Paul Dukas’ Ariane et Barbe-Bleue, first heard in 1907, once seemed important. Arturo Toscanini conducted the Met premiere in 1911 with Farrar and later arranged some of its music for a 1947 recording with his NBC Symphony.
The economics of the recording companies dictate much that is not ideal. Wagner’s operas were not composed as they were in order to permit the extraction of bleeding chunks, even on those occasions when strophic song forms do occur.
Among the recent recordings of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, Valery Gergiev’s release on the LSO Live label is an excellent addition to the discography of this work.
While not unknown, the songs of Alexander von Zemlinsky (1871-1942) deserve to be heard more frequently.
Recorded on 5 and 6 May 2008 and 17 and 18 January 2009 at the Lisztzentrum (Raiding, Austria), this recent Bridge release makes available the piano-vocal versions of three song cycles by Gustav Mahler, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Rückert-Lieder, and Kindertotenlieder performed by mezzo-soprano Hermine Haselböck, accompanied by Russell Ryan.
Contraltos rarely achieve the acclaim and renown of sopranos. Assigned few leading roles in opera, they are condemned to playing the villain or the grandmother, or to stealing the castrati’s trousers in en travesti roles.
Following their 2011 Decca recording of Striggio’s Mass in 40 Parts (1566), I Fagiolini continue their quest to unearth lost treasures of the High Renaissance and early Baroque, with this collection of world-premiere recordings, ‘reconstructions’ and ‘reconstitutions’ of music by Giovanni and Andrea Gabrieli, Monteverdi, Palestrina, and their less well-known compatriots Viadana, Barbarino and Soriano.
Eternal Echoes is an album of khazones [Jewish cantorial music] for cantorial soloist, solo violin and a blended instrumental ensemble comprising a small orchestra and the Klezmer Conservatory Band.
Michael Tilson Thomas’s recording of Mahler’s Third Symphony is an outstanding contribution to the composer’s discography.
Oliver Knussen burst into British music with an unprecedented flourish. In 1967, the London Symphony Orchestra premiered Knussen’s First Symphony, with István Kertész scheduled to conduct.
Based on performances given in Summer 2010 at the Lucerne Festival, this recording of Beethoven’s Fidelio is an admirable recording that captures the vitality of the work as conducted by Claudio Abbado.
Stanisław Moniuszko (1819-1872) was one of the most popular composers of his day in Poland, and of the many works he wrote for the stage, two are performed from time to time, Halka (1848) and Strazny dwór [The Haunted Manor] (1865).
The Polish alto Jadwiga Rappé is a familiar voice in various stage and concert works, and the recent release of a selection of songs by Stanisław Moniuszko (1819-1872) is an opportunity to hear her performing artsongs.
Originally released on multiple discs in 1981 this reissue on two CDs is a comprehensive collection of art songs by Italian and French composers from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
An exciting contribution to the discography of this popular opera, the live performance of Richard Strauss’s Salome from the Festspielhaus at Baden-Baden is a compelling DVD.
Released in late 2011, Deutsche Grammophon’s DVD of the new staging of Berg’s Lulu at the Gran Teatro del Liceu, Barcelona is an excellent contribution to the discography of this fascinating opera.
A recent release by the Metropolitan Opera, this two-disc set makes available on DVD the famous performance of Berg’s Lulu that was broadcast on 20 December 1980 as part of the PBS series “Live from the Met.”
The novels of Sinclair Lewis once shot across the American literary skies like comets, alarming and fascinating readers of that era, but their tails didn’t extend far behind them.
Once the province of only the most dedicated opera fanatics, mid-20th century recordings of privately taped live performances have become more widely available.
Flute players in opera orchestra around the world must look forward to the frequent appearances of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, knowing that while the stage spotlight in the mad scene will be on the soprano, the orchestral spotlight will be on their instrument.
For the most part, the posthumous reputation of Felix Mendelssohn (1809-43) resides on the composer’s instrumental works and of all his vocal music, his two oratorios, Elias and Paulus are familiar to the general public.
Except for the music he composed for William Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, though, Mendelssohn’s other dramatic works are relatively unknown. The catalog of his works includes seventeen works for the stage, and among them is Der Onkel aus Boston, oder Die beiden Neffen (1822-23; performed privately in1824), a comic opera in three acts to a libretto by Johann Ludwig Casper. This is the last of the young Mendelssohn’s collaborations with Casper, who contributed librettos to three other youthful works: Die Soldatenliebschaft (1820), a Singspiel in one act, and Die beiden Pädagogen (1821) and Die wandernden Komödianten (1822), another single-act work. Mendelssohn’s next work is the Die Hochzeit des Camacho, a work based on a portion of Cervantes’ Don Quixote and the only opera of Mendelssohn to receive a public performance in his lifetime.
