Margaret Harshaw as Brünnhilde
With a prestigious, two-decade career, first as a mezzo-soprano then dramatic soprano, Margaret Harshaw went on to have a distinguished thirty- year career as a vocal pedagogue.
Looking back on her years singing onstage, Harshaw would often say that she was the “link” between Helen Traubel and Birgit Nilsson—as if being a link was less than what came before and after. But I don’t see it that way at all—nor can anyone else who actually listens to her 1957 Brünnhilde at the Metropolitan Opera.
What does the listener hear in the 18-minute scene from Götterdammerung below? Gleaming, full, rich, clear and opulent tone in more than two-octaves; clear diction at every moment; a solid, technically secure middle range (exceedingly important); nary a vocal mannerism; and a youthful, silvery voice. Many a dramatic soprano on the stage today would do well to have half these qualities.
Harshaw was force of nature, both as a singer and as a teacher. In an interview with Bruce Duffie, she noted that of all the characters she inhabited on the stage, she was most like the Walküre Brünhilde, who was a “free spirit.” But for Harshaw, being a “free spirit” did not mean abandoning the rules of singing. On the contrary, she would often say that learning to sing—and singing beautifully over a long career—required intense concentration and discipline. As she noted to Mr. Duffie:
You have to be free, but I think you have to be disciplined. People don’t realize that the highest form of discipline is what gives you freedom.
How did Harshaw obtain this freedom? By submitting to Anna E. Schoen-René’s requirement that Harshaw develop her technique with exercises and scales for two semesters before being assigned repertoire. This laid the foundation for everything that came afterwards—the two-decade career and more than thirty years as the leading vocal pedagogue of her generation.
Oh that singers today would have the security, freedom, and authority of tone that one hears in these recordings.
