THIS PART IS FOR YOUR FAVORITES!
What do you think about greek mezzo-Soprano Agnes Baltsa? Please comment!

Agnes Baltsa, Mezzo-Soprano (born 1944)

Gioacchino Rossini - Il Barbiere di Siviglia
Una voce poco fa
(Recorded 1981)

My personal opinion: With Agnes Baltsa, I´m embarrassed. I remember her first appearances in TV in the mid-1970s, and afterwards, Miss Baltsa became an omnipresent star. No Telecast and no new recording without her, either Carmen or any of her Rossini-Heroine´s. She was exposed as "successor of Maria Callas" (How many we have?), and some infantile critic compared the "greek passion" of both women. For Alan Blyth, she was "The leading dramatic mezzo" (Karajan said the same). So, I´m a little bit in shame to confess, Agnes Baltsa never was one of my favorite mezzos in the dramatic repertoire - because she wasn´t a dramatic voice!. She once said, she had a special sound, made for Mozart and Rossini: Dorabella, Cenerentola and Cherubino. Actually this sound was hearable in her early years, when she sang Octavian (Vienna) or Despina, Cenerentola, Rosina and Isabella. She gave her first Carmen already in 1971, and today she´s most associated with this. But for me, her gypsy is without temptation, without sensuality. And most of all, I miss charm. She never had the flamboyance of Supervia, Calvé or even of de los Angeles, and not the fine nuances of Berganza. When she began with "Les tringles des sistres tintaient", Baltsa sounded like a young Azucena. In Verdi´s "O Don fatale", her Eboli was psychopathic and hysteric. She was much better singing "Una voce" from Rossini´s "Barbiere" (where her cat-like hissing sound is acceptable). As Orfeo (in the genuine conducted Riccardo Muti production by HMV), Baltsa concentrated on her actual lyrical voice and gave a powerful persuasive performance - one of the best Orfeo readings on records at all!
In January 2009, Agnes Baltsa came back to Berlin State opera to performe Klytämnestra in "Elektra". In a review I could read, she acted like a fury with sharp slicing tones. Moreover: "Her Klytämnestra was more parody than event!" A singing fury - a paraphrase I agree with. In 1989 she recorded Santuzza in "Cavalleria Rusticana" with Sinopoli, and I understood, why her Turiddu (Domingo) ran to Lola: This wasn´t a cheated woman in desperation, this was a Xanthippe! Here I took her "Una voce poco fa" from the 1981-Marriner-recording with Araiza and Allen, IMHO a performance with too much aspiration; probably an experiment to copy the diction of Callas.
Agnes Baltsa is in your grace, and with 42 votings she´s up to place 21.

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