# Sieglinde: What type of voice does it call for?



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

The great mezzo Stephanie Blythe supposedly asked to sing Sieglinde only to be discouraged from doing so. My question is: to me the tessitura of Sieglinde is totally within the mezzo range. I don't think she ever goes above high A, plus lots of it lies down low.... Der Manne Sippe. Is it because they want a bright, youthful soprano sound in the part. Jessye Norman had one of the greatest success of her career with Sieglinde, but she is a mezzo in everything but name.Her range, color and vocal size are very similar to Stephanie's. Does anyone care to speculate on this role's best suited voice type.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

I have recently been listening to the Klemperer Walkure act 1 which has Helga Dernesch as Sieglinde. Now at this time Dernesch was nominally a soprano but, as with Norman, she is more a mezzo - which she later became. My reaction, which maybe due to familiarity of other recordings, is that her voice sounded wrong for the part, too dark ... almost older sounding. A younger, brighter voice seems to be called for despite the range of the role.

P.S. Sometime in the 70s, the Met was doing Walkure with Rita Hunter as Brunnhilde. For a couple of performances, Birgit Nilsson filled in as Sieglinde in for, if I remember correctly, Leonie Rysanek. That would have been interesting to hear.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

I have Rysanek on the Keilberth '53 set and I think she's wonderful.


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## howlingfantods (Jul 27, 2015)

Itullian said:


> I have Rysanek on the Keilberth '53 set and I think she's wonderful.


I think you're thinking Resnik, not Rysanek. I'm actually not a huge fan of Resnik's Sieglinde--she's fine but I don't think she's one of the best. She's not especially passionate or especially beautiful. I am however a huge fan of Rysanek's, who can be heard on the Furtwangler studio recording, one of Knappertsbusche's Bayreuths (I think 57 or 58) and the Bohm. The most passionate and expressive, and her signature shriek when Siegmund draws Nothung is a treat I always look out for and miss on other performances.

Other than Rysanek, I'm also fond of Gre Brouwenstijn's Sieglinde, which can be heard on the studio Leinsdorf and the 55 Keilberth. She's not as expressive or passionate as Rysanek but has a uniquely beautiful tone--she sounds like a bigger and more dramatic Janowitz. Janowitz in Karajan's studio Walkure is just too small for the part--it's one of the few recordings I don't like her in.

Blythe is a wonderful Fricka but I'm not sure I'd want to hear her as a Sieglinde. Sieglinde is a wounded, vulnerable but passionate character, and should be sung by a spinto soprano who can express the vulnerability but with some strength. I'm not a fan of dark mezzo'ish voices in the role (including Jessye Norman, as much as I admire her in other roles), nor overly big sopranos--Astrid Varnay, even at 23 in her first recording at the Met was too big and assertive for the role.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Rysenek is the Sieglinde on the Bohm set from 1966. Resnick is Krauss' Sieglinde.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

DavidA said:


> Rysenek is the Sieglinde on the Bohm set from 1966. Resnick is Krauss' Sieglinde.


Yes, and Keilberth 53 too. My mistake.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

howlingfantods said:


> I think you're thinking Resnik, not Rysanek. I'm actually not a huge fan of Resnik's Sieglinde--she's fine but I don't think she's one of the best. She's not especially passionate or especially beautiful. I am however a huge fan of Rysanek's, who can be heard on the Furtwangler studio recording, one of Knappertsbusche's Bayreuths (I think 57 or 58) and the Bohm. The most passionate and expressive, and her signature shriek when Siegmund draws Nothung is a treat I always look out for and miss on other performances.
> 
> Other than Rysanek, I'm also fond of Gre Brouwenstijn's Sieglinde, which can be heard on the studio Leinsdorf and the 55 Keilberth. She's not as expressive or passionate as Rysanek but has a uniquely beautiful tone--she sounds like a bigger and more dramatic Janowitz. Janowitz in Karajan's studio Walkure is just too small for the part--it's one of the few recordings I don't like her in.
> 
> Blythe is a wonderful Fricka but I'm not sure I'd want to hear her as a Sieglinde. Sieglinde is a wounded, vulnerable but passionate character, and should be sung by a spinto soprano who can express the vulnerability but with some strength. I'm not a fan of dark mezzo'ish voices in the role (including Jessye Norman, as much as I admire her in other roles), nor overly big sopranos--Astrid Varnay, even at 23 in her first recording at the Met was too big and assertive for the role.


