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Background
Dagmar Schellenberger is an acclaimed German singer from the cultural powerhouse of Dresden in Saxony. She has a rich and effortless soprano voice that has had her singing in most of the major soprano roles at one time or another. Her singing has been much recorded.
She has however appeared a lot less in videos. And opera without visuals gives only half the story. But the odd thing is that she is not only a great singer but also a consummate actress. In her opera roles she seems to live the part she is playing. She portrays vividly on her face and in her body language an entire emotional life for the character. She is a great pleasure to watch as well as to hear.
Why more of her performances have not been permanently recorded on video I do not know. Since I like Austro/Hungarian operetta, it is videos in that genre that I seek out -- and the only two videos in that genre featuring Schellenberger that I have so far been able to track down are: Lehar's Lustige Witwe in a 2004 performance at Zurich and Emmerich Kalman's Graefin Mariza at Moerbisch in 2004. I have both of them on DVD with English subtitles.
She does of course appear in grander opera but I like happy endings and that rules out almost all 19th century French and Italian opera. So I don't want to see Schellenberger die or suffer other tragedies in such operas.
So i will continue to scour the internet to find more of her in operetta.
If my praise of her seems excessive, reflect that her installation as Intendantin zu Moerbisch is also recognition of a very high order. It means that many people who know a lot more than I do also have great admiration for her artistry.
Meanwhile find on this blog some of my ruminations about the two operettas I have mentioned
A recent picture, now in her late '50s
Dagmar during an interview about "Bettelstudent"
There is an extensive fan site for her here.
She has however appeared a lot less in videos. And opera without visuals gives only half the story. But the odd thing is that she is not only a great singer but also a consummate actress. In her opera roles she seems to live the part she is playing. She portrays vividly on her face and in her body language an entire emotional life for the character. She is a great pleasure to watch as well as to hear.
Why more of her performances have not been permanently recorded on video I do not know. Since I like Austro/Hungarian operetta, it is videos in that genre that I seek out -- and the only two videos in that genre featuring Schellenberger that I have so far been able to track down are: Lehar's Lustige Witwe in a 2004 performance at Zurich and Emmerich Kalman's Graefin Mariza at Moerbisch in 2004. I have both of them on DVD with English subtitles.
She does of course appear in grander opera but I like happy endings and that rules out almost all 19th century French and Italian opera. So I don't want to see Schellenberger die or suffer other tragedies in such operas.
So i will continue to scour the internet to find more of her in operetta.
If my praise of her seems excessive, reflect that her installation as Intendantin zu Moerbisch is also recognition of a very high order. It means that many people who know a lot more than I do also have great admiration for her artistry.
Meanwhile find on this blog some of my ruminations about the two operettas I have mentioned
A recent picture, now in her late '50s
Dagmar during an interview about "Bettelstudent"
There is an extensive fan site for her here.
Contributors
- JR
- My full name is Dr. John Joseph RAY. I am a former university teacher aged 70 at the time of writing in early 2014. I was born of Australian pioneer stock in 1943 at Innisfail in the State of Queensland in Australia. After an early education at Innisfail State Rural School and Cairns State High School, I taught myself for matriculation. I took my B.A. in Psychology from the University of Queensland in Brisbane. I then moved to Sydney (in New South Wales, Australia) and took my M.A. in psychology from the University of Sydney in 1969 and my Ph.D. from the School of Behavioural Sciences at Macquarie University in 1974. I first tutored in psychology at Macquarie University and then taught sociology at the University of NSW. I am Australian born of working class origins and British ancestry. My doctorate is in psychology but I taught mainly sociology in my 14 years as a university teacher. In High Schools I taught economics. I have taught in both traditional and "progressive" (low discipline) High Schools. Fuller biographical notes here
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