I am in enthusiastic agreement with you, however, with respect to Kaufmann’s lapses into falsetto. They have compromised many a phrase that called for a connected mezza voce, and as I hinted at in my Tristan post, his defensive denials on the subject are, I’m forced to assume, disingenuous. As I also noted, though, he stayed away from the usage at the Tristan concert. I need clarification on your reference to “body resonance,” which is how your friend translates “körperlos.” The only kind of tonal amplification that happens in the human body is cavity resonance, and the only place that happens is in the tract that starts at the glottis and ends at the mouth opening—in other words, in the throat. But perhaps you didn’t mean “körperlos” in a literal resonantal sense.

Finally: I am so glad that you enjoyed Vera Firsova. When you term Netrebko’s singing “relaxed,” I know what you mean. But the downside of that is a certain slackness, related to the weak lower connection, I spoke of above, which tends to cave in under an overly heavy load. To my ear, though Firsova’s voice is if anything lighter than Netrebko’s, it is also more tensile, better knit. And she stayed in Fach, which raises the question: by what standard do you refer to Netrebko’s voice as “loud?” Yes, it is more full-bodied than Lucias and Gildas like Lily Pons, Roberta Peters, or Mattiwilda Dobbs. But in the context of the spinto and dramatic sopranos whose roles she is now attempting, it’s in the welterweight class.

I’m very grateful for your comments, Alma. Agreement isn’t always necessary, but debate opens up the issues. And I hope you will read the extended commentary on Kaufmann’s technique in Opera as Opera. It’s in the Updates section.

Alma’s friend and translator based his remarks on Kaufmann’s recent performances as Chénier in Vienna, and specifically on the duet portion of the Act 2 scene with Maddalena, beginning at “Ora soave, sublime ora d’amore.” As written, this begins with an attack on the upper A-flat at what is clearly intended as a controlled volume. (It’s marked “Tranquillo,” with the orchestra silent after settling the previous movement. No tenuto is indicated, incidentally).  As my correspondent notes, it has become the custom to initiate below this, usually on the F (thus picking up on Maddalena’s “Spero in voi,” sustained—often perilously—at piano an octave higher), and then connecting via portamento to the A-flat, and proceeding on. I agree that this can be a splendid way to launch the phrase, especially if the tenor can start with an open “Ah” and roll over into the “O” just as he reaches the upper pitch. I further agree that in the style of this writing, it is a perfectly justified liberty—in fact, since the attack is on an upbeat, tied into the next bar, I would even advocate for cheating a bit by extending the soprano’s “voi” to the third beat, and backing the tenor up to catch his A-flat attack, mezza-voce, in a tiny overlap with her, then dallying on a ravishing tenuto, then swinging up into the A-flat, a tempo. We’ll need a singer’s conductor to do this.