Over the years I have experienced many wonderful interpretations of the role of Sieglinde in Wagner's DIE WALKURE. My first Sieglinde was Janis Martin and she was followed in due course by some superb sopranos: Leonie Rysanek, Birgit Nilsson (yes, as Sieglinde), Hildegard Behrens (yes, as Sieglinde), Sabine Hass, Jessye Norman, Mechtild Gessendorf, Katarina Dalayman, Waltraud Meier and Adrienne Pieczonka. But if I had to choose only one Sieglinde to take with me to that proverbial desert island, it would be Johanna Meier.
I first heard Johanna Meier as Musetta at the New York City Opera in 1969; aside from her silvery and well-projected voice, I liked her interpretation of Musetta in that she played down the character's vulgarity and played up her fun-loving aspects. Johanna's Contessa Almaviva in NOZZE DI FIGARO was a beautifully polished and deeply feminine portrayal, vulnerable yet dignified. She and conductor Christopher Keene worked out some gorgeous embellishments for 'Dove sono' which I can recall perfectly to this day.
Ariadne in the NYC Opera's unforgettable bi-lingual ARIADNE AUF NAXOS suited Johanna's voice and sense of dignity to perfection (it was soon to be the role of her Met debut) and she was also a luscious Rosalinda, a sterling Marschallin and a very exciting Tosca. I heard her as Donna Anna in Boston (Met tour), and twice as Chrysothemis in ELEKTRA: once at the Met and once in a magnificent concert reading of the Strauss opera at Tanglewood with compelling colleagues Hildegard Behrens and Maureen Forrester and conducted thrillingly by Seiji Ozawa. On New Year's Day 1983 Meier sang a memorable performance of Elisabeth in TANNHAUSER opposite the unforgettable Venus of Tatiana Troyanos. In 1989 Meier returned to the Met for the Empress in FRAU replacing another soprano on fairly short notice; at a time when I felt the Dyer's Wife would have suited her better she nonetheless gave a deeply-felt and skillfully managed vocal performance of a cruel role. She also sang the WALKURE Brunnhilde which I heard twice and it was a role well-suited to her.
It was her Sieglinde perhaps more than any other characterization that stood out in her very impressive gallery.
Metropolitan Opera House
October 4, 1986
DIE WALKÜRE {447}
Brünnhilde..............Jeannine Altmeyer, Act II
Brünnhilde..............Hildegard Behrens, Act III
Siegmund................Timothy Jenkins
Sieglinde...............Johanna Meier
Wotan...................Donald McIntyre
Fricka..................Brigitte Fassbaender
Hunding.................Aage Haugland
Gerhilde................Eleanor Bergquist
Grimgerde...............Wendy Hillhouse
Helmwige................Marita Napier
Ortlinde................Martha Thigpen
Rossweisse..............Jacalyn Bower
Schwertleite............Pamela Smith
Siegrune................Sheila Smith
Waltraute...............Joyce Castle
Conductor...............James Levine
This is what I wrote in my diary the morning after:
"Johanna Meier's Sieglinde was a truly great assumption in every regard. She has the power (and how!), the poetry, the femininity...she has it all! Quickly controlling a trace of vibrancy in her higher range, Meier allowed us to feast on her huge, silvery sound and the wonderful nuances - both vocal and dramatic - of her characterization. She conveyed the hesitancy, the longing, the distress, passion and ultimate despair of Sieglinde with all her vocal and physical resources; then when her fortunes are reversed and she learns of the child she is carrying, Meier's voice glowed as she thanked Brunnhilde with that ecstatic melody of hope. In Act I Meier was fabulous, her 'Du bist der Lenz' all urgency and feminine perfection with a huge cresting wave of sound at the climax...superb as she named 'Siegmund!"
The ovations that Johanna Meier received that night were especially warm and fervent, and so thoroughly deserved. [Someday I should publish my entire diary entry about this performance because there was a mid-performance cast change.} A week or two later I went back for another Johanna Meier Sieglinde but by a quirky bit of chance a piece of dirt blew into my eye while walking to the Met and it plagued me thru the entire first act. Eventually I left after the intermission because it was really an unbearable distraction. Of course within minutes of boarding the subway home, the problem cleared up.
Read an article about Johanna Meier's Bayreuth Isolde experience here.
Johanna Meier's Bayreuth Isolde (above, with Rene Kollo) is available on DVD.
Meier's televised performance as Samuel Barber's Vanessa in January 1979 is something I've preserved on my off-the-air VHS tape; the role suits her aristocratic presence and soaringly silvery timbre perfectly.
Yes, a great soprano. I heard her Ariadne at the Met and a beautiful Eva when City Opera did MEISTERSINGER in l976. She could write her own ticket today most likely.
Posted by: George R. Weinhouse MD | April 23, 2009 at 12:30 PM
Meier was a superb Sieglinde! I heard her twice - in Seattle in 1978 and with the Met tour in 1984 (at which time she held her own with Behrens, Vickers, Macurdy, Dunn, and Estes). I'm so glad someone out there remembers her as I did.
Posted by: Alan Horgan | November 02, 2009 at 06:05 PM
I feel that the sound of her voice was so distinctive, and her persona almost aristocratic in its sense of feminine dignity. She truly was a unique Sieglinde.
Posted by: Philip | November 02, 2009 at 07:40 PM