Bryn Terfel: Why I won’t sing at Bayreuth
mainSummer time is family time, the baritone tells Die Welt.
He’d rather do Sangria in Spain than Siegfried on the hill.
Read here.
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Absolutely right, too. You can’t sing title roles back-to-back all year round. You won’t be giving of your best, and your voice ends up in shreds. Careful selection of roles, at houses which value detailed preparation, is the way to go.
The Festival conditions do allow for detailed preparation. And, in the past, hundreds of singers have sung at Bayreuth as well as appearances during the rest of the season at other venues. Singing at Bayreuth didn’t seem to hurt the careers or vocal longevity of the legions of artists who have appeared there.
All very true – but of course Bayreuth will do what it wishes for its own needs – and those may not chime with the career plans of singers they seek to engage. Mr Terfel is doing fine work, I hear tell, in Musorgsky at CG right now. Tsar Boris is a taxing role, and needs his undivided attention ;))
An answerphone with “yes, I’ll do it!” is not the best ally of singers – and I’m pleased to see Terfel realises this 😉
I rather expect he’d do that, isn’t Siegfried a tenor role…….
(Maybe he meant “Siegfried” the opera, not Siegfried the role)
The tessitura of ‘the Wanderer’ (ie Wotan) is a click higher in Siegfried than the other three operas of the cycle.
No appearance of Wotan in “Götterdämmerung”, not even in disguise.
Well then, the tessitura in “Götterdämmerung” isn’t a problem for Terfel then, is it? 😉
Certainly not, nor for anybody else 😉
My word, Bruce – you’re remarkably quick on the uptake, aren’t you?
O yes. All my friends* say so.
* (i.e., my mother)