# DIE WALKÜRE Act I recorded in-house (audio only)



## ALT (Mar 1, 2021)

Rare IN-HOUSE RECORDING, taped 10 December 2004 at Citè de la Musique, Paris. Austrian conductor *Oswald Sallaberger* led the recently formed (at the time) Orchestre de l'Opéra de Rouen, Haute-Normandie, all in fine mettle.

Canadian tenor *Alan Woodrow* took a little time to warm up, almost shy at first but, once there, made a fine _Siegmund_ thereafter. Legendary American soprano *Cheryl Studer* sang a typically committed and beautiful _Sieglinde_, at once lyrical and dramatic, spontaneous and impassioned (would that we had her Bayreuth Sieglinde from about four years earlier!). Finnish bass *Jyrki Korhonen* sang a sonorous, robust _Hunding_, as should be. All in all, a truly fine and, more importantly, fully idiomatic performance.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Studer was an ideal Sieglinde in that she sounded like a young woman but with the necessary power to sing this role. I corresponded with her recently where she is a house soprano in Berlin.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Studer was an ideal Sieglinde in that she sounded like a young woman but with the necessary power to sing this role. I corresponded with her recently where she is a house soprano in Berlin.


Is she stil singing? She will be 66 this year.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Is she stil singing? She will be 66 this year.


I know! I corresponded with her maybe a couple of years ago and she was on their roster of singers at the opera house in old East Berlin. She had a beautiful voice back in the day. I wonder what her wide ranging repertoire did to her voice? Not everyone can sing Isolde's Curse at 65 like Nilsson!


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## ALT (Mar 1, 2021)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Is she stil singing? She will be 66 this year.


Yes she is still singing. For the past few years she has been performing a variety of supporting roles in the lower soprano/mezzo range. For example: Gertrud in _Hänsel und Gretel_; Adelaide in _Arabella_; Vertraute/Aufseherin in _Elektra_, which she is scheduled to revisit in June '22, in Berlin; Nettie Fowler in _Carousel_; Lucia in _Cavalleria rusticana_. In April '22 she is scheduled for Stařenka Buryjovka in _Jenůfa_, in Toulouse. Information above obtained from Operabase:
https://www.operabase.com/artists/cheryl-studer-2914/performances/en


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## ALT (Mar 1, 2021)

By the by, her Mamma Lucia in _Cavalleria rusticana_ was recorded in Graz and released commercially.


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## ALT (Mar 1, 2021)

Seattleoperafan said:


> She had a beautiful voice back in the day. I wonder what her wide ranging repertoire did to her voice? Not everyone can sing Isolde's Curse at 65 like Nilsson!


I think her voice has held up pretty well albeit in a diminished capacity, after a very long career. For example, the Sieglinde from 2004 posted above. But here are a few tracks from four years after that Sieglinde, crudely recorded in-house in 2008.


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## ALT (Mar 1, 2021)

Two other Sieglinde tracks, also taped in-house, in 2002.











And in much earlier days, with Peter Hofmann as Siegmund.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

ALT said:


> Yes she is still singing. For the past few years she has been performing a variety of supporting roles in the lower soprano/mezzo range. For example: Gertrud in _Hänsel und Gretel_; Adelaide in _Arabella_; Vertraute/Aufseherin in _Elektra_, which she is scheduled to revisit in June '22, in Berlin; Nettie Fowler in _Carousel_; Lucia in _Cavalleria rusticana_. In April '22 she is scheduled for Stařenka Buryjovka in _Jenůfa_, in Toulouse. Information above obtained from Operabase:
> https://www.operabase.com/artists/cheryl-studer-2914/performances/en


Ah, so she has moved to character roles, something few sopranos do, though Welitsch did the same when her voice started to fail her, singing the Duenna in Karajan's first recording of *Der Rosenkavalier* (though she'd have only been 46 then). Welitsch later had some success as a straight actress.


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## ALT (Mar 1, 2021)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Ah, so she has moved to character roles, something few sopranos do, though Welitsch did the same when her voice started to fail her, singing the Duenna in Karajan's first recording of *Der Rosenkavalier* (though she'd have only been 46 then). Welitsch later had some success as a straight actress.


Varnay moved on to character roles, too. So did Mödl. The sorry, pitch-impaired Rysanek should have done the same much, much earlier in her career. Just a few more examples.


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