# Round One: Du Bist Der Lenz (Voigt, Studer, Traubel)



## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)




----------



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

All three do beautiful versions. Studer was a great Sieglinde in performance but I am likely the only person here who loves Helen Traubel and she is my favorite version. I find her voice so gorgeous and of such a grand scale. I prefer the other Sieglinde aria and I have a contest with Der Manner Sippe. This one is harder to make a splash in as it sort of sits in the middle with not much of a climax.


----------



## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Had I not watched the video, I might well have voted for Traubel, but her stolid appearance hardly makes me think of a Sieglinde, and something of that stolidness creeps into her singing, I think. The voice is magnificent of course, absolutely secure through the registers, but she does sound more like a Brünnhilde to me, which of course she was. 

Voigt didn't do much for me here. It all sounded just a bit staid, but Studer gave me more of a sense of mounting rapture with a voice more suited to the role, so she got my vote.


----------



## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

This isn't as easy as I thought. I didn't expect to enjoy Voigt as much as I did and her voice is fuller than Studer's. I can see why you like Traubel in this SOF, her singing is wonderfully sturdy (I mean that as a positive). However, I agree with Tsaras that it's more of a Brunhilde voice. As expected, I'm voting for Studer, she's hard to beat in this one.

N.


----------



## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Had I not watched the video, I might well have voted for Traubel, but her stolid appearance hardly makes me think of a Sieglinde, and something of that stolidness creeps into her singing, I think. The voice is magnificent of course, absolutely secure through the registers, but she does sound more like a Brünnhilde to me, which of course she was.


I had the same thought about Traubel. I have enjoyed a lot of Studer recordings, but on this one, perhaps it's my imagination, but it sounds as though much of the passage is sung slightly under pitch, which drives me crazy.


----------



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Had I not watched the video, I might well have voted for Traubel, but her stolid appearance hardly makes me think of a Sieglinde, and something of that stolidness creeps into her singing, I think. The voice is magnificent of course, absolutely secure through the registers, but she does sound more like a Brünnhilde to me, which of course she was.
> 
> Voigt didn't do much for me here. It all sounded just a bit staid, but Studer gave me more of a sense of mounting rapture with a voice more suited to the role, so she got my vote.


Studer is very American and enthusiasm comes easily to her and I find she communicates mounting rapture better than most. Traubel was also American but I think her enthusiasm is most evident in her marvelous pop singing ( which benefitted from her years of studying lieder, by the way).


----------



## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Cheryl Studer for me, too. Reasons above.


----------



## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Traubel is out for me on this one.

I think I recognized Debbie Voigt's voice, as I tend to look away so as not to prejudice myself from videos, and though I liked #2 which turned out to be Studer, my guts tell me Debbie.


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I always look forward to the concert endings people contrive for pieces that don't have proper endings in their original contexts. Voigt's version of this ends with a little flip in the strings that Wagner would never have written, but Strauss might have. In fact, Strauss did write it, right at the start of the violin solo in his _Four Last Songs._ Being lurched forward a century can be fun.

Voigt sounds good here, if not as rapturous as I'd like. Studer conveys a bit more of that, but is not so well recorded. Traubel sounds (and looks) as if she could handle her brute of a hubby all by herself, thank you very much. It's between the first two, and I can't decide, so I'll sit this one out. Where's Lotte?


----------



## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

None of the three grabbed me. I heard Voigt do this and remember a completely favorable impression. Here...Not bad, just everything, tone and diction and interpretation, lacking specificity. Studer is the one I expected to sweep me away and she had moments but it didn’t fill me with her feeling of pouring out her emotions that I expected. Nor did Traubel. Every one of them is probably less vulnerable to vocal criticism than Rysanek but it is that Rysanek outpouring that I was waiting for.


----------



## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

well well, I thought this would be a landslide for Traubel, but y'all really seem to like Studer. I'm not voting for the sake of objectivity, but Traubel is easily my favorite. Still, the more divided vote suggests that I at least provided quality singers and didn't make it too easy for anyone, so I'll take that as a win



Seattleoperafan said:


> All three do beautiful versions. Studer was a great Sieglinde in performance but I am likely the only person here who loves Helen Traubel and she is my favorite version.


uh....what? she easily makes it into my top 10 singers, so it's clear we haven't talked together about dramatic soprani enough



> I find her voice so gorgeous and of such a grand scale. I prefer the other Sieglinde aria and I have a contest with Der Manner Sippe. This one is harder to make a splash in as it sort of sits in the middle with not much of a climax.


