Renée Fleming "Was blendet so...Unheilvolle Daphne" RARE LIVE (2004) Daphne - Strauss

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Koln 2004 Live
Daphne: Renée Fleming
Leukippos: Jeffrey Dowd
Apollo: Johan Botha
Conductor: Semyon Bychkov
WDR-Sinfonieorchester Köln
In this gorgeous section Strauss conjures an astonishing orchestral maelstrom, a storm caused by Apollo in order to kill his love rival Leukippos. Then we hear the death of Leukippos and Daphne's rueful blaming of herself and Apollo for his death. Strauss' searching harmony, by turns sweetly delicate and diatonic, and then in massive chromatic paragraphs of twisting grandeur, is some of his most extraordinary, and the demanding, arching vocal lines are ravishing when as beautifully sung and interpreted as here.
Strauss' operas are amongst the most fearsomely difficult for the orchestra to play and even in this context, Daphne is considered a particular virtuoso challenge for an orchestra, perhaps his most demanding score. Aside from this it is also incredibly difficult to cast - it requires a youthful sounding soprano comfortable with the very high tessitura who can nevertheless ride the orchestra in the considerable climaxes and with enough stamina to sing the role's very long scenas. It also requires a true contralto or "tief-alt" that can properly support down to a bottom E, and not one, but two heldentenors (or one helden and a lyric with superb technique) who both also have to maintain a consistently high tessitura. The score has moments of wondrous orchestral and vocal beauty though there are also stretches of routine (as always in Strauss operas, especially when it comes to the tenors). Dramatically it is rather flat, with a highly problematic libretto (that the always incisive Strauss referred to as "Not particularly felicitously imitated Homeric jargon"). So all in all, it is perhaps little wonder that it is rarely produced! I do love it though, flaws and all, and wish it could be staged a little more frequently.
It had a very special place in Strauss' heart for reasons that have not been entirely satisfactorily explained. It was also his wife's favourite opera amongst her husband's works. In it we hear the beginnings of the famous Indian Summer which includes Capriccio and The Four Last Songs, though the harmony is more exploratory and the music hasn't attained that honeyed relaxation that the later masterpieces have.
I always had a problem with Fleming's commercially released recording of Daphne - the sound engineering is detailed yet flat and the micing of the voices is far too close with the result that Fleming sounded dryer than usual and a bit too mature for the role - there's no room for the sound to bloom, and since they derived from live performances, I wondered if Fleming was also simply under the weather. Additionally I felt Fleming somehow lacked identification with the character and was a bit bland interpretively (something I felt was true for the rest of the cast too)
This wonderful radio broadcast finally captures Fleming's Daphne in beautiful sound, with proper microphone placement, and with Fleming in much better voice. It's a performance that is much more deeply felt throughout too, and Bychkov doesn't drive the tempos so much so everywhere the piece breathes more freely. It's a shame it wasn't used as the basis for the commercial release, but it might be something to do with the Leukippos Jeffrey Dowd (heard at 1:50), who is not as vocally accomplished as Michael Schade.
In any case, this is the first of several postings that will finally bring Fleming's Daphne to proper light.

[@greatmomentsofopera7170]

