Sunday Classics preview: One woman vs. the system -- more on Gluck's "Divinités du Styx"

No, Jessye Norman wasn't one of our Alcestes last night, but here she is singing "Divinités du Styx" in a TV performance that the poster dates as "c1986-87."

by Ken

Here are the same six performances we heard last night of "Divinités du Styx," the stupendous aria that ends Act I of Gluck's Alceste, this time properly identified.

GLUCK: Alceste: Act I finale, "Divinités du Styx"

[Our heroine sets off for the Underworld, beyond the river Styx, determined to trade her life for that of her recently deceased husband.]

[0:20 in the "A" performance]
Divinities of the Styx, divinities of the Styx, ministers of death.
I will not invoke your cruel pity.
I will not invoke, I will not invoke
your cruel pity, your cruel pity.
[1:20 in "A"]
I am abducting a tender spouse from his funereal fate,
but to you I abandon a spouse,
but to you I abandon a faithful spouse.
[2:02 in "A"]
Divinities of the Styx, divinities of the Styx, ministers of death.
To die for one you love, for one you love, is too sweet an undertaking,
a virtue so natural, so natural.
My heart is animated by the noblest, the noblest transport.
[3:17 in "A"]
I feel a new strength.
I am going where my love calls me.
I feel a new strength.
I am going where my love calls me.
My heart is animated by the noblest transport.
[3:46 in "A"]
Divinities of the Styx, divinities of the Styx, ministers of death.
I will not invoke your cruel pity.
I will not invoke, I will not invoke
your cruel pity, your cruel pity.

(A) JANET BAKER, mezzo-soprano

Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Sir Charles Mackerras, cond. From complete Alceste, recorded live Dec. 12, 1981


(B) CHRISTINE BREWER, soprano (in English)

Philharmonia Orchestra, David Parry, cond. From Great Operatic Arias (in English), Chandos, recorded c2004


(C) MARIA CALLAS, soprano

Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française, Georges Prêtre, cond. From Great Arias from French Opera, EMI, recorded March 29 and Apr. 5, 1961


(D) MARILYN HORNE, mezzo-soprano

Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Henry Lewis, cond. From Souvenirs of a Golden Era, Decca, recorded 1965


(E) ANNE SOFIE VON OTTER, mezzo-soprano

English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner, cond. From complete Alceste, Philips, recorded live in London, Oct. 26-30, 1999


(F) DOLORA ZAJICK, mezzo-soprano

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Charles Rosenkranz, cond. From The Art of the Dramatic Mezzo-Soprano, Telarc, recorded Aug. 18-Sept. 2, 1999


Jessye Norman, I might mention, made a complete recording of Alceste, a 1982 Orfeo-Bavarian Radio coproduction. The role used to be cast primarily with Wagnerian-type sopranos. Kirsten Flagstad also recorded Alceste, which of course in 1952 was her last role at the Met, where she was preceded (in 1941) by Marjorie Lawrence and Rose Bampton and followed (in 1960-61) by Eileen Farrell. Among our performances, Christine Brewer's English-language one represents the Wagnerian-soprano type of casting.

Nowadays the role is more likely to be taken by lyric-weight mezzos -- note that our performances by Janet Baker and Anne Sofie von Otter are from live performances of the opera. Dolora Zajick represents the dramatic-weight mezzo option, while Marilyn Horne, properly speaking a lyric mezzo, sings the aria more like a dramatic mezzo, drawing on that full bottom range of hers.

And then there's Maria Callas, the singer who wasn't on our list -- a soprano but obviously not a Wagnerian one, which gives us a fourth voice type for the role. It might be recalled that this was the time when Callas seemed to be flirting with the mezzo repertory, with some great French mezzo roles mixed in with soprano ones for the French-aria album. (This led naturally to the complete recording of Carmen, but nothing much after.) This is music that's tailor-made for the kind of performer Callas was, and the voice here is in mostly excellent shape -- prime Callas, I would say.

One loose end. I mentioned that two of our singers aren't quite singing the same thing as the others. I had in mind, first, Christine Brewer's English-language performance, but also Anne Sofie von Otter's revisionist one. Properly speaking, she isn't even singing "Divinités du Styx," since this performance substitutes a no doubt musicologically superior rendering of the first line of the aria. It has to do with the original Italian version vs. the French revision, but don't ask me. Why anyone would willingly forego one of the great aria beginnings in all ariadom . . . well, don't ask me that either. In this version the familiar tune is only implied in the opening line, as the singer, instead of singing:

"Divinités du Styx, divinités du Styx, ministres de la mort"
("Divinities of the Styx, divinities of the Styx, ministers of death") --

sings:

"Ombres, lavres, pâles compagnes de la mort"
("Shades, spirits, pales companions of death")

Again, don't ask. I'm just telling you.

#