As to Der Onkel aus Boston, Mendelssohn composed this work when he was around thirteen or fourteen years old, a time when he was experimenting with various kinds of music, including other music for the stage, like the Overture for Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1826; in 1843, he composed the other incidental music for the play). The extant criticism of Mendelssohn’s operas places Der Onkel aus Boston in the Singspiel tradition, but a closer examination of the music reveals a young composer under the influence of Mozart and Weber. In some ways, Der Onkel aus Boston is reminiscent of some of the Schubert’s wonderfully lyrical operas that have never held the stage as much as they have earned some esteem for the music they contain.
The plot for Der Onkel aus Boston involves the return of a former Hessian, Baron von Felsig, from New England to Brandenburg around 1780 to enter into the romantic and political activities of his erstwhile family. Comic situations exist when family members meet for the first time under difficult circumstances, including the wooing of Felsig’s niece. Mistaken identities and miscommunication abound sufficiently to inspire three acts of complications that require resolution in some fine ensembles. It is by no means a memorable libretto, nor is it out of the tradition of opera plots requiring the suspension of disbelief to follow the action. While the dialogue is lost for the third act, it is possible to piece together its dramatic situation, but the extant text for the first two acts points to the weakness of this work and Mendelssohn’s other operas in weak texts or, perhaps, the lack of a librettist who could work well with such a talented composer.
Mendelssohn’s search for a workable libretto spanned his career, and he rejected collaborations with some of the best-known writers of his day. Along with Eugene Scribe and J. R. Planché are individuals like Helminie von Chézy and Eduard Devrient, all names familiar to those familiar with nineteenth-century opera. The topics rejected include the usual array of historical topics, and even extend to myth. In fact, Mendelssohn started working on an opera about the Lorelei near the end of his life, and left it unfinished at his death. It is impossible to know what could have emerged from that effort, but finished scores like Der Onkel aus Boston give an idea of the kind of music Mendelssohn conceived for the works he did bring to completion.
Der Onkel aus Boston contains much music that is competently composed and pleasant to hear. The recitative and aria “O Himmel” (Act 1, no. 3) is sung well by Carsten Süß, whose fine tenor sound would lend itself to any number of roles from the period in which Mendelssohn composed this work (it is possible, for example, to imagine him as Belmonte in Mozart’s Entführung aus dem Serail). In the quartet that follows, “Nein das ist nicht auszustehn!”(Act 1, no. 4) Mendelssohn makes wonderful use of the contrapuntal possibilities for this ensemble, and the accompaniment itself is quite effective. The woodwind textures betray some stylistic choices that Mendelssohn would used in other works from this period, but the instrumental writing never outpaces the voices here or elsewhere in this work. The Finale “Laut ertönt der Jubelklang” (Act 1, no. 5) echoes some of Weber’s music from the same period and also shows the influence of Mozart in the extended instrumental interlude that divides the number. It is well-crafted scena that bears listening to hear Mendelssohn making his own ideas emerge while simultaneously bowing to operatic convention.
In the second act, the opening number, the aria with chorus “Nur stille, still, leise, leise, liebe Leute” (Act. 2, no. 6) bears an onomatopoeic resemblance to Papageno’s music in Mozart’s Zauberflöte, but the textures of divisi chorus voices, and some fine solo writing are Mendelssohn’s own. The consciousness of Die Zauberflöte explicitly in this work, since the characters of Tamino and Pamino are central to the text of the second-act quintet (Act 2, no. 9), where Mozart’s pair are points of reference of the resolution of the amorous difficulties in the present work. The quintet also embodies some of the intricate structures found in some of Mozart’s ensembles.
Likewise, the inclusion of ballet passages in the subsequent number contributes to the ardently operatic nature of this work. This tone is conveyed in Fanny’s aria “Schon naht der Abend” (Act 3, no. 11), which is sung by the soprano Kate Royal, whose seamless approach to the florid passages is laudable in its own right. As the opera draws to its conclusion, the ensemble textures intensify, with the penultimate number, the quartet “In dieser Mann voll Gnad’ und Huld” (Act 3, no 13) serving as a fine counterpart to the more choral resolution with which the work ends.
Helmut Rilling’s fine sense of style makes this recording immediately accessible, with tempos that suite the music quite well. At the same time, his deft handling of the orchestra contributes another dimension to this score. His years of experience with the Gächinger Kantorei are borne out in the choral passages, that are clearly sung, with the delicacy that this music demands. Moreover, beyond Süß and Royal, the other principals give fine performances that contribute to the overall quality of the concert that serves as the basis for the CD.
This is the premiere recording of a work that would work well in concert performances. A work like this not only demonstrates some of Mendelssohn’s promise as an aspiring opera composer, but also reflects his own stylistic development, as he moves from echoing known models to expressing his own voice stylistically. Der Onkel aus Boston truly shows a composer whose efforts in this idiom have some engaging qualities. More importantly, this well-performed recording makes available a side of Mendelssohn often neglected in the current repertoire.
James L. Zychowicz
Madison, Wisconsin