# Special Round: LOHENGRIN Entweihte Gotter! Lawrence, Rysanek, Varnay, Grob - Prandl, Ludwig



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

All short but not necessarily sweet LOL


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## Francasacchi (7 mo ago)

Now this one super poll! My first major experience with this invocation was Rita Gorr on her recital LP.


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

Marjorie Lawrence - CBE (17 February 1907 – 13 January 1979) was an Australian soprano, particularly noted as an interpreter of Richard Wagner's operas. She was the first Metropolitan Opera soprano to perform the immolation scene in _Götterdämmerung_ by riding her horse into the flames as Wagner had intended. She had been an athletic child and learned to ride in Australia. In this famous performance, Lauritz Melchior was her Siegfried. The performance was recorded and is the only complete _Götterdämmerung_ with Melchior as Siegfried on record. 

Lawrence's physicality and beauty made her popular with audiences – she performed the "Dance of the Seven Veils" in Richard Strauss's _Salome_[ more convincingly than most other sopranos.

During a performance in 1941 in Mexico, Lawrence found herself unable to stand—she had polio. She undertook the Sister Kenny treatment of muscle stimulation for paralysis in both legs. She returned to the stage 18 months later, performing in a chair, reclining or on a special platform; although hampered by her lack of mobility, she continued to perform until 1952. 

In 1949, Lawrence wrote her autobiography _Interrupted Melody_; by February 1950, Hollywood was interested in making a film and Lawrence indicated "If a film is made I will do the singing". In 1955, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released the film version, _Interrupted Melody_, starring Eleanor Parker who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as Lawrence; Parker loved opera and learned to sing all of the arias, although her singing was later dubbed in by soprano Eileen Farrell. Lawrence criticised the film as being untrue to her life.


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

Leonie Rysanek - Leopoldine Rysanek (14 November 1926 – 7 March 1998) was an Austrian dramatic soprano. 

In 1951 the Bayreuth Festival reopened and the new leader Wieland Wagner asked her to sing Sieglinde in _Die Walküre_. He was convinced that her unique, young and beautiful voice, combined with her rare acting abilities, would create a sensation. She became a star overnight, and the role of Sieglinde followed her for the rest of her career. 

Her Metropolitan Opera debut came in 1959 as Lady Macbeth in Verdi's _Macbeth_, replacing Maria Callas who had been "fired" from the production.

Leonie Rysanek's voice is regarded as in-line with the spinto and dramatic soprano categories. Although her voice fell in the upper end of the _jugendlich-dramatisch_ and _dramatischer Sopran_ categories in the German repertoire, it was exclusively dramatic by Italian operatic standards. Her endurance in the high tessitura of Strauss' operas is widely praised.

.She avoided offers to sing Isolde in Wagner's _Tristan und Isolde_ despite speculation that the role would be perfect for her. She sang Brünnhilde in _Die Walküre_ in 1950 in Innsbruck but did not return to this role. She stated in interviews that her great respect for her colleague Birgit Nilsson was a factor in her avoidance of that soprano's signature roles.

Due to Rysanek's vocal technique and strong vocal endurance she was able to sing many Verdi leads.

In her later years, Rysanek reverted to dramatic mezzo-soprano roles like Herodias in _Salome_, Klytemnestra in _Elektra_ and the Kostelnička in Janáček's _Jenůfa_.


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

*Ibolyka Astrid Maria Varnay* (25 April 1918 – 4 September 2006) was a Swedish-born American dramatic soprano of Hungarian descent. She spent most of her career in the United States and Germany. She was one of the leading Wagnerian heroic sopranos of her generation.

By the age of 22 she knew Hungarian, German, English, French and Italian and her repertoire consisted of fifteen leading dramatic soprano roles, eleven of which were Wagnerian parts. She also had formidable mezzo-soprano capability, which she displayed in performances as Ortrud in _Lohengrin_ and Klytemnestra in _Elektra_.

She made her sensational debut at the Metropolitan Opera on 6 December 1941 in a broadcast performance singing Sieglinde in Wagner's _Die Walküre_, substituting for the indisposed Lotte Lehmann with almost no rehearsal. This was her first appearance in a leading role, and it was a triumph. Six days later she replaced the ailing Helen Traubel as Brünnhilde in the same opera.

In 1969, she gave up her repertoire of heavy dramatic soprano roles and began a new career singing mezzo roles.

In 2004, a documentary about her life and first New York career entitled _Never Before_ received acclaim in the USA. Her recordings of Strauss heroines such as Elektra and Salome along with the Wagnerian roles are among the treasures of the medium, while transcriptions of broadcast performances of her great roles document her art in sound, and a few video recordings of her late career preserve evidence of her acting ability.


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

*Gertrude Grob-Prandl* (11 November 1917 – 16 May 1995) was an Austrian Wagnerian soprano.

