Vanessa Recordings Guide — Guido Martin-Brandis

(This guide was written for a production of Vanessa, Brickhouse Theatre, 2016)

Vanessa Recordings

Vanessa has been recorded in the studio three times, and all three versions have much to commend them, but no truly ideal recording has emerged so far.

The Dimitri Mitropoulos recording has the advantage of the original cast and conductor, but the sound quality is not quite stellar for its age (1958). Mitropoulos favours fast tempos, and rushes past some of the score's loveliest details, but his hand is firm and he knows what he wants - it's a brittle, chilly view of the opera, not necessarily inappropriate given the wintry setting. His cast (Steber, Elias, Gedda, Resnik, Tozzi) are perhaps the starriest on record, but there is a politeness to this performance that makes it feel like a costume drama. Much more recently, a live recording of the European premiere at Salzburg was released, with the Vienna Philharmonic in the pit, the same conductor and essentially the same cast. Here we find all involved much more comfortable in these challenging roles, giving them a fluency, depth of characterisation and dramatic conviction not found in the original recording. The poorer sound quality, stage noise and occasional musical mistakes are the compromise, but this is a much more exciting recording.

Like the Mitropoulos, the Naxos recording under Gil Rose from 2002 has the advantage of having a cast who have actually sung their roles on stage together. This is the first recording of Barber's slightly revised three act version of 1964 which is dramatically taughter. The recording quality is decent, if not state of the art, but it is the conducting that is the main strength of this set. Rose's pacing is virtually faultless, he balances Barber's wonderfully lush orchestral textures with stylish ease, and manages to convey the drama of the music with superb detail. His cast are not as vocally secure as their rivals on disc, but all are committed and believable dramatically.

You wait for a bus and... After a 44 year hiatus, another recording of Vanessa arrived within a year of the previous one, here with Leonard Slatkin at the reins. This recording was made during live concert performances of the opera in London, and so is not technically a studio recording, but the sound is crystal clear and audience noise is completely eliminated. Christine Brewer's cavernous, slightly pinched soprano is a size or two larger than is usual for Vanessa, but she is always impressive and sings well. Susan Graham as Erika is lovely of tone and technically immaculate, but lacks vocal personality. William Burden is a thoroughly affecting Anatol, with a throb in the vibrato that is mostly very appealing. One wishes the cast had performed the role on stage before recording it, but this cast is fully up to the job. The BBC Symphony orchestra play with consummate polish but the real problem with this set is Slatkin - while he must be commended for his continued championing of lesser known repertoire, his conducting is often leaden and prosaic - he can't maintain a sense of flow in the lyricism, the dynamics are poorly gradated, his sense of phrasing and rhythm is heavy handed. The fine cast and sound, will satisfy some listeners, but this isn’t the last word on the opera.

Recordings of excerpted arias are rare enough to allow a complete overview. Vanessa's gothic tour de force aria "Do not utter a word" is especially popular with American star sopranos. Top of the pile must be Renée Fleming's reading: recorded in 1998 at the peak of her prime on a disc of American operatic rarities, the singing is almost miraculous in its liquid beauty and technical flawlessness, but better even than this is that hers is the most fully vocally realised conception of the character on record - every nuanced phrase is fully believable and the character becomes almost visible in sound. It is our loss that Fleming has said that she is not interested in essaying the full role. The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, lead by James Levine, give thrilling support. Leontyne Price, possessor of another voice of the most rounded beauty, is technically impressive but is unwilling to allow enough sense of vulnerability into her interpretation - the result is that her attempts at vocal characterisation can sound mannered and even cartoonish, especially at this stage in her career. Roberta Alexander's voice is rather soft grained and her fluttery vibrato is possibly apt for the role, but her performance on a disc of Barber works for soprano and orchestra is a little bland. The British soprano Kate Royal sings the aria with technical assurance but the words are oddly hammered, which distorts the line and interferes with the legato.

The beautiful "Must the winter come so soon?" is by far the opera's most famous number, and was interestingly only inserted at the last minute by Barber to give Erika a proper aria to sing. Surprisingly it has not been recorded all that often considering its ubiquity as an English language mezzo aria. Roberta Alexander recorded this aria on the same disc as "Do not utter a word" and despite being a soprano, she feels vocally much better placed to tackle this gentler, more questioning music. Denyce Graves' fruity mezzo is a little too rich and rounded for this rather chaste music, but is serviceable. The most beautiful stand alone recording of the aria, in this writer's opinion, is a live account from 1993 with Frederike Von Stade and Leonard Slatkin (not the same recording as above), recently reissued and available on Amazon for download. Stade is in very fine voice, with a wonderful legato, and uses a beautiful range of vocal colours, including sobbing chest notes, to evoke the mood and character of the piece.

Finally, an interesting curio can be found on youtube: surprisingly, Kiri Te Kanawa planned to retire from her operatic stage career with the role of Vanessa, singing it in three productions in the early 2000s. (In the event she subsequently sang a few final Rosenkavaliers). By this stage she was sadly no longer at her vocal best however, and the staging is rather slow. Note also that most of the end of Act I is missing. Find it here.