Episode 457. Ein Opernabend mit… Anna Tomowa-Sintow
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Today’s episode serves two purposes: First, I introduce my listeners to a wonderful series first released on Eterna, the East German state record label, entitled “Ein Opernabend mit…” which featured singers, some but not all of them German, active in East Germany between the late 1960s and the early 1980s. Some of these singers are well-known to lovers of great singers, with others much less-so. The quality of the singing varies from release to release, but the very best of these represents singing on the most exalted level. Over the past several years, I have been collecting these (sometimes very rare) recordings and now have nearly all of them in my personal collection. I’ll be doing an ongoing Countermelody series featuring these recordings, and present the first such episode today, featuring what is by far the most famous and well-circulated of these recordings, “Ein Opernabend mit Anna Tomowa-Sintow,” which features the beloved Bulgarian jugendlich-dramatisch soprano in some of her core repertoire (from Yevgeny Onegin, Otello, Forza del destino, Ariadne auf Naxos, and Arabella) made in December 1974 with Kurt Masur leading the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. ATS had recently joined the ensemble at the Staatsoper Berlin (then located in East Germany) and is heard in her creamy, exultant prime. I have supplemented this album with additional material recorded between 1970 and 1993, featuring Tomowa-Sintow in refulgently beautiful (and sometimes quite dramatically alive) excerpts from Così fan tutte, Forza, Die ägyptische Helena, Daphne, and the Vier letzte Lieder. I had a former boyfriend who once dismissed this singer as “garden variety.” All I can say is, if this is garden variety singing, then this is a garden I don’t want to leave anytime soon!
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
All tracks feature Anna Tomowa-Sintow, soprano, and, unless otherwise noted, Kurt Masur leading the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. Ein Opernabend mit Anna Tomowa-Sintow was recorded in December 1974.
Richard Strauss, Hermann Hesse: Frühling (Vier letzte Lieder). Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Karl Böhm, Staatskapelle Dresden [Salzburg 11.VII.76]
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Lorenzo da Ponte: Come scoglio (Così fan tutte). Rouslan Raychev, Sofia National Opera Orchestra [1970]
Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky [after Alexander Pushkin]: Пускай погибну я, но прежде [Letter Scene] (Yevgeny Onegin)
Giuseppe Verdi, Arrigo Boito [after William Shakespeare]: Emilia, te ne prego… Piangea cantando… Ave Maria (Otello)
Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Maria Piave [after Ángel de Saavedra]: Me pellegrina ed orfana (La forza del destino). Rouslan Raychev, Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra [1977]
Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Maria Piave [after Ángel de Saavedra]: Pace, pace, mio Dio (La forza del destino)
Richard Strauss, Hugo von Hofmannsthal: Zweite Brautnacht! (Die ägyptische Helena). Marek Janowski, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France [live Paris 26.IV.1993]
Richard Strauss, Hugo von Hofmannsthal: Ein Schönes war… Es gibt ein Reich (Ariadne auf Naxos)
Richard Strauss, Hugo von Hofmannsthal: Mein Elemer! (Arabella)
Richard Strauss, Joseph Gregor [after Ovid and Euripedes]: Ich komme, grünende Brüder (Daphne). Peter Sommer, Münchener Rundfunk Orchester [1984]