100Singers's video: 100 Singers - DOROTHY KIRSTEN

Dorothy Kirsten, Soprano (1910-1992) Gustave Charpentier: LOUISE "Depuis le jour" Conducted by Jean Morel / Recorded 1949 My personal opinion: Some careers are based solely on the outstanding skills of an artist, others on clever marketing. Dorothy Kirsten's fame based on a mixture of both. She was a mistress of self-presentation in chic magazins, Hollywood movies ("The great Caruso") and in opera houses. In his worth reading book "The American Opera Singer", Peter Davies wrote: "She was fastidious about her image and priorities, which tended towards grandeur." She herself explained: "I've tried to maintain the aura of the prima donna all through the years, wherever I was. I never was too close to the public and I never became too familiar. I avoided to be the girl next door ..." I've heard her for the very first time in an abridged MADAMA BUTTERFLY recording and was, at least initially, impressed. Here was indeed a girlish voice - and I do mean girlish, not childish à la Toti dal Monte. But I could also notice that Kirsten's clear and dulcet voice was not very resilent, and in the dramatic moments ("Che tua madre", "Con onor muore") it became evident that this true lirico-spinto role was too much for her ... My next Dorothy Kirsten experience came some time later with the 1949 Metropolitan Opera broadcast of MANON LESCAUT (with Jussi Björling's incomparable des Grieux). There was again Kirsten's girlish voice - and no noticeable differences between her Butterfly and Manon. Again a short time later, I found my assessment underpinned when reading Paul Jackson's magnificent books about the Met airchecks. He wrote: "Projection of despair is evidently not within Miss Kirsten's ken. As Manon wasted away in the Louisiana desert, we hear the same doll-like silvery tones as at the Amiens inn. Does Manon suffer? "Orribilmente!", Kirsten replies, but we can not believe her ..." For a period of more than thirty years, Dorothy Kirsten (in the beginning strongly supported by soprano and actress Grace Moore) was one of the most reliable and diligent singers of America. She worked hard on her voice and, as already mentioned, perhaps even harder on her glamorous career. Kirsten placed great value on her image, and she felt insulted as Rudolf Bing offered her the role of Samuel Barber's VANESSA. She did not want to play the part of an elderly woman. Despite her vanity and not very secure vocal technique, Kirsten established herself for more than three decades in American music life. At the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco she sang 152 performances and at the Met she appeared approximately 300 times. She was wise enough to avoid roles beyond her vocal possibilities. Her only Verdi part in New York was Violetta in LA TRAVIATA, written in 1852 for a semi-dramatic spinto soprano with coloratura skills - and thus not suitable for Kirsten ... With her bright and luminous voice, she was particularly successful in French operas (Marguerite, Juliette, Louise). She even managed to sing some of the demanding Puccini heroines, however not infrequently with unsatisfactory results. She sang Mimi with a Musetta in her throat - and, to be honest, Cio-Cio-San and Manon Lescaut have overwhelmed her fine instrument. Obviously, Kirsten could rely on the aura of her ravishing beauty, even if "her acting on stage is puny", as Virgil Thomson wrote after a performance of Charpentier's LOUISE - an opera, she refused to sing while Grace Moore, the leading Louise of her time, was still alive. Moore died 1947 in a plane crash and Kirsten studied the role in France with the 87 years old composer. Though Kirsten made a name for herself mainly as a performer of Puccini roles, she never reached the size of a Eleanor Steber or a Licia Albanese. Her Mimi and Manon Lescaut were reasonably sung, yet without grandeur and final shape. Paul Jackson: "With her attractive blonde looks and the image of Moore in the background, the Met management felt Kirsten the natural heir of the late diva's repertory." At the Met, Kirsten was all-time-available, and often served as a last-minute substitute. With her not huge, but graceful voice, Kirsten managed to sing her farewell performance as TOSCA at the age of 66 (!) in 1976 - after an admirable long career. "She sang the role with all the vocal control and dramatic acuity of a prima donna in mid-career", wrote Allen Hughes in "The New York Times". This is much, but perhaps not enough to become one of the immortal operatic titans. I like the voice of Dorothy Kirsten, even if I always had the impression that something quite individual therein was missing. I never figured out, what it really was ...