My sentiments exactly, especially regarding the often-overlooked Gre Brouwenstijn. But let's not neglect to step back another generation and extoll the incomparable Lotte Lehmann. And, of big-voiced dramatic sopranos, I suspect the young Flagstad would have had the vocal freshness and beauty to make a good thing of the part (it was the role of her sensational Met debut), not to mention such other dramatic sopranos as Frida Leider and Marjorie Lawrence.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I've heard an early Sieglinde with Nilsson and she was wonderful. I understand what you say about the vocal color. Cheryl Studer was a very good Sieglinde and her voice was very bright.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I've heard an early Sieglinde with Nilsson and she was wonderful. I understand what you say about the vocal color. Cheryl Studer was a very good Sieglinde and her voice was very bright.


Exactly, the role works best with a German style lyric soprano (what is sometimes termed 'full lyric' rather than 'light lyric') and Studer is my favourite Sieglinde on disc. Didn't Grummer do it with Fuertwaengler? She's another example of the type of voice that is perfect for the role along with Brouwenstijn (and I would have thought Janowitz perfect for it too, maybe she wasn't ready for it when she recorded it).

N.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

The Conte said:


> Exactly, the role works best with a German style lyric soprano (what is sometimes termed 'full lyric' rather than 'light lyric') and Studer is my favourite Sieglinde on disc. Didn't Grummer do it with Fuertwaengler? She's another example of the type of voice that is perfect for the role along with Brouwenstijn (and I would have thought Janowitz perfect for it too, maybe she wasn't ready for it when she recorded it).
> 
> N.


I like Janowitz's Sieglinde very much. She sounds ready enough for me.

Studer's is not a voice I warm too, but I imagine Grummer would have been perfect.

From an earlier time, Lotte Lehmann was superb; warm, feminine, youthful, passionate.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

GregMitchell said:


> I like Janowitz's Sieglinde very much. She sounds ready enough for me.
> 
> .


Me too! She is different but in a good way. Her partnership with Vickers is superb.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

In answer to the question, my answer would be a darn good one.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

I am currently listening to Eva-Marie Westbroek as Sieglinde and she comes closer to my idea of how the character should sound than Helga Dernesch although Dernesch is technically stronger. I will have to go back to the Leinsdorf, which I haven't heard in decades, to hear Browenstijn.


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

GregMitchell said:


> I like Janowitz's Sieglinde very much. She sounds ready enough for me.
> Studer's is not a voice I warm too, but I imagine Grummer would have been perfect.
> From an earlier time, *Lotte Lehmann was superb; warm, feminine, youthful, passionate.*


Anyone who can emulate Lehmann's style is good for me. Sieglinde should be a vocal contrast to Brunnhilde. Our emotional response to each of them is very different.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Don Fatale said:


> Anyone who can emulate Lehmann's style is good for me. Sieglinde should be a vocal contrast to Brunnhilde. Our emotional response to each of them is very different.


Alas, Ms. Lehmann is simply umemulable. (Did I just make up that word?) I don't think that woman ever uttered a sound that wasn't alive with feeling - and yet her vocal technique held up superbly throughout a long career in opera and song. She's one of my heroes.

Had her voice been a size larger, she might have been the greatest Isolde imaginable (I think she tried it once and was smart enough to realize it wasn't for her). Luckily we have her Sieglinde opposite Melchior on both studio and live recordings. I wish we had her as Elisabeth, Elsa and Eva too - actually, as any part she ever sang, including much of Strauss (we do have her great Marschallin), Beethoven, Massenet, Puccini, Tchaikovsky, and Korngold. Not much Verdi, apparently. Her Italian roles would have been sung in German.


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## howlingfantods (Jul 27, 2015)

Becca said:


> I am currently listening to Eva-Marie Westbroek as Sieglinde and she comes closer to my idea of how the character should sound than Helga Dernesch although Dernesch is technically stronger. I will have to go back to the Leinsdorf, which I haven't heard in decades, to hear Browenstijn.


Yes, Westbroek has the right kind of voice for the role, I agree more apt than Dernesch. I didn't find her take exceptional but it was a fine, worthwhile performance on that Met broadcast. I didn't care for the cycle as a whole mostly because of casting reasons, particularly in the last two operas, but Acts 1 and 2 of Walkure with Westbroek and Kaufmann as the twins and Blythe as Fricka was pretty good. Terfel as Wotan also performed well but his voice is a size or two small for the role.


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