Sunday, August 16, 2009
One for the "why not here?!" files
Elizabeth Connell in the Siegfried finale. MFI seal of enthusiastic approval goes here.
ETA: that's kind of the rhetorical "why" in the subject line, you will have gathered. She's not what you'd be forced, these days, to call "cinematic." On the other hand, Wagner sells out no matter what, or anyway the Ring and Tristan do, so it's not like any particular campaign need be waged to lure the young and unsuspecting into the opera house with the promise of great hair and abs...
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5 comments:
You missed her! She's done some time at the Met, I think perhaps in her mezzo days (the database is down or I would check), and sang Isolde in an OONY performance about 10 years ago. A friend still raves about her Rezia at La Scala.
I saw her Ortrud, Elektra, and Isolde at SF in the 1990s. I don't remember the Ortrud to speak of and I was distracted by Heppner and Mattila. The Elektra was good, the Isolde outstanding. She has a beautiful voice and solid technique. Note that she is not only "not cinematic" but past 60. You can hear some loosening of the tone in the Siegfried excerpt, and it's certainly age-related. Still, she sounds amazingly fresh, much better than Flagstad sounded at 63.
I saw her in FIDELIO at the Met in '91 - not particularly convincing in male drag!
A little blowsy, no? Though far better than Debbie in the gala this spring.
I'm still hoping the management sees the errors of its ways and throws its collective self at Christine Brewer's feet.
The OONY Isolde was really very good, the real deal. The tenor opposite her--a Finn named Siukola--sounded pretty good and had the stamina but was uncertain of pitch. The newly emerged Petra Lang was Brangane and the Maestra managed surprisingly well. Sadly, I have never encountered Connell on stage since.
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