Ljuba Welitsch (Opera Arias 1947-1950)

Contents

Mozart: Don Giovanni, K527

Alessio de Paolis, Ljuba Welitsch Metropolitan Opera, Metropolitan Opera Chorus, Fritz Reiner

Don Ottavio, son morta!…Or sai, chi l’onore (Recorded 1950)

Crudele? Ah no, mio bene!…Non mi dir (Recorded 1950)

Weber: Der Freischütz, Op.77: Wie nahte mir der Schlummer…Leise, Leise (Recorded 1948)

Ljuba Welitsch Philharmonia Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Chorus, Walter Susskind

Verdi: Un ballo in maschera

Ljuba Welitsch Vienna State Opera Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Chorus, Rudolf Moralt

Ma dall’arido stelo divulsa (Recorded 1950)

Morrò, ma prima in grazia (Recorded 1950)

Verdi: Aida: Ritorna vincitor (Recorded 1947)

Ljuba Welitsch Philharmonia Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Chorus, Josef Kripps

Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin, Op. 24: Titania’s Letter Scene (Recorded 1948)

Ljuba Welitsch Philharmonia Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Chorus, Walter Susskind

Tchaikovsky: Pique Dame

Ljuba Welitsch Vienna State Opera Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Chorus, Rudolf Moralt

Ich muss am Fenster lehnen (Recorded 1950)

Es geht auf Mitternacht (Recorded 1950)

Puccini: Tosca

Richard Tucker, Ljuba Welitsch Metropolitan Opera, Metropolitan Opera Chorus, Max Rudolf

Love Duet (Recorded 1950)

Vissi d’arte (Recorded 1950)

Strauss, R: Salome, Op. 54: Final Scene (Recorded 1950)

Ljuba Welitsch Metropolitan Opera, Metropolitan Opera Chorus, Fritz Reiner

Strauss, J, II: Die Fledermaus: Czárdás, Klänge der Heimat (Recorded 1950)

Ljuba Welitsch Metropolitan Opera, Metropolitan Opera Chorus, Max Rudolf

Lehár: Die Lustige Witwe: Viljalied (Recorded 1950)

Ljuba Welitsch Vienna State Opera Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Chorus, Rudolf Moralt

Lehár: Zigeunerliebe: Lied und Czardas (Recorded 1950)

Ljuba Welitsch Vienna State Opera Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Chorus, Rudolf Moralt

Theo Makeben: The Dubarry: Ich schenk’ mein Herz (after Karl Millocker) (Recorded 1950)

Ljuba Welitsch Vienna State Opera Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Chorus, Rudolf Moralt

Ljuba Welitsch was a celebrated Bulgarian, later Austrian, operatic soprano. She studied singing at Sofia Conservatory with professor Georgi Zlatev-Cherkin. After specializing in Vienna, she first appeared in Sofia in 1936. Engagements followed in Graz, Hamburg, Munich and finally at the Vienna State Opera. Known for her red hair and exuberant vivacity, her most famous role was that of Salome, which she performed under the composer, Richard Strauss, himself in 1944 on his 80th birthday. She sang the same role for her London debut in 1947 and her first performance at the Metropolitan Opera, New York on 4 February 1949.

In this compilation Prima Voce have carefully chosen recordings of music covering a number of roles which Viennese, British and American fans in particular associated her with. In two extracts from Mozart’s Don Giovanni as Donna Anna, a role which introduced her to British audiences, from the opening recitative of ‘Or sai chi l’onore’, here ably assisted by the veteran Metropolitan Opera comprimario tenor Alessio de Paolis, one is struck by her brilliant yet beautiful tone and her attack on the high notes in the aria proper.

Celebrated Bulgarian Soprano known for her red hair and exuberant personality. He most famous role was that of Salome, which she performed under the baton of the composer Richard Strauss on his 80th Birthday. In this compilation we have carefully chosen recordings covering the major rolls that are associated with her. Throughout these discs one is struck by her brilliant yet beautiful tone and her attack on the high notes.

Iit’s good to have such a document of Ljuba Welitsch’s singing so readily available both to veteran listeners and to a new generation of operaphiles. The Bulgarian soprano’s voice was more Slavic than Italianate – bright and clean, rather than lush and sweeping, the timbre warmed by a narrow but even vibrato. One wonders, however, whether the processing has shortchanged her deeper sounds – we don’t hear the darker colors audible in, say, the Columbia-Sony recording of the Met Fledermaus. The resulting clarity is refreshing in repertoire that usually falls to Big Honking Dramatics, without sacrificing the required intensity or passion.

Salome was perhaps the role for which Welitsch received her widest acclaim. Its distinction lay in the soprano’s ability to project over Strauss’s large orchestra while maintaining a youthful, age-appropriate timbre. What I found most striking, however, was how easy it all sounds. There’s never a sense that Welitsch is pressing or fighting through the mass of instrumental sound. The voice simply soars, clarion and expressive, over the churning orchestra – it’s something to hear.

Welitsch came by a generous Slavic temperament naturally, and her stylish renditions of the Tchaikovsky selections are only slightly compromised by her singing of them in German translation. As in Salome, she sounds convincingly youthful but has sufficient resources to fill out the broad phrases; her manner is impulsive, though I can imagine a more mercurial Tatyana. The big Weber scene, too, goes with a nice variety.

Welitsch’s clear tones might seem an odd match for Verdi and Puccini. But the Ballo Amelia, on this showing, must have been a fine role for her. Both arias are full of feeling, and the Morrò, where the soprano outlines the phrases with a haunting purity, is unabashedly glorious. The cadenzas are smooth and assured, with the top note cleanly attacked each time, and no clumsy register shifts on the way down. The Aïda, on the other hand, disappoints: it’s all shallowed-out vowels, with no depth or warmth, and the legato not fully bound. Perhaps Welitsch was uncomfortable with Josef Krips’s temperamentally foreign conducting, which offers little more than efficient, musical traffic direction. The Tosca duet is lively and well-sung, with Richard Tucker an ardent partner; conversely, Welitsch’s bar-by-bar tempo changes in the aria, though well-intentioned, seem a bit much.

The operetta selections are fun. Rosalinde was a big Welitsch role at the Metropolitan, in Howard Dietz’s Broadwayish English translation; here, she clearly finds the original German more comfortable, though she doesn’t quite sing all the notes in the downward chromatic run. I rather enjoyed her no-nonsense Vilja, forthright and lustrous, unencumbered by any need to manufacture “diva moments”. It’s the Millöcker-Makeben concoction, though, that most strongly conveys the Viennese atmosphere.

The soprano’s rather brief career trajectory – she debuted in 1936, and the voice was all but spent by 1953 – suggests technical faults. For all the brilliance and “cut” of Welitsch’s top, when the tessitura stays high – the final pages of Non mi dir; the rise to high C in Ma dall’arido stelo; the concluding phrase of the Fledermaus “Csardas” – the singing is strained and throaty. And, as can happen with such forwardly positioned voices, there’s a tendency to drift sharp, although never damagingly so – Tucker tactfully corrects the pitch at one point in the Tosca scene.

I’d say this collection is an essential acquisition for opera lovers.

Stephen Francis Vasta, Musicweb-international.com