Christa Ludwig
Live Recordings 1955-1994
The wide-ranging repertory in which Christa Ludwig appeared at the Vienna State Opera, spoiling her audiences and often surprising them over a period of many years, is central to the present set of three CDs issued to mark her eightieth birthday. It begins with her Cherubino from Le nozze di Figaro and her Composer from Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, both of which she sang at the Salzburg Festival soon after her Vienna State Opera debut in 1955. Another of her early roles in Vienna was Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte, while Angelina in Rossini’s La Cenerentola was a lyric mezzo-soprano part that she sang only infrequently but to which she brought a stupendous coloratura technique.
Her increasingly dramatic roles are represented by excerpts from Beethoven’s Fidelio, Berg’s Wozzeck, Wagner’s Tannhauser and Lohengrin and Verdi’s Macbeth, which also demonstrate the astute use of her resources in those roles that extend well into the soprano register. It was very much Christa Ludwig’s ability to cover the whole dynamic range from the most delicate pianissimo to the greatest fortissimo outburst that allowed her to encompass the most dramatic passages without forfeiting any of her intensity, causing audiences to break into spontaneous applause even in a through-composed work like Lohengrin. Under Leonard Bernstein’s conducting, the subdued melancholy of her Marschallin is even more overwhelming in the present live recording than it was in the studio. No less impressive is the way in which Christa Ludwig was able to forge a successful working relationship with each of the very different conductors with whom she appeared, be it Karl Bohm, Herbert von Karajan, Lorin Maazel, Claudio Abbado or the conductor of the most recent New Year’s Day Concert from Vienna, Georges Pretre. That her distinct timbre never suffered from the pressures that were placed on her voice was repeatedly confirmed and, indeed, encouraged by her regular return to the mezzo-soprano repertory. New productions were not always planned around her, as they were with her Dido in Berlioz’s Les Troyens and her assumption of the title role in Gottfried von Einem’s Der Besuch der alten Dame, a work based on a libretto that Friedrich Durrenmatt adapted from his own stage play of the same name, with its central role written specially with Ludwig in mind. Throughout her career, she retained a company spirit and never thought it beneath her to appear in smaller roles such as Clairon in Strauss’s Capriccio, Federica in Verdi’s Luisa Miller, Erda in Das Rheingold and, towards the end of her career, in character parts, including the Old Countess in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, Genevieve in Pelleas et Melisande and, above all, Klytamnestra in Elektra, the role in which she bade farewell to the stage in 1994. This final appearance ? almost forty years after her Viennese debut ? also brings to an end our musical tribute to Christa Ludwig, recalling an altogether exceptional career by this honorary member of the Vienna State Opera.
W.A. Mozart: Non son piu cosa son, cosa faccio
(Arie des Cherubino, 1. act - from: Le nozze di Figaro)
R. Strauss: Ich furchte, Frau Grafin, Sie werden nach dieser Einfuhrung
(Clairon, Grafin, Olivier, Graf, La Roche)
G. Verdi: Ambizioso spirto tu sei - Vieni! t'affretta!
(1. act, Lady Macbeth)
R. Strauss: Seien wir wieder gut
(Finale des Vorspiels - from: Ariadne auf Naxos)
H. Pfitzner: Schonste, ungnad'ge Dame
(1. act, Silla, Ighino)
G. Verdi: La luce langue
(2. act, Lady Macbeth - Macbeth - from: Macbeth)
W.A. Mozart: A guarda sorella
(Duett Fiordiligi - Dorabella, 1. act - from: Cosi fan tutte KV 0588)
R. Wagner: Erhebe dich, Genossin meiner Schmach
(2. Aufzug, Friedrich - Ortrud)
G. Verdi: Una macchia e qui tuttora
(4. act, Lady Macbeth - Kammerfrau - Arzt)
W.A. Mozart: Grausames Schicksal!
