The dramatic soprano Inge Borkh (real name: Ingeborg Simon) was
born in 1917 in Mannheim, Germany, to a Swiss father and an Austrian
mother. She spent her youth primarily in Vienna and trained in
spoken theatre very early, making her stage debut in Linz in 1937.
She soon discovered that she had a good singing voice as well
and studied singing in Milan and Salzburg, which led to a second
debut, now as lyric soprano, in Strauss’s Der Zigeunerbaron
in 1940. During the war she was confined to theatres in Switzerland
but from 1945 she launched an international career that took her
to all the major opera-houses. Well into the early 1950s she was
still singing lyric and lyric-dramatic roles but ventured into
such demanding roles as Leonora in Fidelio and Aida. Her
breakthrough as a hochdramatisch soprano came in Basel in 1952
when she sang Magda Sorel in Menotti’s The Consul. She
was a sensation and from then on she was in heavy demand for the
real heavyweights: Salome, Elektra, the Dyer’s Wife in Die
Frau ohne Schatten, Turandot, Lady Macbeth in Verdi’s Macbeth
and also the other Lady Macbeth – in Shostakovich’s opera, which
in its revised version is normally entitled Katerina Ismailova.
Of these Salome and Elektra were her signature roles and it was
after a series of performances of Elektra that she bade
farewell to the operatic stage in 1973. But she didn’t have a
leisured life in retirement. She taught at the Basel Academy of
Music, returned to spoken theatre and went on singing cabaret
songs and chansons.
Her visits to recording
studios during her heydays were infrequent. She sang the title
role in the first stereo recording of Turandot for Decca
in 1955 opposite Mario Del Monaco and Renata Tebaldi and recorded
Elektra in 1960 for Deutsche Grammophon with Karl Böhm
conducting. For the same company she also sang in Carl Orff’s
Antigonae and Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten,
the latter a live recording from Munich. In later years, however,
adventurous companies have dug out a lot of interesting material
from radio archives and other sources, including a Medea
from Berlin in the late 1950s that I reviewed a couple of years
ago. The present issue – I haven’t heard volume one – is highly
interesting for the repertoire, even though the technical quality
leaves a lot to be desired.
Robert Schumann’s
only opera Genoveva was a failure at the premiere in
Leipzig in 1850 and ran for only three performances. It has
been revived occasionally but never been much of a success.
The only music from it that is heard every now and then is the
overture, which is a masterpiece, but there is a lot of first
class music in the rest of the score and accusations of Schumann
lacking ‘dramatic vitality’ as Franz Liszt put it, is not wholly
fair. It is true that there is little blood and thunder in the
excerpts recorded here but it is far from bloodless. The act
II finale is a truly dramatic ensemble. The plot, based on the
story of Genevieve of Brabant and taking place during the Crusades,
has also been ridiculed and there is more than a grain of truth
in this. I am not going to relate the story here but intending
buyers should know that Andrew Palmer’s excellent notes also
include a synopsis. Moreover there is a narrator giving some
background between the numbers.
The performance
here was obviously produced by Swiss Radio to commemorate the
centenary of the first production. The sound is low-fi with
thin strings and strident brass and the fine overture suffers
greatly. Still the recording is sufficiently consistent to give
the listener a fair idea of the pathos and ardour of then work
and Christoph Lertz’s conducting is dynamic and stringent. The
subtleties of the score tend to be obscured but this notwithstanding
it is a fine reading. The narrator, on the other hand, is extremely
well recorded, which leads me to think that it was recorded
much later. The voice leaps out of the speakers with a realism
that is quite stunning.
Of the singers the
best known is no doubt the Hungarian-born Maria Stader in the
title role. Her voice was not large but she employed it sensitively.
One recognizes her slightly fluttery tone immediately and she
gives an attractive reading of the role. Interestingly Inge
Borkh in the secondary role of Margaretha has a similar timbre
at this stage of her career and I had difficulties telling the
two sopranos from each other. According to the track-list in
the booklet Margaretha and Golo should be the only singers in
the act I finale, but I was convinced that I also heard Stader.
In the act finale both sopranos are listed but I was never sure
who was singing when. Anyway the lyric Inge Borkh doesn’t make
an impression in the way I had anticipated. The dramatic tenor
Theodor Bitzos (Golo) takes some time to warm up and his phrasing
is rather sloppy. It is a rather heavy Germanic voice with lots
of power but little lyrical sense. He hits the top notes accurately
but they are often pinched. The deeper male voices are more
attractive. Fridolin Mosbacher (Siegfried) has a sonorous and
warm baritone and Gottfried Fehr, singing Hidulfus as well as
Balthasar, is an impressive bass-baritone. Both were new names
to me.
It should be said
that there is not too much we hear of Inge Borkh. She appears
in the first two finales and in a long duet in act III, where
her partner Siegfried has much more to sing. In a box devoted
to her it is a bit strange that on much more than half the first
CD we hear not a note by Inge Borkh.
This is rectified
in the excerpts from Elektra and Lady Macbeth from
Mtsensk. Recorded live in 1965, Elektra also suffers
from murky and distanced recording but Inge Borkh’s incisive
dramatic voice penetrates the orchestral fabric, steady and
warm. She is impressive in Allein! Weh, ganz allein,
warmer than Birgit Nilsson who was her only serious competitor
in the role. The long scene with Orest is masterly, though Randolph
Symonette is a stern Orest, and she sings gloriously in the
finale where we also catch a glimpse of Swedish soprano Siv
Ericsdotter as Chrysothemis. The quality of sound is still a
hindrance to complete enjoyment and the average listener is
recommended to acquire the complete recording with Böhm or,
better still, the superb RCA disc with Fritz Reiner, including
the same three scenes as here and coupled with the final scene
from Salome plus the orchestral Dance of the seven
veils – all recorded in impressive mid-1950s stereo sound
and issued on SACD a couple of years ago.
What is really fascinating
in this box is the inclusion of the same three scenes from Elektra,
recorded in 1999 by the then 82-year-old Inge Borkh speaking
the part. She is, at least partly, accompanied by an anonymous
pianist and David Molnár sings Orest’s part with insight but
shaky tone. That Ms Borkh was an outstanding actress is a known
and certified fact and her reading of the Allein! ‘aria’
is a psychological thriller. The intensity and the wide spectrum
of nuances and other expressive means are amazing. Who would
believe that this youthful voice belongs to an octogenarian?
The recording, it should be added, is from the private collection
of Inge Borkh.
The sound is a great
deal better on the excerpts from Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth
from Mtsensk, recorded live at La Scala. The acoustics are
dry as a biscuit but that rather suits this music. The orchestral
interlude is rhythmically vital under Nino Sanzogno’s experienced
leadership and Inge Borkh, always putting the theatrical aspects
in the forefront, is as expressive as ever. It is perhaps a
bit strange to hear this of all operas performed in Italian
but it works well. Giovanni Gibin is a good Sergey whereas Dino
Dondi is a rather foursquare Boris – not totally out of place,
actually.
I regard this more
as an issue for specialists rather than average opera-lovers
but Gala should still be applauded for making this material
available.
Göran Forsling
Maria Stader (soprano) – Genoveva; Inge Borkh (soprano) – Margaretha;
Fridolin Mosbacher (baritone) – Siegfried; Gottfried Fehr (bass-baritone)
– Hidulfus; Balthasar; Theodor Bitzos (tenor) – Golo; and others;
Rundfunkorchester und –Chor Bern/Christoph Lertz
