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lördag 6 oktober 2018

fredag 23 juni 2017

VALKYRIAN, STOCKHOLM, MAJ 2017


MEDVERKANDE

Brünnhilde – Nina Stemme.
Wotan – John Lundgren.
Hunding – Lennart Forsén.
Sieglinde – Cornelia Beskow.
Fricka – Katarina Dalayman.
Siegmund – Michael Weinius.
Helmwige – Sara Olsson.
Gerhilde – Susanna Stern.
Orthilde – Angela Rotondo.
Waltraute – Marie-Louise Granström.
Siegrune – Monika Mannerström Skog.
Rossweisse – Johanna Rudström.
Grimgerde – Kristina Martling.
Schwertleite – Katarina Leoson

RECENSIONER


(...) The unified setting in Staffan Valdemar Holm's production emphasises the classical unities with the action plausibly taking place in a brief time frame, focused dramatically on dialogues: Siegmund and Sieglinde; Wotan and Fricka; Brünnhilde and Wotan. Memories are unpeeled in the narrations and significant events happen off-stage. We hear the fight between Siegmund and Hundling, and see the reaction in Sieglinde's terrified response as Brünnhilde bears the shards of Nothung wrapped in Siegmund's bloodied shirt.

Cornelia Beskow's outstanding Sieglinde shone vocally with all the luminosity of a Northern late spring day, with an underlying resonance as she physically blooms in “Du bist der Lenz”, her auburn Pre-Raphaelite tresses cascading freely. Earlier, under her husband's dominance, her passive-aggressive demeanour is clear in her tight-laced rigidity, as she bobs a formal curtsey to him, while threatening him with a bread knife behind his back. As her unkempt twin, Siegmund, Michael Weinius' stalwart Heldentenor thrilled in his cries of “Wälse”, and beguiled with his lyricism in “Winterstürme”. With Lennart Forsén's oppressive squire of a Hunding, all three singers made for a highly charged Act 1.

Nina Stemme as Brünnhilde delivered her opening battle cry, in Victorian riding habit brandishing her crop like one of Trollope's racier fox-hunting heroines. Her full-toned vibrant voice no longer quite commands the spear-point sharpness and trills of the cry, yet her stillness and watchfulness during Wotan's narration draws attention. Supremely so in the 'Todesverkündigung', the lofty transcendent sadness and rich nuance of her singing was emotionally overwhelming. Matching her, Weinius was heroically resigned and heart-breakingly tender in his care for his increasingly agitated sister.

John Lundgren (Wotan) and Katarina Dalayman (Fricka) charted every blow in their marital argument. Dalayman, regal and opulent of voice, wheedling and demanding the abandonment of Siegmund, snaps her husband's billiard cue and forces him into a handshake and a frigid embrace of submission. Lundgren's interpretation deepens as he is bound by the constraints of his own actions, his Heldenbariton surmounting with ease even the most violent orchestral outbursts.

(...) From the opening storm, the orchestral playing under the baton of Marko Letonja was on an altogether higher level than the previous evening, yielding grandeur, fire and tenderness through well graduated dynamics and tempi. In conclusion, an evening of great Wagner singing making one eager for the next instalments. 


(...) Extra härligt också att få bevittna ett genuint genombrott: sopranen Cornelia Beskow.

Det är som Sieglinde hon triumferar, den olyckliga tvångsgifta kvinnan som förlöses i kärlek till sin bror och inspirerar sin kompositör till oemotståndlig klanglyrik. Beskow, lång och slank, presenterar sig med en lite gäll kant på stämman till det hårdknutna kroppsspråk som hör situationen till. Därför blir hennes blomning extra verkningsfull, när rösten expanderar med rika övertoner och ett härligt glitter. En intelligent och känslig Sieglinde, som måste älskas.

