I Follow a Voice Within Me - a Portrait of the Singer Waltraud Meier (Ich folge dem innern Triebe)
If you are a fan of Waltraud Meier, you shouldn’t miss the documentary
I Follow a Voice Within Me on DVD. It shows her rehearsing, recording and
performing on stage, not to mention interviews with her and colleagues.
It is very fascinating to see "die Waltraud" in rehearsal preparing for a role or a production. She is very focused, but also full of laughter. In the documentary we see her rehearsing or on stage as Sieglinde (Die Walküre, with Placido Domingo), Amneris (Aida), Ortrud (Lohengrin), Didon (Les Troyens), Leonore (Fidelio), Isolde (rehearsing with Siegfried Jerusalem and Lioba Braun in director Heiner Müller’s Tristan und Isolde in Bayreuth) and Marie (Wozzek).
Her Isolde in Heiner Müller's Bayreuth production was her debut in this role. It is now released on DVD. Other great performances captured on DVD are her Isolde portrayals in Patrice Chéreau's La Scala production and Peter Konwitschny's Munich Tristan, Ortrud in Nikolaus Lehnhoff's Lohengrin production from Baden-Baden and Venus in David Alden's Tannhäuser and Kundry in Nikolaus Lehnhoff's Parsifal.
Waltraud Meier’s Wagner career started by singing Fricka (Das Rheingold, Die Walküre), Erda (Das Rheingold, Siegfried), Waltraute (Götterdämmerung) and Kundry (Parsifal). Her first Kundry she sang without understanding the role at all (in Dortmund), according to herself. The director told her to sing it like Martha Mödl (which she interpreted to be “with a lot of emotions”). It was not until she did Kundry in a production of Parsifal in Köln with Jean-Pierre Ponnelle directing she understood the character fully. The last decades she has been the ultimate Kundry - and not to forget: Isolde.
Bayreuth Festival
Her Bayreuth career started with Kundry (1983) in a production by Götz Friedrich. When she came to Bayreuth for a test singing, she hoped that she would not be offered one of the Rhinemaidens or one of the Valkyries because such a role was not enough to sacrifice her summer holiday for. Fortunately she was offered Kundry. And the rest is history.
But who is Waltraud Meier? She doesn’t tell much of her personal life in this documentary.
Bonus feature
Das Lied von der Erde (Gustav Mahler) with Waltraud Meier, Torsten Kerl, Semyon Bychkov (conductor), Kölner Philharmonie.
Buy the documentary about Waltraud Meier on Amazon
Liebestod
from Tristan i Bayreuth (Heiner Müller)
Waltraud Meier's homepage