# Great Mozarteans



## tenoredigrazia (Feb 3, 2013)

Hi again everybody!

Before posing my actual question, I want to say that I'm really impressed by how friendly everyone here is! Even my most ignorant questions receive very, very thoughtful answers, and I haven't come across any of the vitriol newcomers on specialized forums are so frequently subjected to. Thank you!

Okay, so this is specifically aimed at those who are particularly fond of Mozart: which singers, both past and present, would you consider to be great interpreters of Mozart? I've heard a lot of names tossed around (mostly of tenors, but I really need to hear about other singers too! Léopold Simoneau and Fritz Wunderlich, for example. I've also enjoyed the performances of Luigi Alva in Mozart, but I don't know enough about the style and particular demands of the composer to make a real judgement. What do you all think?


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

My only expertise in this comes from the one recording I love of the one Mozart opera I love: cosi fan tutte, the classic Karl Boehm recording with Christa Ludwig, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Hanny Steffek, Walter Berry, Alfredo Kraus and Giuseppe Taddei - incomparable. I know the Renee Fleming recording of the same opera is highly thought of, but not by me. I think Kiri te Kanawa and Kathleen Battle were very good Mozarteans, as well.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Maria Stader 
Rita Sreich 
Christa Ludwig 
Elizabeth Gruemmer 
Erna Berger 
Lucia Popp 
Teresa Stich-Randall 
Eleanor Steber 
Margaret Price 
Lisa Della Casa 

Geraint Evans
Peter Anders
Rudolf Schock
Ezio Pinza
Richard Tauber
Gottlob Frick 
Leopold Simoneau 
Anton Dermota 
Julius Patzak 
Hermann Prey
Walter Berry
Peter Schreier 
Aksel Schiotz


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

If you want to watch a great Mozart performance watch the Glyndebourne 2006 Cosi fan Tutte.
This statement will not please everyone but I think we do Mozart generally better now (apart from some idiotic productions) than at any time in recorded history.


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

In addition to those singers already listed, some other fine Mozartean stylists were Sena Jurinac, Gundula Janowitz, Franz Crass, Edith Mathis, and Werner Krenn (a wonderful, but underrated lyric tenor). Today, some well-known Mozart singers are Genia Kühmeier, Eva Mei, Vesselina Kasarova, Christoph Strehl, Franz Josef Selig, René Pape, and Malin Hartelius. Jonas Kaufmann has been moving toward the spinto and even Heldentenor roles in recent years, but he is also a superb Mozart stylist. There are videos on YouTube of him singing Tamino's Bildnisarie, and if you check his unofficial web site, you can listen to him singing Idomeneo, Tito, Belmonte, and Ferrando. Simon Keenlyside has also sung a wonderful Papageno; Bryn Terfel is well-known as both Don Giovanni and Leporello -- and I think he may also have sung Figaro at one point.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

tenoredigrazia said:


> Hi again everybody!
> 
> Before posing my actual question, I want to say that I'm really impressed by how friendly everyone here is! Even my most ignorant questions receive very, very thoughtful answers, and I haven't come across any of the vitriol newcomers on specialized forums are so frequently subjected to. Thank you!
> 
> Okay, so this is specifically aimed at those who are particularly fond of Mozart: which singers, both past and present, would you consider to be great interpreters of Mozart? I've heard a lot of names tossed around (mostly of tenors, but I really need to hear about other singers too! Léopold Simoneau and Fritz Wunderlich, for example. I've also enjoyed the performances of Luigi Alva in Mozart, but I don't know enough about the style and particular demands of the composer to make a real judgement. What do you all think?


Hello tenoredigrazia & welcome to the forum.

I agree with you about this place. When I joined I was an enthusiastic opera lover but my knowledge was woeful. Nobody patronised me or made fun of me & I've learned more about the genre than I would have believed possible. I'm still very much a novice and, thanks to the lovely people on here, still learning.

I was about to mention Simon Keenlyside's Papageno but MAuer beat me to it. Won't stop me posting this though


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Great Mozart performances on disc among those I have:

Figaro - Jacobs, Pappano (DVD)
Don Giovanni - Guilini with an incomperable cast
Cosi - Bohm, Jacobs, Glyndbourne 2006 DVD
Zauberflote - Karajan (1952), Abbado


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Those are all great suggestions. Simon Keenlyside also as Don Giovanni, a few snippets of which are available on YouTube.

