Anna Netrebko – Wagner: Tristan und Isolde: Mild und Leise (Liebestod)

In the composer’s opera on the Arthurian tale of Tristan and Isolde, death is explicitly twinned with love, and the guiding themes of this recording come together in a piece whose very name combines the two concepts, the rapturous “Liebestod” (Love- Death), Isolde’s outpouring of love as she sinks lifeless on the body of the dead Tristan. Recording this aria for her latest Album “amata dalle tenebre” was, in the Anna Netrebko's words, “one of the happiest moments for me as a musician. I was flying when I was recording that, blissfully happy, in harmony with the music.” As part of the album project the Italian director Elena Petitti di Roreto shot a series of four music videos and the film “Anna – Stage of Emotions”, immortalizing Netrebko’s performances and translating them to screen in a unique visual language and style. Amata dalle tenebre' is the superstar soprano’s first classical solo album for five years. She recorded her choice of music, spanning some of the most dramatic and impassioned arias in the repertoire, at Milan’s legendary La Scala, with the Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala under La Scala’s Music Director, Riccardo Chailly.

Directed by: Elena Petitti di Roreto
Produced by: Rekorder GmbH
Executive Producer: Werner Klemm
Producer: Marino Coates-Chitty

Anna Netrebko – Wagner: Tristan und Isolde: Mild und Leise (Liebestod)

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#AnnaNetrebko #AmataDalleTenebre #Opera

[deutschegrammophon]

What is your favourite aria composed by Richard Wagner?

[RattusYu]

Isolde made me famous.
Turandot made me rich.
-Birgit Nilsson

[justanotherguy]

This visually encapsulates, perfectly, what I feel when I listen to this piece. My soul leaves my body, and I am united with the everlasting.

[Timbale]

I think everyone here need to remember this is a studio version. Anna Netrebko is a huge singer, but she is NOT a wagnerian soprano.
She is absolutely unable to sing this aria at a decent level on live performance.
This is a good studio performance like some singer do pop-opera, not a lyric performance

[mrrkdino]

Dreadful performance. No feeling for the line, terrible vibrato. Just listen to Jessye Norman or Margaret Price, not to mention Lotte Lehmann or Frida Leider.

[RattusYu]

1) Birgit Nilsson
2) Martha Modl
3) Gwyneth Jones
4) Catarina Ligendza
5) Margaret Price
6) Kirsten Flagstad
7) Astrid Varnay
8) Eileen Farell
9) Linda Watson
10) Montserrat Caballe
11) Ingrid Bjoner
12) Franz Liszt

[larsmuller]

Da fällt einem wirklich nicht mehr dazu ein. In Dresden musste sie die Elsa übrigens mit Teleprompter singen und Bayreuth hat sie Gott sei Dank abgesagt.
Ich spare mir hier weitere Kommentare...

[tharold]

Not at all her turf. Sounds strained. I'll take Nilsson, Flagstad, Traubel, Varnay, the list goes on. True Wagnerians.

[yummyyum]

OK then:
So Birgit Nilsson was asked how she felt about singers using microphones in the opera house. She said that she was against it because then anyone could sing Isolde.
Ladies and gentlemen we now have Birgit Nilsson's concern laid bare.
Netrebko once upon a time had a beautiful peaches and cream lyric voice, suitable for Traviata.
Violetta should not sing Isolde and Isolde should not sing Violetta.
I know this score very very well. Quite frankly there are very unreasonable spots in terms of orchestration wherein Wagner has Isolde singing in the middle or low middle against too much orchestra.
Even the biggest voices, Nilsson, Flagstad, Varnay etc are buried here and there. One doesn't really care because the overall effect is so emotional that the composer getting carried away every now and then is understandable.
We have Netrebko, who is not exactly known for her marble like low middle, actually sounding "louder" than the above named full dramatic soprano legends in those same spots.
That tells me one thing, and one thing only. This is a studio Liebestod done by a singer who cannot sing this music live with an orchestra unless she is heavily amplified.
Now others here commented upon her poor intonation, and at times inappropriately bright tone color for the role. Those are problems. They are however secondary to the obvious fraud being committed here.
If I were a Wagnerian singer I would be really pissed off by this dreadful and dishonest recording.

[operaticxingenue]

I refuse to feel bad about my German diction anymore after hearing this 😂

[indeserto]

This is a very sad video. The lady has a lovely voice, and, when she sings in the medium register and quietly (as at the beginning of this extract) the sound is very beautiful. However, anything high and/or loud is a total mess, a ghastly mixture of no text and a wobble one could drive a bus through. When Mme Netrebko was a young woman, singing the light soprano repertoire which is her real voice, there was hope, but now there is just screaming, and DG are making a lot of money and so is the lady herself, thanks to her adoring fans, who know no better. As many others here have said, listen to Nilsson or Flagstad, or Frieda Leider, if you want to hear the right voice-type performing this summit of the soprano literature.

[ernstjenni]

Sorry, sie kann ja Vieles, aber das kann sie nun leider nicht, erinnere an Flagstad, Norman. Diese Schluss t's, fürchterlich. Das Video dazu schrecklich. Schade.

[michaelbuzanowski]

What is sad is to die without anyone knowing you have lived Tristan makes Isolde immortal Isolde makes Tristan immortal two becoming one so to speak thru love

[wikath]

Sorry - Netrebko is a great singer. But this is not her territory. Compare this to Birgit Nilsson, Martha Mödl, Waltraud Meier or even the „only CD- version“ of Margret Price under Carlos Kleiber. Netrebko does not fit into the Wagnerian Shoes.

[russellarmstrong]

Anna Netrebko performing the drag queen version of Liebestod. Is this really her aria? I'm not convinced.

[stupormundi]

Evidentemente, pur amandola profondamente, non riesco a capire fino in fondo la musica di Wagner. Inoltre, non riesco a distinguere una perfetta interpretazione da parte di una cantante da un'altra di minore qualità. Almeno secondo quanto leggo in molti raffinati commenti. So solo che sono profondamente commosso dal modo in cui la Netrebko ha reso la dimensione sublime del Liebestod. So solo che ho trovato il video efficace e intenso. So solo che ringrazio il cielo per l'esistenza stessa di Anna.

[aliegan]

Anna is a great singer. Is the role for her? No. Isolde is the ultimate role and can only be sung well by a handful of people in the world. But the effort is appreciated. Anna excels in other non-Wagner areas.

[kalterkinderklaubonn]

Exactly today the Mathilde-Wesendonck-Verband exists 10 years. It was founded - mainly because of Mild und Leise.

Me too - I´m not a fan of Netrepko - especially because she flirts with the current russian dictator and successor of Stalin.


Her voice here is not - mild - it is too loud, too sharp and words - are hardly to understand.

But the pictures - are mindblowing, though brutally copied from Lars von Trier "Melancholia" - where von Trier pictures the ouvertuere and final of "Tristan and Isolde".

Though - after all:

It is the most beautiful of the most beautiful melodies.

Thanks - Richard Wagner. Thanks Mathilde Wesendonck which made him feel such unfulfilled love and pain and music.

[Tweeteketje]

She sings quite a lot out of tune....often too high.

[MG-fhed]

Wagner underlined the importance of
" rythm and words linked in a perfect bond"
Interesting to see if this soprano will record the complete ópera