The word “falsetto” has been used to refer to a number of different head-voice-dominant adjustments at different times and places, and often the internal evidence of the writing for tenor, even when inclusive of upper extensions to D and even beyond, rules out a weak, detached sound. It’s not easy to adduce exactly what kind of “Falsett” Wagner was concerned about with Erik’s B-flat and cadenza. ^(I)As Will notes, Wagner was trying to obviate a saccharine impression. Erik’s a hunter, a rugged man, and the spinning girls even suggest (albeit in a mocking tone—Erik’s only a hunter, not a salty-dog sea captain like Daland) that he could turn violent if enraged by the Ballad. And Will has kindly sent along two early-20th-Century versions of the B-flat phrase. I was familiar with one, by the superb Heldentenor Jacques Urlus, and not with the other, by Max Hirzel. Both these tenors have large-calibre voices, and both surmount the phrase eloquently with B-flats that have a higher head-voice count than we are used to (we wouldn’t term them quite “full voice”), yet are strong and by no means of a detached variety. These examples are some sixty to eighty years past the time when Wagner was composing Holländer, or even the time of his essay about it. But their line of descent may tell us something of the sort of impression Wagner hoped his Erik would make.

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NEXT FULL POST: Friday, May 8. The absence of live performances gives us an opportunity to sort through some recorded ones we might not otherwise have occasion to consider. So this will be a grab-bag, with some goodies inside. Till then, please stay safe and well.

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