# Mystery Soprano



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I need the help of an experienced collector or archivist.

I've been listening to a recording of Weber's _Euryanthe_ made for Austrian radio in 1949, conducted by Meinhard Zallinger and starring Maria Reining, Radko Delorko, Karl Kamann, and Walter Berry. The recording is not of high quality (it's available on a couple of labels, mine is on Aura), but the music-making is invigorating and all the singers are first-rate, obviously major artists of their era. Unfortunately something happened in the transfer process and the end of the opera gets cut off (oh well, I didn't pay much for it)! I nevertheless count this recording as an exciting find, particularly as the only (I think) studio recording of the opera, the EMI with Jessye Norman and Nicolai Gedda under Janowski, is both vocally less exciting and studio-dull. We need a really good state-of-the-art recording of this neglected near-masterpiece.

But here is my problem. The role of Eglantine, the villainess of the story, is a dramatic soprano role, and it is here sung by one of the most exciting soprano voices I've heard in ages. The CD identifies the singer as Hilde Rossl-Majdan, known to many of us as the excellent contralto or mezzo on some fine recordings from the '50s and '60s of non-operatic repertoire such as Bach's choral works, Beethoven's 9th, and Mahler's 2nd, under such conductors as Klemperer and Karajan. The Eglantine on this recording is clearly a soprano with a clean, shining, powerful voice, superb high notes, and great dramatic force. I have looked everywhere on the internet, but every reference to this recording repeats the information given in the CD, while every biographical reference about Rossl-Majdan refers to her as a contralto or mezzo-soprano, and I can find no indication that she ever sang as a soprano, much less ever sang the role of Eglantine.

This is unbearable! I'm hearing a truly great singer from 65 years ago, and I don't know who she is! Does anyone know whether Rossl-Majdan ever sang soprano, is anyone familiar with this recording of _Euryanthe_, and can anyone even venture a guess as to who this magnificent voice belongs to?


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

http://www.muziekweb.nl/Link/M00000242628/CLASSICAL


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Pugg said:


> http://www.muziekweb.nl/Link/M00000242628/CLASSICAL


If you read the post, I think you'll find Woodduck is already aware of that!


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Somehow the text is missing I originally wroth perhaps and I mean perhaps it helping .


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

My friend, I haven't heard that version of "Euryanthe" (in fact, I do like the EMI studio recording ), but I'm not really much baffled by Hilde Rossl-Majdan singing Eglantine. True, the role is supposedly for a dramatic soprano. But, all in all, I think is very similar to Wagner's Ortrud. And I guess Rossl-Majdan should be able to sing the role, the way singers like Maria Olszewska, Kerstin Thorborg or Margarete Klose sang Ortrud. In any case, please let us know if finally someone else was singing Eglantine in that recording.

It's true a modern recording would be a welcome addition to the discography. There is one DVD already available, but the singing is really not the best, in my view. Recently, there were some performances in Dresden, and it seems a DVD will be issued. Evelyn Hertlizius was singing Eglantine.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

schigolch said:


> My friend, I haven't heard that version of "Euryanthe" (in fact, I do like the EMI studio recording ), but I'm not really much baffled by Hilde Rossl-Majdan singing Eglantine. True, the role is supposedly for a dramatic soprano. But, all in all, I think is very similar to Wagner's Ortrud. And I guess Rossl-Majdan should be able to sing the role, the way singers like Maria Olszewska, Kerstin Thorborg or Margarete Klose sang Ortrud. In any case, please let us know if finally someone else was singing Eglantine in that recording.
> 
> It's true a modern recording would be a welcome addition to the discography. There is one DVD already available, but the singing is really not the best, in my view. Recently, there were some performances in Dresden, and it seems a DVD will be issued. Evelyn Hertlizius was singing Eglantine.


Thanks for the comments, schigolch. I've compared the alto solo of Rossl-Majdan on my Klemperer Mahler "Resurrection" with this mystery singer, and given the 12-year distance in years between them I have to concede a remote possibility that her lower voice "filled out," but this Eglantine certainly does not suggest a mezzo to me. Biographical information I find indicates that Rossl-Majdan was always considered an alto, and this woman's high voice is quite exciting and free - no suggestion in her singing that the voice is centered low. Wagner's writing for soprano is centered a bit lower than Weber's, and mezzos can handle several of the roles he designates "sopran"; arguably Kundry and Ortrud work better with a mezzo, as they have little to do above A. Eglantine is a true soprano part, and this woman sounds to me like a true soprano - but if it is a young Rossl-Majdan, my hat is off to her for a striking achievement and a successful double career!

As for the EMI _Euryanthe_, I find it lacking in a sense of theater. Everything is well-executed, but it doesn't come to life for me. This old radio performance is very lively, and it feels like a real performance (I don't know whether an audience was present in the studio of Austrian radio that day). I also think Jessye Norman, with her weighty, mezzoish timbre (!) and rather stately manner, is an inapt choice for the sweet, innocent Euryanthe.


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

Isn't there a recording of her playing Eglantine in the 50s?


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Couac Addict said:


> Isn't there a recording of her playing Eglantine in the 50s?


My goodness! I'll have to research that. It would have been a live performance, since the EMI is the only studio recording I know of. Thanks.


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003V8T3LK/ref=dm_ws_sp_ps_dp

*Er konnte mich um sie verschmäh'n *


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Well, I do think a cast able to sing succesfully "Lohengrin" can do exactly the same with "Euryanthe". Euryanthe/Elsa, Adolar/Lohengrin, Eglantine/Ortrud, Lysiart/Telramund... The vocal writing of Ortrud and Eglantine is pretty similar, I don't hear any big difference in terms of high notes, ... but I'm speaking from memory, I would need to revise the scores to be really certain.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

schigolch said:


> It's true a modern recording would be a welcome addition to the discography. There is one DVD already available, but the singing is really not the best, in my view..


And on that DVD Elgantine was sung by the mezzo-soprano Jolana Fogasova.
Not being best is not the same thing as being bad. There are many good singers but only one can be best.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Couac Addict said:


> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003V8T3LK/ref=dm_ws_sp_ps_dp
> 
> *Er konnte mich um sie verschmäh'n *


Yes, this is the singer on my recording. It hasn't entirely laid to rest my skepticism, as I still cannot find anywhere in print any verification that Rossl-(or Rossel-)Majdan, everywhere referred to as a contralto or mezzo, sang Eglantine or had the extraordinary soprano upper range I'm hearing. In truth I've never heard anyone billed as a contralto sing soprano as impressively as this and fool me completely, although Shirley Verrett and Christa Ludwig did some fine "crossover" work. I'll have to continue to inquire. I want to be a believer!

I've known or Rossel-Majdan as a fine mezzo in concert repertoire forever but never gave her any special attention or knew about her opera work. I've now located a 1953 performance of Gluck's _Orpheus and Euridice_ on the Walhall label which, based on Amazon's sound bites, might be very much worth hearing, and might reproduce the way she sounded early in her career accurately enough to allow a good comparison with the singer on my _Euryanthe_ (even though Orpheus won't show her soprano range).


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Well, I have ordered the recording just to share your excitement!.


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

Curiouser and curiouser. Let us know what you find out.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

schigolch said:


> Well, I have ordered the recording just to share your excitement!.


Great! Let me know what you think of her.


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