Studer's voice is pretty and full of passion and enthusiasm, Voigt's voice is pleasant and multifaceted, but Traubel's voice is *glorious*. Clear, ringing, good balance of chest voice and head voice throughout the range, cuts like a triumphal golden sword through even the densest orchestration. Not the most expressive, but imo, clear, straightforward singing is more important, and her more authoritative style of phrasing makes it feel more authentically noble/heroic. A lot of voices have a kind of fake lushness, resulting from a hollowed out middle and lower register that imparts artificial depth (this is most female singers today tbh. putting too much "oo" in the voice imo). With Traubel, the lushness comes from open throated, unobstructed resonance, at once more natural and more otherworldly (it feels like it's about the music rather than about her). She doesn't _do_ a deep, heavy voice, she _has_ a deep, heavy voice and manages to move it elegantly even if she wasn't known for the flexible acrobatics of lighter voices.


----------



## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

side note: I do like Studer's use of full, if uncovered chest voice (no pun intended). Traubel keeps more chest voice in the rest of her voice, but uses less full blown chest at the bottom (when she wants to, she can go full on mezzo/contralto chest voice, but it makes sense she chooses not to do so here).


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> well well, I thought this would be a landslide for Traubel, but y'all really seem to like Studer. I'm not voting for the sake of objectivity, but Traubel is easily my favorite. Still, the more divided vote suggests that I at least provided quality singers and didn't make it too easy for anyone, so I'll take that as a win
> 
> uh....what? she easily makes it into my top 10 singers, so it's clear we haven't talked together about dramatic soprani enough
> 
> Studer's voice is pretty and full of passion and enthusiasm, Voigt's voice is pleasant and multifaceted, but Traubel's voice is *glorious*. Clear, ringing, good balance of chest voice and head voice throughout the range, cuts like a triumphal golden sword through even the densest orchestration. *Not the most expressive, but imo, clear, straightforward singing is more important, and her more authoritative style of phrasing makes it feel more authentically noble/heroic.* A lot of voices have a kind of fake lushness, resulting from a hollowed out middle and lower register that imparts artificial depth (this is most female singers today tbh. putting too much "oo" in the voice imo). With Traubel, the lushness comes from open throated, unobstructed resonance, at once more natural and more otherworldly (it feels like it's about the music rather than about her). She doesn't _do_ a deep, heavy voice, she _has_ a deep, heavy voice and manages to move it elegantly even if she wasn't known for the flexible acrobatics of lighter voices.


Traubel didn't win because she doesn't make most of us think of the operatic character she's portraying. If we didn't know what this music was and who Sieglinde is (she isn't particularly "noble/heroic") we might have been more likely to choose her.

Personally, I'm more interested in opera as musical drama than as vocal exhibition, and I don't approach these match-ups solely as technical competitions. When it's a contest between what you call "clear, straightforward singing" and singing a bit less clear and straightforward but more musically interesting and dramatically apt - which includes a voice type suggestive of the character, which Traubel's isn't - I'll generally take the latter. Traubel was undoubtedly one of the great singers, but I don't usually find her interesting. I actually tend to prefer her in popular music, where she seems completely at ease and happy.


----------



## marlow (11 mo ago)

Traubel would have sent Hunding running when he tried to abduct her. Very fierce! Glorious voice! But send any man running for his life! Perhaps Studer gets nearer to the character itself of the vulnerable woman who has been abducted!


----------



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

marlow said:


> Traubel would have sent Hunding running when he tried to abduct her. Very fierce! Glorious voice! But send any man running for his life! Perhaps Studer gets nearer to the character itself of the vulnerable woman who has been abducted!


Yes, but she was his sister and as in Appalachia, that carries some weight;-)


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Yes, but she was his sister and as in Appalachia, that carries some weight;-)


Sieglinde was Siegmund's sister, not Hunding's. The abduction marlow refers to occurred during a raid by the Neidings, Hunding's clan.

Do be careful, or the regie directors will overhear you and we'll end up with a _Walkure_ set in West Virginia.


----------



## ALT (Mar 1, 2021)

No need to say who I voted for 
But Traubel is not chopped liver even if she is not really a Sieglinde, or at least is not my idea of a Sieglinde. She would be my no. 2 here if we could do rank voting.


----------



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> Sieglinde was Siegmund's sister, not Hunding's. The abduction marlow refers to occurred during a raid by the Neidings, Hunding's clan.
> 
> Do be careful, or the regie directors will overhear you and we'll end up with a _Walkure_ set in West Virginia.


That is what I SAW!!!!!!!!! That blasted American Ring in DC set in the backwoods of the South. I paid almost $200 and walked out after two acts!


----------



## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Seattleoperafan said:


> That is what I SAW!!!!!!!!! That blasted American Ring in DC set in the backwoods of the South. I paid almost $200 and walked out after two acts!


Was that the "American Ring" by Francesca Zambello?


----------



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

MAS said:


> Was that the "American Ring" by Francesca Zambello?


Yes. Barf. They did it in SF.


----------



## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Yes. Barf. They did it in SF.


Yes, it was done here, but I stayed away because I knew it would **** me off.


----------

