Search - Richard Wagner, Jean-Baptiste-Theodore Weckerlin :: Prima Voce - Sigrid Onegin, Volume 1

True contraltos are uncommon; most of their roles are taken these days by multipurpose mezzos, whose voices have quite a different timbre. Contraltos with the range and agility of Sigrid Onegin (1889-1943) are even more uncommon. She had a deep, plummy, velvety voice, well-trained and evenly produced, always very beautiful, and with an astonishing pianissimo trill (used here to great effect in Bizet's "Pastorale"). But she lacked fire and passion--her Carmen is sexless--and New Grove aptly says that her performances "suggest something marmoreal in their smoothness and coldness of style." She isn't helped by the Nimbus transfer techniques, which here result in a considerable reduction of surface noise and an appropriate resonance but also eliminate overtones and are less than lifelike in their results. Still, there is beautiful singing to be heard on this disc, so it offers a good deal more than mere historic interest. --Alex Morin