One of the wonderful developments that an artist can have is being able to create a platform that allows them communicate with an audience. While learning classical vocal repertoire, vocalists have to focus on multiple facets. For example, the attention to foreign language, poetry or text, accompaniment, an artistry. As a vocalist, you are given the tools to tell a story through the way that you sing a piece, your physical expressions, and collaboration with your pianist or orchestra. I have been intrigued as to how classical singers develop their craft and make their musical interpretations unique. In order to challenge my views in song interpretation, I would like to introduce a couple of my favorite singers. First, I would like to explore the musical developments of Elīna Garanča, Anja Harteros, and Jessye Norman an explore how they perform the same song differently than one another. I will compare and contrast German Lieder through a dissection of diction, interpretation, accompaniment, and my appreciation towards the piece, Von ewiger Liebe.
Elīna Garanča was born into a musical family and are Latvian natives from the city of Riga. Her musical upbringing was inspired by her father who was a choral director and her mother who was a german lieder vocalist. At the young age of 20, she attended the Latvian Academy of Music that is located in Vienna. As her development as an artist grew, she won the 1999 Mirjam Helin International Singing Competition and was a finalist in the 2001 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. She made her Salzburg Festival debut in 2003 as Annio (La clemenza di Tito) and her Metropolitan Opera, New York, debut in 2008 as Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia). She appears regularly for such companies as the Metropolitan Opera, Paris Opéra, Vienna State Opera, La Scala, Milan, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bavarian State Opera, Zürich Opera House and Salzburg Festival, in repertory including Sesto (La clemenza di Tito), Sara (Roberto Devereux), Léonor (La Favorite), Romeo, Carmen, Marguerite (La Damnation de Faust), Didon (Les Troyens), Charlotte (Werther), Santuzza and Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier). As her success blossomed, she was highly praised for her natural ability to interpret and sing roles of great composers. A reporter form the The Daily Telegraph mentioned:
“Her voice is a gorgeously plum-coloured, velvet-upholstered instrument of awe-inspiring smoothness, power and flexibility, matched to a powerhouse technique and highly intelligent musicality. Her lower register is quite magnificent.”
The Daily Telegraph, November 2016
As of now, Elina is still a current worldwide active performing artist. Not only does she enjoy performing roles at the greatest opera house, but also loves to collaborate with her musical colleagues.
Anja Harteros, is a german soprano who was in born in Bergneustadt, Germany. Just like Elina, she was encouraged by her parents to pursue music as a career. As her musical education began, a music teacher at the Wüllenweber-Gymnasium, observed her substantial talent and suggested that she’d seriously consider the future of being an opera singer. She strengthened her performance abilities through numerous opportunities in music institute concerts and in school opera productions. After completing high school in 1991, Harteros continued her voice studies at the Cologne music school under Liselotte Hammes at the Hochschule für Musik Köln. In the summer of 1999, Anja Harteros won the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition (she became the first German to win this competition). Since then, Anja Harteros has been hosting at all important national and international opera houses from New York (Metropolitan Opera): Contessa (Le nozze di Figaro), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Lyon: Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte), Amsterdam: Contessa (Le nozze di Figaro), San Diego: Amelia (Simon Boccanegra), Violetta (La Traviata), Tokyo: Eva (Meistersinger), Dresden: Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte, Mimi (La Bohème), Frankfurt: Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte), at the State Opera of Hamburg: Eva (Die Meistersinger), State Opera of Berlin: Contessa (Le nozze di Figaro) and at the Wiener Staatsoper: Eva (Die Meistersinger), Mimi (La Bohème), at the Bayerische Staatsoper München: Agathe (Der Freischütz), Freia (Das Rheingold), Mimi (La Bohème), Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte), Contessa (Le nozze di Figaro), at the Deutsche Oper Berlin: Mimi (La Bohème), at the Edinburgh Festival: Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte) as well as at the Salzburger Festspiele: Elettra (Idomeneo).
In the great operas of Verdi, Puccini, Strauss and Wagner, Ms. Harteros is as good — as powerful yet lyrical in her singing, as sensitive in her acting — as anyone in the world. Nikolaus Bachler, the Staatsoper’s director, called her “one of the major singers of our time.” “I always compare her to a river, in her clearness and her purity,” Mr. Bachler said in an interview. “But she can grow, like rivers can grow, in a second — and go back, in a second, to a calm, shining beauty.”