Besides size, her voice had a distinctive burnished timbre and a tight, brisk, consistent vibrato.

Irmgard Seefried once remarked that the "walls shook" when Grob-Prandl sang Turandot.. A popular anecdote states that she was once interrupted while performing as Turandot, by fire-fighters. People outside the theater had mistaken her for a fire-alarm siren.

Unlike many big Wagnerians, she was dexterous enough to sing Mozart. She was a supportive, unselfish ensemble-singer.


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

*Christa Ludwig* (16 March 1928 – 24 April 2021) was a German mezzo-soprano and occasional dramatic soprano, distinguished for her performances of opera, lieder, oratorio, and other major religious works like masses, passions, and solos in symphonic literature. Her performing career spanned almost half a century, from the late 1940s until the early 1990s.

She is widely recognised as having been one of the most significant and distinguished singers of the 20th century. _The NPR Listener's Encyclopedia of Classical Music_ (2006) stated "Ludwig possessed a voice of exquisite richness and, when needed, breathtaking amplitude. She had the ability to impart dramatic urgency to a performance, the hallmark of a great singer.

She joined the Vienna State Opera in 1955, where she became one of its principal artists and was awarded the title _Kammersängerin_ in 1962. She performed with the company for more than thirty years in 43 opera roles and 769 performances.

She first performed in the U.S. at the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Dorabella in Mozart's _Così fan tutte_ in 1959. The same year, she appeared at the Metropolitan Opera (Met) in New York City as Cherubino in _The Marriage of Figaro_, conducted by Erich Leinsdorf. Louis Biancolli wrote in his review for the World Telegram and Sun:


> "... the new Cherubino – Berlin-born Christa Ludwig, a leading mezzo at Darmstadt, Salzburg and Vienna since her debut as Prince Orlofsky in "Fledermaus" in 1946. She is a valuable acquisition. Gifted with a bright, warm voice; Miss Ludwig was a lively and believable Cherubino. Her singing was precise and even, each tone clear and true, and her Italian rippled along like a second music. The ovation was fully deserved."


She subsequently sang 121 performances in 15 roles with the Met, where she quickly became one of the audience's favourites.


> In times where personalities are thinly sown, we have first class, yes excellent, musical practitioners, who lack intuition, imagination, and a feeling for composers, who, even though they lived in the past, can speak to us about today. Courage is needed to reveal one's own feelings in interpretation and not tell the audience with raised forefinger: "The composer wanted it like this, and no other way." But at the same time we singers must never forget that we are only the servants of the great minds who created all the wonderful pieces of music we enjoy today.


—Christa Ludwig, _In My Own Voice: Memoirs_ (1999), p. 119


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

For me it is between the last three. I'd be happy if any of them win, but when Grob-Prandl calls on Woden, the power in her voice is frightening!!!! Ludwig and Varnay are both really into it. Rysanek would be wild to hear live I think where her uneven voice might disappear behind her intensity as an actress.
I have been getting high listening particularly the last 3 repeatedly, getting high like bad boys in school sniffing glue.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

This isn't one of Marjorie Lawrence's finest moments, as she goes flat for her final lines and so undercuts their climactic power, but the recording is poor enough that she'd be hard to judge anyway. 

Rysanek does that Rysanek thing, including the feral high notes, the hollowed-out low notes, and the iffy intonation. You either groove on it or you don't. I don't. 

Varnay does Varnay's usual things too - tonally dark and opaque, somewhat strident, mezzoish things - which work better for this role than for gentler, more benign characters. Her Ortrud is really an outstanding portrayal, to appreciate which we need to hear more than this brief excerpt. 

I like Grob-Prandl pretty well. She communicates the right intentions, and the high notes are of course terrific. She doesn't suggest evil, though; it just isn't in the sound of her bright, high soprano.

That leaves Ludwig, who is in my judgment the finest Ortrud since Margarete Klose, with an absorbing characterization and a seamless, powerful soprano/mezzo that encompasses the role's every vocal demand.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> This isn't one of Marjorie Lawrence's finest moments, as she goes flat for her final lines and so undercuts their climactic power, but the recording is poor enough that she'd be hard to judge anyway.
> 
> Rysanek does that Rysanek thing, including the feral high notes, the hollowed-out low notes, and the iffy intonation. You either groove on it or you don't. I don't.
> 
> ...


Thanks for being the only person so far to listen to this contest. About Marjorie Lawrence: I agree she isn't that great here but she shows up so rarely for me I thought I'd include her. I do have one other contest with her in it where she really shines. I'll try to feature it soon.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Thanks for being the only person so far to listen to this contest.


It's Friday night. Other people are probably out on the town doing fascinating, intoxicating and possibly unmentionable things. I'm well beyond such risky adventures. Comparing Ortruds is all the danger I can handle.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> It's Friday night. Other people are probably out on the town doing fascinating, intoxicating and possibly unmentionable things. I'm well beyond such risky adventures. Comparing Ortruds is all the danger I can handle.


