Customer Reviews

Jancek - Jenufa / Benacková · Rysanek · Kazaras · Ochman · NYCO · Queler

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I went to hear this Jenufa, I was a little afraid: I didn't know either the conductor or some of the singers, but I tried. What I met was a marvellous performance of this marvellous opera. Eve Queler gives the opera all its dramatic urgency, and I think you can guess that a woman is behind this drama between womans. I think Queler understands the situation between Jenufa and Kostelnicka better than any other conductor. Benackova as Jenufa is impressing too. She has a warmer voice than, for example, Soderstrom, in Mackerras' recording and she understands his role very well (like Queler). All the other singers are very good, especially the two tenors. But what is the most marvellous of this performance is the way Rysanek shows Kostelnicka's feelings about sin, moral, redemption, ... Rysanek IS Kostelnicka. Her voice may be not as sure as others, but her top voice at the end of the second act is frightening. She is really the moral's voice in the first act. She is atormented in the second. And she is a frightened girl in the third. She is, in short, the best Kostelnicka I have heard, and the best I can imagine. My note is five stars, and five more for Rysanek.

This is a live recording of Opera Orchestra of New York at Carnegie Hall. Despite a few quibbles about sound quality, this recording is extraordinary. Leone Rysanek is magnificent! She was one of the greatest singing actresses of all time. Everyone one else in the cast is terrific but Leone definitely steals the show. This is a life changing performance. Buy it!!

I was lucky enough to be inside Carnegie Hall for this performance. The final few minutes of Act II have to be heard to be believed. Rysanek's performance was beyond Total Theater. The audience response, the wild roaring, is testment to her achievement. Luckily, the engineers don't cut off the ovation. It just keeps going on and on. Time and time again, the artists return for bows, but then Rysanek gets called back for solo bows. You might think you have heard audience hysteria before, but you have to hear this. Then the end of Act III is also followed by the prolonged audience frenzy. The sound of a packed house roaring over and over and over is something we just don't hear anymore. In case I haven't made my point, the final minutes of Act II and the audience roar that follows is probably the greatest documentation we have of the effect Leonie Rysanek had on an audience live in the house.