06 April 2006
Beeld Plus
Veenemans’s “Lentelied” a welcome addition
Thys Odendaal
The soprano, Michelle Veenemans’s first CD Schenkt man sich Rosen – solely devoted to operetta arias – is a highly credible recording that portrays her as a proficient exponent of the genre.
Her second CD also includes operetta arias, but in Afrikaans. She made the recording at the end of last year to commemorate the 130th year of the Afrikaans Language. It is called Lentelied, and besides the operetta arias, includes well-known works from the Afrikaans Song Collection.
From a technical point of view, the CD is also an “experiment”. It was recorded in different locales in the Voortrekker Monument in order to generate acoustical variations.
Eight arias and songs were recorded in the Cenotaph Hall with piano accompaniment, and four songs in the Hall of Heroes on the upper level with organ and guitar accompaniment. The acoustics of the Cenotaph Hall is pure and more clinical and the vastness of the Hall of Heroes with a clear reverberation is prominent.
The accompaniment is throughout of high standard – Paul Ferreira (piano), Abri Jordaan (guitar), Dawid Venter (flute), and Zania van Wyk (organ).
Veenemans is a dramatic coloratura and does not hesitate to exhibit her pyrotechnical vocalising. Her singing is throughout exciting, such as in the title track where the flute is used to imitate the flying dance of the butterfly. Here one of the many coloratura ornamentations was included to support the song.
The flute and piano accompaniments in Sproetenooi complement the bright voice. And in Gee my, the two instruments support the more dramatic context. The approach to PJ Lemmer’s well-known Kokkewiet is slower than the “normal” tempo. It is approached as a ballad. Because of the echo effect that the text and music imitates from each other, one would like to hear how it would be performed in the Hall of Heroes with its high ceiling.
The operetta arias fit in with the mostly sentimental nature of the songs and again prove how much musically better it sounds when German text is translated into Afrikaans rather than English. The Afrikaans is much more closer to the Viennese operetta. In English, the operetta tends to sound a bit like the D’Oyle Carte idiom, as was the case with the Carl Rosa Company from London, which recently performed The Merry Widow in Johannesburg.
The guitar accompaniment especially in Mali, die Slaaf se Lied sounds exceptionally appropriate, but it is not certain if the choice of locale was correct. The melancholic undertone in the traditional song, Al lê die Berge nog so Blou is less successful. The result tends to the more sensuous coquetting of a woman with her lover, than a woman’s ruminative longing of her beloved.
The sound of the organ in Moeder is a true demonstration of the appreciated sentiments that are expressed, but do not fit with the length of the notes and chord passages that can be obtained from a piano or orchestra.
Veenemans’s Lentelied makes a very good overall impression. It is a welcome contribution to the Afrikaans Song Repertoire on the CD shelf.
LENTELIED: Michelle Veenemans (soprano) with instrumentalists, Cesar’s Sound CS 1205.
(Newspaper review: Translation from Afrikaans to English)