The versions I have are Figaro and Cosi conducted by Karl Bohm. I don't have the Elizabeth Scharzkopf version of this one, which is highly recommended, but I like this one enough to stick with it.

Don Giovanni is the still incomparable Giulini version. I've scoured low and high and not heard of another version come more highly prized.

Idomeneo and La Clemenza are the Rene Jacobs, which I recommend, and for Magic Flute I have a good version by Herbert von Karajan, which leaves out the chatty bits. 

To answer your question about whether the singers on these recordings are 'great Mozarteans', I wouldn't be qualified. To my layman's ears, they raise the hairs on my neck. I'm particularly fond of the 3 da Ponte operas, and the recordings I have of them: Figaro, Don Giovanni and Cosi... :tiphat:


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## Guest (Feb 8, 2013)

I don't know, in general, who the good ones are, but I do know specific recordings that I have enjoyed. For great Mozart female voices, I highly recommend Klemperer's recording of the Magic Flute. I have heard/owned 3 Magic Flutes (Klemperer, Jacobs, Christie), and Lucia Popp as the Queen of the Night in Klemperer's recording is THE Queen of the Night performance to hear. Incidentally, I can also recommend the Jacobs recordings of the Mozart operas on Harmonia Mundi.


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

How could I have forgotten Diana Damrau? Another great Queen of the Night.


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Here's the true Queen of the Night:


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## Guest (Feb 8, 2013)

Kieran said:


> Here's the true Queen of the Night:


As bizarre as it seems, she actually made a living out of that, and even performed at Carnegie Hall. People were thoroughly entertained by her "singing." Apparently, she thought that she sang well, and that all the laughter at her performances was just jealousy. Her pianist would apparently make faces at her behind her back. She would toss flowers to the audience, and her pianist would collect them after the show to use in the next performance. And she was in an accident in a cab one time, and swore that after it, she could hit higher notes, so she sent the cab driver a box of cigars.

Quite a woman!


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## Aksel (Dec 3, 2010)

DrMike said:


> As bizarre as it seems, she actually made a living out of that, and even performed at Carnegie Hall. People were thoroughly entertained by her "singing." Apparently, she thought that she sang well, and that all the laughter at her performances was just jealousy. Her pianist would apparently make faces at her behind her back. She would toss flowers to the audience, and her pianist would collect them after the show to use in the next performance. *And she was in an accident in a cab one time, and swore that after it, she could hit higher notes, so she sent the cab driver a box of cigars.
> *
> Quite a woman!


She sent a note with the cigars, thanking the cab driver because now her high C's were "higher than ever before!"


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Kieran said:


> Those are all great suggestions. Simon Keenlyside also as Don Giovanni, a few snippets of which are available on YouTube.
> 
> The versions I have are Figaro and Cosi conducted by Karl Bohm. I don't have the Elizabeth Scharzkopf version of this one, which is highly recommended, but I like this one enough to stick with it.
> 
> ...


But the chatty bits should not be left out !


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Aksel said:


> She sent a note with the cigars, thanking the cab driver because now her high C's were "higher than ever before!"


I've always thought that it was all a big put-on.


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## Aksel (Dec 3, 2010)

moody said:


> But the chatty bits should not be left out !


The chatty bits in Zauberflöte are delightful! Especially the Jacobs one. And how else are you supposed to get the story if the talky bits are left out? It's like cutting out all the recitatives of an opera seria!


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## Aksel (Dec 3, 2010)

moody said:


> I've always thought that it was all a big put-on.


Put-on or not, it's still a wonderful story!


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## Guest (Feb 8, 2013)

moody said:


> But the chatty bits should not be left out !


That is why I love the Klemperer recording (none of the dialog), but also love Jacobs (the whole thing). It helps to be able to speak the language, too.


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

June Anderson
Michele Esposito
Suzanne Murphy
Felicity Lott
Louisa Kennedy
Richard Stilwell
John Tomlinson
Willard White


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

moody said:


> But the chatty bits should not be left out !


Certainly not in a stage performance, and not with recitatives on disc, but I speak no German and in this Karajan disc the music flows without interruption. It's a different activity, listening to opera on cd and attending a live performance. I've been to Magic Flute 4 times in 4 different types of performance and the chatty bits are clearly essential there...


