A charismatic South African soprano and a 30-year-old Lithuanian conductor present arias about love and vengeance.
Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla is a name we will be hearing a lot in the months and years to come. The 30-year-old Lithuanian conductor stepped in at the last minute to harness the power of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen at the Heidelberg Spring festival. Joining them this hour is South African soprano Golda Schulz.
Only a day earlier, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla had had her first experience conducting the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie (German Chamber Philharmonic) of Bremen. Her impression? “Incredibly musical! With each individual, you see how his or her heart jumps out when playing. Each member feels responsible for the result, each wants to give his best, each one loves what he or she is doing. Experiencing that first-hand, face-to-face with these musicians is an incredible gift.”
Love is so simple – and so complex
Asked about the content of the two arias on the program, South African soprano Golda Schultz told DW: “In a word, they’re about vengeance, about the wrath of a good woman. Especially Beethoven’s ‘Ah perfido,’ which depicts a woman who desires vengeance against somebody she loves. But in the end, the poor woman actually asks for pity for her own horrible feelings. She would rather take the pain upon herself than on her lover or ex-lover.”
At the beginning of that aria by Ludwig van Beethoven, the soprano sings: “O perfidious, lieing, barbarous betrayer, you are leaving me? You will not escape the scorn of the gods.” Later the furious woman has a change of heart: “But no! Vengeful gods, stop, spare his heart, strike mine instead!”
The situation is similar, says Golda Schultz, in the aria in which Donna Elvira rails against Don Giovanni in the opera of that name by Mozart: “You see how she struggles with the fact that she knows this man has done her wrong, and she wants justice – but justice at what cost?”
Ludwig van Beethoven
Leonore Overture No. 3 in C Major, op. 72b
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mi tradì quell’alma ingrata (That ungrateful soul betrayed me) from the opera “Don Giovanni” K. 527
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ah perfido! (O Perfidious One) in G Major, op. 65
Golda Schultz, soprano
Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen
Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, conductor
Recorded by DeutschlandRadio Kultur Berlin (DLR) in the City and Convention Hall, Heidelberg on April 30, 2016
Robert Schumann
Manfred Overture, op. 115
Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen
Paavo Järvi, conductor
Recorded by Deutsche Welle, Bonn (DW) in the Beethoven Hall, Bonn on September 10, 2010
Rebroadcasting rights: one broadcast before April 25, 2017
