#cheryl studer

[vera-dauriac]

I’ve decided it’s an all Lucia day. Just started Act 2 of this, but I can squeeze in 1, maybe 2 more during work today. Please share favorite recordings.

[parmandil]

O smania! O furie! ... D’Oreste, d’Aiace from Mozart’s Idomeneo, sung by Cheryl Studer.

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

why have I been listening to this so much recently

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

Quand du Seigneur le jour luira

Sa croix au ciel resplendira

Et l'univers s'écroulera!

...

Que dirai-je alors au Seigneur?

Où trouverai-je un protecteur,

Quand l'innocent n'est pas sans peur!

[When the day of the Lord dawns,

His cross will shine in Heaven

and the universe will topple!

...

What will I say to the Lord, then?

Where will I find a protector

when the innocent is not without fear?]

I don't know why, but this scene and these lines in particular hit me so hard every time...

[parmandil]

Mozart’s Idomeneo with Philip Langridge, Diana Montague, Sylvia McNair and Cheryl Studer, conducted by Seiji Ozawa.

[mozart2006]

Staatsoper Stuttgart - Die Verurteilung des Lukullus

Staatsoper Stuttgart – Die Verurteilung des Lukullus

Foto ©Martin Sigmund Es war wirklich ein besonderer Moment für die Zuschauer der Staatsoper, die Premiere der Neuinszenierung von Die Verurteilung des Lukullus, die den Auftakt der Spielzeit 2021/22 darstellt. (more…)

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[lessthansix]

[allmymusic]

No 28 Vier letzte Lieder - Wesendonck-Lieder

This is a sort of grab bag of orchestral songs for soprano, with music by the two composers Studer was perhaps the most famous for, Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner. Released in 1994, this would have been most likely recorded around the time her vocal problems were starting to manifest themselves. None of the is obviously audible here though; perhaps the first Strauss song isn’t as attractive as it could be, but that’s neither here nor there. Studer sounds comfortable and beautiful, performing these songs again with unmannered freshness.

The Four Last Songs got their name posthumously; they were composed in 1948, in the last 18 months or so before Strauss’ death in September 1949, and premiered in May 1950. They were not originally written as a cycle; the grouping and the name were invented by the publisher, as was the final order of the songs - Im Abendrot (At sunset) was the first one written, but Ernst Roth made it the closing song, for its sentimentally appropriate name and elegiac tone. Apart from one other song also composed in 1948, they were the last pieces of music the then 84 years old Strauss wrote. There’s a bittersweet poignancy to them, that this recording very much does justice to.

Wesendonck-Lieder have an altogether different story attached to them. Mathilde Wesendonck was the wife of one of his friends, a poet and an author, some 15 years his junior, and it is known that Wagner’s wife wrote her a letter accusing Mathilde of destroying her marriage. Wagner was so much in love with her that he set aside the Ring Cycle he was working on and instead wrote Tristan and Isolde, as well as this song cycle. Mathilde wasn’t, of course, the first woman he had set his eyes on, but after her appearance, the Wagners parted company for good, staying married by not seeing each other for years at the time. Against this salacious backdrop, it’s perhaps surprising that these five songs are rather melancholic in tone, rather than out and romantic or rapturous, despite some of the poetry being rather racy.

Of these two cycles I liked the Wesendonck-Lieder better; the Strauss is fine ( Beim Schlafengehen is even sublime), but the Wagner is more complimentary to Studer’s voice, which here has velvety darkness it lacks in the Strauss.

Favourite track: nos. 5-6, Der Engel and Stehe still! are beautiful, as is no. 3, Beim Schlafengehen.

Vier letzte Lieder - Wesendonck-Lieder Cheryl Studer, soprano Giuseppe Sinopoli, conductor Staatskapelle Dresden

Available on Spotify, and on Amazon.