On Friday night, when most New Yorkers were heading to their local sports bar to watch the NBA Finals (Go Knicks!), I was finding my seat at Carnegie Hall. For a vocal recital.
I know.
But, I wasn’t giving up one of the biggest sporting events in recent memory just to listen to some run-of-the-mill singer deliver the latest version of “park and bark.” No, this was Lise Davidsen, the Norwegian soprano who’s been wowing audiences over at the Met Opera for the past several seasons, most recently as the title character in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. Davidsen, 39, has emerged as the leading dramatic soprano of our time – think Wagner, Strauss, the occasional Verdi – with a towering voice and majestic presence (she’s 6’2″) that leaves you with the sense you are in the midst of something truly extraordinary, quite possibly beyond mere mortals. Davidsen’s preternatural talent hasn’t gone unnoticed: she’s already been tapped to be the Met’s next Brunhilde in their upcoming production of Wagner’s Ring cycle, starting in the 2027-28 season.
So, imagine my surprise to learn that for her Carnegie recital debut, Davidsen would be singing an all-Schubert program with pianist James Baillieu, who also accompanied her at their acclaimed Met Opera recital in 2023. Not that it makes any difference – at this point, I’d listen to Davidsen sing the phone book – but I did wonder how her overwhelming vocal power would translate to Schubert’s intimate, quietly poetic songs. (Davidsen made her Carnegie debut in 2024 singing Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder with the Met Orchestra.)
Franz Schubert (1797-1828) was the undisputed master of lieder, elevating German song from simple melodic accompaniment to an artform where music and poetry were co-equal. In all, Schubert wrote more than 600 songs, setting everything from the great poetry of Goethe and Müller, to more prosaic verses by friends who attended his frequent Schubertiades. Through a seemingly endless stream of simple, irresistible melodies, Schubert managed to convey the full range of human emotion: love, loss, terror, joy.
“Schubert was able to capture the entire human condition in sound,” Baillieu said at one point from the stage. “It’s amazing to think that after 200 years, we’re still listening to these songs.”
Over the course of two hours, Davidsen and Baillieu performed around 20 of Schubert’s songs, ranging from the dramatic (“The Erlking”; “Death and the Maiden”) to the macabre (“The Dwarf”). While many called for a lighter, softer voice than we’ve grown accustomed to from Davidsen, there were moments where she was able to let it rip – such as the sublime love song “Du bust die Ruh” (“You are rest”) and the exhilarating “Die Allmacht” (“Omnipotence”) with its celebration of nature and its wonders. Elsewhere, her power was more muted, such as in the hushed, transcendent “Litany for the Feast of All Souls”, where I felt I was listening to an oracle from another realm, full of warmth and wonder.
During her disarmingly down-to-earth commentaries in between songs, Davidsen revealed that despite her supernatural talent, she’s still just a wide-eyed country kid from Norway – now a young mother – who can hardly believe the places her career has brought her.
“OMG, New York is just so amazing!” she exclaimed. “I look up at all of these tall buildings and just say, Wow! Maybe that’s why those of you who live here have to look down all of the time, haha.”
Later, Davidsen spoke of the title character of “The Blind Lad”: how despite his affliction, he was still grateful for the joys of his inner life. (“I am as cheerful as a king, despite being/A poor blind lad.”) “It’s a reminder for me to be grateful for all of the wonderful things in my life,” she said. Not exactly the words of an entitled diva. Such humility, beyond any vocal pyrotechnics, might be Davidsen’s most endearing quality.
After several standing ovations and encores, we all left happily into the warm New York night. Bonus: I even made it home in time to catch the end of the Knicks game at my local bar. What a night to be in New York!
More pics on Instagram.