[Parsifal98]

I assume you've seen this amazing video? I feel like it's been posted before but I can't recall lol

If it's not working

Yeah I posted it in the thread concerning the state of modern operatic singing (went a bit under the radar...)! It is indeed an amazing video! To think that we can watch and hear such an artist performing in 1936! Even better, we can clearly see his singing technique. A great tool for emulation!

 

[DarkAngel]

Hotter does have a 1965 video of Wotan's farewell, voice even more strained than 56 Bayreuth sample (and that more than 42 youtube sample) but his consumate skill in vocal expression and characterization, the emotions of torment and sorrow of losing his beloved daughter on full display with his facial expressions to amplify the effect, such a feel for following the music......the pronounced word at 2:34 (the god) is so effective any other version seems like a mistake without it

Callas once was asked how she decided to sing/act scences a certain way, she famously replied if she was unsure all one had to do was listen to the music since the composer had already deeply considered these things while composing the score.....

Farewell, thou valiant, glorious child!
Thou once the holiest pride of my heart!
Farewell! farewell! farewell!
(very passionately) Must I forsake thee,
and may my welcome
of love no more greet thee;
may'st thou now ne'er more ride as my comrade,
nor bear me mead at banquet;
must I abandon thee, whom I loved so,
thou laughing delight of my eyes?
Such a bridal fire for thee shall be kindled
as ne'er yet has burned for a bride!
Threatening flames shall flare round the fell:
let withering terrors daunt the craven!
let cowards fly from Brünnhilde's rock!
For one alone win the bride;
one freer than I, the god!

 

[PaulFranz]

Giuseppe Bellantoni!

 

[MAS]

My favourite Wotan is Hans Reinmar!

Fabulous sound from an early recording! Leave it to the Germans!

 

[Seattleoperafan]

I wanted to include a Wotan piece for the contest but everything he sings is so long winded to try to fit in a reasonable time slot.

 

[Woodduck]

I wanted to include a Wotan piece for the contest but everything he sings is so long winded to try to fit in a reasonable time slot.

The farewell is the only sensible option. If people find it too long thay can skip the fire music or, if they're soulless philistines, the sublime interlude after "der freier als ich, der Gott!"

 

[Seattleoperafan]

The farewell is the only sensible option. If people find it too long thay can skip the fire music or, if they're soulless philistines, the sublime interlude after "der freier als ich, der Gott!"

It is glorious. Maybe later in the contests.

 

[Becca]

Norman Bailey. Anyone who can sign the Walkure farewell to very-late-Klemperer tempo deserves to be included.

 

[wkasimer]

I wanted to include a Wotan piece for the contest but everything he sings is so long winded to try to fit in a reasonable time slot.

A couple of other potential passages might be the passage that begins with "So nimm meinen Segen, Nibelungensohn" in Act 2, or "Wo ist Brünnhild'" from Act 3. Or you could use the first third of the Abschied.

 

[MAS]

I second John Tomlinson’s nomination above some of those named in the poll. He’s the raison d’être for my owning the Barenboim Ring.

 

[Fredrikalansson]

I second my praise for Donald McIntyre, but I would really like to appreciate the opposite direction that Theo Adam takes compared to my favourite, Hans Hotter. Adam represented in the late 60s and early 70s the type of young Wotan that would star in the last generation of great Wagner singers. He is definetely in average level in the Janowski Ring. But the recordings where I point out the passion and intensity he brought to Wotan are in the Böhm Ring (Das Rheingold from 1965 in mono and Die Walküre and Siegfried in 1967-67 in stereo).

I read somewhere that an early interpreter of Wotan remarked to Wagner that he found the role "daemonic", to which Wagner replied "Yes, precisely, sing it that way."

I've always thought Theo Adam sings it that way. Adam was never afraid to go out on the edge to sing Wotan. Just listen to how he scares the be-jeebers out of Mime in Siegfried. Adam's technique may have faltered here and there, but the drama never did. His Wotan was "mad, bad and dangerous" to know. A far cry from the nobility of earlier stand-and-deliver Wotan's.

Other favourite Wotan's? 1950s Hotter is good, but Tomlinson, MacIntyre and Bailey all bring unique and wonderful things to the role.