The next Tosca?
OperaLise Davidsen is preparing a new signature role.
This clip from the South Bank Awards has just been posted.
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Lisa has already sung the role, in a concert version, at the Bergen International Festival this spring:
https://www.fib.no/en/articles/rave-reviews-for-lise-davidsens-tosca/
I’ll buy tickets to hear her sing the phone book.
You cannot be a great interpreter of verismo if you sing with undifferentiated vowels. She has a wonderful voice, and she will vocalize the role very well. But it is never going to be a “signature role” if she neglects Italian diction and style.
Awful in Italian repertoire, wonderful in German operas… “New signature role”? Certainly not Tosca for her
This magnificent performance by Davidsen should come as no surprise to anybody. Other Scanidavian Wagnerian sopranos (think Nilsson) tackled Tosca’s high tessitura with equal aplomb, but not with such convincing pathos or warmth.
And Wagnerian sopranos of other nationalities such as Leonie Rysanek.
Who sang it at the end of her career and was awful. Sounded like Grandma sings Tosca.
(sigh) Whatever happened to good old “italianità”?…
It’s probably in Italy but Italian sopranos aren’t in vogue at present.Orianna Santunione sang it and Aida in Sydney in 1976, she was introduced by Gobbi, and was magnificent.
Give me Callas back, per favore!
Did you actually hear Callas sing? Admittedly I never heard her in her prime, those 5 mins in 1950 when she managed to sing perfectly in tune, but my recollection of her Tosca at Covent Garden, was a fairly small voice, flapping around with a beat you could take your pulse by. All that ghastly bawling and screwing her face up would have worked a treat in a silent movie. Sadly for me, it wasn’t a silent performance.
The “other” rising Norwegian Wagnerian soprano, (Senta, Sieglinde and Elisabeth in Bayreuth this summer, the latter two inherited from Davidsen) sings a marvellous Tosca, and also has huge success as Turandot In Berlin and recently in Strasbourg. So there is no doubt that Puccini is well suited for Scandinavian Wagnerians.