Anja Silja - Soprano

«But the 36 years since Anja Silja's first performances here in concert stagings of "Fidelio" with Georg Solti are as nothing for the ageless German singing actress. After all, she made her operatic debut in 1955 and wowed the world at Bayreuth in 1960.
Whatever her age -- and the Berlin-born soprano has been in a dispute with the usually authoritative Grove Dictionary of Music over just what it is for some time -- Silja has been full throttle before the public for more than 50 years and if you want to see how a true artist of the voice and the stage can lift a performance to the heights then direct yourself to South Michigan Avenue Saturday night.
The 1903 Janacek opera whose 50-minute second act is performed there in its entirety is called "Jenufa," but it should be titled "The Kostelnicka" so astonishing is Silja's performance of the tragically controlling but loving stepmother/sacristan that she owns this opera even when she is offstage. Mistress of the naturalistic "speech-melody" of the pioneering Czech composer, able to send out fortissimo high B's and riveting in her calibrated emotionalism, Silja is one of a kind.»