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Meta Seinemeyer sings Puccini, Verdi, Giodano and Wagner Recorded 1926 - 1929 Download ID: 265041 (Duration 75'38") Restoration by HTS Studio for Hänssler Classic COMES WITH ENGLISH NOTES & COVERS

La mamma morta Giordano - Andrea Chenier

»Who is Meta Seinemeyer?« That is a question which many a famous soprano must have asked herself when reading in Die großen Songer des 20. Jahrhunderts, Jürgen Kesting's book of singers, that she unfortunately did not have Meta Seinemeyer's ability to sing piano, unbroken legato or mezzo voce. When the book came onto the market nineteen years ago, the Dresden soprano was no longer as well known as the likes of Lotte Lehmann or Rosa Ponselle, even in connoisseurs' and collectors' circles.

In the meantime, Meta Seinemeyer, who died at the age of thirty-three, just as her international career was beginning, is spoken of in the same breath as those legendary singers. The change is ascribable partly to the undeniable boom in historic recordings that has come with the CD era and partly to the eulogies of important music journalists.

One of the first people to draw particular attention to the soprano's recordings was the record producer Waiter Legge. In a essay on Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, he describes playing carefully selected records to the young singer to expand her knowledge of what is possible in voice production. In addition to recordings of Rosa Ponselle, Lotte Lehmann, Frida Leider and Elisabeth Rethberg. there were »Iarge doses« of Meta Seinemeyer to show her how an essentially German voice can produce a »brilliant Italianate sound.«

Legge summed up' very well what was unique about Seinemeyer: a German voice with an Italian sound. And as the present recordings of duets from Madame Butterfly and La Forza del Destino show, Seinemeyer even sounded Italian when she sang in German - a blissful relief for everyone who winces at the way Italian legato phrasing is often destroyed by strings of German consonants.

In the duets with Tino Pattiera, Seinemeyer sounds altogether more like the »Italian school« than her partner, whose rich material and expressiveness do not always make up for what he lacks in final polish. The scene Sieglinde-Siegmund from the first act of Wagner's The Valkyrie is an excellent example of the extent to which even Wagner benefits from the »Italian sound«.

Like Frida Leider and Lotte Lehmann, Meta Seinemeyer was among the central sopranos who freed Wagner from the curse of »Teutonic« intonation. Her rendering of Sieglinde's »Du bist der Lenz« shows how perfectly she could meet Wagner's intentions: the best possible marriage of tone and word, melos and expression...

Excerpted from enclosed sleevenotes, Thomas Voigt © 2004

Track Listing:

1. Vissi d'arte - Puccini - Tosca
2. Cantate (Singt vereint in vollen Chören) - Puccini - Tosca
3. Ancora un passo or via - Puccini - Madame Butterfly
4. Un bel di vedremo - Puccini - Madame Butterfly
5. Das ist sicher ein Kriegsschiff (Una nave di guerra) - Puccini - Madame Butterfly
6. Tu che la vanità - Verdi - Don Carlo
7. Son giunta, grazie o Dio - Verdi - La Forza del Destino
8. Du wirst den Schritt beim Morgenrot (Sull'alba il piede all'eremo) - Verdi - La Forza del Destino
9. Pace, pace, mio Dio - Verdi - La Forza del Destino
10. Gia nella notte densa - Verdi - Otello
11. La mamma morta - Giordano - Andrea Chenier
12. Du kommst daher (Vicino a te) - Giordano - Andrea Chenier
13. Der Männer Sipper - Winterstürme wichen Wonnemond - Du bist der Lenz - Wagner - Die Walküre

Please note: This is not a Pristine Audio historic restoration.

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