# Round Two: Zweite Brautnacht. Rysanek ,L. Price



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

See comments below.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I think this is a stupendous round pitting the great Leonie Rysanek who was one of the great Strauss sopranos of all time ( she virtually owned the role of the Empress) against Leontyne Price, for whom this was for all practical purposes her signature aria, singing it throughout her career. There are many versions on Youtube, including a poor video version in her famous ostrich feather trimmed gown. As a bonus I am including what I consider the most exciting opera aria performance on TV I personally have ever seen ( I know what you Callas fans would say) which was Leontyne Price slaying this aria at age 65!!! Yes her voice is not the voice we have in our contest selection from her early years with her lush vibrato but sung with incredible energy, total "divaness",gown and turban killing it, and she totally rocked her Db6.... at age 65!!!!! How many other singers could have sounded so great at that age? If you watch her, she acts with her eyes! I love this comment:
"If Leontyne Mary did not mash that Rolls Royce of a voice gas petal down with those high notes the world doesn't exists. Love you Leontyne!" BTW, I think Price was a woman who became more beautiful as she aged. At 92 she was simply gorgeous! I saw her in one of her last recitals ever at age 70 and her B5 at the end of Summertime was still absolute heaven . Can't imbed but click on the watch on Youtube link if you care to see it. Sorry for my gushing! John


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Coincidentally, at the moment I just happen to be listening to the Serafin *Otello*, on which Rysanek is the Desdemona. I don't much like her in the role, but she is obviously much more suited to Strauss than Verdi. That said, I'm not sure I really like her voice and I prefer Price here. Indeed she sounds absolutely glorious in this piece and radiant up high, which is what it needs.

I'll just add that the later performance you posted is indeed amazing for a woman in her mid 60s. The top register is almost unaffected by the passing years, though the midde has become a bit clouded and occluded. Still, I prefer the earlier performance.

I know Price sang Ariadne and the _Vier letzte Lieder_ but did she sing any other Strauss roles on stage? In some ways she strikes me as even better suited to Strauss than Verdi.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Here we have two sopranos whose glory was their top and both display them magnificently in this soaring aria. I’ve always preferred Rysanek, no surprise, in the German repertoire but even in that her intonation was sometimes problematic and so it seems here, mostly in the lower register, always a weak area of her voice. The top suffers from this, too, on occasion on the melismatic passages - she seems to be improvising the notes.
Leontyne Price, in her early career was super scrupulous in all she sang but she, too, had weaknesses in the lower register but the top here was gloriously free and easy with sumptuous tone with rich vibrato and at this time, was well controlled. She sings this difficult piece thrillingly surmounting all challenges with esse


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

MAS said:


> Here we have two sopranos whose glory was their top and both display them magnificently in this soaring aria. I’ve always preferred Rysanek, no surprise in the German repertoire but even in that her intonation was sometimes problematic and so it seems here, mostly in the lower register, always a weak area of her voice. The top suffers from this, too, on occasion on the melismatic passages - she seems to be improvising the notes.
> Leontyne Price, in her early career was super scrupulous in all she sang but she, too, had weaknesses in the lower register but the top here was gloriously free and easy with sumptuous tone with rich vibrato and at this time, it was well controlled. She sings this difficult piece thrillingly surmounting all challenges with esse


I should have mentioned Rysanek's intonation too. She often sounds a bit out of tune to me, but I wondered if that was just my reaction to her voice. After all, I often feel the same about Nilsson, apart from at the top of her voice.


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## ALT (Mar 1, 2021)

Tsaraslondon said:


> I should have mentioned Rysanek's intonation too. She often sounds a bit out of tune to me, but I wondered if that was just my reaction to her voice. After all, I often feel the same about Nilsson, apart from at the top of her voice.


Only a bit? Rysanek is synonymous with atrocious intonation. Flat out. The problem plagued her, and severely, for nearly the entirety of her career. Nilsson also suffered from questionable intonation but to a far lesser degree than the other and, as far as I know, more so in her later years than earlier.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

I'm surprised this opera has a certain recording history. First time I knew about it was last autumn before COVID, when I opened La Scala's calendar. Wikipedia said there were only sparse stagings since it's premiere. 
Rysanek seems to me more appropriate for this repertoire. Price with all my respect sounded a little strained. It's a strange thing: her upper register held on longer and better as she aged. 
Sometimes I'm glad that I'm musically uneducated and half-deaf. So l keep pleasure of music without suspicion of opera stars singing out of tune, off pitch, in another key etc. 😁


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Speight Jenkins director of Seattle Opera loved Rysanek. I don't love her voice BUT she was a very intense live performer. Just watch her big Elektra scene with Jones her Elektra. OMG!!! What I always loved was her top, but even I could hear she wasn't always on key. The bottom was not pretty. She was good as Lady Macbeth where you don't have to have a gorgeous voice if you can act it well.
Price's voice almost was better with the lush orchestration of Strauss than Verdi. Here she is thrilling to me!!!!!!


