8.111347 bk DellaCasa_EU 22-10-2009 8:17 Pagina 5 Arabella: Act 2 Arabella: Act 3 # Der Richtige, so hab’ ich still zu mir gesagt 7:04 $ Das war sehr gut, Mandryka 8:15 Lisa della Casa, Soprano Lisa della Casa, Soprano R. STRAUSS Paul Schoeffler, Bass-baritone Alfred Poell, Baritone Also available Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Four Last Songs • Arias and Scenes from Heinrich Hollreiser Rudolf Moralt Arabella, Capriccio and Ariadne auf Naxos Recorded at the Musikvereinssaal, Vienna, Recorded at the Musikvereinssaal, Vienna, 21-23 April, 1954 19-20th May, 1952 DELLA C First issued on Decca LXT 5017 First issued on Decca LXT 2865 SA AS LI A Reissue Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn Special thanks to Maynard F. Bertolet, Nathan Brown and Charles Niss 8.111300 8.111287 1 s 952 ing -1954 Record Lisa della Casa Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra 8.111340 8.111284-85 Karl Böhm • Heinrich Hollreiser • Rudolf Moralt 8.111347 5 8.111347 6 8.111347 bk DellaCasa_EU 22-10-2009 8:17 Pagina 2 Great Singers • Lisa della Casa 1974 she unexpectedly announced her retirement. She on this occasion was Karl Böhm, a close associate of Great Singers • Lisa della Casa settled with her husband in a magnificent castle in Strauss and the dedicatee of his opera Daphne. For R. STRAUSS (1864-1949): Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs) Switzerland, where she celebrated her ninetieth birthday many this recording is one of the finest ever to have RICHARD STRAUSS (1864-1949): Capriccio: Final Scene 20:32 Arias and Scenes from Arabella, Capriccio and Ariadne auf Naxos at the beginning of 2009. been committed to disc of this masterpiece. In the Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs) 18:40 (Libretto: Clemens Krauss) Lisa della Casa possessed all the attributes required spring of 1954 Della Casa recorded another set of key 1 I. Beim Schlafengehen 5:15 6 Andante con moto (Mondscheinmusik) 3:53 The Swiss soprano Lisa della Casa was internationally Figaro at Glyndebourne in 1951, the year in which she to excel in her chosen repertoire. Possessing great excerpts from the Strauss operatic oeuvre for Decca. On recognised throughout her professional career as one of appeared in the title rôle of Arabella for the first time, personal beauty, she looked superb on the operatic this occasion the conductor was Heinrich Hollreiser, (Text: Hermann Hesse) Orchestra the finest Strauss and Mozart sopranos of her with the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. She repeated stage, which she commanded naturally and with great who led more post-war performances at the Vienna 2 II. September (Text: Hermann Hesse) 4:01 7 Wo ist mein Bruder? 1:44 generation. Her recordings provide eloquent testimony this rôle with great success when this company visited charisma. At the same time her voice was ideally suited State Opera than any other conductor to date. The of her vocal beauty, her innate sense of musical style Covent Garden in 1953 (a recording of a broadcast from to Strauss’s rhapsodic vocal writing, which she was able centre-piece of these sessions was Della Casa’s 3 III. Frühling (Text: Hermann Hesse) 3:19 8 Morgen mittag um elf! 1:19 and her deeply felt operatic interpretations. the run of this production has been published). During to realise absolutely, and without any hint of effort. In incomparable account of the closing scene from 4 IV. Im Abendrot 6:05 9 Kein Andres, das mir so im Herzen loht 4:02 the words of the distinguished critic, John Steane: Strauss’s final opera Capriccio, which regrettably she Lisa della Casa was born in the Swiss canton of the previous year, 1952, she had received the honorary 0 Burgdorf in 1919 into a family of Italian, Swiss and title of Kammersängerin of Austria, and had sung Eva ‘Della Casa remains one of the best of all sopranos in did not record complete in the studio, thus greatly (Text: Joseph von Eichendorff) Ihre Liebe, schlägt mir entgegen 5:51 German extraction: her father was a doctor. She began in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Bayreuth Richard Strauss. Her voice has that touch of spring and enhancing the value of this recording. In this climactic Lisa della Casa, Soprano ! Du Spiegelbild der verliebten Madeleine 3:43 to study singing when she was fifteen years old at the Festival, but chose not to return there, citing her dislike silver that Strauss loved and wrote for; her tone will scene the Countess tries to decide upon which is more Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Lisa della Casa, Soprano • Franz Bierbach, Bass Zurich Conservatory with Margarete Haeser, her only of operatic intrigue. She returned to the Salzburg float and soar.’ important in opera, the music or the words: she asks her vocal teacher. She made her operatic début in the title Festival on the other hand regularly: her rôles there The English record company Decca, which