Strauss: Die Frau ohne Schatten Ben Heppner, Deborah Voigt, Sabine Hass, Franz Grundheber, Hanna Schwarz; Staatskapelle Dresden, Giuseppe Sinopoli, conductor (Teldec)
First, the big pluses: Firm, characterful conducting and beautiful, richly nuanced orchestral playing by the Dresden Staatskapelle that supports every line of the convoluted Hugo von Hofmannsthal text and shapes the contours of Strauss’ magnificent vocal lines. Ben Heppner, as the Emperor, sings elegantly, passionately and without strain a role that suits his voice perfectly. This is quite the best performance the part has ever received on records: Just listen how beautifully he shapes the “Falke, Falke” scene.
Heppner is surrounded by other singers who share his passion and commitment, most notably Deborah Voigt as the Empress and Sabine Hass as the Dyer’s Wife. Both women are stretched at times by the composer’s outsized vocal demands, most disappointingly in the case of Voigt, whose beautiful dramatic soprano should be exactly right for the Empress. On the other hand, both Voigt and Hass inject enough energy into their portrayals so that their emotional commitment carries them through the rough vocal patches.
The others in the cast are about par for the Straussian course these days, including Franz Grundheber as a rather woolly Dyer and Hanna Schwarz as a dark-toned Nurse. The choruses of unborn children, servants and nightwatchmen are adequate, also. The splendid orchestral contribution is vitiated somewhat by the brutal cuts Sinopoli observes, thereby depriving this amazing score of much vital connective tissue. Fortunately, the rival Solti and Sawallisch sets, on London and EMI, respectively, are recorded complete. Connoisseurs of this flawed but oddly compelling stage work will need to own all three.