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Much as I care about Rysanek I cannot forget those deep rich low notes and velvet throat sound of Price, so Leontyne it is.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I've never investigated this opera and can't add anything to what others have said. Rysanek is well-suited to these high-arching Straussian lines, but so is Price. If it's early Price, the price is right. As with Sutherland, I like her best early in her career when her voice was pure and silvery. There are singers we listen to, not for unique musical and dramatic insights, but for the pleasure of bathing in the beauty of sound. The young Price is one of those.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> I've never investigated this opera and can't add anything to what others have said. Rysanek is well-suited to these high-arching Straussian lines, but so is Price. If it's early Price, the price is right. As with Sutherland, I like her best early in her career when her voice was pure and silvery. There are singers we listen to, not for unique musical and dramatic insights, but for the pleasure of bathing in the beauty of sound. The young Price is one of those.


I 100% agree. Her First Prima Donna album had some glorious singing as was the Blue Album from the start of her career. I love her early stuff and am amazed at her longevity. Now I mostly listen to the live at Carnegie Hall at 65 video of Price, but I used to be much more into her decades ago. She was much better live because she was total diva onstage, which you lose in recordings. She opened her mouth and heaven poured out back early in her career!
What was amazing to me about Rysanek was that like Alessandra Marc they seemed to have an extra gear they could shift into at the top of their voice that you rarely heard in others. The voice got bigger and the vibrato got more exciting on both of those singers from A5 to C6.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Tsaraslondon said:


> I should have mentioned Rysanek's intonation too. She often sounds a bit out of tune to me, but I wondered if that was just my reaction to her voice. After all, I often feel the same about Nilsson, apart from at the top of her voice.


Nilsson had occasional pitch problems in her late career. She and Rysanek, as *Elektra *and Chrysothemis in a Metropolitan Opera telecast of the opera were sometimes so out of tune, it was surprising they weren’t booed; the audience so loved these _monstres sacrées _they were forgiven everything given their incandescent performances.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

MAS said:


> Nilsson had occasional pitch problems in her late career. She and Rysanek, as *Elektra *and Chrysothemis in a Metropolitan Opera telecast of the opera were sometimes so out of tune, it was surprising they weren’t booed; the audience so loved these _monstres sacrées _they were forgiven everything given their incandescent performances.


NIlsson acknowledged a tendency to sing sharp. It was usually sharp rather than flat, but that could happen too. In the Solti _Tristan_ - a disapointing recording in several ways, especially in that it was released soon after her Met debut as Isolde - she's flat at the very climax of the Liebestod, "in des Welt-Atems wehendem All." I was shocked by it and couldn't understand why they didn't do another take. Of course she redeems herself in her superb second recording, at Bayreuth under Bohm.

We do need to keep these things in perspective. Nowadays our would-be dramatic sopranos have such massive vibratos that whether they're sharp, flat, or sharp and flat at the same time could be a matter for debate.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I 100% agree. Her First Prima Donna album had some glorious singing as was the Blue Album from the start of her career. I love her early stuff and am amazed at her longevity. Now I mostly listen to the live at Carnegie Hall at 65 video of Price, but I used to be much more into her decades ago. She was much better live because she was total diva onstage, which you lose in recordings. She opened her mouth and heaven poured out back early in her career!
> What was amazing to me about Rysanek was that like Alessandra Marc they seemed to have an extra gear they could shift into at the top of their voice that you rarely heard in others. The voice got bigger and the vibrato got more exciting on both of those singers from A5 to C6.


Rudolf Bing, _Intendant _at the Metropolitan Opera 1950-1972 complained that Price wouldn’t accept more than a certain number of performances per season because of the dangers of overexposure. She was very protective of her voice and knew what she was doing. She declined *La Fanciulla Del West *because she thought it dangerous for her voice. When Bing offered her Abigaille, she replied: “Man, are you crazy?” 
She was absolutely insistent on singing “on the interest, not on the capital,” as per her teacher.


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