# Second Round- Weiche, Wotan. Schumann- Heink and Dominquez



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Schumann-Heink is 68 at the time of this recording. Dominquez is new to me but she impresses me greatly.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Schumann-Heink seems more elemental to me as well as a monumental presence. While I love Dominguez generally, she seems too young in comparison, and I think the wise Erda should sound as if she has the wisdom of the ages. 
In the 1980s San FranciscoOpera Lenhoff *Ring, *Erda comes out of the depths wreathed in a dark veil she slowly pulls off while intoning the warning. Spectacular!


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

MAS said:


> Schumann-Heink seems more elemental to me as well as a monumental presence. While I love Dominguez generally, she seems too young in comparison, and I think the wise Erda should sound as if she has the wisdom of the ages.
> In the 1980s San FranciscoOpera Lenhoff *Ring, *Erda comes out of the depths wreathed in a dark veil she slowly pulls off while intoning the warning. Spectacular!


Good take. I've heard more beautiful voices than Schumann- Heink but it is a voice that stands out, that you remember long after you heard it and she sounds like a goddess most definitely! Dominquez has a beautiful voice for sure but is not so commanding I think. By the way, my mother heard Schumann- Heink in concert in Miss. ages ago and said she never forgot how moving it was. I was so lucky to have a mother that appreciated such things when I grew up! My mother got her bachelor's degree in music after I was born and I heard tons of her practicing when I was a youngster. Her organ teacher even let me play on a harpsichord when I was about 9. She taught piano while I was in grammar school before becoming a school teacher.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

The Dominguez comes from Karajan's recording of _Das Rheingold. _I sense in both her lovely timbre and her lyrical phrasing the influence of her conductor's refined approach to Wagner's music. In the context of Karajan's conception she may be ideal, and If I didn't know the story and character I would have no reservations about her. But I do know those things, and I must turn to the elderly but indomitable Schumann-Heink to be confronted by the implacable earth goddess - Anna Russell's marvelous "green-faced torso that pops up out of the ground" - and to understand why Wotan is seized with anxiety as she sinks back into subterranean darkness. Schumann-Heink is a bit rushed by a conductor who needs to get this music onto a roughly four-minute record side, slighting some of its majesty and mystery, but at 68 nothing is going to keep this lady from letting the Valhallans know who's boss.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

MAS said:


> Schumann-Heink seems more elemental to me as well as a monumental presence. While I love Dominguez generally, she seems too young in comparison, and I think the wise Erda should sound as if she has the wisdom of the ages.
> In the 1980s San FranciscoOpera Lenhoff *Ring, *Erda comes out of the depths wreathed in a dark veil she slowly pulls off while intoning the warning. Spectacular!


You seem to be preferring Schumann-Heink, but appear to have voted for Dominguez.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Woodduck said:


> You seem to be preferring Schumann-Heink, but appear to have voted for Dominguez.


Thanks, actually forgot to vote!


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

With no disrespect to a fine performance by ESH, Dominguez by a landslide. This has been in my top 5 Wagnerian recordings for several years now. Glad to see it getting attention.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> With no disrespect to a fine performance by ESH, Dominguez by a landslide. This has been in my top 5 Wagnerian recordings for several years now. Glad to see it getting attention.


You introduced me to her.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

I am already familiar with Schumann-Heink's wonderful rendition of the aria and it must have been superb hearing her sing it at Bayreuth in the context of a live performance when she was in her prime. This would be my favourite version so far. 

I've heard the Dominguez Erda only once or twice as I'm not a fan of Herbie's Ring. Dominguez is also in the Sawllisch Rome Ring which I've been meaning to listen to sooner or later. I know her primarily as the wild, off the wall Amneris in the Mexico City Aida and she's Preziosilla in the Naples Forza with Tebaldi and Corelli.

Maybe it's the fact it comes from a complete recording of the opera, but Dominguez wins here for me due to the fluency of her singing, whereas Heink sounds as if she is singing each line as a separate entity as if she were posing for the horn.

N.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

Mein Gott! If Fräulein Schumann-Heink could sing like this in her humans-don't-live-so-long age, how did she sing in her prime?! It's a pity that the most popular operas of her time were so soprano-centered. I also can't resist a lady in a hat. 
Señorita Domínguez belongs to another epoche, but also far from us. She is mindblowing. I cannot help it. I can't vote for both. Let it be Schumann-Heink, just to try to equate chances.


