Brown Bread: Anneliese Rothenberger

Anneliese Rothenberger as Lulu

Anneliese Rothenberger, an internationally known German soprano who sang with the Metropolitan Opera in New York in the 1960s, died on Monday in Switzerland. As befits a diva, her exact age had long been shrouded in obscurity; she was believed to have been either 83 or 85.

The death, at a hospital near Ms. Rothenberger’s home on Lake Constance, followed a short illness, friends told the news service Agence France-Presse.

Ms. Rothenberger retired from opera and concert stages in the 1980s. She did not mind not singing, as she told the German magazine Stern in 2003:

“People in the street would say to me, ‘It’s a pity we can’t hear you anymore,’ ” she recalled. “I thought, ‘That is better than if they said, “The old woman is still singing.” ’ ”

R.I.P. Anneliese Rothenberger 1926-2010

Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen by W.A. Mozart & E. Schikaneder

Renée Fleming goes indie

Soprano Renée Fleming has learned “a completely different style of singing” for a forthcoming pop album, which features covers of Muse, Arcade Fire, and Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. “This album is NOT a crossover,” the American singer insists. “There’s not a hint of ‘middle ground’. It’s completely at the other extreme of the spectrum.”

This isn’t the first time Fleming has let her hair down on a recording – she released a jazz album in 2005, and sang in Elvish for The Lord of the Rings soundtrack. But this is Fleming’s first foray into the fearsome, pierced world of actual rock and pop.

“In classical music, we perform unamplified in halls that seat up to 4,000 audience members, plus we’re required to project over large orchestras and often a chorus,” she explained. “We’re kind of the weightlifters of singing … [Here, I had to] sing in what often felt like a whisper. I was recording in a small, acoustic booth in this intimate style, which is the complete opposite of how I usually sing. [Producer] David [Kahne] worked with me closely so that there was no hint of drama, cheesiness, or ‘Las Vegas’, as he would call it.”

Of course, Fleming isn’t exactly covering the Misfits. Her version of Tears for Fears’ Mad World is much more Gary Jules than new wave, and that old chestnut Hallelujah won’t blow the spectacles off any grannies. The project was conceived by Peter Mensch and Cliff Burnstein, whose management company represents Muse, Metallica and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Inspired by a bus poster featuring the soprano, Mensch “badgered” Fleming’s record company “once a year for years”, he told the New York Times. When Fleming finally capitulated, the pair gave her 40 songs to listen to – and an Excel spreadsheet on which to indicate “Love it”, “Like it”, “So-so”, “Not my cup of tea” or “Would love to sing it”. It was “mostly … indie-rock bands,” Fleming admitted. She took the music on holiday with her family, only to discover that the artists were some of her daughters’ favourites. “It really grew on me, but I still don’t think anyone knew how my voice could possibly combine with this music,” Fleming said.

“We all agreed she wouldn’t sing like a standard soprano, like Katherine Jenkins or Susan Boyle,” Mensch explained. Instead, Fleming had to find that new voice – and become comfortable singing these songs. “I was especially fascinated by the Mars Volta song, With Twilight As My Guide, which is operatic in its scale and musical complexity. I was, however, a bit concerned about the text, specifically the reference to ‘devil daughters.’” Fleming wrote to the Mars Volta’s Cedric Bixler-Zavala, asking permission to change the lyrics. “Sure, she can change it,” Bixler-Zavala replied, but he said the lyrics were “sarcastic” – “one huge metaphor for the [poor] way women are treated in Islamic society”. Fleming was satisfied: “This explanation was enough for me.”

Dark Hope will be released by Decca in the spring.

Tracklist:
1 Endlessly (Muse)
2 No One’s Gonna Love You (Band of Horses)
3 Oxygen (Willy Mason)
4 Today (Jefferson Airplane)
5 Intervention (Arcade Fire)
6 With Twilight as My Guide (The Mars Volta)
7 Mad World (Tears For Fears)
8 In Your Eyes (Peter Gabriel)
9 Stepping Stone (Duffy)
10 Soul Meets Body (Death Cab for Cutie)
11 Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen)

Brown Bread: Hildegard Behrens

I am much saddened to hear of the passing of Hildegard Behrens, of a ruptured aortic aneurism aged 72. In my limited experience of live opera she was one of the three great post-war Wagnerian sopranos along with Birgit Nilsson and Rita Hunter. They are all gone. Not only was hers a gorgeous voice she was a true actress with the deepest intelligence. Not only was she a singer she began her working life as a lawyer.

Behrens was one of the major performers of the second half of the twentieth century. Her professionalism and musicality set the benchmark in the German repertoire. She will be greatly missed.

Behrens was not only a fine singer with a bright, incisive soprano, but a singing actress of rare power and intellect. I have memories of her as Marie at Covent Garden (my first Wozzeck in the theatre, an overpowering evening for a number of reasons) and on records as Brunnhilde in the complete Sawallisch Ring – the finest recorded cycle of the stereo era – and delivering a remarkable Isolde in Bernstein’s eccentric, infuriating, absurdly slow and mannered but intermittently rather glorious Tristan.

Hildegard Behrens sang Brunnhilde in a complete Ring Cycle under Haitink in concert performances in Birmingham’s Symphony Hall a little over a decade ago (also featuring John Tomlinson and Siegfried Jerusalem inter alia). She was sensational – and she took the time to mingle with a group of stage door loiterers after Götterdämmerung on the Saturday night, wherein she seemed utterly sweet and delightful.

R.I.P. Hildegard Behrens 1937-2009