In this gorgeous section Strauss conjures an astonishing orchestral maelstrom, a storm caused by Apollo in order to kill his love rival Leukippos. Then we hear the death of Leukippos and Daphne's rueful blaming of herself and Apollo for his death. Strauss' searching harmony, by turns sweetly delicate and diatonic, and then in massive chromatic paragraphs of twisting grandeur, is some of his most extraordinary, and the demanding, arching vocal lines are ravishing when as beautifully sung and interpreted as here. Strauss' operas are amongst the most fearsomely difficult for the orchestra to play and even in this context, Daphne is considered a particular virtuoso challenge for an orchestra, perhaps his most demanding score. Aside from this it is also incredibly difficult to cast - it requires a youthful sounding soprano comfortable with the very high tessitura who can nevertheless ride the orchestra in the considerable climaxes and with enough stamina to sing the role's very long scenas. It also requires a true contralto or "tief-alt" that can properly support down to a bottom E, and not one, but two heldentenors (or one helden and a lyric with superb technique) who both also have to maintain a consistently high tessitura. The score has moments of wondrous orchestral and vocal beauty though there are also stretches of routine (as always in Strauss operas, especially when it comes to the tenors). Dramatically it is rather flat, with a highly problematic libretto (that the always incisive Strauss referred to as "Not particularly felicitously imitated Homeric jargon"). So all in all, it is perhaps little wonder that it is rarely produced! I do love it though, flaws and all, and wish it could be staged a little more frequently. It had a very special place in Strauss' heart for reasons that have not been entirely satisfactorily explained. It was also his wife's favourite opera amongst her husband's works. In it we hear the beginnings of the famous Indian Summer which includes Capriccio and The Four Last Songs, though the harmony is more exploratory and the music hasn't attained that honeyed relaxation that the later masterpieces have. I always had a problem with Fleming's commercially released recording of Daphne - the sound engineering is detailed yet flat and the micing of the voices is far too close with the result that Fleming sounded dryer than usual and a bit too mature for the role - there's no room for the sound to bloom, and since they derived from live performances, I wondered if Fleming was also simply under the weather. Additionally I felt Fleming somehow lacked identification with the character and was a bit bland interpretively (something I felt was true for the rest of the cast too) This wonderful radio broadcast finally captures Fleming's Daphne in beautiful sound, with proper microphone placement, and with Fleming in much better voice. It's a performance that is much more deeply felt throughout too, and Bychkov doesn't drive the tempos so much so everywhere the piece breathes more freely. It's a shame it wasn't used as the basis for the commercial release, but it might be something to do with the Leukippos Jeffrey Dowd (heard at 1:50), who is not as vocally accomplished as Michael Schade. In any case, this is the first of several postings that will finally bring Fleming's Daphne to proper light.

[@heather_soprano]

One of my favorite Strauss operas...amazing orchestral colors and beautiful interpretation from Renée!

[@JK-xz6mj]

I love this opera, and Renee is so very good.

[@greatmomentsofopera7170]

Thanks for the comment. Me too. I’ve never heard this part as well sung. Simply spectacular.

[@scotttisdel138]

Could we PLEASE have the entire performance on youtube, even if it is in sections? I completely agree that this is much better than Fleming's studio recording. She is outstanding - What a superb Strauss singer. I'm so glad she took on this daunting role, however briefly. Please, let us hear the whole thing!

[@SimonBostic]

This is fantastic to be able to hear these sections from the renowned live performances - I have the studio recording and in reviews of it, they talk of these live perofmrances which were held to be simply ethereally good, enthralling the audience throughout. Great you have shared it. Thank you.

[@greatmomentsofopera7170]

You can hear here that that is true - incandescent music making, maybe the best live performance ever of this scene for instance. As I say in the comments above, the cut that made it onto the “studio” recording was actually a different live performance but the sound is boxy and microphone placement is not good. Here the sounds breathes and the music making is one notch higher even. So glad you enjoyed it

[@doGreatartistsgrowontrees]

Truly outstanding. Liquid gold. I am hoping to upload this section later today with Studer in another poorly recorded in-house recording, from Munich. Studer's singing is more declamatory, dramatic, impulsive and angular than Fleming's and it is quite amazing that in their hands the piece sounds almost unrecognizable between the two, as if by different composers from separate planets (-:

[@greatmomentsofopera7170]

doGreatartistsgrowontrees? Absolutely spectacular I agree. In a way it's my favourite part of the opera - I love the ending of course, but this is just as extraordinary. Looking forward to yours. I'm just about to get Popp live, so may post that soon.

[@doGreatartistsgrowontrees]

Great moments of opera Looking forward as well to Popp.

[@onigbajamo]

Renée Fleming is my second favourite Daphne, after Beverly Sills. I've heard many, including Reining and Güden, and I don't think they come close. At least, they don't do it for me.

[@greatmomentsofopera7170]

Onigbajamo I'm glad you enjoyed it. I do like Lucia Popp because she sounds so youthful, but I don't think it would have worked in the theatre. The music is so challenging that it is rare that people invest it with personality, but I think this live recording is pretty great. More parts are coming. :)

[@onigbajamo]

Great moments of opera I'd forgotten about Popp. I've never really warmed to her sound, so Fleming still tops it for me.

[@onigbajamo]

Great moments of opera More parts including, "Ich komme, ich komme"? :)

[@greatmomentsofopera7170]

Absolutely. It's an unbelievably beautiful version - slower than the studio, more fluid.

[@greatmomentsofopera7170]

Sills could have been great but the diction is so poor, and she's a bit wobbly in middle. I would definitely prefer Popp over Sills.