Anja Silja made this recording when she was well into the fourth decade of her performing career, but the role of Anna in Weill's Die sieben Todsünden is well suited to a voice that sounds like it has had some experience. Silja, in fact, sounds more polished and refined than many of the singers who have taken this part, which Weill wrote for Lotte Lenya, who was hardly noted for the tonal beauty of her instrument. If anything, Silja sounds too operatic, and her performance lacks the rough-edged bite that can heighten the ...
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Anja Silja made this recording when she was well into the fourth decade of her performing career, but the role of Anna in Weill's Die sieben Todsünden is well suited to a voice that sounds like it has had some experience. Silja, in fact, sounds more polished and refined than many of the singers who have taken this part, which Weill wrote for Lotte Lenya, who was hardly noted for the tonal beauty of her instrument. If anything, Silja sounds too operatic, and her performance lacks the rough-edged bite that can heighten the pathos of the piece. Overall, the 2002 performance, with Grezegorz Nowak leading SWR Rundfunkorchester Kaiserslautern, tends to be understated, letting the work's ironies speak for themselves rather than pushing them. The orchestral playing and singing of the male vocal quartet representing Anna's family are polished and precise, but it could be argued that this piece, one of Weill and Brecht's angriest indictments of bourgeois society, could use more wildness and spirit. Just as...
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