FRAU

Listening to the Sirius broadcast of the first Frau Ohne Schatten of the season.

I tuned in a bit late, so I'm just now discovering that this production is apparently compete: they've opened the traditional cut in Act III where the Nurse, abandoned by the Empress, sends the desperate Barak and his wife off in different directions as they seek each other. ("Menschen! Menschen! Wie ich sie hasse!") Well good for the Met on that one.

In fact, good for them across the board. Schwanewilms sounds lovely. I like the gruffness of that guy singing the Messenger.  (Edited to add: that was Richard Paul Finke! His voice has gotten a bit flintier since I last heard him, as Alberich.) The Nurse is new to me, and doesn't erase memories of Mignon Dunn, but she's good. Johan Reuter sounds much better tonight than he did as Prus in The Makropoulos Case last year. This is my first time hearing Torsten Kerl, and he's a very satisfactory baritonale type of Heldentenor. Been a long time since I've heard Christine Goerke, but, have read about her transformation into a Hochdramatische, & I now believe it.

Above all, Vladimir Jurovsky is bring clarity and energy at the podium.

Now if only I could go see this production, which seems, from descriptions and still photos, to be a worthy successor to its amazing Merrill-O'Hearn predecessor.

"Auf, du Kahn,
Trage dies Weib
Mondberge hinab,
den Menschen zu!"

You tell 'er, dude!

Now we're up to Schwanewilms's "Vater, bist du's?" and I think I'll stop now b/c I'll probably faint at "Ich will nicht."

P.S. Virginia Opera bass Nathan Stark is apparently making his debut is a small role in this run of Frau. Congratulations, @theStarkVoice !