I didn’t go on to the rest of the solo CD, but turned to Pentatone’s Der Freischütz, which contains the very aria to which I had devoted fairly extended technical analysis in my earlier Lehmann articles. Here I found the same syndrome, but much less advanced. In the slow legato of “Leise, leise” and parts of “Und ob die Wolke” one can still hear tiny gaps between notes rather than true connectivity. But the straight-tone/vibrated-tone frustration is much less evident, and in passages like the B section of “Leise, leise” or much of the subsequent Act 2 trio, where she must just keep moving and singing out, she’s much more satisfying. I note that the Decca CD was recorded in October of 2018, and the Freischütz one month later, which leads me to wonder what the difference in artistic environment, preparation, or advice given and taken may have been. And I’ll be most interested to hear which direction she’s moving in when she comes to the Met for Fidelio next season.

Davidsen apart, the main attractions of this performance lie with the orchestra and chorus (the Frankfurt Radio Symphony and the MDR Leipzig Radio Choir) under Marek Janowski, an adept familiar with the German Romantic mystique, all extremely well recorded. The darkling tint of the captivating score is consistently caught, and there’s good rhythmic bone to the reading. This means that the great overture, the storybook spookiness of the Wolf Glen, the bracing hunting choruses and uplifting finale, as well as the miniature charms of the Act 1 Bohemian Dance and march, are all entrancing to hear. Otherwise, I’m afraid we have to wait until the late and brief pronouncements of the Ottokar, the high baritone Marcus Eiche, for a jolt of vibrant, solid tone. I wonder if he can sing an Italianate line? The Max is Andreas Schager, who endured the young Siegfried better than most at the Met last season (see 5/24/19). This is not better than most. Except at the top of his range, every note of any endurance is host to several cycles of wobble, and the tone on open vowels above the break is raw; the overall effect is oafish. Some years back, Alan Held would have been a plausible choice of a lighter sort for Kaspar. (The role fares best with a true Heldenbariton or a black bass with a ringing top—classic reference points would be the “Schweig, schweig” of Michael Bohnen or the Drinking Song, in Italian, of Nazzareno de Angelis.) Now, though, the voice is a comic-baritone wisp, and though he maneuvers through like a pro, there’s little left of the writing’s malevolent power. Franz-Josef Selig has the right kind of voice for The Hermit’s message of redemptive justice in the last scene, and produces some imposing individual notes, but seldom an unlabored phrase. This leaves the adequate Ännchen of Sofia Fomina (some nice characterization in the first part of her hard-to-put-across third-act scena, but many little h’s to navigate the passage-work of the second half) as the only principal except Davidsen to be both appropriately cast and in acceptable vocal shape. Christoph Filler does a good job with Kilian’s baiting couplets in the opening scene.