This spanking new Dutchman recording was taped last year during concert performances in Oslo. Edward Gardner and the Norwegian National Opera orchestra almost eclipse everything else about the performance – even its raison d’être – soprano Lise Davidsen, who sings Senta. Between Gardner, the orchestra and chorus, and the sheer magnificence of Lise Davidsen, this recording is tied with just one other for the Reference Recording of this work.
These performances were Gardner’s first with the Norwegian Opera and they’re a knockout. The overture is thrilling from the opening notes, with a sweep that is cinematic, the sound lyrical and bright. The balance is ideal and the tempi quick and urgent as if being propelled forward on wind from the sea. And this is true throughout – Gardner uses the one-act version and the transitions between scenes give us a picture of Wagner’s grand design. One would think that moodiness might be sacrificed, but even Wagner’s pregnant pauses seem to throb, leaning into the next sound. Simply thrilling. The contrasting choruses in act one – a bunch of men who can barely contain their exhilaration vs the morose, gloom-filled darkness of the men/ghosts on the Dutchman’s ship – make a great dramatic impression. Their re-emergence in the final act is heart-thumping.
About the men: Erik Grøtvedt’s Steuermann is better even than Fritz Wunderlich’s under Franz Konwitschny in a 1960 studio recording, and that’s saying a great deal. Grøtvedt’s voice is beautiful, and the way he sings the second verse – quietly and dreamily – is unforgettable. Stanislas de Barbeyrac, in the annoying role of Erik, makes us care about him – his singing is smooth but firm, his pleading never maudlin. His last act aria is wonderfully sympathetic. Brindley Sherratt as Daland never wavers, the voice solid as a rock. One tends to wish that Wagner had given Daland a bit less to sing; he serves his purpose, but is amazingly one-dimensional. Still, this is what the role should sound like.
Gerard Finley, now 65 years old, is a known quantity. His voice retains its warmth and expressiveness, and in a role that can push a lyric sound to its extremes, he never sounds overparted. His Dutchman is ruminative and overwhelmingly sad. His suffering has come close to breaking him, but his hope grows after he meets Senta, making his final horror even more tragic. We feel his humanity; we are entirely engaged by his history.
But it is with Finley’s Dutchman that an issue arises, or, rather, with the pairing with Lise Davidsen’s Senta. In sheer volume, sheer power, sheer grandeur, she is, on the opera stage, currently unmatchable. Because of Finley’s individuality and intensity, this becomes less of a problem as the opera progresses, but it is undeniably noticeable. Davidsen, still in her 30s, has said that she will never sing Senta again, making this recording even more valuable (she will concentrate on the heavier Wagnerian heroines). From her opening hummed notes, perfectly in tune, to the attack on the big stabbing note that opens her Ballad, she owns this music and this character. Crazily obsessive and vulnerable at once, her handling of the text is carefully but seemingly spontaneously colored; it is impossible not to listen to every note and word. The voice is perfectly produced with every note, from top to bottom, solid; there are no weak spots. She sounds fearful when she first meets the Dutchman; by the end of their first duet, their passion is equally expressed, and the huge exclamation of her devotion moments before hurling herself into the waves is as overwhelming as it is heartbreaking.
At the close of my opening paragraph I mention an equally effective performance – it is available on (among others) the Opera d’Oro label and comes from Bayreuth in 1959. It stars Leonie Rysanek as Senta, and while she tended to be an uneven, if thrilling singer, here she is solid, with no gaps in her voice and an intensity which is almost painful. George London’s Dutchman is dark, huge and hopeless, utterly wretched where Finley is tragic – both are valid. But to miss this new set would be a terrible choice: the drama is vivid and stark, the playing and singing laser-focused on the drama. And Davidsen – well, is it a grander sound than Nilsson’s? It’s certainly close. The second CD starts immediately after Erik’s spiel and just as the Dutchman and Daland enter – an ideal spot. Text and translations are included.
