No better illustration could be found than in the two very gifted basses we’ve just heard in major Wagnerian parts, René Pape (Gurnemanz) and Georg Zeppenfeld (Marke). Now, there’s an important age-and-mileage differential between them, as well as an endurance differential between the two roles. In addition, I’ve heard Pape many times, Zeppenfeld just once. So to make the comparison meaningful, we must recall the prime Pape of ten or twelve years ago, and add the caveat that Zeppenfeld has not in our presence met the challenge of a variety of iconic roles in several languages, as has Pape. Still: Gurnemanz and Marke are a well-matched pair, and the generous sound of Pape’s Gurnemanz of former seasons is well remembered. But the sheer vibrancy of Zeppenfeld’s singing was a happy shock, not only because it was different from Pape’s, but because it was different from what has become the timbral norm for lower male voices of quality—think of Terfel, Van Dam, Ramey, or, to venture up the scale, Hvorostovsky and such warm-hued, pliant-sounding baritones as Salsi or Mattei (our Amfortas of late) or Kang (the Manfredo of L’Amore dei tre re) or Finley (the Athanaël of ThaÏs). Excellent singers all, but the element-in-common that’s missing among them, and that lent excitement to the great basses and dramatic baritones of the past, is precisely the chest-associated laryngeal energization I’ve been speaking of.

It is among tenors, though, that this lack of brilliance, or of even an enlivening gleam, is most apparent, and its evident acceptance as a new paradigm most disturbing. This is, again, an extension of a postwar trend, especially among heavier voices (think of Vinay, Suthaus, McCracken—”technical arrangements” for which there is no pre-WW2 precedent, at least among singers of prominence). In my discussion of Michael Fabiano’s Alfredo (see Traviata 2) I pointed to a number of instances of a tenorial structure that seeks to bring an upper range with some squillo and tautness out of a looser, darker midrange, and noted that this was occurring now not only in voices of Helden or di forza aspiration, but in lyric instruments as well. In the latter 20th Century, and early in this one, we also encountered substantial tenor voices that seemed to strive for, or simply couldn’t escape from, an overall darkness (e.g., Mauro, Giacomini, Cura). Over the past year, I’ve encountered two tenors (Marc Heller, the Enrico of La Campana sommersa and, on a recording, Stuart Skelton (as Siegmund), plus a middleweight baritone (Matthias Goerne), from whose throats have issued an unrelieved darkness, save for an occasional glimmer near the top of Skelton’s range. ^(I)

The realization that this way of constructing tenor and baritone voices is meeting with indifference or even approval is not a happy one. Neither is the thought that the obvious and widely distributed weaknesses in female voices are passing with only cursory notice. So, much as I would  like to move away from the topic for a while, I’m afraid one more post must be devoted to it. Fortunately, the two singers who have been most successful, artistically and commercially, while working within or toward these models have just presented themselves here at what are now commonly called “inflection points” in their careers, and no one minds reading about them.

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Two corrections from readers regarding the last post: Jay Kauffman writes to say that, contrary to my recollection that the 1947 Berlin Tristan under Furtwängler gives us extended excerpts from Act 2 but a complete Liebesnacht, Act 2 is actually complete except for the standard cut in the duet. My bad, and I should have re-listened. And Sterling Fuller-Lewis points out that although Pelléas refers to the aged Arkel as “almost blind,” and the character is often played so, his close observations of Mélisande’s character and behavior tell us that he cannot be clinically sightless. Right again, though in this work there is lots of reality-level grey area, some of which I plan to explore upon its return next season. My thanks to Messrs. Kauffman and Sterling-Lewis, and to all who keep watch.

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NEXT TIME: Anna Netrebko and Jonas Kaufmann: Two great stars at defining moments.