The death of Sylvia Geszty: The prima Donna on the high wire

The flute tones of the third octave, Mozart in the arias of the Queen of the night, as well as required by Richard Strauss in the Kürstück the Zerbinetta (“high and mighty Princess”), are special allocations in the nature. Thanks to her effortless Top notes and her exceptional agility, especially in these areas, the 1934 Budapest-born Sylvia Geszty to the “Queen of coloratura” has been revoked. She was there and she was very much more.

According to two of the novice years of the Budapest state Opera was Sylvia Geszty, 1961, after the Berlin obliged, sang the debut of the voice from heaven in Don Carlos, proven in roles such as Blonde (“the abduction from The seraglio”) and Oscar (“A masked ball”), took in a staging of “the tales of Hoffmann” (Director: Walter Felsenstein), the three-soprano roles, and became as Zerbinetta to the “diva unter den Linden”. As Zerbinetta rope went from now on in Hamburg and in Stuttgart on the high.

The most human representation of all

In the shiny occupied recording of “Ariadne auf Naxos” under Rudolf Kempe (1968), was the Aria, to the Amazement of the technicians and the admiration of the conductors, in a single Take. Their representation of the game of the expression of the warmest, greatest scenic variety and most human representation of all, according to the judgment of the English critic John Steane,””. A year previously, she had to cook with your fire ball-the Staccatos in “The vengeance of hell in my heart” at the Salzburg festival in Sensation play. After their Emigration to West Germany in 1970 and Engagements in Hamburg / Germany (1970-1972) and Stuttgart (1972-1977), guest appearances at the Bavarian and the Vienna state Opera, the Covent Garden Opera and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires followed. Her Repertoire, comprised of the 35 Opera and operetta roles, including the soprano Parts in many oratorios and symphonic works.

it was not part of the type of those “chirping” sopranos, which form the highest sounds with the sallow-sounding whistle register, where the vocal folds do not fully swing. Because the second special allocation, with which nature had given them, was to admire a distinktes Timbre with darker colors and a full sound, if you reward such as the endless coloratura in the “Torture”-Aria of Konstanze with a range from low D to high D – “heaven’s blessing to you” – with full sound offset measures. It may have been due to the educational Tradition that she tended in some Italian Aria of Rosina (“Il Barbiere”), Musetta (La Bohème), Gilda (“Rigoletto”) to accentuate the main notes and auxiliary notes as well – at the expense of melodic tension – sound, to the neglect of a little. The more convincing your color are Values in the French arias: the “Ophelia” from “Hamlet” by Ambroise Thomas, or the waltz song of Juliette from the Opera of Charles Gounod.