Two German divas stray way out of their language zone

Two German divas stray way out of their language zone

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norman lebrecht

January 10, 2012

The first is Brigitte Fassbender, magnificently versatile, attempting Sondheim auf Deutsch.

Wo sind die Clowns, indeed? 

And who’s this? It’s the mighty Marlene Dietrich singing … in Hebrew. ‘It’s a song I bwought back fwom Iswayl.’

Still, you can’t fault either of them for enterprise.

Comments

  • OperaNow! says:

    Where is the outrage at their poor diction!!!! Serviceable at best! 😉

  • cabbagejuice says:

    With regard to diction, all honor to the Israel Opera but at times it sounds like little Moscow with thick Slavic accents of Russian immigrants, notably sopranos.

  • DirkVA says:

    Dietrich was BORN to sing that song.

  • Interesting to hear Send In the Clowns in German. Definitely the most…er…precisely rhythmic version of the song I’ve heard, but what a beautiful voice. Stunning. Fassbaender is the Intendant of the Innsbruck State Opera – a city of 117,000 with a fulltime opera house. In terms of performances per year little Innsbruck is 28th, while the vastly larger Chicago is 66th, and San Francisco 81st.

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