Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
by Alan Jefferson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Alan JeffersonEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1996-07-02
ISBN: 1555532721
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Northeastern
Book Reviews of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
Book Review: A needed balance for both artist and woman?
Summary: 4 Stars
I've been waiting for three months to write this review, because I didn't fully understand Jefferson's points: on the one hand this biography resembles a cultural history of postWeimar era (he certainly is an expert in that field); on the other, he starts promisingly what seems is going to be a series of unveiled actions and secrets and deeds performed by Schwarzkopf in Berlin and elsewhere. But he doesn't honour his promise. He limits to suggest that she could've been Goebbels' favourite (lover); that she exercised her radiant and ravishing looks to gain the favour of producers, directors in Berlin and Vienna within a rapacious careerism. He doesn't go any further. Jefferson himself has responded to criticism in Amazon.com saying that he wrote about someone who's still alive and his pains with Editor Victor Gollancz, all of which didn't allow him too much room to display the "proof he has in his hands about Schwarzkopf's deeds with the Nazi Party". We all know if we read in Grove that Schwarzkopf was "cleared" by the Allies late in 1947; so I don't think Jefferson is saying nothing new. We also know that her marriage to perfectionist Walter Legge resulted in a master-slave relationship. But to my view, and as an admirer of Schwarzkopf's art, Jefferson's account is more a ratifying document about human frailty, in this case Elisabeth Schwarzkopf's. I hoped I was going to find in this book some sort of balance between John Steane/Alan Sanders' Schwarzkopf: A career on records and Jefferson's book. The formers put Dame Elisabeth under the light of a goddess. Well, I must say that a goddess of magic with words she was, and that she was quite capable of bringing tears to one's eyes when performing with her voice. Jefferson and Steane: The supreme artist and the very earthly creature. Jefferson's book has several merits: one of the strongest is his marvelous way with Schwarzkopf's interpretations. In spite of his tendency to be dry his reviews and metaphors are very good indeed. As formyself I rather keep in my mind, as when I heard her "in the flesh" and turned pages for Geoffrey Parsons, the memory of Dame Elisabeth's quintessence of femininity, of beauty of looks, of beauty of voice and of sounds that cannot be forgotten. THE BALANCE WAS LOST!!!
Summary of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
Internationally recognized as the finest Mozart and Strauss soprano since World War II, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf was a highly acclaimed performer in both opera and lieder for nearly three decades. In this unauthorized biography of the remarkable diva, Alan Jefferson discusses her unique vocal and interpretive gifts and sheds new light on her life, including her opportunistic membership in the Nazi Party, her personal and professional partnership with maverick impresario Walter Legge, and her working relationships with Europe's leading conductors.Among opera divas, perhaps no star shines as bright as that of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, arguably the finest Mozart and Strauss soprano in the past 50 years. Though she gave her farewell performance in 1979, her recordings remain enormously popular today. So the revelation of her past connections with the Nazi Party must come as something of a shock to her admirers. In his biography Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Alan Jefferson relies on his extensive research of archival information--including the Party's 2,000-page file on Schwarzkopf--to reveal the full extent of her willing cooperation with the Nazis, a relationship that Schwarzkopf has consistently downplayed in the years following the war.
Although Schwarzkopf's Nazi past is undoubtedly a bombshell to her fans, Jefferson is reluctant to emphasize it more than other aspects of his subject's life. He also explores the complicated relationship between Schwarzkopf and her husband and partner, Walter Legge, as well as her working relations with Europe's greatest conductors. Anyone interested in a balanced, truthful account of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf's life and work will find Alan Jefferson's Elisabeth Schwarzkopf fascinating reading.
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