Within all her accomplishments, she is still an active performing artist and has given concerts and Lieder recitals all over Germany, as well as in Boston, Florence, London, Edinburgh, Vicenza and Tel Aviv.
Lastly, Jessye Norman was born on September 15, 1945 in Augusta, Georgia. As the other singers, her family dedicated their lives to church music an influenced Jessye at a young age. In 1960, she took part in Philadelphia’s Marian Anderson Vocal Competition, and received a full-tuition scholarship to attend Howard University, where she completed her undergraduate degree. After Norman won the ARD International Music Competition in Munich, Germany in 1969, Egon Seefehlner invited her to perform as Elisabeth in Tannhauser with Deutsche Oper Berlin. She went on to sign a three-year contract with the opera company. In 1970, she performed in Deborah, followed by L’Africaine and Le nozze di Figaro at the Berlin Festival. In 1972, Norman sang Verdi’s Aida at La Scala in Milan. Norman continued to perform internationally as a soloist and recitalist. Norman returned to the stage, performing in Oedipus rex and Dido and Aeneas with the Opera Company of Philadelphia in 1982. The following year, Norman performed at the Metropolitan Opera for its 100th anniversary season. Following a 1987 performance with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Norman was featured in Erwartung, the Metropolitan Opera’s first single-character production, and Bluebeard’s Castle in 1989. Her first appearance with the Lyric Opera of Chicago was in the title role of Alceste in 1990. She would go on to be cast as Jocasta in a televised production of Oedipus rex at the inaugural Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto in 1993, the same year she was featured in Ariadne auf Naxos at the Metropolitan Opera, followed by The Makropulos Case in 1996.
“One of the finest lyric artists of her generation, with a gloriously rich soprano-cum-mezzo voice, a sublime interpreter of most of the operatic and art-song repertory.” Geoffrey Wheatcroft
She received forty-five honorary doctorates from institutions such as, Howard University, Juilliard School of Music and Harvard University. She was also the recipient of five Grammy Awards, including Best Classical Vocal Soloist Performance and a lifetime achievement award. Norman was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2010, and named a Kennedy Center Honoree. Her vibrant, emotion-filled singing and commanding stage presence, as well as her reputation for an intellectual grasp of the music she sings, have earned her world-wide acclaim.
German Lieder has been one of the most interesting type of repertoire to study because it focuses on the composition of storytelling. Composers of German Lieder were incredibly intelligent and clever in the way they would bring stories to life, not only in the accompaniment, but also the vocal line. I found a piece that caught my interest, which perfectly creates a story focusing on the vocal line and accompaniment. The piece is titled, Von ewiger Liebe, Op.43, No.1 composed by Johannes Brahms. He was known for creating beautiful accompaniment that complimented poetry, but did not showcase the text and only valued the music. The poet behind the text was Josef Wenzig and he wrote Wendish where the text was provided from (Kimball). This piece is constructed in a through-composed form, which does not follow an ABA stanza style. Having a the piece structured in through-composed form will give the listener a better way of understanding which character is talking during the piece. In this case, the characters involved is the boy, the girl, and a narrator. The scene reveals a boy escorting his sweetheart home and he suggests that their relationship has brought her shame and offers to end it, but she declares that their love is eternal like iron and steel (Kimball). The piece begins with the narrator speaking within the first two stanzas, the boy in the third stanza, and the girl expressing her feelings in the fourth and fifth.
I decided to pick different recordings to compare and contrast between singers and their interpretation. I am not a native German speaker, but this will be a true test of what interpretation is more appealing to the ear. I have chosen to listen to designated recordings from Jessye Norman, Anja Harteros, and Elina Garanca. These wonderful singers are classified as mezzo-sopranos or dramatic sopranos. In simple terms, their classification is due to the rich and warm tone of their voices, which best fits for Von ewiger Liebe.
