Karita Mattila prepares a slew of role debuts
mainVesa Siren reports that she’s singing Kundry (Parsifal) at Turku tomorrow.
To be followed by Begbick (Mahagonny, Ortrud (Lohengrin) and Madame de Croissy (Dialogues des Carmelites).
That’s a helluva lot to learn. Not that any is likely to eclipse memories of her 2004 Salome at the Met.
Sadly no she’s in atrocious voice, her career seems to be following the Studer path. Shame, as that 2004 Salome was phenomenal, but her return in the revival was a mess (2009?).
there is a point in your words …
I think her voice lasted longer than Studer’s did. And in any case, these are mezzo roles that don’t require a pretty timbre but do require acting chops, so they’re good choices for her at this stage of her career.
OMG, I could hardly recognize her. In my mind, Karita Mattila looks like this:
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/4147C4NHN5L.jpg
Hers is one of the most useless VLL ever committed to disc, alongside Deb Voigt’s, and about a notch above the calamity that was Anna Netrebko’s.
Thank you for your recommendations;) Do you also have a positive list? I happen to like these songs pretty well.
Among the more recent recordings, I personally like Anja Harteros’s recording at BR Klassik. Her rendering of “Langsam tut er die müdgeword’nen Augen zu” was just atemberaubend, also in the literal sense 😀
It’s really a joke that Anna Netrebko is an österreichische Staatsbürgerin.
Not so sure or convinced about Harteros. Technically proficient she is but I am neither moved nor thrilled by her. I haven’t heard this BR Klassik VLL but will try it. As for positive recommendations — Janowitz/Karajan, Schwarzkopf/von Matacic, della Casa/Böhm, Norman/Masur, Studer/Sinopoli, Jurinac/Busch etc. I may be forgetting others.
Thank you for recommending the Harteros/Jansons/BR Klassik VLL. Very beautiful although I wish she had a more soaring top. However, she sings with direct sincerity and natural German diction. That counts for a lot. The orchestra under Jansons, OTOH, is rather prosaic however nothing disastrous.
Are your lives so vacant that all you (most posts on this thread) can do is to make catty remarks? Unless you have something to say that will inform the conversation, perhaps save it for the bathroom mirror? By the way, Four Last Songs with either Norman or Price are wonderful. Many others, of course. Many to avoid as well.
You know what? My life is so vacant because I don’t have the MET tickets. You may invite me to a MET performance to reduce one trash post here (｡◕‿◕｡)
Jessye Norman is a great singer. She was probably the first female singer I got to know, just after Pavarotti. However, Celibidache had some nasty comments on her interpretation of VLL. He thought it was “Mongolian spring” (`･ω･´)
“Mongolian Spring”. Priceless. (-:
I last heard her a year ago in the Proms, in the Makropoulos Case.She was excellent, but hardly an lyrical Italian role.
Mattila was really superb ladt February at the Barbican as Sieglinde. Much better than her Siegmund ( Kaufmann ).
Are your lives so vacant that all you (most posts on this thread) can do is to make catty remarks? Unless you have something to say that will inform the conversation, perhaps save it for the bathroom mirror? By the way, Four Last Songs with either Norman or Price are wonderful. Many others, of course. Many to avoid as well.
4 Last Songs: I’d recommend:
•Felicity Lott/ N. Jarvi/ Scottish National Orch,
•Kiri Te Kanawa/ A. Davis/ London Symphony (sentimental favorite since it was the first recording of these I ever heard, and the first thing I ever heard her sing)
•Christine Brewer/ D. Runnicles/ Atlanta Symphony
•and of course the wonderful Lucia Popp/ Tennstedt/ London Phil.
Margaret Price never recorded them commercially that I could find, but there are some wonderful performances with Sawallisch and Abbado on YouTube.
(I don’t speak German, so my tastes are driven more by the voice and the musicianship than the diction)
If you like Lott’s (correct) sequence, you must hear Lisa della Casa.
Just came from Mattila’s Kundry-debut. I’m shaken, it’s impossible to sleep. She’s going to stay at the top of the opera world still for quite a while, based on this tornado-like performance.
Great to hear. Miss Mattila never phones it in…to one’s taste or not. We should treasure such a performer, not try to tear her down at every misstep.
+1
May I just add one more recording to the truly remarkable lists provided by you guys? It is my Geheimfavorit.
Because some of you spoke of Felicity Lott, I suddenly start to think of a unique historical concert on 11th September 1996 at the Lucern Festival. Felicity Lott sang the VLL, accompanied by Giuseppe Sinopoli and the Wiener Philharmoniker. I wasn’t 10 years old then so I didn’t have the luck to follow this performance live in the concert hall. But later on an uncle gave me a copy of a CD which was issued to the patron of the Lucern Festival.
Judging from what I hear on the CD, I must say it is unearthly serene and magical, simply second to none. I hope this recording will be made available to the general public in the near future.