fack är vår egen Peter Mattei som tillsammans med harpisten gjorde Sången till aftonstjärnan till en av föreställningens höjdpunkter, men slutduetten med Tannhäuser räknas också till en av föreställningens absoluta höjdpunkter.
The performance truly came alive in Act III. As much as one admires Mr Botha’s title role in its beauty and stamina, the best singing of the evening came from Peter Mattei, singing Wolfram. Mr Mattei commanded the stage every time he opened his mouth in Act I's valley scene and in the Act II song contest scene; in the latter he sang two distinct arias. He had two more arias to sing in Act III, the first brief one to describe Elisabeth’s plight, and the second, the famous “O, du mein holder Abendstern”. Throughout, Mr Mattei’s singing was understated, accurate, and full of insight. His solid technique kept Wolfram’s lines smooth and even – no mean feat. The scene with Tannhäuser and Wolfram towards the end of Act III featured these two remarkable artists at their best, bringing the evening to a rousing end.
And this production includes the great Swedish baritone Peter Mattei as Wolfram, the knight who also loves Elisabeth. He is ready to step aside for Tannhäuser, until it becomes clear that his rival has corrupted his soul consorting with Venus. Mr. Mattei, overwhelming as Amfortas in the Met’s new production of “Parsifal” in 2013, is comparably compelling as the noble Wolfram. His voice had both unforced power and mellow beauty. I can’t imagine hearing a more elegant account of the “Song to the Evening Star.”
Den svenske barytonen Peter Mattei prisas för sin debut som Amfortas, ”en fantastisk röst” skriver New York Times och Associated Press (AP) lyfter fram hans monologer i den första och den sista akten som kvällens musikaliska och dramatiska höjdpunkter.
Mattei gives a physical performance so anguished that it is painful to watch, his limbs stiff and his arms quivering as he raises the Grail in Act I, and his face wild with suffering as he jumps into Titurel’s grave in the final scene. Mattei, too, utters every word he sings with the power and emotion of a great actor and somehow manages to send forth howling cries of pain without ever torturing his mellow and patrician lyric baritone.
Gatti’s deliberation registers a detailed investment in text and incident that constitutes both an invitation and challenge to his singers. They are up to it. The revelation is the tragic stature of Peter Mattei’s Amfortas. This character, so obviously the opera’s “Tristan” with his deliriums of pain and longing for death, typically lacks anything like Tristan’s nobility: we only encounter him at the destitute tail end of his life’s journey. Mattei enters not in the usual litter, but leaning heavily on a pair of knights, dragging his feet, contorting his face and body, a picture of unendurable physical pain. His act one monologue, reshaped by Gatti, becomes intimately narrative rather than exclamatory. When he elevates the Grail cup it quakes with the palsy and shudder of his infirmity. Then, unassisted, he raises himself and staggers off, momentarily uplifted by the residual idealism of his youth, when in seeking to defeat the renegade Klingsor he instead relinquished the Grail knights’ Holy Spear. On his heaving, spastic shoulders, Mattei’s exiting Amfortas bears his entire story and fate.
