100Singers's video: 100 Singers - ERNA BERGER

Erna Berger, Soprano (1900-1990) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE "O zittre nicht, mein lieber Sohn" Conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham Recorded 1937 My personal opinion: The voice of a light lyric soprano, long-time fresh and youthful, is both a blessing and a curse. "I always wanted to sing the great spinto roles, but my voice did not grow stronger", Erna Berger once said. She was already a veteran of forty-nine when she made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Sophie in DER ROSENKAVALIER, praised by music historian Irving Kolodin as "wonderfully pure and well-phrased". She was fifty when she recorded Gilda in RIGOLETTO alongside Leonard Warren and Jan Peerce. She was fifty-three when she performed Zerlina in DON GIOVANNI under Furtwängler at the Salzburg Festival next to the Masetto of Walter Berry, who was twenty-nine years (!) her junior. And she was nearing to sixty when she made her last full opera recording: Handel's RODELINDA (1959). In 1954 she gave her stage farewell when her voice was still intact: "It is implausible to sound like a teenager but not to look like that anymore", Berger said. It was a similar problem also for Italian soprano Lina Pagliughi (1907-1980), likely the best Gilda on records. She had the voice of a young girl, but the waist of a lady as painted by Peter Paul Rubens ... As was to be expected, not every critic loved Erna Berger's bell-like vocals. Richard Osborne about her Gilda in the German sung RIGOLETTO recording (1944) with Heinrich Schlusnus: "She make use of Lolita-like tones." This statement leads to the old question: What is more important: Vocal beauty or art of characterization? Erna Berger's instrument was of exceptional splendour. I'm quite sure, listeners admire her because of the pure euphony - and not for sophistication. Everyone who turns to an old Berger recording wants to get enchanted by gentleness and needs no academic lecture à la Fischer-Dieskau. However, it's a fact that Berger's almost weightless voice in all clearness and purity lacked a certain degree of warmth and melancholy, which is particularly beneficial in Italian operas. It's not surprising, Erna Berger preferred Mozart, Strauss and Lieder. She touched Italian opera only marginally: With Rosina in BARBIERE and Gilda in RIGOLETTO she has sung not more than two Italian roles at the Met (1949-1951), whereas Gilda remained her only Verdi heroine on records in original language (1950). Erna Berger's speciality was the stratospheric canary-like coloratura, and roles like Zerbinetta in ARIADNE AUF NAXOS, Olympia in LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN and the Queen of the Night in DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE were a logical consequence. The latter she sang 1937 in the first complete studio recording under Beecham, guest conductor in Berlin then. It is an infamous production: Why was this opera of freedom, equality and brotherhood of all places in the world recorded in Nazi Germany and with some National Socialists on the cast list? Let's drop the subject and return to Erna Berger, who sings her entree "O zittre nicht, mein lieber Sohn" with her characteristic honeyed tone - and it almost sounds like a lullaby, even in the allegro part. According to Joan Sutherland the coloratura is more difficult here than in the second aria "Der Hölle Rache", in which Berger focuses all her attention on the F4 to F6 staccato notes and less on dramatic expression. Irritating too is that Tiana Lemnitz as daughter Pamina appears older than Berger as her mother. I dare to say, all in all it's an unbalanced performance, especially as Helge Rosvaenge's Tamino is inelegant and rude - and thereby the exact opposite of Gerhard Hüsch's likeable Papageno. A 1944 broadcast of Flotow's MARTHA (released on CD) suffers from a bad sound quality. It's all the more regrettable, because with Erna Berger, Peter Anders and Josef Greindl the most homogeneous ensemble of all complete recordings was available. Touching also Berger's girlish Antonia in a German sung 1946 radio-broadcast of Hoffmann's amorous tales. A final little note: In 1987, I had the opportunity to talk with Erna Berger, at that time a charming old lady. She lived in my hometown where I worked for a local daily paper. We recalled her career and RIGOLETTO with Schlusnus, and I learned that Peter Anders was her favorite tenor. As I left, she signed me an autograph-card that showed her as Gilda. I will never forget this nice meeting and her last words: "This is all so long ago. Sadly, everything has changed: Opera, singers, the whole world ..." - Erna Berger died three years later ...