through mirror to decide for her, but of course it cannot. The Karl Böhm Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra rôle of Madama Butterfly at the Municipal Theatre of included Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier (1953), its European chief Moritz Rosengarten (based in major-domo announces that ‘Dinner is served’, as the Recorded at the Musikvereinssaal, Vienna, Heinrich Hollreiser Solothurn-Biel in 1941. Two years later, already active Ariadne in Ariadne auf Naxos (1954-55), Donna Elvira Switzerland) was always especially well informed opera ends (tracks 6-!). Unlike the Countess in as an actress and a concert singer, she joined the in Don Giovanni (1956), Chrysothemis in Elektra about Austrian musical success, was quick to sign up Capriccio, the mythical Ariadne in Ariadne auf Naxos June, 1953 Recorded at the Musikvereinssaal, Vienna, ensemble of the Zurich Opera House. She remained (1957), Pamina in Die Zaubeflöte (1959), the della Casa to record for it. As early as 1952 it had is less certain of her position and sings Es gibt ein Reich First issued on Decca LXT 2865 21-23 April, 1954 with this company until 1950, her parts including Mimì Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier (1960, for the engaged her to sing two of the highlights from Arabella, as an expression of her dismay at being marooned on (La Bohème), and the Queen of the Night (Die opening of the large Festspielhaus) and the Countess in the ecstatic duet from Act I in which Arabella and her the island of Naxos and separated from any lover (track First issued on Decca LXT 5017 Zaublerflöte), as well Serena (Porgy and Bess) and the Figaro (1960). Between 1953 and 1968 she sang younger sister Zdenka sing of their respective amatory 5 ). To complement the extracts from Arabella Ariadne auf Naxos @ Young Woman in the world première of Paul regularly at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, hopes (track ), and the sublime final love duet recorded earlier in 1952, Decca invited della Casa to (Libretto: Hugo von Hofmannsthal) Arabella: Act 1 Burkhard’s Die schwarze Spinne. In 1946 she sang where her rôles included Mozart’s Countess, Donna between Arabella and her ‘right one’ Mandryka, after sing the beautiful love duet from the second act of the Zdenka in Richard Strauss’s opera Arabella opposite Elvira, Eva, Butterfly, and Arabella, as well as Elsa various misunderstandings had come between them opera, in which Arabella and Mandryka first realise that 5 Es gibt ein Reich 5:45 (Libretto: Hugo von Hofmannsthal) the soprano Maria Cebotari in the title rôle. Impressed, (Lohengrin) and Saffi (Der Zigeunerbaron) (given in (track $). On these recordings Della Casa sang with life has irrevocably changed for them as a result of their Lisa della Casa, Soprano @ Es ist der Richtige nicht fur mich 7:05 Cebotari recommended her to the Salzburg Festival, English). She sang the Marschallin for the first time in colleagues from the Vienna State Opera, the high encounter (track @). On this occasion, another great where she repeated the same rôle in 1947, this time 1955 on the occasion of the re-opening of the Vienna soprano Hilde Gueden and the baritone Alfred Poell, Viennese baritone, Paul Schoeffler, took the part of Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Lisa della Casa, Soprano opposite Maria Reining and Hans Hotter. After hearing State Opera: she had thus sung all the three major with Rudolf Moralt, a key figure in Viennese musical Mandryka. This was not to be by any means Lisa della Heinrich Hollreiser Hilde Gueden, Soprano her performance, Richard Strauss himself prophetically female parts in this opera. life at this time, conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Casa’s last assignment for Decca in relation to this rôle. commented, ‘That girl will be the Arabella some day!’ During the 1960s Della Casa extended her Orchestra. A year later, in 1953, Decca invited her to In 1957 she was to record the complete opera for Decca Recorded at the Musikvereinssaal, Vienna, Vienna, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra In the same year she married the Yugoslav writer repertoire to parts such as the title rôles in Strauss’s return to its Viennese studios to make the first with the then young Hungarian maestro Georg Solti at 21-23 April, 1954 Rudolf Moralt Dragan Debeljevic and made her début at the Vienna Salome, which she sang in Munich in 1961, and commercial recording of one of Strauss’s most sublime the helm with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, in the Musikvereinsaal, Vienna Recorded at the Musikvereinssaal, Vienna, State Opera as Gilda in Rigoletto. She quickly became a Puccini’s Tosca, before returning to her signature rôles works, his Four Last Songs, composed in 1948 when standing in for Böhm. This recording captured for member of this distinguished company, where her early in Mozart and Strauss operas.