Saw Vickers' Tristan twice in 78 at Covent Garden. The second one was the day before my ACA finals. My attitude was that I could always repeat the exam, but probably would not get another chance to hear Vickers, and anyway, I passed the exam

Thanks for this. Jessye Norman tried, in the late '70's, to get a complete recording made of " Tristan " with James King, but it never came to fruition. When you think of some of the sopranos who did record it, it's a shame she never got her chance. Cheers.

@user-iw3gw2ys9s

7 жыл бұрын

Miles Montemore

@cloudwalker86

4 жыл бұрын

Apparently, she did record it but never approved the release... www.artsjournal.com/condemned/2019/10/jessye-normans-lost-isolde-and-so-much-else/

@stefanufer608

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for that interesting information - if only she could have done it - of course, she recorded the Liebestod with Karajan

@baritoneblazzin1965

3 жыл бұрын

@@cloudwalker86 Thank you for sharing this. It's a recording of her Elektra that was never released that I would like to hear, but it was rumoured that she didn't like how her high notes in the opera sounded and thus blocked it from it's release.

This is truly an outstanding performance. Jon Vickers was still singing Tristan quite well in 1981, only about 10 years after first singing the role at the Teatro Colon (he would sing his last Tristans anywhere at Lyric Opera of Chicago in the fall of 1982) - and, while Jessye Norman never sang a full performance of this opera, she really opens up and matches Vickers artistically and vocally in Act II here. Gwendolyn Killebrew as Brangane and Aage Haugland as Konig Marke are also both in prime voice - and very good artistically, Seiji Ozawa and Boston? GREAT job. This performance beats the living daylights out of the Chicago Symphony/Barenboim concert performance of this act which I saw many years ago at "Orchestra Hell" - and it's because the Tristan and Isolde in this one are both well-suited to the roles - and can BELT when necessary. Thank you very much for sharing this with us!!!!!

That is Isolde and Tristan. Thanks so much for this divine music...

Thank you for posting. I have always like Killebrew's voice.

RIP Norman, Vickers, Ellsworth 💐

Wow Norman sung the hell out of Isolde... I've yet to hear anyone sing act 2 so lyrically, expressiveness, and interpretaviely.. to sing this Dramatic piece but yet so lyrically- no one can touch Norman on this!

Thank you for posting this! Introduction: 0:37 "Horst du sie noch?": 03:27 "Isolde!" "Tristan!": 16:03 "O sink hernieder": 22:36 "Einsam wachend": 28:09 "So starben wir": 37:35 "Rette dich, Tristan!": 45:43 "Tatest du, wirklich?": 47:23 "O Konig, dass kann ich dir nicht sagen": 58:29 Curtain Calls: 1:08:23

@XB69XB

Жыл бұрын

Thank you so much! I added that to the presentation of the video. Hope you don't mind!

Absolutely gorgeous. In the beginning, I could not tell Norman from Killebrew so rich were the voices

How I hoped a complete Tristan with Norman & Vickers would make it into the recording studio. I heard them together on 2 occasions in The Song of the Earth, firstly with Colin Davis, then at the Proms with Simon Rattle & the CBSO. The latter was one of the most mesmerising experiences of my life. At the end, the Prommers presented her with a huge bouquet and him with Jeroboam of Champagne. He got the joke!

Wonderful. That climax before "Rette dich Tristan"!.Timeless.

Thanks for posting. Jessye Norman and Jon Vickers amazing!!! Nothing but the best fron Tanglewood.

Jon Vickers RIP The best Peter Grimes ive ever seen!!!

@BritinIsrael

4 жыл бұрын

@@psono429 wow you were so lucky. I only saw him twice live...once was Peter Grimes and in a fabulous production of the Trojans at Covent Garden conducted by Colin Davis. Vickers was a terrific Aeneas. That really is going back in my memory. Im 70 now.....i was young once lol.

@Ettoredipugnar

10 ай бұрын

Agree 100 %

You seldom hear a young sounding Isolde nor here but the voices are indeed juicy! Normans voice is so velvety and sumptuous that it recalls the best ones from the past. Musically she is a miracle and she is equally interesting in interviews. I actually prefer her in concerts due to her fantastic looks which is never convincing in roles like Sieglinde on stage.

