# MEZZO/CONTRALTO TOURNAMENT (Round 1, Match 2): Onegin vs Anday



## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

Sigrid Onegin, Germany, 1889-1943






Rosette Anday, Hungary, 1899-1977






'Seit er von dir geschieden' from Wagner's _Gotterdammerung_.

Who's singing did you prefer and why?


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Anday had the more beautiful voice to me. Both new to me.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

The dismal quality of the recording is much to Onegin's, her orchestra's, and Wagner's disadvantage. After a couple of hearings, I can say that the scene is beautifully and intelligently sung by a rich, seamlessly produced contralto voice that was obviously magnificent in life. As heard here, the Anday performance, with much better sound, is more immediately engaging; it may or may not be slightly more dramatically vivid. But as good a singer as Anday (new to me) obviously was, the Onegin voice captivates me, with the kind of contralto depth I like to hear in a Waltraute relating her dark visions.

My first Waltraute was Christa Ludwig (on the Solti _Gotterdammerung)_, who still seems to me unsurpassed in extracting every shade of meaning from the music and text. This has always been a favorite passage of mine, haunting in its evocation of Wotan's final days and in its musical ties to Brunnhilde's immolation scene. The reminiscence of Wotan's farewell to Brunnhilde, when Waltraute tells her that Wotan remembers her, is a moment of almost unbearable poignancy, expressing perfectly the sadness of something beyond price but irretrievably lost. Throughout this scene with Brunnhiuolde we are led through deep, subtle, complex concepts and feelings, of a sort only Wagner could put on the operatic stage, and in this tremendous score he's at the top of his game.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Anday is new to me and I am not very familiar with Onegin's singing. I think it's impossible to understand what Onegin would have sounded like live from this recording due to its limited sound quality and she sounds somnolent to me here. Like Woodduck, this is one of my favourite moments in Gotterdammerung and both versions are good. However, also like Woodduck, I am reminded of my first Waltraute, Waltraud Meier (both live and on disc) in addition to Ludwig's performances of the part. I can't decide whether I prefer Meier or Ludwig as both sang this scene wonderfully and I'm glad I don't have to. I also can't decide whether I prefer Onegin or Anday as neither quite delivers what I would want in this scene.

N.


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

I am not familiar with any of the two singers.
Onegin suffers from dismal recording quality, but the two things that make me quite uncomfortable with her singing are: a) much less legato than usual and b) higher notes sound forced which I cannot fully attribute to recording technique.
Anday sounds effortlessly but her chest register is not so impressive as with Onegin's.
Neither is perfect.
All in all, I cast my vote for Anday and her beautiful sustained legato lines, especially at the very end of the piece.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Not being familiar with either singer I had to go with my gut feeling on the sound of their voices and the emotion they were able to produce.
It was a simple choice for me. The one who had the better voice and didn't sound like she was sleepwalking the entire time but gave it some guts and a decent chest sound was, for me, clearly Rosette Anday.
I do not need to excuse the inferior sound of the Onegin disc because I am accustomed to wading through lesser background sounds with no problem. I was "Mapleson trained".


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## BachIsBest (Feb 17, 2018)

I also went with Anday, but I do admit this could have been influenced by the sound quality of the recordings.


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