2/5. Strauss's Operatic Heroines
Donald Macleod looks at the range of operatic roles Richard Strauss wrote for the female voice. In 1894 he married one of the leading sopranos of the time,
Pauline de Ahna, who was considered an accomplished interpreter of his songs. His wedding present to her was a set of four songs, his Opus 27. Both vocal and acting talent were required from Strauss's female operatic roles, and the stars of the period, Maria Jeritza , among them Lotte Lehmann and Mary Garden , all clamoured to take on the challenge.
Cacilie Edita Gruberova (soprano), Friedrich Haider (piano)
Ah! Du wolltest mich nicht deinen Mund kussen lassen (Salome) Cheryi Studer (soprano), Deutsche Oper Orchestra, conductor Giuseppe Sinopoli
Wehe, mein Mann! (Die Frau ohne
Schatten, Act 2) Julia Varady (soprano), Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor Georg Solti
Intermezzo, Act 1 (excerpt)
Lucia Popp (soprano), Dietrich Fischer -Dieskau (baritone), Gabrielle Fuchs
(soprano), Bavarian Radio Symphony
Orchestra, conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch Moonlight Scene (Capriccio)
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (soprano), Karl Schmitt-Walter (bass), Philharmonia, conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch Repeated on Monday at 12 midnight