The Compassionate Voice: The Recordings of Anna Tomowa-Sintow

From performances across opera stages worldwide since her 1967 Leipzig debut as Abigaille, Anna Tomowa-Sintow is as well known in the Italian repertoire as she is in the German. Less known in this era of concept-driven stage production¹ is that her artistry is of an almost extinct brand of vocal beauty.² She is the embodiment in our day of the communicative and sincere approach. This essay examines four sets of contrasts in her recordings that give them vitality to move the listener. To plumb her discography is to discover singing of authenticity and personality, and to view her films is to witness theatrical instinct that does not call attention to itself.

However, her distinct timbre commands attention. At the beginning of Tomowa-Sintow's international career, Andrew Porter wrote of her as "an interesting soprano with a complicated timbre not quite schooled to smoothness."³ A lack of legato may surface in the high range during moments of urgency, but if the voice is not always smooth, it is always radiant. The tone contains an impending bloom, by turns creating and releasing tension with the interplay of control and abandon. The embedded bloom creates the encompassing human effect of her singing. After her April 2002 recital including Tchaikovsky, Brahms, and Wagner's Wesendonck-Lieder at London's Wigmore Hall, Tim Ashley characterized her as "an outstanding singer . . . with a voice of blazing sexual power."⁴ Outstanding singing and personal power shape her specialization in certain composers, as well as earn honors.

In Strauss, Tomowa-Sintow soars as Arabella, Ariadne (a recording of which won a 1987 Grammy for Best Opera), the Marschallin, Helena, the Empress, and Madeleine. Recently she performed Salome in concert in Barcelona, Spain, and Sofia, Bulgaria. Puccini exposes her richness, in roles such as Tosca, Manon Lescaut, Butterfly, a concert excerpt from La bohème, and recently Turandot at the 1999 reopening of the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. Powerful Verdi portrayals include Abigaille, Aida, the Amelias, the Leonoras, Desdemona, Elisabetta, and Violetta. Mozart specialties are Donna Anna (the role in which she debuted in San Francisco, New York, and Chicago), the Countess, Fiordiligi, and many of his choral works. She has performed as Bellini's Norma, has sung Wagner's Elsa and Elisabeth, and has concertized Sieglinde and Isolde's "Mild und leise."

The Vienna and Berlin State Operas honored her with the title Kammersängerin, and she participated in the premiere of Orff's De temporum fine comoedia and the revival of Marschner's Der Vampyr. She enjoyed a profound seventeen-year collaboration with Herbert von Karajan. Perhaps in his lush approach to conducting the maestro saw expansive possibilities in the Bulgarian soprano. Karajan said of Anna Tomowa-Sintow that "Toscanini never had access to a voice like hers—she can hit C sharp at nine o'clock in the morning."⁵ His praise telegraphs the size, reliability, and quality of her resources.⁶

Her resources are well represented by off-the-air and in-house material. Live performances of Aida, Otello, and Capriccio have been officially released, and they show a responsive performer in nonstudio conditions. Tomowa-Sintow has recorded opera and choral pieces across the major classical recording labels. She has also been filmed in performance for worldwide television broadcasts. She brings authority to the stage: dignity in Verdi's Requiem, vulnerability in Simon Boccanegra, determination in Andrea Chenier, tenacity in Don Giovanni, and hearty playfulness in "Vilja" from a Moscow concert. In each film she is of the moment with a palpable sense of involvement and a simplicity that belies her timbre.

Such was the case with my first experience of her live. Having heard her Verdi recital, I was prepared for her penetrating sound as the Trovatore...