# Round Two: Du Bist Der Lenz (Goerke, Nilsson, Lehmann)



## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)




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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

We only get about half the piece from Goerke - thankfully, I'm tempted to say. I fast forwarded through the ghastly Schager, but Goerke isn't really that much better than him, at least not here. The sound she makes is not attractive and she doesn't sound like a Sieglinde to me.

Nor does Nilsson, whose voice I never really like, though her top notes are as usual splendid. Lehmann _is_ much more suited to the role, though this early version is not her best. She is far better represented on the Walter recording of 1935 with Melchior and this extract starts with her singing _Du bist der Lenz_.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Not my bailiwick so it becomes a bit more difficult for me as I now must carefully listen to the voices and choose the one who seemed to have more emotion, and to me that voice was Lehmann. I love Nilsson but found her singing to have been straightforward (in a good way)but lacking in soul.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Goerke is blowsy and sounds too old for the part. Hers is easily the worst version so far. Nilsson fares far better and is closer to what a Sieglinde should sound like. Lehmann is something else alltogether though. When one compares Lehmann's impassioned account that is centred on pure vowels (even if you don't understand German, you know which vowel sound she is making at each point) with Goerke's strange, non-descript sounds, can we really describe both of these as 'singing'?

N.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I agree with everyone else so far. The less said about Goerke (and Schager) the better. Singing so bad it's unearthly. Sieglinde doesn't suit Nilsson very well, though I know she'd have loved to sing the role and, like Flagstad, just didn't get the opportunity once Brunnhilde became her calling card. Lehmann's fervent Sieglinde is classic; this recording muffles and shrinks her voice, and the later, famous recording of Act 1, posted by Tsaraslondon above, represents her better.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Woodduck said:


> I agree with everyone else so far. The less said about Goerke (and Schager) the better. Singing so bad it's unearthly. Sieglinde doesn't suit Nilsson very well, though *I know she'd have loved to sing the role and, like Flagstad, just didn't get the opportunity once Brunnhilde became her calling card*. Lehmann's fervent Sieglinde is classic; this recording muffles and shrinks her voice, and the later, famous recording of Act 1, posted by Tsaraslondon above, represents her better.


Actually Nilsson did at least once, singing Sieglinde to Rita Hunter's Brunnhilde at the Met.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Becca said:


> Actually Nilsson did at least once, singing Sieglinde to Rita Hunter's Brunnhilde at the Met.


Thanks. I was aware only that she sang Sieglinde early in her career. I think there's one from Bayreuth with Varnay or Modl as Brunnhilde.


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## ALT (Mar 1, 2021)

Lehmann, but of course.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Goerke is outclassed from the start, emblematic of the state of our opera singers these days (especially Wagnerian?). Nilsson is in the wrong role, as they all said. Her voice is that of a demi-goddess. 

Sieglinde’s first quality is that of womanliness and Lehman voice fits it like a glove, the apparent fragility hiding strength.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Woodduck said:


> The less said about Goerke (and Schager) the better.


Whatabout Heever and Volle?


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## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

I want to once again express my embarrassment at having attended a Schager performance and leaving with positive feelings towards his singing back in '19. Something was clearly wrong with me at that time, but I'm glad to say I've made a full recovery 

Lehmann of course.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Bonetan said:


> I want to once again express my embarrassment at having attended a Schager performance and leaving with positive feelings towards his singing back in '19. Something was clearly wrong with me at that time, but I'm glad to say I've made a full recovery
> 
> Lehmann of course.


It must have been a case of pre-Covid (Covid18). The real question is whether exposure has left appropriate antibodies.


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## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

Alright Bboy, I see your plan, everything calculated to have those old time singers you all love end up out front....teasing, teasing! Goerke really doesn't have a chance with the piano and cut. I didn't hone in but I know she wasn't my favorite. I thought Nilsson did a good job but I think when she sings lyrically she's more prone to that swelling into the tone that got some ink a while back. Its not the same flow as Lotte's. I also saw HER in this role.

Lotte does what you want....sing the music. She sounds confident that there is no need to make a big deal out of any of the held notes, no need to do anything more than to sing the music with her beautiful, well produced voice and all of her inherent womanliness and conviction will tell the story. And for me it does.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Back in days of yore, when I was a young tenor getting together with some pianist friends to do Schubert and whatnot, one of them told me that I just couldn't make an inexpressive sound. I'm not sure that was true, though it was certainly my intention, but I remember the remark whenever I hear Lotte Lehmann. Certainly it was partly natural endowment and partly art, but whatever went into it she always gave the impression that every note and every word meant something to her. Like Tito Schipa, she understood how much musical meaning could be communicated through the sounds of words, and if we don't tend to think of German as a particularly beautiful language, Lehmann is a singer who might make us reconsider.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

ScottK said:


> Alright Bboy, I see your plan, everything calculated to have those old time singers you all love end up out front....teasing, teasing! Goerke really doesn't have a chance with the piano and cut. I didn't hone in but I know she wasn't my favorite. I thought Nilsson did a good job but I think when she sings lyrically she's more prone to that swelling into the tone that got some ink a while back. Its not the same flow as Lotte's. I also saw HER in this role.
> 
> Lotte does what you want....sing the music. She sounds confident that there is no need to make a big deal out of any of the held notes, no need to do anything more than to sing the music with her beautiful, well produced voice and all of her inherent womanliness and conviction will tell the story. And for me it does.


Well, more of my _hope_ than my _plan_...but the fact that I even need to make this distinction implies you aren't totally wrong.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

"Wagnerians in Concert"? More like "Wobblerians in Concert".


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## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

hammeredklavier said:


> "Wagnerians in Concert"? More like "Wobblerians in Concert".


This made me laugh way harder than it probably should have :lol:


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## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> Well, more of my _hope_ than my _plan_...but the fact that I even need to make this distinction implies you aren't totally wrong.


............:lol:.........


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