So I am really going back in time with this posting. Leo Slezak was a distinguished Czech operatic tenor, celebrated for his powerful and expressive voice. Slezak was born on August 18, 1873, in Šumperk, Slezak exhibited remarkable talent from an early age. He made his operatic debut in 1896, and his career swiftly ascended thereafter.
When he was young, his upper register was very powerful, and you can hear this in the 1909 recording. He studied with the world-famous Jean de Reske as did many great opera stars of his era. We simply don’t have opera singers today who have the vocal freedom that Slezak had, and this is why, as a younger singer, the sound seems to come from the top of his head. There is no restriction in the throat, and the sound is free.
Puccini, Tosca, “E lucevan le stelle”
CAVARADOSSI
(si mette a scrivere, ma dopo tracciate alcune
linee è invaso dalle rimembranze)
E lucevan le stelle ed olezzava
la terra, stridea l’uscio
dell’orto, e un passo sfiorava la rena…
Entrava ella, fragrante,
mi cadea fra le braccia…
Oh, dolci baci, o languide carezze,
mentr’io fremente
le belle forme disciogliea dai veli!
Svanì per sempre il sogno mio d’amore…
L’ora è fuggita…
E muoio disperato!
E non ho amato mai tanto la vita!
(Scoppia in singhiozzi).
Puccini, Tosca, “And the stars shone”
CAVARADOSSI
(begins to write, but after a few lines a flood of
memories invades him)
And the stars shone and the earth was perfumed.
The gate to the garden creaked and a footstep
rustled the sand to the path…
Fragrant, she entered
and fell into my arms…
Oh, soft kisses, oh, sweet abandon,
as I trembling
unloosed her veils and disclosed her beauty.
Oh, vanished forever is that dream of love,
fled is that hour…
and desperately I die.
And never before have I loved life so much!
(He bursts into sobs)
This is an other one of those situations where the singer is singing in a different language than the one in which the aria was written. So, rather than driving myself crazy to find the German translation that Slezak is singing, I am posting the original aria so that you will have an idea of what he is singing.
Massenet, Manon, “Ah! Fuyez douce image”
Je suis seul! Seul enfin!
C’est le moment suprême!
Il n’est plus rien que j’aime
que le repos sacré que m’apporte la foi!
Oui, j’ai voulu mettre Dieu même
entre le monde et moi !
Ah! fuyez, douce image, à mon âme trop chère;
respectez un repos cruellement gagné,
et songez si j’ai bu dans une voupe amère.
que mon cœur l’emplirait de ce qu’il a saigné!
Ah! fuyez! fuyez! loin de moi!
Que m’importe la vie et ce semblant de gloire?
Je ne veux que chasser du fond de ma mémoire…
Un nom maudit! … ce nom … qui m’obsède, et pourquoi?
Massenet, Manon, “Ah! Vanish sweet memory”
I am alone! At last alone!
It is the supreme moment!
There is nothing more that I love
except the sacred calm that my faith brings me.
Yes, I have sought to place God himself
between the world and me.
Ah! Vanish sweet memory too dear to my heart;
respect a calm won through much suffering,
and remember that if I have tasted of a bitter cup,
my heart could fill it full with the blood it has shed!
Ah! Vanish, vanish, go far from me!
Life itself and sham glory mean nothing to me.
I want only to expel from the depths of my memory…
A cursed name!… this name… which obsesses me, and why?
Schumann, “Der Nussbaum”, Op. 25
Es grünet ein Nussbaum, vor dem Haus,
Duftig,
Luftig
Breitet er blättrig die Blätter aus.
Viel liebliche Blüten stehen dran,
Linde,
Winde
Kommen, sie herzlich zu umfahn.
Es flüstern je zwei zu zwei gepaart,
Neigend,
Beugend
Zierlich zum Kusse die Häuptchen zart.
Sie flüstern von einem Mägdlein, das
Dächte,
Die Nächte
Und Tage lang, wusste ach! selber nicht was.
Sie flüstern—wer mag verstehen so gar
Leise,
Weis’?
