.com Strauss and librettist Hoffmannsthal planned a light opera on themes of marital relations and reconciliation. They imagined the rescued Helen of Troy traveling home with Menalaus, who now wants to kill her for her infidelity that led to the carnage of the Trojan War. Despite some comic writing early on, they failed to produce the requisite lightness, stuffing the libretto with clichéd symbolism including singing seashells, elves, magic potions, and more. But Strauss' score, if not wholly successful, does have some terrific moments, including Helen's spectacular big aria that opens Act Two. This again proves that even lesser Strauss operas shouldn't be missed. Deborah Voigt invests Helen with vocal radiance and power. She makes this recording a must-have. Her colleagues include mezzo Jill Grove's big-voiced Sea Shell and Celena Shafer's fine lyric soprano in the role of the enchantress Aithra, and tenor Carl Tanner who valiantly gets through the impossible part of Menaleus. All must contend with Leon Botstein's rough-and-ready conducting, but only Voigt effortlessly rides over the huge orchestral climaxes that sometimes bury the others. The fine orchestral playing gives Strauss' brilliant colors their full due. Telarc's engineering of this live concert performance is first class, helping to make this the preferred recorded version of the opera. --Dan Davis
E**N
Strauss' Most Obscure Opera....for good reason!
As a diehard R. Strass fan, I eagerly looked forward to hearing this opera, having never heard it and also having to teach it to my opera class. I must admit that if I never hear this opera again, that's fine with me. The plot is totally nonsensical and very hard to comprehend. Musicologists claim the second act to be the stronger of the two, and they are correct, as at least there is some character development. The first act, to be honest, is simply stupid. Hoffmansthal and Strauss really slipped on this one.The movement of the drama, therefore, must fall on the shoulders of the singers, and here they fall short. Debra Voight is in exquisite voice, but she has only two volumes: loud and louder. Her touches of nuance are few and far between, and this opera begs for a lot of them to give it any shape. She attacks the incredibly demanding range with a vengeance, but after a half hour her voice ceases to fall graciously on the ear.The tenor, Carl Tanner, sounds totally out of his league, valiantly trying to sing his lines in a tessitura that simply is too high for him. His lower notes show warmth and a normal vibrato, but once above the staff (where much his part lies), the vibrato slows alarmingly and his tone becomes tight and forced, giving the impression that he's right at the limits of his vocal capacity.As a through-composed opera (a nod to Wagner), there are precious few parts that can be removed as an aria per se. The most viable section is the famous Awakening Scene at the beginning of Act II. Here Debra Voight scales the taxing range with relative ease, but her delivery is pretty void of any emotion. [I suggest listening to Leontyne Price, or, better yet, Leonie Rysanek for a comparison.]What really redeems this recording is the orchestra and conductor. The under-rated American Orchestra brings the music to life with clear and in-tune playing: a fabulous feat considering all the dissonances strewn with seeming abandon throughout. Conductor Leon Botstein is to be commended for maintaining a cohesive ensemble and keeping the opera moving, with careful attention to musical details and instilling a sweeping vivacity that keeps the opera alive.If you can locate Leonie Rysanek's live 1956 performance, buy it! The sound is iffy at times, but she and her colleagues bring the weak libretto to life much more so than this recording.
P**L
Jones is Helena, not Deborah Voight
Not a good recording of this opera at all. Voight is over-parted in this as in many other German roles. She is best with La Fanciulla del West, but even here she relies on perfunctory acting techniques and lets the voice lower to ebetually shave off the high notes.In this magnificent opera, high notes saturate the score, beautifully matching a star singer's technique, style, and range. Voight has none of this; she balks all the VIP issues in the score and we get as a result a flat sounding Helena, almost amateur sounding, like a five finger excercise. It is unpleasant to hear her declaim things, and when she scoops up to the top it's irritating. She lacks volume as well. This is a LOUD opera and one must have the vocal stamina, as G. Jones does on DECCA. Voight does not have the big voice.Remember Voight in Les Troyens last year at the Met? Crushing criticism, and she needs to hear it and get into mezzo roles that make her squawk less.The DECCA recording of the late 70s has all that this recording lacks, Gwyneth Jones, with her elegance, range, her syrocket high notes,her enunciation, and breathtaking tessitura,the latter of which is the heart of mastering this long piece.Buy this one and forget Voight et al. Also, this DECCA recording was done in the studio, conducted by the great Donyani..in Detroit, MI no less!Enjoy this recording and experience the thrill of the true soprano sound.. I know Strauss was a Nazi; he supervised all music under Hitler. Maybe that is why this opera may be his best; he composed it without the searching eyes of the gestapo.
W**R
Beautiful music
Great performance. Not sure why it’s not in the standard repertoire.
C**I
Highly recommended
Great recording of a work that is rarely heard. Everyone sings gloriously and the conducting is first rate. The orchestra plays it extremely well (as if it's easy for them). Highly recommended.
L**H
Great recorded sound and Fine performance!
GREAT sound!
N**R
Intoxicating, passionate, spellbinding
If you are any kind of a Strauss opera fan you must give this a try. Egyptian Helen is a much sneered-at piece, quite unjustly - it had a chain of misfortunes at the time of its premiere and Strauss himself caught abuse for his decisions to continue performing in Germany in the late 1930's ... and come the 1950's and 1960's, interest had moved well away from the last blooms of late romanticism.But I love it. There is no shortage of surging high-voltage lyricism in all the soprano lines, and the fine cast here has Deborah Voigt, Celena Shafer and Jill Grove all in glorious full voice. At the times when Strauss writes for them in combination you really wonder how this opera gets the press it does.There are some minor caveats. The superb Act I duet with Menelas (ending Helfet mir jetzt/Weichet hinweg) suffers from mike imbalance - you don't hear enough of Carl Tanner's excellent voice here - and for me Botstein (who is often excellent) pushes the amazing Aithra/Menelas "Bereite dich" scene too fast to extract the last ounce from this stirring music. These leave me very glad I still have the fabulous recording that Dorati made in the late 1970's with Barbara Hendricks, Willard White and particularly Gwynneth Jones at a very rare best.But if you want a modern, live recording this is outstanding. Get it, put it on and let yourself revel in the gorgeous range of voice colours and the exotic and sinuous tunes created by the last great romantic composer.
E**E
Parodistische deutsche Aussprache
Schöne Stimmen, exzellentes Orchesterspiel. Doch leider: Die "deutsche" Sprache der Sänger ist eine Parodie, Amerikaner radebrechen sich durch einen Hofmannsthal - Text, den sie anscheinend nicht im Ansatz verstehen. Deborah Voigt ist die einzige, der man Zeit in Europa anmerkt, doch auch sie liefert hauptsächlich cremige Töne ohne Inhalt. Was für ein Jammer, dass dieses ehrenvolle Projekt nicht besser vorbereitet und klüger besetzt wurde.
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