Wagnerheldinnen

Isolde and Brünnhilde are endlessly fascinating personalities and, like most Wagnerian heroines, are equally powerful in their love. This book pays homage to thirteen outstanding interpreters of these roles from different eras, all of whom left their imprint of high artistic standards on the Bayreuth festival. Kirsten Liese portrays each soprano individually through text and images which include unpublished photos from private archives: Frida Leider, Kirsten Flagstad, Martha Mödl, Astrid Varnay, Birgit Nilsson, Ludmila Dvorákova, Anja Silja, Catarina Ligendza, Dame Gwyneth Jones, Hildegard Behrens, Deborah Polaski, Waltraud Meier und Nina Stemme; the living artists all collaborated exclusively with the author on their chapters. With a Foreword by the brilliant Wagnerian conductor Christian Thielemann.

Autorentext

Kirsten Liese, born in Berlin in 1964, studied music education and German philology, followed by an apprenticeship at a daily newspaper and further studies in broadcasting. Since 1994 she has worked as an independent journalist and author specializing in opera, concerts, and cinema for the German broadcast network ARD (Deutschlandfunk, WDR, SWR, BR, MDR), newspapers (Berliner Morgenpost, Rhein Neckar-Zeitung, Nürnberger Nachrichten), magazines (Das Orchester) and online publications (BR Online, Kinofenster). She also edits sheet music for Bärenreiter in Kassel and Doblinger in Vienna. In 2007 her book Elisabeth Schwarzkopf: from Flower Maiden to Marschallin was published in Germany and Austria, followed the next year by a revised American/UK edition (Amadeus Press, New York).

Leseprobe
Foreword by Christian Thielemann Martha Mödl once said: »A Wagnerian soprano's greatest joy is to be allowed to sing Isolde or Brünnhilde.« Great peers of hers, who themselves made history performing these two roles, probably felt the same awe, considering the mental and physical tolls they had to endure. For me, Tristan is like a dangerous drug: it elicits powerful feelings that cannot be turned off and know no limits. It is a frightening experience indeed, and this is the reason why I feel unable to con-duct Tristan too frequently. I need a lot of time between productions. It therefore takes my breath away to recall how often Kirsten Flagstad, Martha Mödl, Astrid Varnay, Catarina Ligendza, Birgit Nilsson, Gwyneth Jones, Deborah Polaski as well as Waltraud Meier to mention only a few sang Isolde with the utmost dedication. Each and every heroine who did and still does justice to the great Wagnerian soprano roles deserves this appraisal, a homage based on merit alone. The biographies assembled in this book prove how much time and work are required for a voice to develop its splendor. Given the accelerated pace of contemporary singing careers, it is hardly surprising that only a few Wagnerian sopranos of this class are still with us. In this spirit, I hope this little monograph will encourage readers to emulate the great women it portrays. (Christian Thielemann)

Inhalt
Geleitwort von Christian Thielemann 9/11 Foreword by Christian Thielemann Einleitung/ Introduction 13/18 Frida Leider 23/28 Kirsten Flagstad 30/35 Martha Mödl 38/43 Astrid Varnay 46/51 Birgit Nilsson 54/59 Ludmila Dvoáková 62/67 Dame Gwyneth Jones 69/74 Hildegard Behrens 77/82 Catarina Ligendza 85/90 Anja Silja 93/99 Deborah Polaski 102/106 Waltraud Meier 108/113 Nina Stemme 116/121 Danksagung / Acknowledgements 125/127 Anmerkungen / Notes 129/132 Literaturnachweise / Bibliographical References 135 Personenregister / Index of Persons 137 Bildnachweise / Photo Credits 141