Deborah Voigt´s recital February 25 2012

[josé echenique]

Last night a much more svelte Deborah Voigt returned to the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City for a recital with piano. The last time she sang here, some 8 years ago, she was still overweight but in magnificent voice. Then she sang an all Strauss program with orchestra that included the 4 Last Songs and most impressive of all, an unforgettable Salomé´s final scene.
I last saw her a little over a year ago in the centennial performance of La Fanciulla del West at the MET. That night the voice was in terrible shape, with practically no middle and only the loudest notes were audible. By any standard the singing was bad, and I dreaded that the gastric bypass surgery that she undertook after the "little black dress" Covent Garden scandal had damaged her voice, but last night she was almost as good as in her 333 pounds years (that´s the weight she publicly admitted).
In the first part we were treated to some Amy Beach, Respighi, and Strauss and songs. As the concert progressed and the voice warmed up, the middle and the low notes sounded more rounded and secure. By the end of the first half of the program, when she sang "Dich teure Halle" from Tannhäuser and a fragment of Sieglinde´s in Die Walküre, the voice was as luscious and opulent as ever. The audience was only too sad that those were the only 2 arias she sang.
In the second part some Bernstein songs gave her the chance to act a little and tease the audience, but by then the voice was a little overwhelming for music made that really needs a Jennie Tourel.
The encores were "I love the Piano" and Jerome Kern´s "Can´t help lovin´dat man" from Showboat.