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## Francasacchi (7 mo ago)

I chose Dominguez because I simply love the sound of her voice. She's perhaps not exactly The Archetypal Earth Goddess in her timbre and approach, but one can see her as the mother of the Valkyries. Dominguez was more of a mezzo-contralto and in late 60s was singing more contralto rep.


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## vivalagentenuova (Jun 11, 2019)

Dominguez is a favorite mezzo of mine, but it sounds like she's lost some bloom and weight in her voice. This recording is from the late 60s, and her voice sounds thinner and shriller than any of her 50s recordings, including her studio recordings. She doesn't sound bad, but she sounds worse. Schumann-Heink sounds a little old ladyish sometimes, but she still has remarkable control, and massive, frightening low notes. Dominguez sounded lighter and more airy, while Schumann-Heink sounds like Erda. 

Btw, the BPO coming in in the Karajan frightened me (in a good way). It just drives me nuts that we can't have that faithful orchestral sound _and_ the great singers of the past. As much as older recordings sometimes have a certain charm in being low-fi, it gets, well, old. I can only imagine Melchior, Flagstad, Schumann-Heink etc. with an orchestral backing that has that much presence.


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## Francasacchi (7 mo ago)

Dominguez by the late 60s was singing more contralto rep and smaller parts. The top by then was getting shrill. She appears as La Cieca in Tebaldi's commercial recording of La Gioconda.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Could Marian Anderson have been a good Erda if blacks had more access to roles back then? I think the voice was big enough but was it the right sound? What are your thoughts? They had enough problems accepting blacks as romantic interests, but how about the queen of the gods!!


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## Francasacchi (7 mo ago)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Could Marian Anderson have been a good Erda if blacks had more access to roles back then? I think the voice was big enough but was it the right sound? What are your thoughts? They had enough problems accepting blacks as romantic interests, but how about the queen of the gods!!


Bing considered her for both Erdas after her debut as Ulrica but she turned him down, feeling at that point her voice was not up to them. I think in the 1930s and 1940s her voice would have been perfect for them. I think her Erda would have had the more vibrant, forward sound she used in German lieder.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Francasacchi said:


> Bing considered her for both Erdas after her debut as Ulrica but she turned him down, feeling at that point her voice was not up to them. I think in the 1930s and 1940s her voice would have been perfect for them. I think her Erda would have had the more vibrant, forward sound she used in German lieder.


Makes sense. Because of the times her Bing invitation was too late. She was so beautiful and tall she would have looked and sounded most impressive.


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## Francasacchi (7 mo ago)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Makes sense. Because of the times her Bing invitation was too late. She was so beautiful and tall she would have looked and sounded most impressive.


Bing was considering her for Azucena in 1950 which might have been OK, but alas segregation was still in full swing then and he ended up getting Elena Nikolaidi and Fedora Barbieri for that repertoire.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I'm sure all you Wagnerians are right and Schumann-Heink is more right for the role of Erda, but does she have to sound so old? Wotan fathered all those Valkyries with her so she must have had some allure, and Dominguez sounds more alluring to me.

Admittedly Schumann-Heink sounds incredible for a 68 year old woman and those cavernous low notes are pretty amazing. I just preferred Dominguez. Of course the more modern recording might also have had something to do with it.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Tsaraslondon said:


> I'm sure all you Wagnerians are right and Schumann-Heink is more right for the role of Erda, but does she have to sound so old? Wotan fathered all those Valkyries with her so she must have had some allure, and Dominguez sounds more alluring to me.


Tsk tsk. You love an earth goddess for her mind, not her voice. A least she claims to be looking for that in the personals section of the Underground Press. She probably doesn't get a lot of inquiries.

But seriously, I agree with you that Erda shouldn't necessarily sound old. She only needs to sound majestic and venerable, and maybe a little spooky. I thought Podles had her down. No doubt a younger Schumann-Heink on a modern recording would be fabulous.


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## Yabetz (Sep 6, 2021)

A vote for Dominguez here. A beautiful voice. It makes you sad that we don't hear much like that anymore.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> Tsk tsk. You love an earth goddess for her mind, not her voice. A least she claims to be looking for that in the personals section of the Underground Press. She probably doesn't get a lot of inquiries.
> 
> But seriously, I agree with you that Erda shouldn't necessarily sound old. She only needs to sound majestic and venerable, and maybe a little spooky. I thought Podles had her down. No doubt a younger Schumann-Heink on a modern recording would be fabulous.


Sorry


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