Heat of the Moment
Lars Cleveman (tenor)
Royal Swedish Orchestra
rec. 1999-2020, Royal Opera Stockholm and other venues
Sung texts included
Reviewed as downloaded from press preview
STERLING CDA1858 [2 CDs: 139]
Lars Cleveman, born in 1958, has for more than thirty years been one of the most sought-after and reliable tenors in Sweden. He has appeared in several of the domestic opera houses and was 1996 – 2009 a permanent member of the ensemble at the Stockholm Opera. A majority of the numbers on this twofer emanate from there. But he also appeared abroad frequently, often in Wagner roles, for instance singing Tannhäuser in Bayreuth, Tristan at Covent Garden and Siegfried at the Metropolitan. Besides his operatic activities he is the founder and front figure of the rock group Dom dummaste (The Most Stupid). He is represented on CD in several complete opera recordings, including the Gramophone Award winning Götterdämmerung from 2010. In 1996 he issued a CD (Proprius PRCD 9155) with songs and arias. That disc gives a fair picture of the young Cleveman, a lyrical, sensitive singer with beautiful voice and by then still rather under-dimensioned to cope successfully with the powerful end of Come un bel di di Maggio. On the new set we encounter the mature singer, who more and more excelled in the heroic repertoire and reaped laurels with powerful and brilliant top notes. I saw him in several of the roles on these discs and it was always thrilling to savour his intensity and total conviction. But in the long run his “heat of the moment” took its toll, as we can hear here. The excerpts are presented in roughly chronological order, and the more recent they are, the more is the strain and the heavier the vibrato. The last two items on CD 1, recorded as recently as January 2020, are almost painful to hear and shouldn’t have been included.
Elsewhere though, the thrill of his wholehearted readings is tangible, and the issue is a valuable retrospective to a great career. The quality of the sound is variable. Sometimes the orchestra is too closely balanced to the detriment of the voice, though at the climaxes he always manages to carry through the orchestral texture. And no one can avoid being touched by the glow of his singing in the first two excerpts from Werther. They are the earliest recordings here, set down in 1999, and his lyrical grace, so obvious on the Proprius disc, is in full evidence also here. The third Werther aria, Pourquoi me reveiller, was recorded seven years later. The balance is better, and one can undisturbedly enjoy the full-throated singing. The Kleinzach aria from Les contes d’Hoffmann is sung in Swedish and is one of the best. Here we also catch a glimpse of Lars Magnusson’s Nathanael. Niun mi tema, the finale from Otello, is touchingly sung, while Ah! Si, ben mio from Il trovatore is delivered steely heroic brilliance, as befits a warrior, but it lacks poetry – and the aria is after all a love song. The opening of E lucevan le stelle is however poetic, while the second half of the aria is properly golden toned.
I saw Manon Lescaut twice, but unfortunately not with Inessa Galante in the title role. The Latvian soprano is superb here in the second act duet Tu, tu, amore? and she obviously inspires Cleveman to some really nuanced singing. Before the duet he sings Donna non vidi mai with glorious tone. In the excerpt from the end of act 3, where Ola Eliasson is the captain of the ship that will take the two lovers to America, Cleveman is quite strained.
He was a good Samson in Saint-Saëns’ opera in the 1990s at Folkoperan. Here at the Royal Opera several years later he is strong healthy voice. I mentioned his lyrical Andrea Chenier aria on the Proprius disc, where he seemed a size too small for the dynamic end. Here, in 2010, the situation is the reverse: lyricism is in short supply while the climax is impressively powerful – though not without strain. In 2014 he sang Eléazar in the rarely performed La Juive in Gothenburg, but by then the wear in the voice was obvious, and three years later, at Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar, his Florestan in Fidelio is both shaky and seriously strained – but he still sings with admirable energy and intensity.
