# Breakout Performance for Astrid Varnay! 1941 w/ Melchoir, Traubel and Kipnis



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Some dear posted this entire performance with Varnay and Traubel both making their Met debuts. Varnay was like 23 or something ridiculous. As almost unequaled in Wagner as she was in the 50's, wait till you hear her voice right out of the gate at the start of her career!!! The voice had the lustrous, liquid, fast vibrato Jessye Norman had when she was young and 350 pounds! You will be blown away. The whole performance is unlike anything that could be heard anywhere today. Varnay was white hot! Melchoir and Traubel were not so shady either;-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsvlHEJ7PcM:)


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Could not get it on YouTube. She was, however, a fantastic singer. Just hear her Brunnhilde on the Krauss ring!


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

based on your recommendation, I listened to it. Well, for as long as I could, given that this is out of my comfort zone. Great voices indeed :tiphat:


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I read in Varnay's biography today that this was her debut on any opera stage....at 23....with Melchior...at the Met!!! Can you imagine? Just found out she needed to cover for Lehmann the day before.


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## Pip (Aug 16, 2013)

Varnay was called upon to cover for Lehmann because, Rose Bampton had already been singing and was not available, and Irene Jessner, the other possibility was singing on tour and was unavailable. So Varnay was the cover and Lehmann withdrew on the day of the performance. Varnay had many roles already learned, but had never been on stage. She had no rehearsal other than a talk through with one of the repetiteurs, and the stage manager showed her the stage movements.
It has to be the greatest stage debut of all time. More amazingly is that one week later, she did it again, this time as Brunnhilde.


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## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

Love Varnay! I'm really enjoying her Elektra right now. Crazy as it sounds, I think I prefer her voice to Nilsson in the role & Flagstad in excerpts from the role. Here's a question for anyone with more listening experience; what is the reason that Varnay seems to take a back seat to those 2 historically?


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Filially a good old thread resurrected .


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## kineno (Jan 24, 2015)

I love that performance...though, sadly, Schorr is noticeably past his prime.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Varnay was the same age as Nilsson, but started her career a decade earlier. She was in her vocal prime in the 50's before Nilsson, as aside from the Bayreuth stereo Ring, missed out on the big recording coups that Nilsson enjoyed. She did maybe the best Elektra recording but because she was largely known in Europe, she wasn't known well in the States. Yes, she had a big career early at the Met, but how many people remember performances in the early 50's today.Aside from Elektra as Klytemnestra, she did not enjoy any videos of her performances in her prime as Nilsson did. Nilsson was indeed great, but she also was an incredible promoter of her career and had little if any competetion. I never knew Varnay till around 20 years ago when Opera News did a big article on her. I only knew her from from her character roles after her voice went into decline from oversinging before her voice matured. By this time she was a mezzo, which doesn't carry the prestige of a soprano.


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

Pip said:


> Varnay was called upon to cover for Lehmann because, Rose Bampton had already been singing and was not available, and Irene Jessner, the other possibility was singing on tour and was unavailable. So Varnay was the cover and Lehmann withdrew on the day of the performance. Varnay had many roles already learned, but had never been on stage. She had no rehearsal other than a talk through with one of the repetiteurs, and the stage manager showed her the stage movements.
> *It has to be the greatest stage debut of all time. More amazingly is that one week later, she did it again, this time as Brunnhilde*.





> *I read in Varnay's biography today that this was her debut on any opera stage....at 23....with Melchior...at the Met!!! Can you imagine? Just found out she needed to cover for Lehmann the day before*.





> Varnay was the same age as Nilsson, but started her career a decade earlier. She was in her vocal prime in the 50's before Nilsson, as aside from the Bayreuth stereo Ring, missed out on the big recording coups that Nilsson enjoyed. She did maybe the best Elektra recording but because she was largely known in Europe, she wasn't known well in the States. *Yes, she had a big career early at the Met, but how many people remember performances in the early 50's today*.Aside from Elektra as Klytemnestra, she did not enjoy any videos of her performances in her prime as Nilsson did. Nilsson was indeed great, but she also was an incredible promoter of her career and had little if any competetion. I never knew Varnay till around 20 years ago when Opera News did a big article on her. I only knew her from from her character roles after her voice went into decline from oversinging before her voice matured. By this time she was a mezzo, which doesn't carry the prestige of a soprano.


Astrid had a great run with the main wagner roles at the MET during the 1940s alternating with Traubel after Flagstad returned home during the war and Majorie Lawrence had health issues. Bing came in as director at the MET in 1950 and immediately began to dismantle the german wing, fortunately for Astrid a great opportunity just appeared at the Bayreuth wagner festival re-opening.....

Unknown to her at the time Flagstad was contacted by wagner family about singing at the 51 festival opening which she declined, but personally recommend Astrid who the wagners hired without audition, with the greatest wagner singers in the world as fellow cast members she sang the major roles during the decade of the 1950s before scaling back and switching to mezzo roles in 1960s, to be the prima soprano at bayreuth during the iconic 1950s era (along with Modl) is a great testament to her artistry...........

I really think she is much more famous now with all the re-issues of 1950s Rings and new people discovering all the great wagner singers active back then, I personally find her more emotionally expressive than Nilsson and like the darker lower voice that allows a wider vocal pallette to draw from......


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Bonetan said:


> Love Varnay! I'm really enjoying her Elektra right now. Crazy as it sounds, I think I prefer her voice to Nilsson in the role & Flagstad in excerpts from the role.* Here's a question for anyone with more listening experience; what is the reason that Varnay seems to take a back seat to those 2 historically**?*


Flagstad never sang Elektra and recorded the "recognition scene" only late in life when her high notes were no longer free and easy. Nilsson of course made a stunning complete recording at the peak of her vocal prowess.

Varnay was reputedly a superb actress. As a singer she was at her best before her Bayreuth years, as heard in that 1941 _Walkure,_ and it would be nice if we had more recordings from that early period when her voice was still lithe and spinning. Her fans don't seem to mind her habitual scooping, flapping vibrato, and increasingly harsh and effortful top notes. I grew up listening to Leider, Traubel, Flagstad and Nilsson as Isolde and Brunnhilde, and first heard Varnay on Bayreuth radio transmissions in the 1960s, by which time her voice was very dark, heavy and effortful and her soprano career was just about over. For me her dark, cutting timbre is arresting but not especially beautiful, and her mannerisms can be annoying. I like her best as a mezzo, portraying characters such as Ortrud where she can sound wicked or neurotic and act up a storm.


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## howlingfantods (Jul 27, 2015)

Bonetan said:


> Love Varnay! I'm really enjoying her Elektra right now. Crazy as it sounds, I think I prefer her voice to Nilsson in the role & Flagstad in excerpts from the role. Here's a question for anyone with more listening experience; what is the reason that Varnay seems to take a back seat to those 2 historically?


I was initially pretty enthusiastic with her in the initial flood of live Bayreuth recordings from the 50s, but I now find her almost unlistenable, mostly because of the incessant scooping.


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## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

howlingfantods said:


> I was initially pretty enthusiastic with her in the initial flood of live Bayreuth recordings from the 50s, but I now find her almost unlistenable, mostly because of the incessant scooping.


I can certainly understand that. When I 1st heard her I mistook her for Gwyneth Jones due to the scooping lol. I'm a fan of both singers though


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