After spending this time with Davidsen and company, I went back to a couple of versions of the Freischütz arias by sopranos I’ve admired, from the epochs that have flourished and elapsed between those of Lehmann and Davidsen. First was Eileen Farrell, who recorded the excerpts in 1959. Unarguably a great voice, soft-grained yet huge, and not yet paying the price for its relative looseness. Also an instinctively musical singer, though one without the natural cultural affinity of a Lehmann or Rethberg, or any stage experience with this role. So her singing is not very characterful, though warm and easy, with a good, gentle settlement in the lower range that is nothing like the guidance into a blended chest for which I’ve made Lehmann the exemplar. Farrell is rushed through the allegro of “Leise, leise” by her conductor, Max Rudolph, and though she copes, she is obliged to thin out her plush tone. Next, I turned to Karita Mattila, one of my best-liked performers of recent decades, and right in Fach for Agathe, though ideally a few years earlier than the date of this recording (2001). She sings the pieces well, in the sense of encountering no serious obstacles with them. But in hearing them I realize, not for the first time, that so much of her artistic appeal lay in her charismatic presence and physical acting, for rather as with Davidsen, there is musical observance and expressivity, but little of what we’d term “acting with the voice.” And though she sings a presentable line (no straight-tone fussing), it isn’t always alive or headed for a clear destination. Her tempo for the “Leise, leise” allegro is extremely moderate (her conductor is Sir Colin Davis, who also sounds outward bound for nowhere in particular). Mattila never seemed without an action in the theatre, but these scenes sound like they’ll never end.

It’s odd, but to turn back some ninety years to the eager temperaments, firm vocal support, continually vibrated line and confident sense of direction of Lehmann and Rethberg feels like progress.

˜ ˜ ˜

NEXT TIME: We were due for the new Metropolitan Opera production of Der Fliegende Holländer. But just as I write, The Met, not to mention all Broadway theatres and many other performance venues, have gone dark in response to the coronavirus control effort. So by definition, my choice of topic will fall into my MIA category. There’s no shortage of possibilities. Look for it, as usual, in three weeks, on Friday, April 3. Stay well, all.

# # #