Anja Silja
Anja Silja | |
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Born | |
Occupation | Opera singer (soprano) |
Years active | 1956–present |
Anja Silja Regina Langwagen (pronounced [ˈanja ˈzɪlja], born 17 April 1940[1]) is a German soprano singer.
Biography
Born in Berlin, Silja began her operatic career at a very early age, with her grandfather, Egon Friedrich Maria Anders van Rijn, as her voice teacher. She sang Rosina in Rossini's
She had a breakthrough in 1959 as the Queen of Night in Mozart's
She made her debut in 1960 at the Bayreuth Festival, as Senta in Der fliegende Holländer. At Bayreuth (until 1967), she also sang Elsa von Brabant in Lohengrin (opposite Astrid Varnay), both Venus and Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Freia in Das Rheingold and Waldvogel in Siegfried, among others. Outside Bayreuth, the soprano appeared in Wieland Wagner's productions of Salome by Strauss, Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Die Walküre and Siegfried (as Brünnhilde), Elektra by Strauss, Beethoven's Fidelio, Verdi's Otello, Alban Berg's Lulu and Wozzeck (conducted by Pierre Boulez). Of her Salome, Harold Rosenthal wrote in Opera in 1968:
Anja Silja's performance was a tour-de-force. Her voice is not beautiful by any stretch of the imagination, but it is clearly projected, and every phrase carries its overtones—psychological not musical—which suggest the child-like degenerate, over-sexed princess in all too clear a manner. Her nervous, almost thin body is never still; she rolls on her stomach and on her back; she crawls, she slithers, she leaps, she kneels…. There is no denying that this is one of the great performances of our time.
Additional new roles in the 1960s were Jenny Smith in Weill's
Silja continued her career with appearances at Trieste, the
In the 1980s, Silja added Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (opposite
Silja made her debut as a stage director in 1990 at Brussels with Lohengrin. She then assumed the roles of Agave in The Bassarids (at Carnegie Hall), Ortrud in Lohengrin (in
Silja now resides in Paris, having purchased the former home of the conductor André Cluytens.[5] In January 2013, she sang the role of the Grandmother ("Babulenka") in The Gambler, in Frankfurt, in the production by Harry Kupfer, and in 2017 she performed Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire and was the narrator in Gurre-Lieder in Hamburg, conducted by Kent Nagano.
Recordings
- Wagner
- Der fliegende Holländer (Crass; Sawallisch, 1961) [live] Philips
- Lohengrin (Varnay, Thomas, Vinay; Sawallisch, 1962) [live] Philips
- Tannhäuser (Bumbry, Windgassen; Sawallisch, 1962) [live] Philips
- Das Rheingold (Windgassen, Adam; Böhm, 1966) [live] Philips
- Götterdämmerung (Nilsson, Windgassen; Böhm, 1967) [live] Philips
- Der fliegende Holländer (Adam, Talvela; Klemperer, 1968) EMI
- Die Walküre (Schnaut, Marc, Elming, Hale; Dohnányi, 1992) Decca Records
- Beethoven
- Eurodisc
- Puccini
- Tosca: excerpts [in German] (King, Fischer-Dieskau; Maazel, 1966) Decca Records
- Berg
- Strauss
- Salome: final scene (Dohnányi, 1973) Decca Records
- Salome (Nielsen, Hale; Schønwandt, 1997) Chandos Records
- Schoenberg
- Erwartung; Sechs Lieder (Dohnányi, 1979) Decca Records
- Pierrot Lunaire (Craft, 1999) Koch Entertainment
- Erwartung (Craft, 2000) Koch Entertainment
- Henze
- Weill
- Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (Schlemm, Neumann; Latham-König, 1985) Capriccio
- Die sieben Todsünden (Nowak, 2002) hänssler
- Janáček
- Jenůfa (Mattila, Silvasti, Hadley; Haitink, 2001) [live] Erato Records
- Russian Songs (RCA Red Seal
Commercial videography
- Ludwig van Beethoven
- Fidelio (Popp, Cassilly, Adam; L.Ludwig, Hess, 1968) Arthaus
- Engelbert Humperdinck
- Hänsel und Gretel (Damrau, Kirchschlager, Allen; C.Davis, Leiser/Caurier, 2008) [live] Opus Arte
- Leoš Janáček
- Jenůfa (R.Alexander; A.Davis, Lehnhoff, 1989) [live] Kultur
- The Makropulos Affair (Tear; A.Davis, Lehnhoff, 1995) [live] Kultur
- Richard Strauss
- Salome (Malfitano, Terfel; Dohnányi, Bondy, 1997) [live] Decca
- Francis Poulenc
- Dialogues des Carmélites (Schellenberger, Aikin; Muti, Carsen, 2004) [live] TDK
References
- ^ Tommasini, Anthony (13 February 2007). "Bayreuth Star Goes on to Ovations in Her 60s". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 February 2007.
- ^ Oper Frankfurt(November 1963). The Musical Times, 104 (1449): pp. 798–802.
- ^ Ashley, Tim (22 June 2001). "If you've really loved once then life is over". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 February 2007.
- ^ Simeone, Nigel, "Opera and Concert Reports: Jenůfa/The Makropoulos Case" (July 1989). The Musical Times, 130 (1757): pp. 422–429.
- Telegraph. Archivedfrom the original on 29 January 2014. Retrieved 18 February 2007.
Further reading
- Liese, Kirsten, Wagnerian Heroines. A Century Of Great Isoldes and Brünnhildes, English translation: Charles Scribner, Edition Karo, Berlin, 2013. OCLC 844683799
Bibliography
- Anja Silja, by Josef Heinzelmann, Rembrandt Verlag, 1965.
- Die Sehnsucht nach dem Unerreichbaren, by Anja Silja (with Hubert Ortkemper), Parthus Verlag Berlin, 1999. ISBN 3-932529-29-4
External links
- Interview with Anja Silja by Bruce Duffie, 5 December 1996.
- Colbert Artists Management Inc.
- Anja Silja at IMDb