(Double) preview: Enter the bird-catcher; exit Sir Colin Davis

Colin Davis (1927-2013) at home

by Ken

As I must have mentioned, one of my core LPs in the early getting-to-know-music stage was a budget Seraphim issue of a disc of Mozart overtures conducted by Colin Davis early in his career. There were fine performances of all these indispensable pieces, and my recollection is that I played that LP a lot.

The subject of my complicated feelings about Sir Colin, who died on April 15 at 85, as a conductor has come up occasionally in these posts, and I'm afraid I'm going to need to rehash it in order to memorialize him properly, though I'm going to want to stress the truly wonderful things he did. The thing is, those truly wonderful things, which were often quite unexpected (who, for example, would have expected a great recording of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde from him?) tended to be a lot less heralded than a lot of stick-waving hackery.

I don't have those fine old EMI Mozart overtures on CD, and so tonight, since I happen to have some consideration of one of the characters of Mozart's Magic Flute in mind, I thought we'd let Sir Colin give us a taste from his 1984 Philips recording of the opera -- not a great performance by any means, but a pretty good one. We hear first Davis's Overture, which we've actually heard before.

MOZART: The Magic Flute, K. 620: Overture

Staatskapelle Dresden, Sir Colin Davis, cond. Philips, recorded January 1984

Now we hear the bird-catcher Papageno's two ever-familiar, ever-beloved ditty-like songs.

MOZART: The Magic Flute, K. 620: Act I, Song, Papageno,
"Der Vogelfänger bin ich, ja"

During the introduction PAPAGENO comes down a path, carrying on his back a large bird cage containing various birds. He holds a panpipe in both hands.

PAPAGENO: The bird-catcher, that's me,
always cheerful, hip hooray!
As a bird-catcher I'm known
to young and old throughout the land.
I know how to set about luring
and how to be good at piping.
That's why I can be merry and cheerful,
for all the birds are surely mine.

The bird-catcher, that's me,
always cheerful, hip hooray!
As a bird-catcher I'm known
to young and old throughout the land.
I'd like a net for girls.
I'd catch them by the dozen for myself!
Then I'd lock them up with me,
and all the girls would be mine!

If all the girls were mine,
I'd barter plenty of sugar:
the one I like best,
I'd give her the sugar at once.
And if she kissed me tenderly then,
she would be my wife and I her husband.
She'd fall asleep at my side,
and I'd rock her like a child.

-- English translations (mostly) by Robert A. Jordan

Mikael Melbye (b), Papageno; Staatskapelle Dresden, Sir Colin Davis, cond. Philips, recorded January 1984

MOZART: The Magic Flute, K. 620: Act II, Song, Papageno,
"Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen"

PAPAGENO: A girl or a little wife
is what Papageno desires.
Oh, a sweet little dove like that
would be bliss for me!
Then I should eat and drink with relish,
then I could hold my own with princes,
enjoy life in my wisdom,
and be as if in Elysium.

A girl or a little wife
is what Papageno desires.
Oh, a sweet little dove like that
would be bliss for me!
Ah, can't I find one then, amongst all
the lovely girls, who would love me?
Let just one help me out of my misery,
or I shall truly die of grief.

A girl or a little wife
is what Papageno desires.
Oh, a sweet little dove like that
would be bliss for me!
If no one will offer me love,
then the fire must consume me,
but if a woman's lips kiss me,
I shall be well again straightaway!

Mikael Melbye (b), Papageno; Staatskapelle Dresden, Sir Colin Davis, cond. Philips, recorded January 1984


IN THIS WEEK'S SUNDAY CLASSICS POST

More of Papageno, as the bird-catcher is driven to ultimate despair.

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