Word: wagnerians
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...fill the gigantic mold of a Wagnerian hero, a tenor should 1) have a voice big enough and resonant enough to soar over the timpani-tempered Wagnerian orchestra, 2) be robust enough to support swooning Wagnerian sopranos, and 3) preferably be named Lauritz Melchior. At the Metropolitan Opera last week, a topnotch revival of Wagner's Die Walkuere (conducted by Karl Boehm) offered the audience a dramatic tenor who ideally fulfilled the first two requirements and made the third one seem unimportant. The tenor: 33-year-old, Canadian-born Jon Vickers...
Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall (NBC, 9-10 p.m.). The Metropolitan Opera's new Wagnerian star, Birgit Nilsson, appears in distinctly nonoperatic company: Comedienne Kay Ballard, Pop Singer Jaye P. Morgan and Dancer Carol Haney. Color...
...sweater, jacket and boots-sang with warm-timbred verve, while Tenor Karl Liebl turned in his best performance of the season as the huntsman Erik. But the real standout of a standout cast was Soprano Leonie Rysanek in the role of Senta, the self-sacrificing heroine who in characteristic Wagnerian style must die to secure the redemption of her lover. Her singing in the usually static second act was superb; her soprano rose and fell around London's steady tone, shot off in bursts of color, swooned and sighed with a purity that had the audience breathless...
...seasoned, intelligent performers, neither has the considerable vocal resources or discipline requisite for the taxing part. When Melchior left the Metropolitan's stage in 1949, there was no Heldentenor to replace him. By that time, Set Svanhom, his beautiful voice always a bit too lyric for the heaviest Wagnerian tenor roles such as Tristan and Parsifal, was also to retire. After Svanholm's few remaining years with the company, no one could be found on either side of the Atlantic who could make a reasonable claim to the place in the roster vacated by him. Revivals of Wagner haven...
Because Nilsson's voice is so indestructible, the public, happily, will have all the more opportunity to hear it. One looks forward to further demonstrations of her singing, especially in the Wagnerian repertoire which, since Flagstad's retirement from the stage, has been handled by second-rate sopranos. Wagner days are probably back at the Met, even if a Heldentenor remains lacking. Wagnerities, rejoice, there is a new heroine for you to acclaim! IAN STRASFOGEL