Monday, April 02, 2007

Is anyone else kind of into Torsten Kerl?

The other month I randomly got really into this Tote Stadt DVD he was in a few years back, not putting two and two together that he was to be part of the AeH cast. It seems like the reception has been kind of lukewarm out there...perhaps due to his bailing during the prima or the somewhat unknown quantity of his debut material or just simple lack of enthusiasm. But man...listening to the Helena broadcast the other day I couldn't get enough. I feel like his voice is pretty close to my ideal balance of lusciousness and accuracy in Strauss and Strauss-ish tenor parts. Also, he has this photo montage posted on his web site:



Obviously, you must be ok with that amount of Kerl.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

But I've heard in the house he's barely audible.

Alex said...

Yeah...I guess I was chalking those up to the first night showing when he was sick, but maybe I'm hearing what I want to. J is going back tomorrow, so he may have something to say about it...

Anonymous said...

He had some profound audibility problems, yes. But then, I think almost anyone would in parts of that role.

Alex said...

Damn. Well that is a bummer. I mean, it looks like the Met is literally his only U.S. engagement of note so far--perhaps he just needs to work the smaller houses circuit stateside? Tho it begs the question how much "smaller" the big non-Met houses really sound relative to a non Met-sized singer. Clearly the Kennedy Center shouldn't be a problem based on the evidence of the other weekend. But Lyric? SFO?

Still love ya', Torsten...

Will said...

Hi, guys--just to let you know that I've added a link to wellsung on DesignerBlog. I like your writing very much.

Cameron Kelsall said...

I have to agree that he's pretty much inaudible in the house. At first I figured that it was because he still was getting over his cold, but he sounded like he was in fine voice. He just cannot project. My friend saw the cover and said he was wonderful; why didn't the just bring him in to finish the role?

That said, this was my first experience with him. I'm going to reserve full judgment until I familiarize myself with some more of his work.

Anonymous said...

We just found your blog (enjoyable) while searching the Web for Thorsten Kerl. We heard and saw him in mid-October 2007 singing Pedro in d'Albert's "Tiefland" at the Volksoper in Vienna, where he was terrific, and definitely audible. We're looking forward to his arrival at SFO in the 2008-2009 season for "Die Todt Stadt."

We went to operas in Geneva, Prague, Budapest, Vienna, and Munich on this trip, and all of the houses were smaller/configured differently from the biggest American houses. Is there a history of European singers not making the switch from such houses to ours, though?

operabear said...

hi
I saw Torsten as Paul in Tote Stadt in Amsterdam and he was phenomenal, looking forward to seeing him again at Covent Garden as Paul in Tote Stadt in Salzburg production in 2009 which is the same one doing the rounds and as Erik in new Dutchman in 2009 also.
I think he is one of the greatest heldentenors we have and definitely a name to look out for.
and hes gorgeous as well pity he's married haha.