Lisa Hirsch's Classical Music Blog.
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Friday, July 16, 2010
Christine Brewer: WHY is She Not Singing Every Dramatic Soprano Role in the Repertory??
I ask you: why oh why is the world's greatest living dramatic soprano not singing all of the Strauss big-girl roles, all of the Wagner big-girl roles, all of the Korngold big-girl roles....you get the point. Yes, she is a big girl herself, but OH THAT VOICE. No one else combines beauty and power the way she does.
Seconded. Vigorously!
ReplyDeleteShe's pacing herself. Maybe. Better too little than too much.
ReplyDeleteBeen very lucky to see/hear her sing w/ the LA Phil many times. Here's to a long career for her.
That would make a great deal of sense. She has mostly been a concert singer, though she does a couple of opera engagements a year.
ReplyDeleteShe is in her mid-50s and sounds 30 - such a beautiful voice!!
I'm fortunate to have heard her sing Isolde twice and Leonora once. While dramatically the latter was a strectch because of her size, I would get on a plane to hear her sing Isolde again.
ReplyDeleteWasn't she supposed to be in the Met's last Ring but cancelled for health reasons? At the time it was hinted she was losing the stamina to perform the longer roles, or maybe that's just how I interpreted it. I agree with you though, vocally there is no one better for these roles. To hear her as Brunnhilde would be fanstastic.
Maybe she just does not want to do "every dramatic role in the repertory" and do what **she** wants to do... Yes, she has a marvelous voice. One of the reasons is that she's doing what she thinks is best for her voice and at her pace. If that means we won't hear her in roles we'd love her to perform, then I'd rather be satisfied with what we can and do hear while she's in top form.
ReplyDeleteJohn, yeah, I saw her in the same roles, plus I've seen her in concert at SFS and the Runnicles birthday gala. She was scheduled for one, then two, of the last three Schenk Ring cycles at the Met, then mysteriously dropped out. The official reason was a knee injury; then the rumors started floating around, which were 1) she turned up not knowing the music well enough 2) the director disliked her. parterre box covered this extensively. You can imagine.
ReplyDeletebuechernarr, that's certainly possible, though she evidently does want to sing Brunnhilde. We don't know what she has been offered or what she has asked for.
Feel the same way about her, and feel very privileged to have heard her in Tristan and Fidelio. I remember reading somewhere (Opera News?) ages ago that she chose to stay primarily a recital singer based out of St. Louis while her children were growing, and that only when they were mostly grown did she feel free to take on the roles and stages her voice is so perfect for. Hence the appearance of late blooming. The parterre mavens did savage her quite roundly, as I recall.
ReplyDelete