Thursday, July 18, 2013

Gratuitous Malin Hartelius Post – Jauchzet Gott... (J.S. Bach)

Malin Hartelius is a wonderful soprano I found out about by reading Earworm Opera. Earworm commented that Frau Hartelius' name drew many a searcher to her blog. (I got there by searching Dorothea Röschmann!) 

So far I've never heard Malin Hartelius make an unattractive sound. Sir John Eliot Gardiner likes her singing, too. He brought her on for his Bach Cantata pilgrimage, and gave her the honor of singing the solo cantata no. 51 Jauchzet Gott in alle Landen! 

Well, he didn't give it to her, she deserves it!  Anyway, here is the opening volley, for virtuoso soprano and trumpet. 




10 comments:

  1. Malin Hartelius seems to be magical in that way - total google magnet. And not surprising when she sounds like that! I think I first heard of her via that DVD of Cosi fan tutte from I think Zurich.

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    1. Yes yes, Zurich! With the "twist" at the end.

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    2. DON'T DRINK THE BLUE KOOL-AID, FIORDILIGI! NOOOO!!!!!

      (I should watch that one again. I haven't seen it in ages.)

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    3. She tastes it; looks at it funny; then drinks the rest anyway. It'll be interesting to see what Bechtoldt does with it this time (in Salzburg?)

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    4. I have pre-ordered that blu-ray, with slightly mixed emotions... Why are so many 'new' productions on disc simply close regurgitations of already-published performances? YouTube is filled with mouth watering clips - often in excellent HD - that will never make it onto my DVD shelves. (Will we ever see Valer Barna-Sabadus's Xerxes, for example? No, is the likely answer...)

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  2. Really, way better than Kathleen Battle in this Bach cantata...

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  3. She's a real hottie, too. It shouldn't matter, but it does, at least to me. Which probably says more about me than Malin Hartelius. Or opera.

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    1. Well, you're not the first nor the last to be drawn in by the visuals. I first encountered some of my now-favorite singers via photographs.

      But it's like the old joke about the pretty secretary--Yeah but can she type?--

      Once your attracted by the photo, can they hold your attention when they sing?
      MH can! And so can many other hottie singers--thank goodness!!!

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    2. I agree - and they do (hold my attention by singing). Interestingly, most of the greatest beauties (a subjective value, of course) are also highly accomplished singers (my own subjective list is headed by Sabina Cvilak, Elina Garanca and Isabel Leonard). The next question is: does their singing sound better because they are easy on the eye, or does their beauty actually detract from their singing by distracting us from it (feminine beauty has the power to distract us from just about anything else...)? This may be partly answered by the fact that I enjoy the singing of Joan Sutherland and Vesselina Kasarova more than any of the above-named. Neither of these was/is a raving beauty (VK is pleasant enough, but Joan simply wasn’t), so does this mean that their lack of visual appeal frees us up to fully appreciate their singing… or are/were they simply better singers? All very confusing, and surely a meaty-enough theme for a degree course.
      That’s my male chauvinist rant over for the evening.

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