Singers Remembered, 1: Kathleen Ferrier (1912-1953)

Singers Remembered is Operapost’s series devoted to the most representative clips of artists whose memory is alive for today’s operaphiles.

Kathleen Ferrier’s death from cancer truncated the career of one of the most beloved and admired singers of the 20^th century. International fame came to this British contralto in 1946 when she participated in the premiere performances of Benjamin Britten’s opera The Rape of Lucretia. A favorite of star conductors Bruno Walter and John Barbirolli, her concert tours brought her to America and Europe beginning in 1948. Her sole roles in opera were Britten’s Lucretia and Orfeo in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. The repertoire of her song recitals was drawn principally from German lieder, English art songs, and English folk songs. She was a frequent soloist in Handel’s Messiah and in the orchestral/vocal works of Elgar and Mahler. Ferrier’s rich column of sound, evenness of emission, and deep immersion in music and text are haunting. Once heard, her timbre is not forgotten.

Among the many tributes from her colleagues, that of Bruno Walter has been highlighted by biographers: "The greatest thing in music in my life has been to have known Kathleen Ferrier and Gustav Mahler—in that order."

Ferrier was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1951 but continued to sing, often in great pain, until eight months before her death. Her final performance was as Orfeo at Covent Garden in Feb. 1953, conducted by Barbirolli. She had contracted to sing the opera four times, but during the second her femur collapsed. She got through to the end by standing immobile and relying on the cast members to improvise the action. Several hospitalizations were unable to arrest the disease; she died in October.

Here is a recording of Orfeo’s aria, “Che faro senza Euridice (What will I do without Euridice)” taken from a live 1951 performance in Amsterdam, soon after she learned of her cancer diagnosis.

Ferrier’s a cappella recording of the Northumberland folk song, “Blow the Wind Southerly,” documents the richeness of her voice, the evenness of her scale, and her penetration of the text.

Lieder featured prominently on Ferrier's recital programs. This is her moving interpretation of Schumann’s “Widmung (Dedication).”

Known for the wit she was rarely called upon to express in her predominantly serious repertoire, here is her rollicking rendition of Schubert’s delightful “Der Musensohn (The Son of the Muses).

With Bruno Walter conducting the Vienna Philharmonic, “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen (I am lost to the world), is evidence of Ferrier’s strong affinity for Mahler.

 

Youtube has many Ferrier clips. All are recommended. The excerpts from Handel’s “Messiah” are remarkable.

 

 

 

La Forza del destino

The Metropolitan has mounted four productions of La Forza del destino and has presented the opera more than two hundred times, about as often as Fledermaus and Manon Lescaut. Late in entering the company’s repertoire, its 1918 premiere was notable for its stellar cast of Enrico Caruso, Giuseppe De Luca, José Mardones, and the debut, on any opera stage, of Rosa Ponselle. Rudolf Bing counted Forza among the notable Verdi revivals of his regime; opening night 1953 had Zinka Milanov, Richard Tucker, Leonard Warren, and Cesare Siepi. The remarkable décor designed by Eugene Berman was seen in fourteen out of thirty or so subsequent seasons. The 1996 edition of Verdi’s work, also decked out in traditional sets and costumes, fared much less well; it earned but one repetition more than a decade later.

 

It is doubtful if the 2024 Forza would be recognized by the artists who played Leonora, Alvaro, Carlo, and Padre Guardiano in the past. Mariusz Trelinski plants the narrative, based on a 19^th century Spanish melodrama, in a contemporary and post-Apocalyptic America, as he teases out the themes of Patriarchy and War.

This post recalls a few of the great singers who made Verdi’s brilliant, but sprawling and problematic La Forza del destino, such a frequent repertory item.

Leonora, the beleaguered heroine who seeks asylum and solitude after her beloved Alvaro accidentally kills her father, pleads for the help of the Virgin in her Act II aria “Madre, pietosa vergine.” Zinka Milanov, who holds the record for the most Leonoras at the Met, was at her peak for the 1953 revival. The depth, roundness, and power of her sound never prevents her from making a soft landing on the high notes. Her famous pianissimo is but one feature of this deeply felt rendition of the piece, drawn from a recital disk.

Carlo Bengonzi, acknowledged as the consummate Verdi tenor of his generation, is heard here in a 1965 live performance. Bergonzi applies his warm timbre and scrupulous phrasing to the tragic Act III aria, “O, tu che in seno agli angeli.” Disconsolate, Alvaro evokes Leonora, whom he believes dead and among the angels.

The most familiar music in La Forza del destino is Leonora’s final aria, “Pace, pace, mio dio.” Alone in her hermitage, she declares her love for Alvaro, whom she, too, believes dead, and prays for peace. Her outburst in the final moments is a curse on those who dare invade her asylum. The clip is from a 1953 live performance of the opera from Florence, conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos. Leonora is Renata Tebaldi who unstintingly deploys her lush voice in one of her favorite roles.

YouTube is a treasure trove of Forza excerpts; Rosa Ponselle, Beniamino Gigli, Eileen Farrell, Franco Corelli,  RichardTucker are highly recommended. Of particular interest are the Enrico Caruso/Giuseppe De Luca and Jussi Bjorling/Robert Merrill duets.