Thais Finale - Renée Fleming, Thomas Hampson LIVE (2007)

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April 25, 2007
Thais: Renee Fleming
Athanael: Thomas Hampson
Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien
Conductor: Michel Plasson
Massenet had a habit of writing absurdly challenging female roles, and without an artist commensurate with their technical and interpretive demands they can seem vapid and uninteresting creations. Thais is one such role: it requires a gleaming top up to a D6, an extremely solid, supple and seductive middle voice, and frequent excursions into the low register which are clearly meant to be sung with full chest placement. Along with these basic requirements of range and tessitura is the requirement to spin enormously challenging legato lines and float top notes with ease. Oh, and Thais is meant to be the most beautiful woman in the ancient world, not merely a physical demand, but given that this is opera, a musical one too, so a truly beautiful timbre is actually essential to the role. And Massenet, like Puccini, leaves nothing to chance in the field of interpretation either: his scores are littered with directions to pause here, diminuendo (to pp) there, add a rubato (but not two), and all manner of other very specific articulations, and written instructions - the effect, when the markings are observed, is of white hot expression, immediacy of communication and great beauty, but Massenet has planned every expressive sigh and swoon. The challenge is to find the singer capable of the sensitivity and technical feats the score demands! The baritone role of Athanael is similarly hugely challenging, requiring a large range, lyric to dramatic singing, a beautiful tone, and a wide ranging acting technique.
As well as being a Mozart/Strauss soprano, Fleming is very closely associated with the music of Massenet, having essayed three of his very demanding heroines - Salome in Herodiade, Manon and Thais - the latter two of which she has sung frequently all over the world. As well as having the technique to do full justice to these scores, the sensuality of the voice and artistic approach is ideally suited to this music where sentiment and sound is everything. This thrilling live recording from 2007 is finer perhaps even than the more widely known Met Broadcast from the following year, if not quite so polished as the 2000 studio recording, which remains one of the most ravishingly beautiful highlights of Fleming's discography. The colossal rising scales to the high D6 are extended endlessly, and they cascade down to fully supported chest notes that are projected over the heavy orchestration so that the full sweep of the line is given its due. Everything is in place here, and the result is a wonderful piece of lyric theatre from Fleming and Hampson, as Thais, dying ecstatically, transcends the physical body and Athanael collapses into despair as his so far repressed desires are left unrequited.
ATHANAEL
Thaïs...
THAÏS
(ouvrant les yeux et regardant Athanaël avec douleur)
C’est toi, mon père! …
(toujours dans I’extase, n’entendant pas ce
qu’Athanaël lui répond)
Te souvient-il du lumineux voyage,
lorsque tu m’as conduite ici ! ...
ATHANAËL (avec attendrissement)
J’ai le seul souvenir de ta beauté mortelle!
THAÏS
Te souvient-il de ces heures de calme
dans la fraîcheur de I’oasis! ...
ATHANAËL (avec ardeur)
Ah! je me souviens seulement
de cette soif inapaisée
dont tu seras I’apaisement...
THAÏS
Surtout, te souvient-il de tes saintes paroles
en ce jour où par toi
j’ai connu le seul amour !
ATHANAËL (avec anxieté)
Quand j’ai parlé, je t’ai menti ...
THAÏS
Et la voilà I’aurore!
ATHANAËL
Je t’ai menti.
THAÏS
Et les voilà les roses de I’éternel matin!
ATHANAËL
Non ! le ciel… rien n’existe...
rien n’est vrai que la vie
et que I’amour des êtres...
Je t’aime !…
THAÏS
Le ciel s’ouvre!
Voici les anges, les prophètes... et les saints! ...
IIs viennent avec un sourire,
les mains toutes pleines de fleurs !
ATHANAËL
Entends-moi dane, ma toute aimée!
THAÏS ( debout, frissonnante )
Deux séraphins aux blanches ailes
planent dans I’azur !
Et comme tu I’as dit, le doux consolateur
posant sur mes yeux ses doigts de lumière
en essuie à jamais les pleurs!
ATHANAËL
Viens ! Tu m’appartiens !
Oh, ma Thaïs, je t’aime!
Viens ! dis-moi : je vivrai ! je vivrai !
THAÏS
Le son des harpes d’or m’enchante !
De suaves parfums me pénètrent !
Je sens une exquise béatitude
endormir tous mes maux !
Ah! Le ciel ! Je vois Dieu!
(Elle meurt)
ATHANAËL ( avec un cri terrible, se jette à
genoux devant elle)
Morte! pitié

[@genepassion4053]

Une pure merveille !

[@adrianamazzoni6888]

Thais splendida la voce della Sig.ra Fleming e di una bellezza sconvolgente arriva al cuore

[@giuliasampietro7710]

Un grande piacere ascoltarli !

[@adrianamazzoni6888]

Meraviglia delle meraviglie il finale di Thais

[@Reinemichaud]

Sublime....

[@greatmomentsofopera7170]

Pretty wonderful for a live document right?! I love it - music and performers and music in perfect harmony

[@Reinemichaud]

@@greatmomentsofopera7170 Moi aussi c'est ma vie...

[@adrianamazzoni6888]

Grazie per questo ascolto sublime

[@adrianamazzoni6888]

La più bella Thais ascoltata finora

[@thatageschutz9297]

Isso tudo sobre minha história obrigada Deus!!! 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[@pedrofgueroa5798]

Maravilloso duo. Siempre confie en la calidad artistica de la Fleming, desde los comienzos de su carrera. Lastima que despues se unio al circo de algunas cantantes que cantan de todo y sin medida.

[@greatmomentsofopera7170]

Glad you appreciated it! Wonderful artistry agreed! This is late career Fleming - she was already 48 here. It was better that she took risks than bore her audiences (and herself!) - what do you think she should not have sung late in her career?

[@johndaugherty7779]

De qué circo habla? Unos ejemplos.

[@thatageschutz9297]

Será que um dia alguém acreditará que eu sou Thaís? 😭😭😭

[@markcarpenter9235]

Beautiful! Have you heard THE version by Dorothy Kirsten and Robert Merrill?

[@greatmomentsofopera7170]

I have heard it. For me she's a bit on the "tweety" side - sort of soubrettish sounding voice, which sounds a bit innocent and girlish for a courtesan character. But I understand why others would like her!