D'aucuns diront que c'était une Isolde ni assez fraiche ni assez féminine mais tout de même la splendeur du timbre alliée à l'extrême sensibilité de Vickers... ce devait etre une soirée magnifique!

Maravilloso !!!!

I think Jessye Norman had one of the most unusual voices in classical music. Who else could be acclaimed equally for the Vier Letzte Lieder and the contralto part in Das Lied von der Erde. But I think this performance shows why Jessye would not have been able to make many soprano parts like Isolde, Brunnhilde, Elektra, even Salome and Fidelio which she recorded, work. I saw her many times during the 80's and the top of the voice was always problematic. Moreover, this Tristan really shows that there was very little ring or brilliance in her upper register, and that the top was not necessarily of the same size as the rest of the voice. In concert and recital it was always the endlessly long phrases in the middle and low that really impressed me. The top was always unpredictable. This performance also shows consistent intonation problems above the staff. Many of the pitches above top-staff G are out of tune. For many years I believed that Jessye was like Regina Resnik or Helga Dernesch, women who had started as sopranos and responded to a lowering event by shifting downward. I thought Jessye ignored her lowering event. Now I just think her voice was like a mountain, wide at the bottom and getting more and more narrow as it approaches the top. Crespin had a similar issue with the top without Jessye's lower extension. Nonetheless, this is an extremely musical and womanly performance, and it's wonderful to hear her in this repertoire.

Sublime. Incandescent. Incomparable. Brain orgasm.

It should be known that Jessye Norman had any number of opportunities to sing the entire role of Isolde and elected not to do so. Listening to this performance, one understands why she made that decision and can recognize the wisdom of that choice. Better to stick with the less strenuous demands of Sieglinde and Kundry.

@XB69XB

7 жыл бұрын

She could have recorded the role only in studio, like Margaret Price.

@doGreatartistsgrowontrees

6 жыл бұрын

Mark Cogley Jessye Norman also recorded the title role in Strauss’ ELEKTRA in the studio for Deutsche Grammophon, in 1989 or 1990, with Claudio Abbado, the Vienna Philharmonic, Cheryl Studer as Chrysothemis, Helga Dernesch as Klytämnestra, and Victor Braun as Orest. The recording has not been released to date. Apparently she did not approve of her performance and, as a result, the recording has been languishing in the record company’s vaults ever since, for close to 30 years. It’s a shame we have been denied a listen.

@rossmerchant8435

3 жыл бұрын

@@doGreatartistsgrowontrees It seems deeply unfair to all of the other artists that Norman had whatever clause in her contract that allowed her to do this

@doGreatartistsgrowontrees

3 жыл бұрын

@@rossmerchant8435 In agreement. I don’t know but Norman may have been overindulged and over-pampered by the business to a ridiculous degree.

@baritoneblazzin1965

3 жыл бұрын

@@doGreatartistsgrowontrees yes true. Norman had said that she didn't like how her high notes sounded and she didn't approve of the recording. Hopefully it will be released one day.

Is there any video recording of this performance?

Please, where can I buy this recording?

@Zva26

9 жыл бұрын

You can't buy it. It was never commercially available. It came from a broadcast from Tanglewood and those enough to hear it recorded it on tape at the time of the performance.

@jmccracken1963

9 жыл бұрын

5758Wanderer Try Premiere Opera, Ltd. I'm pretty sure that they have a CD copy of this performance for sale.

What a great voice, but why vibrato is so fast(

@baritoneblazzin1965

3 жыл бұрын

I know. It sounds rather spooky at times. Its a technique for pristine "slice" through Wagner's thick orchestration.

Sick cut yes at 18:48 and Norman is NOT an exciting Isolde in the 2nd Act. M.Price, Kollo and Kleiber are the ultimate norm......BummsAus.....

@peteradaniel

4 жыл бұрын

Dude cool it. This is live, something Margaret Price could never do. It's incomparable.

Too late for Vickers, who sings badly. He can't sustain the tone or volume, and sometimes the pitch, even in simple phrases. The sound fades in and out, with sudden shifts of volume where steadiness is needed. He cuts off notes too soon, as if he can't get to the end of them, and sometimes the voice is hardly there. Was he sick, exhausted, or just too old? Norman sounds good for the most part, though you can tell she lacks experience with the role. Too bad they didn't do this concert five years earlier.