The Economist April 30th 2022 Culture 77ClassicalmusicCentre stage
W
ith almost 4,000 seats, the Metro
politan Opera House in New York is
the largest indoor venue of its kind in the
world. A solo singer can struggle to be
heard over a fullsized orchestra playing
forte, but Lise Davidsen, a 35yearold Nor
wegian soprano, makes it seem effortless.
The thrilling power of her luminous voice
is even more remarkable considering she
initially aspired to be a singersongwriter
in the style of Eva Cassidy or Joni Mitchell.
It is fortunate, says Peter Gelb, the gen
eralmanageroftheMet,that Ms Davidsen
“discoveredoperaisherdestiny”. He de
scribesheras“oneofthegreatest singing
talentstoemergeindecades”, able to fill
thecavernousspace“ina way that is ex
traordinary”. Her voice is unique in its
magnitudeanddistinguished by its tim
bre,techniqueandexpressivity. Her skill
wasevidentattheMetthis spring when
shesangthetitleroleinStrauss’s “Ariadne
aufNaxos”andperformed as Chrysothe
misina brilliantstagingof his “Elektra”.
Nextseasonshewillstaras the Marschal
linin“DerRosenkavalier”, another piece
bytheGermancomposer.
InMayshewillsingthe part of Sie
glindein“DieWalküre”,part of Wagner’s
gargantuan“RingoftheNibelung”, at the
ViennaStateOpera.Thissummer Ms Da
vidsenwillalsoappearatthe Bayreuth Fes
tival, anannual celebration of Wagner’s
oeuvreinGermany,andheadline the LastNight of the Proms in London.
The opera world is primed for another
star: Ms Davidsen’s rapid ascent coincides
with the sudden descent of Anna Netrebko,
the diva currently in operatic exile from
most houses because of her association
with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.
Ms Davidsen is a statuesque six foot two
inches (1.88 metres) tall. On stage, she has a
regal and magnetic presence.
Her stardom is unlikely. Born in Stokke,
a small town in southeastern Norway, she
is the youngest of three siblings in a family
that prized athletic talent more than the
musical kind. Her parents were not of an
artistic bent—her mother worked in health
care and her father is an electrician—but
she played the guitar as a teenager and
sang pop, jazz and folk songs.
It was while completing a bachelor’s de
gree at the Grieg Academy in Norway that
she saw her first opera, “Der Rosenkava
lier”. “I remember thinking it was abso
lutely beautiful. It was so overwhelming,”
she says. “It sounds weird because it was
just 15 years ago and I was studying music,
but to stand on the stage like that seemed
as impossible as if I would speak Chinese
tomorrow.” During a master’s degree at the
Royal Opera Academy in Copenhagen, she
finally decided to try her luck as a profes
sional opera singer.
After she won Plácido Domingo’s Oper
alia competition in 2015 she made debuts
at Bayreuth, the Royal Opera, Glynde
bourne and La Scala. The Queen of Norway
flew to New York to see her first Met perfor
mance in Tchaikovsky’s “Queen of Spades”
in 2019 and she won rave reviews for her
turn as Leonore in Beethoven’s “Fidelio” at
the Royal Opera in early 2020. At the time,
she was suffering from such extreme ex
haustion and brain fog that she thought
she was having a mental breakdown; inN EW YORK
Lise Davidsen is opera’s newest starMaking her voice heardNazipartyafter Hitler came to power in
1933, “believed that Hitler was sent by God
to become Führer of the German people”; a
friend observed that the dictator exercised
“a hypnotic influence” on him. Flick, Oetk
er, Albert Reimann and Ferdinand Porsche
also subscribed to Hitler’s imagined future
for the country.
Quandt disliked the Nazis, yet he had
no scruples about facilitating their rise.
When Quandt met Hitler in 1931 he
described him as “perfectly average”. A
widower with two sons, Quandt married
Magda Friedländer, the stepdaughter of a
GermanJewish businessman, with whom
he had another son, Harald. After divorc
ing Quandt, Magda married Joseph Goeb
bels, Hitler’s propaganda minister. Quandt
and Goebbels deeply resented each other
and fought over the custody of Harald, who
had caught Hitler’s eye as he looked like
the perfect Aryan child.
The second half of “Nazi Billionaires” is
devoted to the decades after the end of the
war, through West Germany’s economic
miracle to the present day. After his prema
ture release from prison in 1950, Flick man
aged to rebuild his business empire; he
became one of the largest shareholders of
DaimlerBenz and, for a period of time,
West Germany’s richest person. Every one
of the titans, and their heirs, examined
their Nazi past only belatedly, very reluc
tantly and under pressure.
The sins of their forefathers are a legacy
that some of Germany’s bestknown
brands, including Allianz (insurance),
Mercedes, Volkswagen, Porsche and bmw
(cars), Oetker (foodstuffs) and others still
carry. “Many German business dynasties
continue to sidestep a complete reckoning
with the dark history that stainstheir for
tunes,” Mr de Jong says. “Theghosts of the
Third Reich still haunt them.”n
Sold his soul