Above: Anna Steiger
When I began rescuing recordings from my vast cassette collection and turning them into MP3s, one of the first transfers that I made was of a tape my friend Mollie had sent me of a 1985 BBC broadcast of soprano Anna Steiger singing Chausson's Poème de l'amour et de la mer, conducted by Norman Del Mar.
This recording is very special to me, firstly because the singing is so poetic, and secondly because it was the first time (incredibly) that I heard this gorgeous piece of music. The recording is one of the treasures of my collection. And now I am sharing it here:
Poème de l'amour et de la mer (Chausson) - Anna Steiger ~ Norman Del Mar ~ BBC 1985
Anna Steiger, the daughter of actors Claire Bloom and Rod Steiger, has sung a vast range of music throughout her career: from Monteverdi and Mozart to Britten, Janacek, and Weill. A winner of prestigious prizes and awards, she made her professional debut in 1984, going on to sing at Covent Garden, the ENO, Glyndebourne, Amsterdam, Stuttgart, La Fenice in Venice, Salzburg, Seattle, Los Angeles Opera, New York City Opera, and at BAM.
In the 1990s she moved into mezzo-soprano territory, performing such gem roles as Magdalena in MEISTERSINGER, Marcellina in NOZZE DI FIGARO, and Auntie in PETER GRIMES. She lives in Paris, and is this season singing at Toulouse, Rennes, and Rouen.
Ms. Steiger is Despina on the Harnoncourt recording of COSI FAN TUTTE and Concepción on Sir Simon Rattle's recording of Ravel's L'HEURE ESPAGNOLE.
Anna Steiger's striking performance of Varèse's Offrandes, conducted by Pierre Boulez, may be seen here.
~ Oberon