Anja Silja

Anja Silja, born April 17, 1940 [cite news | url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/13/arts/music/13anja.html?ex=1329022800&en=06b72b0988ccd483&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss | title=Bayreuth Star Goes on to Ovations in Her 60s | publisher="New York Times" | author=Anthony Tomassini | date=2007-02-13 | accessdate=2007-02-18] , in Berlin, is a German soprano who is known for her great abilities as a singing-actress and for the vastness of her repertoire.

Anja Silja began her operatic career at a very early age, with her grandfather, Egon Friedrich Maria Anders van Rijn, as her voice teacher. She sang Rosina in Rossini's "Il barbiere di Siviglia" at Braunschweig, in 1956, following this with Micaëla in "Carmen" and Zerbinetta in "Ariadne auf Naxos". The important part of her career began in 1959, when she sang the Queen of Night in Mozart's "Die Zauberflöte" at the Staatsoper in Vienna (under Karl Böhm) and the Aix-en-Provence Festival. "France-Soir" immediately dubbed her "a second Callas." Other early roles included Leonora in "Il trovatore", Santuzza in "Cavalleria rusticana", the four heroines of "Les contes d'Hoffmann", Konstanze in "Die Entführung aus dem Serail" ["Frankfurt City Opera" (November 1963). "The Musical Times", 104 (1449): pp. 798-802.] , and Fiordiligi in "Così fan tutte".

After her debut in 1960 at the Bayreuth Festival, as Senta in "Der fliegende Holländer", she began a relationship with the stage director Wieland Wagner. At Bayreuth, she also sang Elsa in "Lohengrin" (opposite Astrid Varnay), Elisabeth in "Tannhäuser", Eva in "Die Meistersinger", Venus in "Tannhäuser", Freia in "Das Rheingold", the Waldvogel in "Siegfried", etc. Outside Bayreuth, the soprano appeared in Wieland Wagner's productions of "Salome", "Tristan und Isolde", "Die Walküre" and "Siegfried" (as Brünnhilde), "Elektra", "Fidelio", "Otello", "Lulu", "Wozzeck" (conducted by Pierre Boulez), and other operas. Of her Salome, Harold Rosenthal wrote in "Opera", in 1968:

"Anja Silja's performance was a tour-de-force. Her voice is not beautiful by any stretch of the imagination, but it is clearly projected, and every phrase carries its overtones—psychological not musical—which suggest the child-like degenerate, over-sexed princess in all too clear a manner. Her nervous, almost thin body is never still; she rolls on her stomach and on her back; she crawls, she slithers, she leaps, she kneels…. There is no denying that this is one of the great performances of our time."

Following Wieland Wagner's death in 1966, Silja entered into a relationship with the conductor André Cluytens. Additional new roles in the 1960s were Sieglinde ("Die Walküre"), Ariadne, Jenny Smith ("Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny"), Lady Macbeth ("Macbeth"), Violetta Valéry ("La traviata"), "Turandot" (first Liù, then the title role), Lucy ("The Telephone"), Cassandre ("Les troyens", opposite Jon Vickers) and Renata in "The Fiery Angel". She was seen in Frankfurt, Toulouse, Paris, Turin, Naples, Stuttgart, Zurich, Barcelona, Geneva, The Netherlands, Budapest, London (Royal Festival Hall, then Covent Garden), San Francisco (her American debut, in 1968, as Salome), and Chicago. That first Lady Macbeth, in 1967, was conducted by Christoph von Dohnányi, with whom she had a long relationship, including a marriage that produced three children. They divorced in the 1990s, during Dohnányi's tenure with the Cleveland Orchestra.

Silja continued her career with appearances at Trieste, the Edinburgh Festival, the Salzburg Festival, Barcelona, Metropolitan Opera ("Fidelio" and "Salome", 1972), Paris ("Erwartung", under Sir Georg Solti), Berlin, Cologne ("La fanciulla del West", directed by Hans Neugebauer), Vienna (world premiere of Einem's "Kabale und Liebe") and Brussels. Other new roles in this period were Emilia Marty in "The Makropoulos Case" [cite news | url=http://arts.guardian.co.uk/fridayreview/story/0,,734553,00.html | title='If you've really loved once then life is over' | publisher="The Guardian" | author=Tim Ashley | date=2001-06-22 | accessdate=2007-02-18] , Leonora in "La forza del destino", "Médée", "Die lustige Witwe", "Carmen" (staged by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle), Princesse Eudoxie in "La juive", "Katya Kabanova", "Tosca", Tatyana in "Eugene Onegin", and "Die Königen von Saba" (conducted by Julius Rudel).

In the 1980s, Silja added "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" (opposite Chester Ludgin), "La Cubana", Regan in "Lear", Prinz Orlofsky in "Die Fledermaus" (with Karita Mattila and Judith Blegen, staged by Maurice Béjart), the Kostelnička in "Jenůfa" (at the Glyndebourne Festival) [Simeone, Nigel, "Opera and Concert Reports: "Jenůfa"/"The Makropoulos Case" (July 1989). "The Musical Times", 130 (1757): pp. 422-429.] , Grete in "Der ferne Klang", and the Nurse in "Die Frau ohne Schatten" (opposite Dame Gwyneth Jones as Barak's Wife).

