Listen on Presto Music. Free thirty day trial. Find out more.

Johan Botha: Wiener Staatsoper Live

1997 - 2014: Beethoven, Wagner, Strauss

Johan Botha (tenor), Christian Gerhaher (Wolfram), Cheryl Studer (Elsa), James Rutherford (Sachs), Angela Denoke (Kundry), Marjana Lipovšek (Amme), Ricarda Merbeth (Daphne), Soile Isokoski (Ariadne), Valentina Nafornită (Najade), Rachel Frenkel (Dryade), Olga Bezsmertna (Echo), Daniela Fally (Zerbinetta)

Orchester...

The recorded sound is produced to a consistently pleasing quality, and one does sense the special atmosphere of the live performance. Live at Wiener Staatsoper, this first-rate collection is... — MusicWeb International, August 2017 More…

Release Date: 13th Apr 2017
Catalogue No: C906171B
Label: Orfeo
Series: Wiener Staatsoper Live
Length: 72 minutes

Presto Editor's Choice

April 2017

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Excerpt, Beethoven: Fidelio, Op. 72

Work length7:55

$2.00

$2.60

Johan Botha
Wiener Staatsoper
Seiji Ozawa

Act II: Gott! Welch' Dunkel hier! - In des Lebens Frühlingstagen

Track length7:55

$2.00

$2.60

Excerpt, Wagner: Tannhäuser

Work length12:44

$3.00

$3.85

Johan Botha, Christian Gerhaher
Wiener Staatsoper
Franz Welser-Möst

Act III: Hör an, Wolfram, hör an! Inbrunst im Herzen

Track length12:44

$3.00

$3.85

Excerpt, Wagner: Lohengrin

Work length8:00

$2.00

$2.60

Johan Botha, Cheryl Studer
Wiener Staatsoper
Simone Young

Act III: Atmest du nicht mit mir die süßen Düfte - Höchstes Vertrauen

Track length8:00

$2.00

$2.60

Excerpt, Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

Work length7:34

$2.00

$2.60

Johan Botha, James Rutherford
Wiener Staatsoper
Simone Young

Act III: Morgenlich leuchtend in rosigem Schein

Track length7:34

$2.00

$2.60

Excerpt, Wagner: Parsifal

Work length11:33

$3.00

$3.85

Johan Botha, Angela Denoke
Wiener Staatsoper
Donald Runnicles

Act II: Whe! Wehe! Was tat ich?

Track length11:33

$3.00

$3.85

Excerpt, Strauss, R: Die Frau ohne Schatten

Work length5:07

$1.00

$1.30

Johan Botha, Marjana Lipovsek
Wiener Staatsoper
Giuseppe Sinopoli

Act I: Amme! Wachst du?

Track length5:07

$1.00

$1.30

Excerpt, Strauss, R: Daphne

Work length6:20

$1.00

$1.30

Johan Botha, Ricarda Merbeth, Michael Schade
Wiener Staatsoper
Semyon Bychkov

Zu dir nun, Knabe!

Track length6:20

$1.00

$1.30

Excerpt, Strauss, R: Ariadne auf Naxos

Work length13:37

$3.00

$3.85

Johan Botha, Soile Isokoski, Valentina Nafornița, Rachel Frenkel, Olga Bezsmertna, Daniela Fally
Wiener Staatsoper
Christian Thielemann

Bin ich ein Gott, schuf mich ein Gott

Track length13:37

$3.00

$3.85

About
Reviews
Explore

About

Johan Botha’s unfailingly radiant voice – notably in the middle register – established him over many years as a Strauss and Wagner singer par excellence, but most of all as a youthful hero, and not as a weighty heroic tenor. In fact Tannhäuser was something of a marginal role for him, but what a role! The recording of the Rome episode in the Vienna State Opera premiere of June 16, 2010, with which (after the Florestan aria from Fidelio) the CD’s fourpart Wagner portrait begins with excerpts from Vienna Staatsoper productions, movingly reveals how as a suffering yet passionate pilgrim – at the side of Christian Gerhaher as Wolfram – he returns from Rome dejected and unredeemed. The bridal-chamber scene from the third act of Lohengrin looks back to Botha’s early years at the Staatsoper. Opposite Cheryl Studer as Elsa, he was just 31 years old in 1997. Fifteen years later, Botha is an ideal, alert Walther von Stolzing, who after a night of dreams reveals his Prize Song to cobbler-poet Hans Sachs, who in turn refines it and writes it down. The Franconian knight was known to be his favourite Wagner part ever since his sensational debut in the role at the Vienna Volksoper in 1998. And in 2004, Botha begins his scene with Kundry (Angela Denoke) from the second act of Parsifal as a guileless youth whose cries of “Amfortas!” after Kundry’s kiss and the knowledge that it brings are possessed of a troubling primal force. Three of the loveliest and most important Strauss roles are also to be found on the CD. In addition to the Emperor (Die Frau ohne Schatten), whom Botha had already sung to great acclaim at the Salzburg Festival in 2011 and reprised in 2013 for the 50th anniversary of the reopening of the Nationaltheater in Munich, we hear his proudly dominant Apollo (Daphne). At the climactic moment of the opera, the conflict between the god and the two mortals ends with Apollo’s sudden extinction of his human rival. The most moving scene comes perhaps at the close of Ariadne auf Naxos, when a figure hailed as Hermes, the divine messenger of death, proves to be Bacchus, the god of love, and Ariadne (Soile Isokoski) timidly asks him: “Is there no farther shore, are we there already?” The recording of October 18, 2014 captures one of Johan Botha’s last appearances at the Vienna Staatsoper. He died on September 8, 2016 – aged just fifty-one

Artists

Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper, Seiji Ozawa, Franz Welser-Möst, Simone Young, Donald Runnicles, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Semyon Bychkov, Christian Thielemann

Reviews

August 2017

The recorded sound is produced to a consistently pleasing quality, and one does sense the special atmosphere of the live performance. Live at Wiener Staatsoper, this first-rate collection is testament to Johan Botha’s assured musicianship in some of his finest Wagner and Richard Strauss roles.

December 2017

Botha’s lyrical grace and power are immediately evident in the opening track.
Tannhäuser shows his identification with the bel canto aspect of the music and he sings Walther’s prize Song with glowing ease.

April 2017

A wonderful (if bitter-sweet) memorial to the magnificent South African heldentenor, who died last September aged just 49; live excerpts from the punishing Strauss and Wagner roles which he sang with such seemingly effortless power and stamina showcase his golden tone and naturally communicative style as a vocal actor.

Johan Botha: Wiener Staatsoper Live

CD

Downloads

Contents

Download queue