Part III: Rare and unknown voices - WALBURGA WEGNER

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Important notice: From 1:07 to 2:03 there is no sound. I´m sorry for this error. Please skip this part! Mike

Walburga Wegner, Soprano (1908-1993)

Richard Strauss SALOME
Sie ist ein Ungeheuer!
With László Szemere, Tenor (1906-1953)
Georgine von Milinkovic, Mezzosoprano (1913-1986)
(Recorded 1952)

My personal opinion: Unfortunately, Ljuba Welitsch left us no complete studio-recording of her amazing SALOME (We have only two Metropolitan performances, recorded live in 1949 and 1952, both under Fritz Reiner). Hence, we must draw our attention to other recordings of interest (and I will skip some short excerpts with Emmy Destinn and Johanna Gadski). Soon we will come to the famous Clemens Krauss performance with Christel Goltz, made in 1953 (In their informative but biased and inaccurate book "Opern auf Schallplatten", Karl Löbl and Robert Werba wrote, that Goltz was "the intellectual competitor" to Welitsch - in my opinion a misjudgement: Goltz (much better in the 1948 Keilberth live rendition) always sang fuzzy and vague ("Ah, ich were ihn jez küssen"), the sound is unclear, Anton Dermota as Narraboth and Julius Patzak as Herodes are the best singers in this overrated performance. Some years later (after Borkh and Varnay), Birgit Nilsson sang a matronly SALOME in XXL Isolde-size and Solti lashed his orchestra at full tilt. In this recording, for me the highlight is the incomparable Gerhard Stolze. Among all these SALOME´s, one fine recording was simply underrated: The 1952 studio production with conductor Rudolf Moralt and the very young Waldemar Kmentt as Narraboth, a strong Josef Metternich as Jochanaan and a very interesting Salome with great personality: The german born Walburga Wegner in the only studio recording she ever made! (She never had any contracts to do recording sessions). Wegner was a dramatic soprano who started as a light Mezzo in the 1940s in Germany. When she made this SALOME, she already was 44 years old, but her voice still was very agile with a fast vibrato. Her Salome was beguiling and coquettisch at once, simply ravishing. She did not embellish the words with such a piquancy like Welitsch did, but Wegner always verbalized every phrase concise and clear (what I most of all missed with Nilsson). Her intonation is near to perfection and an amazon-costumer wrote, that he never had heard the part in such clear pronunciation - and I agree. Compared to her, Hildegard Behrens (her voice is hopelessly drowned by the exuberant Karajan-orchestra-sound), Jessye Norman or Catherine Malfitano all sang pale and indifferent. After the war, Walburga Wegner contracted with the Opera house in Cologne and her career there began with ARIADNE AUF NAXOS. Soon she became a top executive, first with performances in Cologne, later with guest performances in whole Europe. She was Fiordiligi, Donna Anna, Elektra, Poppea, Cleopatra, Beethoven´s Leonora, Gluck´s Euridice, Rezia and Wagner´s Senta, Elisabeth, Ortrud, Eva and Kundry. She sang Leonore and Amelia, Elisabeth and Aida. She was Puccini´s Manon and Tosca, later even Turandot. No wonder, sooner or later she became SALOME. All roles are indications for her versatility and talent. Furthermore she performed Oratorios, cantatas and concert pieces from all ages. With only one commercial recording (but some surviving broadcasts, now reissued on CD) Walburga Wegner is indeed currently a rare voice to rediscover. Maybe her Salome is not the most important in the catalog, for me it´s the most interesting. Walburga Wegner retired in 1968 from the stage and died 1993 at age 85 in her hometown Cologne. A 3 CD Box with a representative cross section of her repertory was released.

The complete overview: New link to "All singers in the list"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHJ9YvWjPGM

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Walburga
• Wegner
• Soprano
• Salome

[rockgor]

She looks a little like Elsa Lanchester in this photo. You can find

CDs of W.W. on Arkiv and The Opera Lover.

Tnx 4 the post.

[90lysander]

Wow, here's a name I've never heard of before! Thanks for bringing her to our attention.

[tenorvoicefan]

Als Kölner ist mir Fr. Wegner natürlich bekannt. Leider hatte ich nie das Vergnügen, sie live zu hören.

Aber was ich von ihr hörte ist mehr als ansprechend.

Sie ist selten klar was ihre Verständlichkeit betrifft, dazu singt sie einfach schön. Ich wünschte mir mehr Aufnahmen von ihr. Und bedauere sehr, sie nie live gehört zu haben! Sie muss über sehr viel Talent und Persönlichkeit verfügt haben, was man ihrem Gesang jederzeit anhört.

[chrizosthemis]

who is next? I hope Bernard Ładysz (and later Hiolski and Mickiewiczówna).