NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/rec/music/classica/19183

Text File | 1992-12-22 | 1.6 KB | 40 lines

Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
Path: sparky!uunet!camex!lloyd!chrisi
From: [e-mail] (Chris Ischay)
Subject: Re: Hildegard Behrens vocal collapse?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Organization: Camex Inc., Boston MA
References: <[e-mail]>
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 18:58:13 EST
Lines: 29

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Rob Holzel) writes:
>A friend told me the following.  I wonder if it's true?
>
>1. Hildegard Behrens has recently suffered a vocal collapse,
>   which to the horror of the MET management will prevent her from
>   singing Brunnhilde in upcoming "Ring" performances.

I heard her sing Salome last year for the BSO, and she sounded pretty good.
Two months later I heard her sing Tosca at Covent Garden and she was in
rough shape.  The passages in which she could push out a big sound were
reliable, but Vissi d'arte was simply not within her powers.  She sounded
as if she were singing through a terrible respiratory problem.

>2. Eva Marton will not sub for Behrens, since she swore never to
>   sing at the MET again when she was passed over for Brunnhilde (in
>   favor of Behrens) the first time around.

Small loss.  I'd rather hear Levine sing it himself.

>3. As a singer of last resort, the MET have enrolled Dame Gwenyth
>   Jones to sing the role.  This much disconcerted my friend, who
>   said Jones is so past her prime that by now he'd thought she
>   was dead.

Jones is singing Brunnhilde tonight at the Met, but that's the way it was
scheduled way back when.

Chris Ischay
[e-mail]