To the greater glory of Nicolai Gedda
Ursula Scherer
Hi all,
on a recent visit to Berlin in March, I went to a recital by Nicolai Gedda
in the Deutsche Oper.
Gedda is now 72. He had no problems of getting thru a 2 hour recital of
French melodies and German, Swedish and Russian Lieder. The first 3
French melodies were a bit problematical but then the voice got better and
better with only occasional problems of attack (if that is the right word,
my learned audience). His technique is unparalleled, his piano and mezza
(?) di voce perfect. In fact some of the Strauss Lieder he sang were the
best and most gripping interpretations I ever heard.
The Deusche Oper was almost full (I guess it holds around 1 500) and there
were standing ovations at the end of the recital which he honored by
giving 5 Zugaben (encores in English?) one of which was a long and
difficult aria (I forgot which one it was).
Ursula Scherer
Greg Rowan
In article <5iqei3$4...@uni2f.unige.ch>, Ursula Scherer
<usch...@uni2a.unige.ch> wrote:
Ursula, I first "discovered" Gedda in 1966, when he was arguably the best
French tenor before the public. It's great to hear that he is still going
strong in 1997!
Mike Richter
Ursula Scherer wrote:
> The first 3 French melodies were a bit problematical
Since my first experience of Gedda live nearly 35 years ago, he has been
slow to warm up. For some reason, he always had problems in Act I - so
it seems that that, too, is unchanged over the decades.
>His technique is unparalleled, his piano and mezza (?) di voce perfect.
Statements are true, but you mean 'messa voce'. To find out what mezza
di voce is, check my WWW site this week. :-)
Gedda has always used his voice precisely, never singing beyond his
limits and rationing his performances to his capabilities. He is likely
to keep on doing so with similarly excellent results for another decade
or more. For those interested, a bit of 'Dein ist mein ganzes Herz' from
a concert last year is on the CD-ROM I am currently offering. I have the
rest of that concert on tape; it may show up on a future disc.
Mike
--
mric...@mindspring.com
Opera: http://mrichter.simplenet.com
Opera Mirror: http://www.opera.it/FreeWeb/mrichter
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Mike Richter
And I have been corrected - the correct term is, of course, mezza voce
for the soft singing with which we would like to be more familiar and
messa di voce for the crescendo/decrescendo so rarely performed well. My
spelling was faulty and I apologize.
Mike
RFazio4482
Years ago, on a rainy Sunday morning, I followed Gedda into a rehearsal of
Dalibor with the Opera Orchestra of New York under Eve Queler. I met him
in the street, wearing his Russian-style hat, walked in with him and sat a
few chairs away from him. He was sucking on a candy until Eve Queler
called him up to sing.
The first half of the first syllable of the first word was a little
husky, but from that point onwards, he sang full voice, gloriously, for
the rest of his rehearsal time-slow to warm up indeed!
can...@webtv.net
in addition to his extraordinary work in opera - have you heard him on
the
bernstein "Candide"?
his performance of "My Love" (the goverrnor's serenade) is simply
splendid
Robert Deutsch
can...@webtv.net wrote:
I had a look at the "Candide" laserdisc a few days ago, and noticed
that when Gedda sings the final B-flat (which *is* quite splendid),
Jerry Hadley and June Anderson are watching him, and their jaws
(especially Jerry's) just drop.
Bob Deutsch
Braden Mechley
On Tue, 22 Apr 1997, Nicholas Goldwyn wrote:
> I went to the concert from which this recording originated. It was a
> delight to see Gedda attempting the part. He was clearly having
> difficulty fitting the the words to the rhythm (Bernstein's rhythms
> are extremely complex as anyone who watched him coaching Carreras
> through "Somethin's Coming" on the West Side Story video will know)
Well, "Something's Coming" does have syncopations which might slow up
people unfamiliar with the idiom, but nothing in the Governor's Serenade
("My Love") has that problem; it's a slow aria. "Bon Voyage" is another
matter, though there it's not rhythm per se (not much there in the way of
syncopations, really) but just speed -- a major patter song for chorus and
tenor alike. But at least all the B-flats came out well.