OMG, you kill me


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I really like Marjorie Lawrence and was hoping I'd like her here, but she is not at her best and the recording doesn't help. The others all acquit themselves well, though I agree with Woodduck that Grob-Prandl doesn't sound in the least threatening or evil. 
However it's Ludwig who really grabbed me by the throat. Ortrud was one of her best roles and she is superb here.


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## Francasacchi (7 mo ago)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Thanks for being the only person so far to listen to this contest. About Marjorie Lawrence: I agree she isn't that great here but she shows up so rarely for me I thought I'd include her. I do have one other contest with her in it where she really shines. I'll try to feature it soon.


In her bio, it's noted she sounded tired in this peformance as during this run she didn't get sufficient breaks between performances. The voice is richer and more secure in the commercial highlights in French with Singher and Brothier. Still, it's nice to hear a dramatic soprano here in this high tessitura and the malevolence comes through.
Ludwig sounds malevolent but she doesn't spit out the words like Klose does in her three recordings though Ludwig's voice is also at the same time sensuous unlike Klose. Ludwig is at her limit in the tessitura and volume required; she doesn't have the natural wall of sound like Klose and Grob-Prandl and yes Varnay. Varnay's mezzoish middle register and cleaving abrasive top suggest perhaps the ideal, a hochdramatische who contrasts well with Elsa's full lyric. 
I voted for Grob-Prandl because she's got it all vocally if perhaps lacking in conveying that it's a curse but if one thinks of Ortrud herself filled wirh the power of the gods she invokes here, it works. Gorr at Bayreuth and in her commercial recording of the aria has this same effect even more of hieratic power.


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## Francasacchi (7 mo ago)

I wish the tapes if they still exist of Modl's One series of Ortruds at La Scala would appear. Modl dropped the part, saying she couldn't delve into the character and she also said Varnay did it so much better and that she would leave it to her. We have a snippet of Anny Konetzni live in Act One and a commercial of the duet with her sister Hilde minus Entweihter Gotter. Supposedly the equipment couldn't handle her voice in the aria and one of the engineers called her "diesel voice." I wonder if Anny was having high note issues that day. Her top was short and if it was not working well she would cut notes short and emit them as yelps.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Francasacchi said:


> In her bio, it's noted she sounded tired in this peformance as during this run she didn't get sufficient breaks between performances. The voice is richer and more secure in the commercial highlights in French with Singher and Brothier. Still, it's nice to hear a dramatic soprano here in this high tessitura and the malevolence comes through.
> Ludwig sounds malevolent but she doesn't spit out the words like Klose does in her three recordings though Ludwig's voice is also at the same time sensuous unlike Klose. Ludwig is at her limit in the tessitura and volume required; she doesn't have the natural wall of sound like Klose and Grob-Prandl and yes Varnay. Varnay's mezzoish middle register and cleaving abrasive top suggest perhaps the ideal, a hochdramatische who contrasts well with Elsa's full lyric.
> I voted for Grob-Prandl because she's got it all vocally if perhaps lacking in conveying that it's a curse but if one thinks of Ortrud herself filled wirh the power of the gods she invokes here, it works. Gorr at Bayreuth and in her commercial recording of the aria has this same effect even more of hieratic power.


I must confess I was not familiar with Gore and she was amazing!!! If I had she would have been in this contest. Others have found Varnay's top abrasive but I find it gleaming, gorgeous, wobble free and most thrilling. We all have our own ears.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Francasacchi said:


> IVarnay's mezzoish middle register and cleaving abrasive top suggest perhaps the ideal, a hochdramatische who contrasts well with Elsa's full lyric.


"Cleaving and abrasive" Varnay's top certainly is. At this stage in her career - fairly early, unfortunately - her high notes were little more than screams plus vibrato. I first heard her in Bayreuth transcriptions by Deutschewelle that came over Philadelphia public broadcasting in the 1960s. My Brunnhilde on records was Nilsson, with her free, soaring, gleaming upper range. Then in my teens, I thought Varnay's voice was shocking and ugly - heavy and strident, with high notes that could scalp a yak - and the witchy Ortrud was the only role in which I could tolerate her. I think it still is, more or less, except for her first Met performances, in which she was a really good singer. I honestly don't know how people can listen to her performances from the 1950s on without cringing.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> "Cleaving and abrasive" Varnay's top certainly is. At this stage in her career - fairly early, unfortunately - her high notes were little more than screams plus vibrato. I first heard her in Bayreuth transcriptions by Deutschewelle that came over Philadelphia public broadcasting in the 1960s. My Brunnhilde on records was Nilsson, with her free, soaring, gleaming upper range. Then in my teens, I thought Varnay's voice was shocking and ugly - heavy and strident, with high notes that could scalp a yak - and the witchy Ortrud was the only role in which I could tolerate her. I think it still is, more or less, except for her first Met performances, in which she was a really good singer. I honestly don't know how people can listen to her performances from the 1950s on without cringing.