One of the most important factors that contribute to musicality is understandable diction. The listeners need to at least grasp some sense of what a vocalist is saying, regardless if the language sung in a foreign language. After listening to Jessye Norman’s recording, I appreciated the tempo that she took in order to fully understand the diction because it was crisp and clean. I was able to distinguish when the character would switch from the narrator to the next. I especially noticed that Jessye Norman would emphasize verbs mainly to paint the setting for her audience and changes the tone of her voice to match the sweetness of the young girl expressing her love to the boy. Even though Anja Harteros is a native German speaker, I was unable to capture the essence of the characters, which led me to really focus on the words to pick out her distinction. She kept a constant tone without the usage of inflection that a narrator would use, which made the story need compensation in some way. The previous recordings that I listened to were only audio, but I was able to find one that was a live performance of Elīna Garanča interpretation. Elīna Garanča supplies the music with text painting through the dark and deep sound of her voice. She creates the scene early on as the “narrator” in the poem begins to describe the scene that leads to the passionate romantic character. Elīna Garanča doesn’t use a variety of inflection to differentiate characters, but the expression and body language compensates for the lack of vocal interpretation.
The second most important factor that is crucial in a performance is accompaniment. Even though Brahms appreciated poetry from third-party poets he also enjoyed having musical development that take center stage (Kimball). In German Lieder, a wide variety of composers featured accompaniment as descriptive and coloristic, partnership between voice and piano, and exemplify sensitivity to literature (Kimball). In Brahms’ case, his excitement was directed more towards the theoretical structure of the music itself and he was always critiqued for it. Brahms's created a turning point for musicians in the romantic period, due to creating drama within accompaniment. His works are characterized by both strictness and freedom in form, line, texture, and rhythm (Kimball). I believe this challenged listeners to not only listen to vocalist, but distinguish the story told in the accompaniment as well. A typical Brahms bass line melody over broken chords is found in the opening bars and anticipates the narrator's first vocal phrase in B minor (Kimball). For the following character, Brahms has a clever idea to introduce the young boy with a key change to switch the mood from erie to alarming. The boys’ vocal phrases are insistent and dramatic as the accompaniment pattern changes to triplet figures (Kimball). The young girl is also introduced with a key change, but instead of minor it becomes major to show passion and happiness. When the girl replies her phrases are more lyrical and legato, which leads to hemiola rhythm that identifies the girl’s affirmation of love (Kimball).
Jessye Norman seemed to have a slower tempo than the other singers and it created a good balance between both instruments shining equally. Anja Harteros’ approach sounded monotone and was not as exciting as Jessye Norman’s recording. I perceived her performance a piece that can glorify her voice rather than telling a story, which didn’t give justice to the moral of the story. The tempo and dynamics were not used during Anja Harteros’ recording, which I feel worked against the concept of the music. Elīna Garanča had a similar approach as Jessye Norman and Anja Harteros. Elīna Garanča was able to build a partnership with the piano and blended very well during dynamics without overpowering the true essence of the story.
Interpretation is a valid concept that singer's work so hard for during their professional career. This is a part of musicality and being able to grasp an audience's attention and create a surreal feeling within a piece is an accomplishment. All three of these recordings were unique in their own way as far as interpretation. I personally believed that my favorite interpretation would of been Anja Harteros because she is a native German speaker and her speech would give authenticity.. Her recording in my opinion was anticlimactic and bland without the use of dynamics or usage of tones to differentiate characters in the story. My favorite interpretation of Von ewiger Liebe, would be Jessye Norman’s recording. She provided intensity through her soft dynamic singing that was not overwhelming to the ear. Jessye Norman created different voices for every character and committed to the development of the story. I feel that her tempo became a significant part in her interpretation. It was kept consistent, but slower than others to elongate phrases,create a better connection of breath, and partnership between voice and accompaniment.
Overall, I enjoyed listening to different recordings of the same song to see how people interpret music differently. I was able to learn the approach of style of these singers and Johannes Brahms’ as well. This experiment was very interesting, and as a vocalist myself, I will better understand the development of my style and learn how to capture an audience’s attention. I was able to dissect the importance of performance, diction, and accompaniment of German Lieder through the beautiful piece titled, Von ewiger liebe.
Overall, I enjoyed listening to different recordings of the same song to see how people interpret music differently. I was able to learn the approach of style of these singers and Johannes Brahms’ as well. This experiment was very interesting, and as a vocalist myself, I will better understand the development of my style and learn how to capture an audience’s attention. I was able to dissect the importance of performance, diction, and accompaniment of German Lieder through the beautiful piece titled, Von ewiger liebe.