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Discussing the last recordings made by singers who died much too young is always a
tricky matter. One listens, willy-nilly,with different ears and is inclined to react subjectively,
especially when words are involved. »There is a
realm where everything is pure. It has a name:
the realm of the dead.« Can one listen to
those lines in Maria Cebotari's recording of
Ariadne's monologue without being moved by
the fact that the soprano died of cancer at the age of 39, especially if one knows that the
recording was made only months before her
death?
Speaking on radio, German musicologist
Helmut Reinold said he detected in Cebotari's
recording a profundity that perhaps exceeded
the intentions of both Richard Strauss and
Hugo von HofmannsthaL A subjective interpretation?
Or is not a certain »Orphic« tone to be
heard there, like the one we sense in Kathleen
Ferrier's last recordings and FritzWunderlich's
last lieder recital?...
Her strength lay in
her rich middle register. When required. she
was able to sing with the tone and intensity of
a genuine dramatic soprano, yet was also capable
of performing the exalted flights of Sophie,
Aminta and Daphne with ease. In his book on »the great voices«, Fischer describes »her true
trademark« as an »aura of nervous tension, of
the highest degree of vibrant intensity«. And
anyone who can think further than the evenly
balanced German soprano voice (Berger,Lemnitz, Reining, Eipperle) will be able to imagine
vividly how Cebotari's voice must have had a
similarly electrifying effect on her audiences
that generated later by singers like Welitsch
and Rysanek. That »vibrant intensity« added an
erotic dimension to her singing which many
other singers lacked.
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