Opera Depot says of Varnay"Astrid Varnay as Brünnhilde is in top form replete with gleaming high notes as well as nuanced singing, showing that there is more to singing Wagner than being loud." The blog Oberon's Grove says of her Elektra:"But here she is just fantastic; the sound is huge and rich and the top notes are struck off with gleaming precision." I am not the only person who's ears hear her differently than yours..... not saying that you are wrong, mind you. You just hear differently than me
I have added two good recordings by Gorr to the contest. I keep learning from you guys.


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I must confess I was not familiar with Gore and she was amazing!!! If I had she would have been in this contest. Others have found Varnay's top abrasive but I find it gleaming, gorgeous, wobble free and most thrilling. We all have our own ears.


I'm with you on Varnay, her early 1950s Elektra has stunning top notes. Her top is certainly not as phonogenic as Nilsson's but you can tell it would have been very exciting in theatre.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

Varnay is the winner for me. I think her mezzo-like voice is excellently suitable for Ortrud. For this kind of a superb**** I prefer a lower voice. (Is it allowed to write this way here?). Others, even my favorite, very sophisticated and versatile mezzo Ludwig, sound here too light. Rysanek, in her turn, is charismatic but passed her prime (but here we have a late recording).


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## Francasacchi (7 mo ago)

Op.123 said:


> I'm with you on Varnay, her early 1950s Elektra has stunning top notes. Her top is certainly not as phonogenic as Nilsson's but you can tell it would have been very exciting in theatre.


The 1949 concert Elektra under Mitropolous is thrilling. The top notes shoot out like comets. I notice the harshness more in live performances from the 1960s but my goodness in 1964 in Salzburg she could still interpolate a high B at the end of Elektra.


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

*Christa Ludwig - The Complete Recitals on Warner Classics*

List of contents - 









Christa Ludwig - The Complete Recitals on Warner Classics


Christa Ludwig - The Complete Recitals on Warner Classics. Warner Classics: 9029569020. Buy 11 CDs or download online. Christa Ludwig



www.prestomusic.com





Link to label authorized complete set of recordings - 9 hours and 22 minutes - 



https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_m5zP56A0zGWxGzG05VTjjHFG0jJShILdE


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

OSCAR WINNER:Best Original ScreenplayNo pretensions. No tantrums. *Marjorie Lawrence* is a prima donna in the most professional sense of the term. She's a foremost Wagnerian, a soprano equal to the vocal and physical demands of the composer's oeuvre. And she's a beacon of triumph to anyone who fights back when personal tragedy strikes. *"Interrupted Melody"* is the acclaimed tale of Lawrence's rise from Australian outback girl to renowned diva and her subsequent battle against polio, which *won the 1955 Academy Award for "Best Screenplay*, while *Eleanor Parker received a "Best Actress "nomination* for her work in the title role. With the film's *selection of glorious arias voiced by uncredited opera-legend-in-the-making Eileen Farrell,* and a stellar cast including Glenn Ford and Roger Moore this is a "Melody" to remember.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Shaughnessy said:


> OSCAR WINNER:Best Original ScreenplayNo pretensions. No tantrums. *Marjorie Lawrence* is a prima donna in the most professional sense of the term. She's a foremost Wagnerian, a soprano equal to the vocal and physical demands of the composer's oeuvre. And she's a beacon of triumph to anyone who fights back when personal tragedy strikes. *"Interrupted Melody"* is the acclaimed tale of Lawrence's rise from Australian outback girl to renowned diva and her subsequent battle against polio, which *won the 1955 Academy Award for "Best Screenplay*, while *Eleanor Parker received a "Best Actress "nomination* for her work in the title role. With the film's *selection of glorious arias voiced by uncredited opera-legend-in-the-making Eileen Farrell,* and a stellar cast including Glenn Ford and Roger Moore this is a "Melody" to remember.


I've seen it many times and Farrell is beyond spectacular in mezzo and soprano roles. It is the perfect combination of Eleanor Parker, who was made for the video age, and Farrell who was flawless. Her scene in the wheelchair at the hospital and rising up during the Liebestod is Hollywood magic.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I've seen it many times and Farrell is beyond spectacular in mezzo and soprano roles. It is the perfect combination of Eleanor Parker, who was made for the video age, and Farrell who was flawless. Her scene in the wheelchair at the hospital and rising up during the Liebestod is Hollywood magic.


I love the way Hollywood describes Lawrence as a "singing personality." I note this during my breakfast as a "writing and eating personality."


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