100Singers's video: 100 Singers - IRMGARD SEEFRIED

Irmgard Seefried, Soprano (1919-1988) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: LE NOZZE DI FIGARO (1786) "Giunse alfin il momento ... Deh, vieni, non tardar" Conducted by Herbert von Karajan / 1950 My personal opinion: "Singing is elementary expression of soul", said voice pedagogue Otto Iro. Personally I believe the score and libretto of an opera is like a body of flesh and blood. But it needs a beautiful voice to breathe a soul into it. Without beauty, true art is impossible. The creation of art is like the taming of intemperance and chaos - and great singing without beauty of sound is not worth to call it like that. But how do we recognize great singing? The English musicologist Ernest Newman tried to give an answer: "Great singing comes only if an interpreter is able to illustrate the inner meaning of the music." If that's true, the German soprano Irmgard Seefried belonged to the real greats. All she sang became a vocal painting full of colors, shades and structures - and for that, figuratively, she used a small brush. Her voice was a fine and warm instrument: Lively, agile and characterized by a girlish timbre with an almost childlike imprint; a touching voice that directly spoke to the heart ... After studying in Augsburg, the young Karajan brought her to the Aachen Opera House. She was in her early 20s, when he forced her to sing Mozart's dramatic Donna Anna, a madness she never forgave him: "He acted irresponsible towards young singers". She never sang the role again. Instead she switched to Zerlina, Fiordiligi, Susanna and Pamina. In 1943, age 24, her great chance came with a tryout performance as Eva in MEISTERSINGER at the Vienna State Opera under the direction of Karl Böhm. On December 17, Seefried sang in Vienna for the first time the composer in ARIADNE AUF NAXOS. A performance on the occasion of the 80th Birthday of Richard Strauss in 1944 was recorded. It's an impressive document of the young soprano's artistic exaltation. Thereupon the old Strauss said to her: "I didn't know my composer is so good." Thus, already during the war years, Irmgard Seefried became a member of the team that after the war went down in history as the legendary 'Vienna Ensemble'. Exuberance and physical exhaustion in acting and singing soon became hallmarks of the mercurial (and talkative) singer. Conceivably also in combination with a not completely safe technique, already in the mid-1950s, early signs of wear and tear were noticable: Her child-like voice had got fissures and some sharp edges. It happened very fast: Just listen to Seefried's Fiordiligi in the 1954 live recording of COSI FAN TUTTE under Karl Böhm, and compare it with the 1962 studio version conducted by Eugen Jochum. Already in the 1956 DON GIOVANNI under Fricsay, her Zerlina revealed first vocal restrictions: There is a slight sharpness in "Giovinette, che fate all' amore" and also in "Batti, batti" and "Vedrai carino", two of Mozart's most sensual, not to say most erotic arias. Zerlina, like Despina in COSI, is a hussy. Seefried made her a good little girl. But in 1956, her vocal face of youth and innocence showed first symptoms of premature aging. Nevertheless, no matter what and how she sang: Irmgard Seefried always projected human immediacy - perhaps with a reduced voice, but never with a reduced soul ... In Karajan's 1950 recording of LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, Seefried is still in fresh condition. Her Susanna is both intro- and extrovert. Surrounded by Schwarzkopf as Countess, Kunz as Figaro and Jurinac as the best of all Cherubinos, Irmgard Seefried may be the finest Susanna in all complete recordings. What a touching phrasing in the recitative "Giunse alfin il momento" (Susanna knows that her beloved Figaro listens to her from his hiding place); what an effortless natural vocal stream in "Deh, vieni, non tardar." It's a true desert island record ... Sensitive listeners may complain about the exaggerated emphasis on the consonant R, for example in the late 1957 recording of Schumann's FRAUENLIEBE UND -LEBEN: "Taucht aus tiefstem Dunkel heller nur empor-r-r-r ..." - perhaps a heritage of Seefried's Bavarian origin and accent, perhaps not more than an idiosyncrasy. If you want to experience the magic of true intimate and yet expressive singing, take the soprano-duets record with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. But no audio, no matter how perfect, has the significance of a live film footage. Among the many Seefried videos here on YouTube, I would like to recommend Mahler's "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen." It's a moment in which time appears to stand still and a singer becomes one with the song ... "Perfection in music is a human voice singing a beautiful melody", Benjamin Britten stated. I agree ...