I was introduced to Matti Salminen as Hagen in Gottedammerung - terrifying and huge. So sensitive here, touching with ease, I love this. What a versatile singer. Bravo!
Salminen is my favorite Sarastro--his voice is rich yet supple --so many basses in this roll have a very limited dynamic range and lose their phrasing and tone color in as they hit the bottom of their range. Salminen is a fine musician with the technique that allows him to vary his tonal color to emphasize both the text and the subtleties of Mozart's melodic phrasing.
En estas naves sagradas no se conoce la venganza; y si un hombre ha caído, el amor lo conduce al deber. Entonces camina alegre y contento, junto al amigo hacia un país mejor. En estos muros sagrados, donde el hombre ama al hombre, no puede acechar ningún traidor, porque al amigo se le perdona. Quien no ama estas doctrinas no merece ser un hombre Perfecto! =)
Interesting to watch his upper lip. I wonder why he does that - he's the only singer I've seen be so adamant about covering his upper teeth. Seems to be very tense.
i mean, wasn't she by order of her mother to kill him? so the kife? her indecision, it isnt that terrible of a staging as people have said, and his touchy feely behavior doesnt come off as perverse to me. he is almost god/christ/father like. the costumes are modern. oh well. i liked it.
I agree that he sounds great, but I think that kind of technique might be impossible if he were to sing anything requiring great agility, just because his tongue has to move back up after every syllable.
I noticed that also. Opera singers can do weird things with their tongue, and some have very specific instructions about where tongue should go. I don't believe any of that. Worrying about where the tongue goes won't help you sing
a great singer although quite late in his carrier. The cliched and vulgar implications of the staging however, run totally counter to the spirit of the music, but then we have become used to having to put up with these childish and often perverse "concepts" by untalented, uneducated so-called directors desperate to make their mark.
I completely agree with eoselan about the staging, it's silly. The opera is the MAGIC FLUTE, not the MAGIC REFRIGERATOR!!!!! Salminen sings beautifully, and presents a very "simpatico" interpretation of Sarasstro.