Staatsoper: Donizetti, Anna Bolena … The role of the page Smeaton is more than ably carried off by Austrian contralto Elisabeth Kulman. She has a boyish sweetness and catlike physicality that makes Smeaton dangerous as well as spirited. … (LensViews) ohne Datum
Alma Mahler – Orchesterlieder Is the music that women write in some fundamental way different from the compositions of men? Feminist musicology is divided on the question. In any case, we hear a great deal more of the latter than we do of the former.Times are changing. Composers such as Kaija Saariaho and Olga Neuwirth
Gluck – Orfeo The singing in Orfeo was of the highest order. Elisabeth Kulman, who started out as a soprano, then shifted gears and is now a warm mezzo, was a dignified, rather cool Orpheus. Genia Kühmeier, a Salzburg native, sang Euridice with a beguiling silvery shimmer. Christiane Karg was a chirpy Amor. November 2010
Gluck – Orfeo … It was, however, quite rightly Elisabeth Kulman’s Orfeo, along with the orchestra, who was the true star here. Kulman’s richly instrumental tone, redolent of the chalumeaux Muti perhaps surprisingly elected to use, acted both as Orpheus’s voice and his lyre. Detailed attention to words heightened rather than detracted from her often
Gluck – Orfeo … And then there were three excellent vocalists paired with an uncommonly good Vienna State Opera Chorus. Elisabeth Kulman sang Orfeo and gave one of the most honest-to-goodness heartbreaking renditions of ‚Che farò senza Euridice‘ you’ll ever hear. For once the aria sounded like the remorseful funerary music it actually is. Genia
Cause for Worry: A Deep Drink of Bliss, With Confusion for a Chaser SALZBURG, Austria Before the opening-night performance of Dieter Dorn’s new production of Gluck’s “Orfeo ed Euridice” at the Salzburg Festival here on Saturday, anticipation was mostly focused on the conductor, Riccardo Muti, long a favorite with festival audiences. True to form,
Richard Wagner – Walküre … Kulman was really a discovery. It was clear even in Rheingold that she’ll be a great Fricka, but in Walkure she was just amazing. …
Richard Wagner – Walküre The question. Is Nina Stemme the best thing since sliced bread? Or is that giving sliced bread way too much kudos? Not content with just Stemme (I’m greedy), Susan Bullock joined her on-stage, replacing Eva Johannson (an upgrade to my mind), for some of the finest Wagnerian singing I’ve ever heard.
Richard Wagner – Walküre Moving on from the light hearted fair of yesterday we come to the meat of my trip. The Wagner. I caught the „Gotterdammerung“ of Vienna’s new ring cycle when it premiered last year and now I’m back for the first two parts. With some terrific casting and the usual brilliance in
Staatsoper Wien: Wagner – Rheingold … Also good: Ileana Tonca, Michaela Selinger and Elisabeth Kulman as the Rhine maidens. …