Silja made her debut as a stage director in 1990 at Brussels with "Lohengrin". She then assumed the roles of Agave in "The Bassarids" (at Carnegie Hall), Ortrud in "Lohengrin" (in Robert Wilson's production), Herodias in "Salome", Anna I in "Die sieben Todsünden", Klytämnestra in "Elektra", Jocasta in "Œdipus rex" (opposite René Kollo), Mother Marie of the Incarnation in "Dialogues des Carmélites", "Pierrot lunaire", Judith in "Bluebeard's Castle", Countess Geschwitz in "Lulu", Madame de Croissy in "Dialogues des Carmélites" (her Teatro alla Scala debut, under Riccardo Muti, 2004), "La voix humaine", and Míla's Mother in "Osud". She was first heard in Cleveland, Boston, Madrid, Leipzig, Prague, and Rio de Janeiro in these recent seasons. Her 2001 recording of "Jenůfa", from Covent Garden, won a Grammy Award.

Mme Silja recently added the role of the Comtesse, in "Pique-dame" at Vienna's Staatsoper (conducted by Seiji Ozawa), which was seen from Fall 2007 through June 2008. She now resides in Paris, having purchased the former home of André Cluytens. [cite news | url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2001/09/27/tlbmas27.xml | title=A femme fatale faces the music | publisher="Telegraph" | author=Michael White | date=2001-09-27 | accessdate=2007-02-18]

Commercial Discography

* Richard Wagner
** "Der fliegende Holländer" (Crass; Sawallisch, 1961) [live] Philips
** "Lohengrin" (Varnay, Thomas, Vinay; Sawallisch, 1962) [live] Philips
** "Tannhäuser" (Bumbry, Windgassen; Sawallisch, 1962) [live] Philips
** "Das Rheingold" (Windgassen, Adam; Böhm, 1966) [live] Philips
** "Götterdämmerung" (Nilsson, Windgassen; Böhm, 1967) [live] Philips
** "Der fliegende Holländer" (Adam, Talvela; Klemperer, 1968) EMI
** "Die Walküre" (Schnaut, Marc, Elming, Hale; Dohnányi, 1992) Decca Records
* Ludwig van Beethoven
** "Fidelio" : excerpts (Sergi; Matačić, 1964) Eurodisc
* Giacomo Puccini
** "Tosca": excerpts [in German] (King, Fischer-Dieskau; Maazel, 1966) Decca Records
* Alban Berg
** "Lulu" : Lulu-Suite (Dohnányi, 1973) Decca Records
** "Lulu" (Faßbaender, Berry, Hotter; Dohnányi, 1976) Decca Records
** "Wozzeck" (Wächter; Dohnányi, 1979) Decca Records
* Richard Strauss
** "Salome" : final scene (Dohnányi, 1973) Decca Records
** "Salome" (Nielsen, Hale; Schønwandt, 1997) Chandos Records
* Arnold Schoenberg
** "Erwartung" ; "Sechs Lieder" (Dohnányi, 1979) Decca Records
** "Pierrot Lunaire" (Craft, 1999) Koch Entertainment
** "Erwartung" (Craft, 2000) Koch Entertainment
* Hans Werner Henze
** "La Cubana" (Latham-König, 1982) WERGO
* Kurt Weill
** "Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny" (Schlemm, Neumann; Latham-König, 1985) Capriccio
** "Die sieben Todsünden" (Nowak, 2002) hänssler
* Leoš Janáček
** "Jenůfa" (Mattila, Silvasti, Hadley; Haitink, 2001) [live] Erato Records

Commercial Videography

* Ludwig van Beethoven
** "Fidelio" (Popp, Cassilly, Adam; L.Ludwig, Hess, 1968) Arthaus
* Leoš Janáček
** "Jenůfa" (R.Alexander; A.Davis, Lehnhoff, 1989) [live] Kultur
** "The Makropulos Affair" (Tear; A.Davis, Lehnhoff, 1995) [live] Kultur
* Richard Strauss
** "Salome" (Malfitano, Terfel; Dohnányi, Bondy, 1997) [live] Decca
* Francis Poulenc
** "Dialogues des Carmélites" (Schellenberger; Muti, Carsen, 2004) [live] TDK

References

Bibliography

* "Anja Silja", by Josef Heinzelmann, Rembrandt Verlag, 1965.
* "Die Sehnsucht nach dem Unerreichbaren", by Anja Silja (with Hubert Ortkemper), Parthus Verlag Berlin, 1999. ISBN 3-932529-29-4

External links

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRQoVnO2m8w] YouTube: Anja Silja in an excerpt from "Die Walküre", with Theo Adam (1967).