Today I spent another delightful afternoon with my friend, The Other Voice Teacher. She asked me about the operas and the singing I had heard while I was in Prague and I confessed that I was disappointed in both with possibly one exception, Pavla Vykopalová, the Rusalka.
We agreed that Slavic sopranos, whether by training or inclination, tend to have very bright, almost brittle voices. I told her what may be an apocryphal story of Galina Vishnevskya when singing the Verdi Requiem, being told by the conductor that the octave leap in the last movement on the word 'requiem' was to be sung ppp. She had sung it fff. On hearing this she turned to him and simply said 'NO'. End of story. She sang it loud and very bright.The best of the sopranos I heard while in Prague was Vykopalová, the woman I heard sing the title role of Rusalka. She had a bright voice but it was very well modulated and she used it well.
The soprano who sang the title role in Tosca started out well but must have tired or forgotten her technique by the time she reached 'Vissi d'arte'. She strangled the climatic moments by taking what I call 'suicide breaths': gasping high breaths just before a high note, leaving her technique in the dust.
The soprano who sang Lucia was simply annoying in her shrieking of high notes, which, God knows, she had- but who cares when they are screamed?
My friend mentioned the wonderful Czech soprano Emmy Destinn, who it turned out, had studied much earlier with the same voice teacher my friend had later studied under. Emmy sang dramatic roles and was honored by having her picture on the Czech 2000 Kroner note. Not many opera singers wind up on the money.
Today there are several Czech sopranos who are well-known in the Czech Republic, but do not have international careers. Jarmila Novotna was another wonderful Czech singer from the past. We agreed that WWII probably
had an effect on European singers who
emerged after that period. Perhaps
in Czechoslovakia the whole concept of singing never recovered after that time. Certainly at that period many US singers went abroad to begin careers because of the lack of local singers.
I remain puzzled by the fact that almost none of the singers I heard in Prague, to quote my friend, 'knew how to sing!' I have discussed the foibles of the several sopranos I heard. The tenors all seem to know only how to bellow. Prague has an enormous musical heritage and should be able to produce better singers. Also, none of the singers in any of the operas I saw knew how to act. They had no respose to the other members of the cast, whether they be lovers, witches, or whatever. Sad.
We got on to such varied topics as the first production of Samuel Barber's Cleopatra which opened the 'new' Met when it moved up to Lincoln Center and was such a disaster. My friend covered the leading role for that opera but never sang it.
It is always a joy to pay a visit to my friend and exchange thoughts on singing and music and everything else. I look forward to our times together.
