# Contest - Round One: Zemlinsky - Sprich zu mir Geliebter (Voigt, Marc)



## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Deborah Voigt / Giuseppe Sinopoli






Alessandra Marc / Riccardo Chailly






Text (English translation)

Speak to me, my love! 
Tell me in words what you sang. 
The night is dark. 
The stars are lost in clouds. 
The wind is sighing through the leaves. 
I will let loose my hair. 
My blue cloak will cling round me like [night].
I will clasp your head to my bosom; 
And there in the sweet loneliness murmur on your heart. 
I will shut my eyes and listen. 
I will not look in your face. 
When your words are ended, we will sit still and silent. 
Only the trees will whisper in the dark. 
The night will pale. 
The day will dawn. 
We shall look at each other's eyes and go on our different paths. 
Speak to me, my love! 
Tell me in words what you sang.


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## Lisztianwagner (2 mo ago)

My vote is for Marc/Chailly, it's absolutely beautiful.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I was not familiar with this gorgeous piece of music. While I find both singers to have really beautiful voices I find that Alessandra Marc, who I adore, really brings the emotions alive in her version and good god, what a gorgeous voice!! Thanks for posting.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

I find Marc's voice much more enticing and emotionally connected.


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

Zemlinsky was somebody I wanted to get to know at least a little bit, so thank you for posting. However, I am completely confused and lost in this music for now, so no voting.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Voigt sings pleasantly but exhibits no particular affinity for this music. Its semi-tonal idiom is just this side of Berg and Schoenberg, and its moonshine nearly as pale as Pierrot Lunaire's. Marc and Chailly capture just the right languid and spooky intoxication.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I've never heard this music before and I'm not sure I've ever heard any Zemlinksy before for that matter. I rather liked it and my superficial acquaintance with it prefers the Marc/Chailly team.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

I don't know Zemlinsky too. I had a chance to watch one of his operas, but it was the only concert performance and I already had tickets for another event. 
This piece is beautiful and abstract enough. But I think that such a music can give stronger impression heard live. 
Both performances are good, frankly I don't know whom to choose. I see that the most have voted for Marc. So let it be Voight, just to remind that she came in the profession not accidentally.


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

I have read somewhere, Zemlinsky was a forbidden composer by Nazis.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

BBSVK said:


> I have read somewhere, Zemlinsky was a forbidden composer by Nazis.


He had Jewish ancestry. And all his party was exemplary "degenerative art".
His sister was a wife of Arnold Schoenberg and had a scandalous affair with a painter Richard Goerstl. And Zemlinsky himself was romantically involved with Alma Mahler, before she got married.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

ColdGenius said:


> He had Jewish ancestry. And all his party was exemplary "degenerative art".
> His sister was a wife of Arnold Schoenberg and had a scandalous affair with a painter Richard Goerstl. And Zemlinsky himself was romantically involved with Alma Mahler, before she got married.


All the things you know!!!


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

Seattleoperafan said:


> All the things you know!!!


Wikipedia knows. 
Indeed, Schoenberg was a composer I knew about in an art museum. Goerstl is well presented in museums in Wien, especially his two last self-portraits. There this tragic story was told.


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## ewilkros (8 mo ago)

Seattleoperafan said:


> All the things you know!!!


Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel?? I believe that is a cue for Tom Lehrer:


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

ColdGenius said:


> He had Jewish ancestry. And all his party was exemplary "degenerative art".
> His sister was a wife of Arnold Schoenberg and had a scandalous affair with a painter Richard Goerstl. And Zemlinsky himself was romantically involved with Alma Mahler, before she got married.


At first I thought you said Alma Mater LOL


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