Flüstern von Bräut’gam und nächstem Jahr.
Das Mägdlien horchet, es rauscht im Baum;
Sehnend,
Wähnend
Sinkt es lächelnd in Schlaf und Traum.
Schumann, “The Nut Tree”, Op. 25
A nut tree blossoms outside the house,
Fragrantly,
Airily,
It spreads its petaled boughs out.
Many lovely blossoms it bears,
Gentle
Winds
Come to caress them tenderly.
Paired together, they whisper,
Inclining,
Bending
Gracefully their delicate heads to kiss.
They whisper of a maiden who
Dreamed,
For nights
And days of, alas, she knew not what.
They whisper—who can understand
So softly
A song?
They whisper of a bridegroom and next year.
The maiden listens, the tree rustles;
Yearning,
Imagining
She sinks smiling into sleep and dreams.
Strauss, “Morgen!”, Op. 27, No.4
Und morgen wird die Sonne wieder scheinen
Und auf dem Wege, den ich gehen werde,
Wird uns, die Glücklichen, sie wieder einen
Inmitten dieser sonnenatmenden Erde …
Und zu dem Strand, dem weiten, wogenblauen,
Werden wir still und langsam niedersteigen,
Stumm werden wir uns in die Augen schauen,
Und auf uns sinkt des Glückes stummes Schweigen …
Strauss “Tomorrow!” Op. 27, No. 4
And tomorrow the sun will shine again
And on the path that I shall take,
It will unite us, happy ones, again,
Amid this same sun-breathing earth …
And to the shore, broad, blue-waved,
We shall quietly and slowly descend,
Speechless we shall gaze into each other’s eyes,
And the speechless silence of bliss shall fall on us …
Leo Slezak
August 18, 1873 – June 1, 1946
Leo Slezak was a world-famous Moravian tenor. He was associated in particular with Austrian opera as well as the title role in Verdi’s Otello. Born in Šumperk, the son of a miller, Slezak worked briefly as a blacksmith, an engineer’s fitter and served in the army before taking singing lessons with the first-class baritone and pedagogue Adolf Robinson. He made his debut in 1896 in Brno (Brünn) and proceeded to sing leading roles in Bohemia and Germany, appearing at Breslau and, in 1898-99, at Berlin. From 1901 onwards he was a permanent member of the Vienna State Opera’s roster of artists, achieving star status.
International career
Slezak’s international career commenced in London at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where he sang Siegfried and Lohengrin in 1900. (He would return to Covent Garden in 1909 after undertaking further vocal studies in Paris the previous year with a great tenor of a previous era, Jean de Reszke.) Slezak secured a three-year contract with the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1909. Met audiences acclaimed him in performances of works by Wagner and Verdi. Along with Italy’s Giovanni Zenatello, he became the most famous Otello of his generation, famously performing the role at the Met with Arturo Toscanini conducting.
He was a convivial person, and many anecdotes reveal his amiable sense of humour. The best-known example is as follows: during a performance of Wagner’s Lohengrin, a stage hand sent the swan out too early, before the tenor could hop aboard. Seeing his feathered transportation disappear into the wings, Slezak ad-libbed to the audience: “Wann fährt der nächste Schwan?” (“When does the next swan leave?”). Slezak had a versatile repertory which embraced 66 roles. They included notably Rossini’s Guillaume Tell, Manrico, Radames, Walter, Tannhäuser, Hermann and, as we have seen, Otello and Lohengrin. He sang 44 roles in Vienna alone, where he chalked up 936 appearances in 1901-12 and 1917–27 and became an idol of audiences.
A tall barrel-chested man, Slezak possessed a large and attractive lyric-dramatic voice which enabled him to undertake all but the very heaviest Wagnerian parts such as Siegfried or Tristan. He had a distinctive tonal quality, too, which became markedly darker after his studies with de Reszke in 1908. Slezak was a master of mezza-voce singing and he could also deliver haunting head notes. Unfortunately, with time and hard use, his top register developed a strained and unsteady quality when used at full volume, as can be heard on some of his recordings.