CD 2 is devoted exclusively to Wagner and begins with two excerpts from Parsifal. Nur eine Waffe taugt recorded in Stockholm in 2003 with renowned Wagnerian Silvio Varviso in the pit, finds Cleveman at the height of his powers, singing with golden tone and good legato. Here he challenges another great Swedish Wagnerian, Gösta Winbergh. In Amfortas! Die Wunde! recorded nine years later at a concert performance in Stavanger, his vibrato is wider, and he works harder. Back to Stockholm in 2008 and Tristan und Isolde. I saw the fourth of the six performances that autumn and was deeply impressed. Nina Stemme and Lars Cleveman were in superb form, as listeners hopefully will apprehend from this excerpt, even without the visual aspects. I would gladly have given up the snippet from Dublin in favour of something more from Stockholm.
The two scenes from the reprise performances of the Stockholm Ring in 2017 are also a mixed blessing. Cleveman’s intensity and energy are commendable, but he is worn and Nina Stemme’s Brünnhilde is uncharacteristically wobbly and shrill. I would have preferred the premier performances ten years earlier, when Cleveman was so much fresher, and Katarina Dalayman was a superb Brünnhilde. The second excerpt from Götterdämmerung, recorded in 2013 with Fabio Luisi conducting, probably from the Metropolitan in New York even though the notes don’t say so explicitly, finds Cleveman in rather dry voice, but the close recording clearly reveals his exceptionally distinct diction. The programme is rounded off with the Rome Narration from Tannhäuser at Bayreuth in 2011. It is a high octane reading that has the listener sitting on the edge of the chair to imbibe every nuance of the drama. An excellent finale to this traversal of some of Lars Cleveman’s many great roles. It is a bit uneven, but there are highlights enough to reward curious listeners.
Göran Forsling
Contents
CD 1
Jules MASSENET (1942 – 1912)
Werther:
1. O Nature Pleine de grace [3:45]
2. Un autre est son epoux … J’aurais sur ma poitrine [2:58]
3. Pourquoi me reveiller [2:26]
Jacques OFFENBACH (1819 – 1880)
Les Contes d’Hoffmann:
4. Va pour Kleinzach [5:18]
Giuseppe VERDI (1813 – 1901)
Otello:
5. Niun mi tema [5:24]
Il trovatore:
6. Ah! Si, ben mio [3:08]
Giacomo PUCCINI (1858 – 1924)
Tosca:
7. E lucevan le stelle [2:53]
Manon Lescaut:
8. Donna non vidi mai [2:30]
9. Tu, tu, amore? [8:17]
10. No! Guardate! Pazzo son! [3:26]
Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835 – 1921)
Samson et Dalila:
11. Vois ma misere [6:33]
Umberto GIORDANO (1867 – 1948)
Andrea Chenier:
12. Come un bel di di Maggio [2:59]
Fromental HALÉVY (1799 – 1862)
13. Va prononcer ma mort [8:10]
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770 – 1827)
Fidelio:
14. Gott! Welch dunkel hier [10:53]
Franz LEHÁR (1870 – 1948)
Das Land des Lächelns:
15. Dein inst mein ganzes Herz [3:51]
Giacomo PUCCINI
Tosca:
16. Recondita armonia [2:44]
CD 2
Richard WAGNER (1813 – 1883)
Parsifal:
1. Nur eine Waffe taugt [3:22]
2. Amfortas! Die Wunde! [6:25]
Tristan und Isolde:
3. So starben wir um ungetrennt [8:13]
4. Isolde kommt! Isolde naht! [3:21]
Siegfried:
5. The end of act 1 [14:28]
Götterdämmerung:
6. Mehr gabst du, Wunderfrau [8:34]
7. Mime hies sein mürrischer Zwerg [7:58]
Tannhäuser:
8. Inbrunst im Herzen [10:45]
Other performers
Inessa Galante (soprano), Nina Stemme (soprano), Marianne Eklöf (mezzo-soprano), Niklas Björling Rygert (tenor), Hans-Peter König (bass)
Male Choir of Royal Opera, Royal Swedish Opera Chorus, Göteborg Opera Orchestra, Staatskapelle Weimar, Wermland Operas Orkester, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, Bayreuth Festspielorchester, Leif Segerstam, Gregor Bühl, Stefan Solyom, Christian Badea, Pier Giorgio Morandi, Pierre Valet, Stafan Lano, Ralf Kircher, Silvio Varviso, Steven Sloane, Fergus Sheil, Marko Letonja, Fabio Luisi, Thomas Hengelbrock