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Kieran said:


> Certainly not in a stage performance, and not with recitatives on disc, but I speak no German and in this Karajan disc the music flows without interruption. It's a different activity, listening to opera on cd and attending a live performance. I've been to Magic Flute 4 times in 4 different types of performance and the chatty bits are clearly essential there...


No,you have to get the words you see,the media used makes no difference---it was called a singspiel.


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

moody said:


> No,you have to get the words you see,the media used makes no difference---it was called a singspiel.


I understand that, but the media makes a difference. For instance, when I attend a performance, I stay til the end. If I listen to a cd in the car, I can skip tracks, repeat them endlessly, play only part of the opera. I have a 30 minute drive to work. It's an absolutely different listening experience. Same at home. It's very rare I'll get time to sit and listen to an opera all the way through at home. But even if I did, it isn't a theatre experience, which is what the music was created for. It's discombobulated, or whatever the word is. The opera wasn't even recorded in theatre conditions, it was recorded in a studio.

It could make a topic of its own, however, the idea if how we listen to opera when we're not actually at a theatre performance...


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Kieran said:


> I understand that, but the media makes a difference. For instance, when I attend a performance, I stay til the end. If I listen to a cd in the car, I can skip tracks, repeat them endlessly, play only part of the opera. I have a 30 minute drive to work. It's an absolutely different listening experience. Same at home. It's very rare I'll get time to sit and listen to an opera all the way through at home. But even if I did, it isn't a theatre experience, which is what the music was created for. It's discombobulated, or whatever the word is. The opera wasn't even recorded in theatre conditions, it was recorded in a studio.
> 
> It could make a topic of its own, however, the idea if how we listen to opera when we're not actually at a theatre performance...


I understand the point you make,but I would have thought this was not the right opera for the type of listening you describe.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

I am collecting the Jacobs recordings on Mozart operas. Without necessarily displacing some of the classic performances on disc he does bring a breath of fresh air, even though he can be controversial. I certainly think the Figaro deserves 'classic' status. It is a really cracking performance with superb singers. As for the rest of Jacobs, nothing is less than interesting although including the whole dialogue in Zauberflote (even with the special effects) was maybe a mistake on disc. Mind you, one can quickly programme it out. The performance is fine. His latest, La Finta Giardiniara, is a surprise as it's an arrangement done after Mozart's death. Something of an 'inverse-authentic'. Seems great fun though haven't manage to hear it all yet.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Here is surprising one for you. One normally associates Hildegard Behrens with German dramatic soprano roles, but I was blown away with her singing Mozart. Another surprise is that early in her career Milanov did some Mozart recordings and she was marvelous! Early in her career Jessye Norman recorded Donna Anna and it is sublime and her voice at that time was at its fat lady peak She lost some her sheen after dropping 100 pounds.Margaret Price recorded some of the most beautiful Mozart I've ever heard, complete with high E's.


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## suteetat (Feb 25, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Here is surprising one for you. One normally associates Hildegard Behrens with German dramatic soprano roles, but I was blown away with her singing Mozart. Another surprise is that early in her career Milanov did some Mozart recordings and she was marvelous! Early in her career Jessye Norman recorded Donna Anna and it is sublime and her voice at that time was at its fat lady peak She lost some her sheen after dropping 100 pounds.Margaret Price recorded some of the most beautiful Mozart I've ever heard, complete with high E's.


Check out young Norman as Contessa in le Nozze di Figaro as well. Her set with Colin Davis, Freni, Wixell, is way underrated, I think. Margaret Price as contessa is also incredible but I did not much care for Muti as Mozart conductor which kind of ruined her Figaro for me. I did hear her Contessa at the Met that was really one of my hi light of opera performances that I attended.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

suteetat said:


> Check out young Norman as Contessa in le Nozze di Figaro as well. Her set with Colin Davis, Freni, Wixell, is way underrated, I think. Margaret Price as contessa is also incredible but I did not much care for Muti as Mozart conductor which kind of ruined her Figaro for me. I did hear her Contessa at the Met that was really one of my hi light of opera performances that I attended.


 Contessa is what I meant. i'm getting old Thanks for pointing that recording out.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

My favourite Zauberflote is conducted by Abbado. Live, lithe and with a young cast it really does tick most of the boxes. Terrific!


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

I suggest the Sony Masters box set of Robert Casadesus playing the Mozart Piano Concertos.

Also, anything by Peter Maag on Mozart. A very good conductor!


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