Search - Richard [Classical] Wagner, Richard [1] Strauss, Giacomo Puccini :: Prima Voce: Emmy Destinn

Emmy, Darling, Emmy!!!!!

Impostazione | New York City Area | 09/03/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I must be dreaming, it is almost impossible to find a review of Emmy Destinn. I'll solve that problem.



Emmy Destinn recordings were the primary vocal inspiration to Birgit Nilsson, and the divas have a very similar way of singing. Sometimes the similarity is striking. However, Emmy was first -- at everything....the first Salome, the first Minnie, and other important roles. It almost seemed that her whole purpose was to create roles or introduce them to new audiences. Her individuality served this purpose well, and the voice!!! Ah! It has been over 100 years since her first recordings were made, and even now no soprano on any record can compare to the weight and richness of her middle voice, which is not almost but totally beyond description. The prima voce remasterings are uniquely suited to emphasize her middle and passaggio. Has any soprano ever matched her Suicidio?



Destinn was peculiar. She was a writer, activist, patriot, and great lover of many and her colored life is echoed in her colored voice, which on record, is so imperfect at times that one wont believe that what might follow will set the standard of the century. The high notes are attached square on pitch, lazor focused, sometimes thin, sometimes soft, sometimes devastating as in in the climax high note of "Morro, ma prima in grazia", which I repeated 23 times in succession. The diction is often slurred. The low notes often infantile. Sometimes, one note will have two or three timbres. Her voice is so heavy sometimes, and so light at others. Her trill is magical, her top notes unending. Her agility is beautiful and accurate! And again -- her central tones are fuller than the Baltic sea.



To say the least, Destinn is interesting! Yet, it is that unusual, unpredictable, approach that befuddled you at first, which will eventually turn you into a servant of her Art with Svengali-like reverence."