Nina Stemme: Wagner - Die Walküre, 'Der Männer Sippe'

Описание: Nina Stemme (born May 11, 1963 in Stockholm) is an opera singer known for her warm, solid spinto soprano voice, with some qualities of a dramatic soprano. She sang in two singing competitions, Operalia, The World Opera Competition and Cardiff Singer of the World. As winner of Operalia in 1993, Stemme was invited by Placido Domingo, founder of Operalia, to appear with him in a concert at La Bastille (1993); the same concert also took place on January 1, 1994, in Munich. Since her operatic debut as Cherubino in Cortona, Italy, Stemme has appeared with many opera companies, including the Royal Swedish Opera Stockholm, the Vienna State Opera, Semperoper Dresden, Geneva, Zürich, Teatro San Carlo Naples, Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera New York, and San Francisco Opera, as well as at the Bayreuth, Salzburg, Savonlinna, Glyndebourne and Bregenz festivals. Her roles include Rosalinde, Mimi in La bohème, Cio-Cio-San in Madame Butterfly, Tosca, Manon Lescaut, Suor Angelica, Euridice, Katerina in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, Marguerite, Agathe, Marie, Nyssia (König Kandaules), Jenůfa, Marschallin, Eva, Elisabeth, Elsa, Senta, Sieglinde, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser and Isolde. This last brought her critical acclaim at Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 2003, on disc for EMI Classics with Plácido Domingo, Antonio Pappano and the chorus and orchestra of the Royal Opera, Covent Garden released in 2005 and most recently at the Bayreuth Festival in 2005 and again in 2006. In 2007 Stemme returned in the role of Isolde to Glyndebourne Festival Opera where she first made her debut in the role... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Stemme


Lyrics & English Translation

The men of his family
sat in the room here,
they were guests at Hunding's wedding.
He was marrying a woman
who, without being asked,
robbers had made wife.
Sadly I sat
while they drank.
A stranger came in,
an old man in a grey cloak;
his hat was pulled down
so as to cover one eye.
But the glint of the other
made them all afraid,
when the men saw
its autority and sternness.
To me alone
his eye suggested
sweet, longing sadness,
tears and comfort both together.
He looked at me
and glowered at them
while a sword flashed in his hand.
This he thrust
in the tree trunk,
it lodged there right up to the hilt.
The blade would belong to anyone
who pulled it out of the tree.
All the men,
bravely as they tried,
failed to win the weapon.
Visitors came
and visitors went.
The strongest tugged at the hilt,
but it moved not an inch from the tree.
The sword remains silently there.
Then I knew who is was
that had greeted me in my grief:
and I know too
for whom alone
he fixed the sword in the tree.
Oh! could I find him now
and here, that friend,
if he came from far away
to the most miserable of women:
all that I suffered
in bitter sorrow,
all that caused me pain
in my shame and dishonour -
sweetest revenge
would pay for it all!
I would retrieve
what I lost;
what I wept for
would be won back to me;
if I found this sacred friend
my arms would embrace him as a hero.


A link to this wonderful artists personal website: http://www.ninastemme.com/


Please Enjoy!

I send my kind and warm regards,