Och det gör hennes tvillingbror i Michael Weinius tunga gestalt; visuellt ett tveksamt släktskap men känslomässigt desto trovärdigare. Vad än Weinius gör, så är det ärkemusikaliskt och genomtänkt. Rimligtvis borde han räknas till det internationella toppskiktet av hjältetenorer och ha de riktigt hårdkokta rollerna som Tristan och Siegfried inom räckhåll.

Nu kan Sverige i varje fall mönstra en Wotan i världsklass, den mäktigaste av Wagnerska barytoner. John Lundgren, i många produktioner partner till Nina Stemme, stiger här fram som en skrämmande modern maktmänniska.

(...) I en unikt tidlös scen blottar han sitt innersta för dottern Brünnhilde. Samspelet här mellan Lundgren och Stemme är värt hela Ringen.

(...) Ett riktigt teaterstycke, som Holm & Møller förvaltat med humoristisk skärpa.

(...) Den gästande slovenske dirigenten Marko Letonja övertygar inte här; intrycket är orepeterat och ogestaltat. 

RECENSIONER




tisdag 16 maj 2017

DIE WALKÜRE, STOCKHOLM, februari 2006



MEDVERKANDE

Fricka: Martina Dike
Siegmund: Endrich Wottrich ( )
Sieglinde: Nina Stemme
Brünnhilde: Katarina Dalayman

Dirigent: Gregor Bühl
Kungliga Operan, Stockholm


RECENSIONER







Gregor Bühl’s conducting is efficient enough, but it lacks the last ounce of passion and surge in this first act. He is more successful in the remaining acts. The singing, on the other hand, is excellent. It is good for once to hear a real Wagnerian hero, confidently sung with power and baritonal darkness, steady tone and a great deal of expression. Endrik Wottrich may not have the romantic glow of Siegfried Jerusalem in his heyday but it is an admirable achievement, so much more since he obviously wasn’t at his best. Before the second act it was announced that he was indisposed but would still carry through the performance. Hans-Peter König’s enormous black bass, which I have commented on before, rock-steady and thunderous, combined with his imposing figure, makes him a frightening Hunding, and Nina Stemme is Sieglinde. A lot has been written about her lately and she lives up to the superlatives that have been heaped upon her. Scenically she is lovely with total identification and she sings with such inward intensity that every phrase seems to come from her heart. She is a master of nuances and when she lets go at full gear in Du bist der Lenz she surpasses anything I’ve heard live and practically anything I’ve heard on records. Strong words, I know, but such warmth, such power, such beauty!


Terje Stensvold made a deep impression as Wotan in Das Rheingold in September. He impresses even more here, expressing all the different facets of Wotan’s character: his pride, his pretensions, his anger, his indecisiveness. Vocally he is superb. He has an ideal Wotan voice, a true bass-baritone with lots of power, not a hint of unsteadiness or widened vibrato and an impressive stamina. In the final scene of act III his love and care for Brünnhilde is deeply moving, singing the weakest of pianissimos with great beauty. Katarina Dalayman’s Brünnhilde, dressed in black and white, like the other Valkyries, is also a lively actor with strong charisma. Her voice is actually a size smaller than Stemme’s and also brighter, somewhat on the lyrical side but she rips off the fearsome “hojotohos” confidently and impressively, although without quite the larger-than-life explosiveness of a real “Hoch-dramatisch” soprano. 

ANDRA LÄNKAR

lördag 13 maj 2017

JOEL BERGLUND (1903-1985), baryton

Joel Berglund






Tannhäuser: Oh du mein holder Abendstern


Tannhäuser: Blick ich umherr



Der fliegende Holländer: Die Frist ist um



Der fliegende Holländer: (Krauss-Müller-Hofmann-Völker-Zimmermann-Bayreuth 1942)



Die Walküre: Leb wohl, du kuhnes herrliches Kind


Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Wahn! Wahn! Überall Wahn"




Du gamla, du fria (Svenska nationalsången)


lördag 5 december 2015