(Arie des Alfonso, 1. act)
R. Wagner: Elsa! - Wer ruft? ... Entweihte Gotter!
(Szene Ortrud - Elsa, 2. act)
G.v. Einem: Das Herz mit deinem und meinem Namen
(1. act, Claire Zachanassian - Alfred III - Koby - Loby)
W.A. Mozart: Sento, o Dio
(Quintett Fiordiligi-Dorabella-Ferrando-Guglielmo-Don Alfonso, 1. act - from: Cosi fan tutte KV 0588)
G. Bizet: Ja, die Liebe hat bunte Flugel
(1. act, Habanera der Carmen - from: Carmen)
G. Verdi: Duchessa ... Duchessa tu m'appelli!
(1. act, Rodolfo - Federica)
W.A. Mozart: Gehn wir beide nicht auch? ... Empfange, Geliebte, das Herzchen zu eigen
(Rezitativ und Duett Dorabella - Guglielmo, 2. act)
G. Bizet: Pres des remparts de Seville
(1. act, Seguidilla der Carmen - from: Carmen)
H. Berlioz: Pardonne, Iopas - O pudeur! Tout conspire
(4. act, Dido - Aeneas - Anna - Iopas - Narbal)
G. Rossini: Liebste! ... Ramiro, verzeiht mir - Mein Los hies Weinen
(2. act, Finale)
R. Strauss: Da geht er hin - Ach du bist wieder da - Die Zeit ist ein sonderbar Ding
(Monolog der Marschallin und Szene Marschallin - Octavian, 1. act - from: Der Rosenkavalier)
R. Wagner: Weiche, Wotan, weiche! Flieh des Ringes Fluch!
(1. act, 4. Szene, Erda - Wotan - Fricka - Froh)
L.v. Beethoven: Abscheulicher! - Komm, Hoffnung
(Rezitativ und Arie der Leonore, 1. act - from: Fidelio op. 72)
R. Strauss: Mir ist die Ehre widerfahren
(Uberreichung der Rose und Szene Sophie - Oktavian, 2. act)
P. Tschaikowsky: Schweigt doch endlich
(2. act, Chor - Grafin)
R. Wagner: Geliebter, komm! ... Wie hatt' ich das erworben
(1. Aufzug, Venus, Tannhauser, Chor)
G. Verdi: Reverenza - Kommt's gute Frau nur naher
(2. act, Mrs. Quickly - Falstaff)
A. Berg: Und ist kein Betrug in seinem Munde erfunden worden
(1. act, 1. Szene, Marie - Wozzeck)
C. Debussy: Voici ce qu'il ecrit a son frere Pelleas
(1. act, Genevieve, Arkel, Pelleas)
A. Berg: Dort links geht's in die Stadt
(1. act, 2. Szene, Marie - Wozzeck)
R. Strauss: Was willst Du? ? Seht doch, dort
(Szene Klytemnastra, Elektra - from: Elektra)
Christa Ludwig (Mezzosoprano)
Paul Schoffler (Bariton)
Hilde Guden (soprano)
Walter Berry (Bariton)
Karl Donch (Tenor)
Waldemar Kmentt (Tenor)
Dagmar Hermann (Mezzosoprano)
Emmy Loose (soprano)
Ludwig Welter (Bass)
Hans Beirer (Tenor)
Margaritha Lilowa (Mezzosoprano)
Lisa Casa (soprano)
Robert Kerns (Tenor)
Otto Wiener (Bass)
Sena Jurinac (soprano)
Claire Watson (soprano)
James King (Tenor)
Gwyneth Jones (soprano)
Hilda Groote (soprano)
Sherrill Milnes (Bariton)
Ljubomir Pantscheff (Bass)
Gildis Flossmann (soprano)
Eberhard Waechter (Bariton)
Karl Terkal (Tenor)
Fritz Sperlbauer (Tenor)
Franco Bonisolli (Tenor)
Horst Laubenthal (Tenor)
Guy Chauvet (Tenor)
Nicola Ghiuselev (Bass)
Hans Sotin (Bass)
Brigitte Fassbaender (Mezzosoprano)
Josef Hopferwieser (Tenor)
Nicolai Ghiaurov (Bass)
Francois Roux (Bariton)
Hildegard Behrens (soprano)
Axelle Gall (Mezzosoprano)
Cathy Berns-Rund (soprano)
Wiener Philharmoniker (Orchester)
Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper (Orchester)
Chor der Wiener Staatsoper (Chor)
Karl Bohm (conductor)
Josef Krips (conductor)
Alberto Erede (conductor)
Herbert von Karajan (conductor)
Leopold Ludwig (conductor)
Georges Pretre (conductor)
Robert Heger (conductor)
Lorin Maazel (conductor)
Leonard Bernstein (conductor)
Horst Stein (conductor)
Gerd Albrecht (conductor)
Zubin Mehta (conductor)
Dimitri Kitaenko (conductor)
Claudio Abbado (conductor)
Heinrich Hollreiser (conductor)
