United States Varied: Lise Davidsen (soprano), Malcolm Martineau (piano). Cal Performances, Zellerbach Corridor, College of California Berkeley. 4.2.2025. (HS)
Grieg – ‘Dereinst, Gedanke mein’, ‘Zur Rosenzeit’, ‘Ein Traum’
Purcell – ‘Dido’s Lament’ from Dido and Aeneas
Verdi – ‘Tu che le vanità’ from Don Carlo
R. Strauss – ‘Es gibt ein Reich’ from Ariadne auf Naxos; ‘Befreit’, Op,39 No.5
Schubert – ‘Der Tod und das Mädchen’, ‘Der Zwerg’, ‘Du bist die Ruh’, ‘Ellens dritter Gesang’ (‘Ave Maria’)
Wagner – ‘Allmächt’ge Jungfrau’ from Tannhäuser; ‘Der Engel’, ‘Träume’ from Wesendonck Lieder; ‘Liebestod’ from Tristan und Isolde
For a vocal recital that centered on songs and arias about dying, Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen managed to create a remarkably upbeat aura. In greeting the viewers in a nearly-full Zellerbach Corridor after a gap set of three songs from her countryman Edward Grieg’s Op.48, she characterised this system frivolously as a ‘just a little little bit of every part’.
Certainly, the composers on this night ranged from Henry Purcell to Richard Strauss, with Giuseppe Verdi, Franz Schubert and Richard Wagner alongside the way in which. However nearly the complete program was about dying. Perhaps it was the brilliant, flowery robe she wore for the primary half, but it surely solely dawned on me after she led into the intermission with Strauss’s ‘Befreit’, an uncharacteristically (for Strauss) downbeat track a couple of couple discovering bliss as ‘dying comes tomorrow’.
Clad in black along with her hair pulled again, she opened the second half with a set of 4 Schubert songs, starting with ‘Der Tod und das Mädchen’ (‘Demise and the Maiden’), delivered with applicable sonority and with out dragging the tempo to underline the peace that may accompany dying. ‘Der Zwerg’ adopted, a track a couple of dwarf ambivalent about murdering his queen, an estranged lover, sung with a bard’s sense of rhythm. The set concluded with a stunning ‘Ave Maria’ – not the Catholic prayer everyone knows however a maiden’s anguished plea amid a lethal clan struggle.
One of many night’s highlights was Schubert’s ‘Du bist die Ruh’, a spellbinding efficiency by which each pianist and singer discovered a tempo that appeared separate from time. It additionally offered some balm amid a lot about folks passing away.
For ‘Tu che la vanità’, from Verdi’s opera Don Carlo, she pulled out all of the stops, intoning the regal opening assertion with a broad but probing tone, discovering completely different shadings because the lengthy aria moved from appreciation of France to reward of Carlo (and God).
From the highest, it was the command of her voice — right here highly effective, there sublimely refined and mushy — that painted the colours of each phrase, each musical and lyrical. A knack for shaping the vowel sounds so completely went a great distance towards carrying the which means of phrases.
Every of the three Grieg songs started by portray a stunning image, formed with a fetching legato. She solely reached for her impressively wealthy full voice because the music swelled. In ‘Dido’s Lament’, she used no vibrato but by some means discovered wealthy vocal tone to make Purcell’s aria achingly expressive.
Pianist Malcolm Martineau shone greatest within the extra intimate artwork songs with an outstanding consideration to element, however he gamely stood in for an orchestra within the opera arias. As soon as the soprano began singing within the Verdi aria, the tinkling sound of the piano didn’t matter, however Strauss’s ‘Des gibt ein Reich’, the large dramatic soprano aria from Ariadne auf Naxos, didn’t have sufficient rhythmic pulse from the piano to beat a heroic efficiency by the soprano.
Within the artwork track ‘Befreit’, the wistfulness was lacking amid a weighty supply, spectacular however not fairly what the track was about. All these particulars, so enchanting early on, have been attending to be wearisome.
Strauss and Wagner are composers who spotlight Davidsen’s work on the opera stage. The ultimate set, all Wagner, started with ‘Allmächt’ge Jungfrau’ from Tannhaüser, Elisabeth’s prayer asking of God the mercy the Pope has denied the title character. Clearly Davidsen’s stage historical past with the function paid dividends within the depths she discovered. The 2 Wesendonck songs – ‘Der Engel’ and ‘Träume’ – had their strengths as effectively.
Concluding this system was ‘Liebestod’ from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde – a job she has but to do. She definitely has the vocal property to be an amazing Isolde, however this run-through struck my ears as a piece in progress. In a method, it characterised all of the issues that have been nice concerning the recital, and a few that weren’t.
The vocal sound was miraculous. Breath management made musical passages with lengthy legato scrumptious. Her vary dipped into low notes with depth and heat, and sounded excessive notes with out ever sliding into them, even after a protracted evening of singing. She might again off a loud notice and fade it into a good looking pianissimo.
She prefaced ‘Liebestod’ by admitting that this was her first public efficiency of the long-lasting work. And it was a radical demonstration of all of the vocal arrows in her quiver. However what Wagner created, and what the very best interpreters of this work have completed, is to emphasise the lengthy legato arc. She didn’t. It began effectively, the opening strains rising as dreamily mushy, however the colours modified so typically that it misplaced cohesion. The ending, as an alternative of drifting away like a protracted sundown, winked out too quick.
There’s little doubt Davidsen has all of the instruments, musical and dramatic, to make an amazing Isolde, even when this wasn’t it.
The encore introduced again the traits and understanding of the textual content that made it so. ‘Schmerzen’ (‘Agony’) from the Wesendonck Lieder match into the theme however discovered a notice of hope in these strains from the penultimate verse: ‘Why ought to I complain/If the solar itself should despair/If the solar itself should set?’
It, together with the sheer majesty of one of many world’s nice dramatic soprano voices, justified the standing ovation the night obtained.
Harvey Steiman