> whther because of the idiom or shortage of rehearsal I don't know.
Gedda told GRAMOPHONE, "My goodness, he worked us hard."
> He stood at Bernstein's elbow and didn't take his eyes off him for a
> split second. The final top note was almost a signal of triumph at
> having got through it. On the recording (and video), he was clearly
> more confident.
So the video is not of the first performance? I assumed it had to be,
since June Anderson and Jerry Hadley were both in it -- weren't they
replaced (by Constance Hauman and somebody else) as of the second concert?
I do know that the CDs were largely (if not entirely) redone, but to me
some of the singing (Anderson's in particular) is better on the concert,
"royal flu" or no royal flu.
** Braden Mechley ** ele...@u.washington.edu ** Department of Classics **
I felt so different from my own family ... I have since read
biographies of Mozart, Shakespeare, Vlad the Impaler and Mrs
Thatcher and discovered, to my relief, that they all
entertained the same scary fantasy ...: "How could a brilliant
and gorgeous person like me have been born to a stupid old
boring couple like you?"
-- Dame Edna Everage
**************************************************************************
Nicholas Goldwyn
can...@webtv.net wrote on Sat, 19 Apr 1997 12:01:22 -0400:
>>
>>in addition to his extraordinary work in opera - have you heard him on
>>the
>>bernstein "Candide"?
>>
>>his performance of "My Love" (the goverrnor's serenade) is simply
>>splendid
I went to the concert from which this recording originated. It was a
delight to see Gedda attempting the part. He was clearly having
difficulty fitting the the words to the rhythm (Bernstein's rhythms
are extremely complex as anyone who watched him coaching Carreras
through "Somethin's Coming" on the West Side Story video will know)
whther because of the idiom or shortage of rehearsal I don't know. He
stood at Bernstein's elbow and didn't take his eyes off him for a
split second. The final top note was almost a signal of triumph at
having got through it. On the recording (and video), he was clearly
more confident.
kind regards
Nicholas Goldwyn
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Nicholas Goldwyn
Braden Mechley <ele...@u.washington.edu> wrote on Tue, 22 Apr 1997
16:57:21 -0700:
>>On Tue, 22 Apr 1997, Nicholas Goldwyn wrote:
>>> I went to the concert from which this recording originated. It was a
>>> delight to see Gedda attempting the part. He was clearly having
>>> difficulty fitting the the words to the rhythm (Bernstein's rhythms
>>> are extremely complex as anyone who watched him coaching Carreras
>>> through "Somethin's Coming" on the West Side Story video will know)
>>
>>Well, "Something's Coming" does have syncopations which might slow up
>>people unfamiliar with the idiom, but nothing in the Governor's Serenade
>>("My Love") has that problem; it's a slow aria. "Bon Voyage" is another
>>matter, though there it's not rhythm per se (not much there in the way of
>>syncopations, really) but just speed -- a major patter song for chorus and
>>tenor alike. But at least all the B-flats came out well.
>>
It was, of course, Bon Voyage, that I had in mind...
>>
>>> whther because of the idiom or shortage of rehearsal I don't know.
>>
>>Gedda told GRAMOPHONE, "My goodness, he worked us hard."
>>
and it showed!
>>> He stood at Bernstein's elbow and didn't take his eyes off him for a
>>> split second. The final top note was almost a signal of triumph at
>>> having got through it. On the recording (and video), he was clearly
>>> more confident.
>>
>>So the video is not of the first performance? I assumed it had to be,
>>since June Anderson and Jerry Hadley were both in it -- weren't they
>>replaced (by Constance Hauman and somebody else) as of the second concert?
It was the second performance I saw. Maybe his eyes were steadier at
the first one!