# Round One: Isolde's Narration and Curse. Grob-Prandl and Nilsson



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)




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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I was going to post Jones today as she is very exciting, but listening in the car without seeing her beauty and great involvement it all of a sudden seemed too wobbly.
I don't think we've had any Isolde's to vocally equal these two singers since their heyday ( same era). While both are great I think Grob-Prandl's voice is more beautiful and she seems to have an extra gear at the top.
Next I will have Flagstad and Leider. Flagstad has many wonderful versions but I plan to use one from her 50's when her voice was seemed to grow in size. I am crazy about her studio version from her 60's but people here thought her too matronly. I also think Varnay and Traubel are wonderful but I don't think we have enough fans of them here to merit a third round. I bet Callas' Curse would have been something to hear!


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Unusual for sopranos in his repertoire, both these ladies have voices weighted toward the upper range, with brilliant tops. Neither has any difficulty whatsoever with the high-lying climaxes, or suggests a pushed-up mezzo.

I don't always enjoy Grob-Prandl's work, but I found her extremely effective here, taking in the music, projecting the text with sharp dramatic sense, and managing at the same time to sound more youthful than heavier, deeper voices can. Nilsson too projects the text well and encounters few musical difficulties (except occasionally with pitch), but tends to sound more comfortable singing out than drawing a softly lyrical line such as "Er sah mir in die Augen" (in which Flagstad long ago spoiled me for everyone else).

Grob-Prandl here gives possibly the most vivid portrait of the fiery young Irish princess I've ever heard. I'm not sure she'd be my pick for the entire role - for the love duet and Liebestod I might favor the more luxuriant sound of Flagstad or Leider - but here she's quite convincing.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I don't know this music as well as I know my Verdi, though I've heard it often and it's one of the few Wagner operas I have two recordings of (mine have Dernesch and Linda Esther Gray as Isolde, whom I doubt will be appearing in the competition).

Anyway, of these two Grob-Prandl is an easy winner for me. I find the actual voice infinitely more beautiful, where Nilsson's occasional flattening bothers me, plus I really don't like the sound she makes in the middle of the voice. Grob-Prandl is also dramatically involved, so I'm going for her without any hesitation.

It might be interesting to add in a few who are not what you'd call _hochdramatische_ sopranos. Apart fom Dernesch and Gray, I've also enjoyed Margaret Price as Isolde. I do know it's only a studio incarnation. Neither she nor Kleiber entertained the idea of her singing it on stage, but I find her Isolde very beautiful. Then there are some from more recent complete recordings; Behrens on the Bernstein and Meier on the Barenboim. I haven't heard either, but I'm curious.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

I’m used to Nilsson in this repertoire, not that I’m a *Tristan und Isolde *_aficionado. _My measure is Flagstad in both her EMI studio recording with Furtwängler and some live excerpts.
I have never had the privilege of hearing Grob Prandl live, but I am impressed with her here, so she gets my vote.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

So glad you are enjoying this. This is one of my favorite arias. I LOVE Nilsson at the Met Gala at 65 singing this. It is astounding what she manages to do at that age in this difficult piece. Plus she is so damn powerful as a performer. The audience went CRAZY. I love Grob Prandl in this. You don't get to be the lead Donna Anna, Turandot and Isolde in Vienna in the mid twentieth century without being fabulous. She is jawdropping in Was Blute MuB from Elektra but it is too intense for the contest I think - I also love Nilsson and Jones in this piece.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Thanks for this contest, I found it an absolute joy. I'm not that familiar with Grob-Prandl, but I really liked her here. This is true vocal acting and her voice suits the role better than some of the more mezzoish purveyors of the part. I might have to get this recording!

As you know, I'm not really a Nilsson fan and I have her Bohm recording of the opera more out of duty than pleasure. However, I hadn't heard this recording of her before. I'm afraid I just can't get on with her voice in this role. Her tone (no doubt her natural Swedish lilt as I can hear something similar in recordings of her speaking) sounds to me like a soprano singing in falsetto. I tried to listen and concentrate on the artistry and interpretation. Whilst I can understand those who find the sheer heroic shining splendor of her voice viscerally exciting, I prefer Grob-Prandl both technically (the tone is better centred on the vowels and you can understand every word, unlike with Nilsson) and interpretatively.

N.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

I'd like to second Tsarras' suggestion of Meier with Barenboim and it would be interesting to have a couple of the more mezzoish ladies (Varnay and Modl?)

N.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

It was Nilsson and Bohm who got me into this opera (and Wagner), I listened to that recording almost daily for a year (and didn't go crazy (...or perhaps I did)). So I gotta go with my gal.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Then there are some from more recent complete recordings; Behrens on the Bernstein and Meier on the Barenboim. I haven't heard either, but I'm curious.


Meier is exceptional on video, slightly less so on CD. Behrens, I prefer not to listen to or watch. Barenboim has an exceptional grasp on this opera's pacing, and the horns scream pleasantly. Bernstein is too leisurely, there should be a hint of urgency with this opera, people are sneaking around in the dark and dying... there needs to be wind in the sails or it slows down to a halt.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Seattleoperafan said:


> So glad you are enjoying this. This is one of my favorite arias. I LOVE Nilsson at the Met Gala at 65 singing this. It is astounding what she manages to do at that age in this difficult piece. Plus she is so damn powerful as a performer. The audience went CRAZY. I love Grob Prandl in this. You don't get to be the lead Donna Anna, Turandot and Isolde in Vienna in the mid twentieth century without being fabulous. She is jawdropping in Was Blute MuB from Elektra but it is too intense for the contest I think - I also love Nilsson and Jones in this piece.


That audience was filled with real opera lovers. Plus you’ve got to love that emerald necklace!


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

MAS said:


> That audience was filled with real opera lovers. Plus you’ve got to love that emerald necklace!


I can't imagine what a night like that would have been like at a big Met gala with all those stars there. Nilsson was the Liz Taylor of the opera world when it came to jewelry. I think her foundation got a ton of money from auctioning her jewels. Out of all the huge names there that night reputedly the two biggest voices of them all were Sutherland and Nilsson, both of whom were in their 60's.


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## Yabetz (Sep 6, 2021)

I love both of those posted so I won't vote for either. But thanks for posting the video of Gertrude Grob-Prandl. That's excellent. I had never heard it.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Grob Prandl was made Kammersangerin at Vienna after her success as Isolde. She was the same age as Nilsson and Varnay but retired when singing was no long an immense pleasure to her in 1972. Her voice was still in its prime She later regretted retiring so early.
I found the following on the internet about Grob-Prandl. Soprano Irmgard Seefried swore that "the walls shook" when Grob-Prandl sang Turandot, and indeed, the great-voiced soprano achieved celebrity in Italy surpassing even that accorded her in her native Austria. Grob-Prandl's voice was not merely immense, it was firmly knit and true, with a fast vibrato that avoided any taint of the unwieldy. If her passagework in Mozart was slightly labored, her dramatic roles were all sung with lyricism as well as power.


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## Francasacchi (7 mo ago)

Grob-Prandl incurred the jealousy of the huge-voiced Anny Konetzni when she sang Elsa to Anny's Ortrud. She never sang at Bayreuth, as that stage was dominated by Varnay, Modl, and Nilsson, though she was certainly in their league as a hochdramatische.


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## damianjb1 (Jan 1, 2016)

Seattleoperafan said:


>


Wow wow wow. Gertrud is ASTOUNDING. That is seriously amazing singing.


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