Thursday, December 20, 2018

The start of something: Here's the promised follow-up to the post spotlighting Till Eulenspiegel and the Symphonia domestica -- focusing now on the already-heard openings of six Strauss operas

Sure, literally speaking Guntram (with, we might note, a libretto by the composer, Wagner-style, something Strauss would attempt again only once more, still perhaps problematically but, I think, a lot more successfully, with the sort-of-autobiographical Intermezzo) was the start of something, but could anyone have guessed "of what"? (We can also note at the very top that Strauss's first opera was "Dedicated to my dear parents.")

by Ken

To recap, our subject is still Salome, Richard Strauss's third opera, focusing here on the powerful anecdotal evidence from these snatches of the operas that preceded and followed Salome of the startling transformation that took place, all at once, in Strauss's ability to make the operatic medium work for him. In the main portion of this week's post, "Strauss's operatic beginnings: We don't need an excuse to listen to Till Eulenspiegel -- but the Symphonia domestica, maybe so?" we heard these same operatic clips, in this same order, with no identification of either the operas or the performers. In this concluding portion of the post we have all those identifications available, as well as English texts for most of the sung portions of these excerpts.

As I'm sure you guessed, Operas X and Y were Strauss's pre-Salome operatic endeavors, the turgid late Romantic stinker Guntram (first performed in 1894) and its "satirical" successor, Feuersnot (first performed in 1901). Perhaps surprisingly, given how adept Strauss would become at devising operatic openings that plunge us directly into the action, he began his operatic career with a full-fledged overture. Oy, is it full-fledged; it just fledges on and on -- and on. (Note that it's not entirely free-standing, as we might expect an "overture" to be in one frequently proposed distinction between an "overture" and a "prelude," which not only tends to be shorter but normally flows directly into the opening scene. The Guntram whatever-you-want-to-call-it flows directly into the equally nondescript music of the opening scene.

[AFTERTHOUGHT: I have to say that rather unexpectedly the Guntram Overture has started to grow on me -- hey, this is not some no-talented musical hack we're dealing with. But it still seems to meander hopelessly, stretching this thin material many long, long minutes beyond the breaking point. -- Ken]

[X] R. STRAUSS: Guntram, Op. 25: Overture


BBC Symphony Orchestra, John Pritchard, cond. Gala, broadcast performance, 1981

Hungarian State Orchestra, Eve Queler, cond. CBS-Hungaroton, recorded 1984


MOVING ON TO "OPERA Y": FEUERSNOT

The first thing you'll note about the opening of Feuersnot (1889) is that it has a brief orchestral introduction but nothing we could think of as a "prelude." Strauss was in fact done with preludes as well as overtures, unless we count his use as a curtain-raiser in his very last opera, Capriccio, of the sextet composed by Flamand, which after all is actually part of the opera.

Of course Strauss was hardly alone here. Verdi famously made the same leap between Aida in 1871 (for which, as we might recall, he had jettisoned a full-fledged overture in favor of the much shorter and much more effective Prelude we know) and Otello in 1887 (and again Falstaff 1893). Like Strauss, Puccini, who by coincidence (or not?) also had to create two stinkers before suddenly getting his operatic act together with Manon Lescaut (1893) and even more completely with La Bohème (1896), wrote the first of his stinkers, Le Villi (1884) with a Preludio and the second, Edgar (1889), without. (Verdi himself was a two-clinker guy, seemingly having to misfire with Oberto (1839) and Un Giorno di regno (1840) before making the first of his several "breakthroughs" with Nabucco (1842), which obviously doesn't yet represent Verdi with his full operatic powers but surely does show him having acquired the degree of operatic mastery that makes it possible to draw us into the lives of his characters.

[Y] R. STRAUSS: Feuersnot, Op. 50: Opening scene
You probably want to know what's going on here, and I'm working on it. Strauss and librettist Ernst von Wolzogen seem to have devoted a lot of, er, thought to making it hard for even fluent German-speaking audiences have more than a general idea of what's going on, manufacturing a fake-medieval Low German patois that's often little better than gibberish. I think they thought this would be amusing. Anyway, for now let's just say that we're in 12th-century Munich, amid preparations for the summer-solstice celebration, and the kiddies are trying mostly in vain to gather wood for the mandatory fires (what, you don't light fires to celebrate the arrival of summer?), but there's hardly any wood to be had. The youngsters are cheered on by the mayor, whose palatial house is front and center on the set, and we get to meet Mayor Sentlinger's angelic daughter, Diemur, who seems nice enough -- nice enough to deserve to have a better opera happening around her.

Max Proebstl (bs-b), Ortolf Sentlinger (the mayor); Ingrid Bjoner (s), Diemur (his daughter); WDR (West German Radio) Chorus and Symphony Orchestra, Joseph Keilberth, cond. Gala, broadcast performance, 1965

Helmut Berger-Tuna (bs-b), Ortlof Sentlinger (the mayor); Gundula Janowitz (s), Diemur (his daughter); Tölz Boys Choir, RIAS Chamber Choir, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf, cond. Ponto, broadcast performance, May 1978


"OPERA Z" -- AND OPERAS "A"-AND-BEYOND

We're going to remark in a moment on a pattern, probably accidental but maybe not entirely incidental, of operatic master composers kind of blundering through two operatic misfires before maybe, you know, figuring something out. In Strauss's case, again bearing in mind that he was by this time an already-established master composer, he suddenly seems to have figured everything out.

[AFTERTHOUGHT:" I haven't said much of anything about these openings, since in all six cases -- yes, there are only five operas here, but remember, Ariadne has two "openings" -- the important thing is just to take them in, after which the first and much the most important thing to be said is "Ohmygosh!" -- or perhaps just plain "Wow!!!"]

[Z/A] R. STRAUSS: Salome, Op. 54: Opening scene
A large terrace in the palace of the Tetrarch HEROD, which abuts the banquet hall, where the Tetrarch is giving a banquet. Several soldiers are leaning against the balustrade. At right, a massive stairway. At left at the rear, an old cistern with an enclosure of green bronze. The moon shines brightly.

NARRABOTH: How beautiful is the princess Salome tonight!
THE PAGE OF HERODIAS: See the disc of the moon, how it looks strange.
Like a woman who is rising from the grave.
NARRABOTH: She is very strange.
Like a little princess whose feet are white doves.
One could imagine she's dancing.
THE PAGE: Like a woman who is dead. She glides slowly in there.
[Noise in the banquet hall.]
FIRST SOLDIER: What kind of an uproar!
What are those that like wild animals are howling there?
SECOND SOLDIER: The Jews. They're always that way.
They're arguing about their religion.
FIRST SOLDIER: I find it laughable
to argue about such things.
NARRABOTH: How beautiful is the princess Salome this evening!
THE PAGE: You're always looking at her.
You look at her too much.
It is dangerous to look at people in this manner.
Horrible things may happen.
NARRABOTH: She is very beautiful this evening.
FIRST SOLDIER: The Tetrarch has a dark look.
SECOND SOLDIER: Yes, he has a dark look.
FIRST SOLDIER: At whom is he looking?
SECOND SOLDIER: I don't know.
NARRABOTH: How pale the princess is!
Never have I seen her so pale.
She is like the shadow of a white rose
in a silver mirror.
THE PAGE: You must not look at her.
You look at her too much.
Horrible things can happen.
VOICE OF JOCHANAAN: After me one will come
who is stronger than I.
I am not worthy to unloose the straps on his shoes.
When he comes, there will be rejoicing
in all the deserted places.
When he comes, the eyes
of the blind will see the day.
When he comes, the ears
of the dead will be opened.
SECOND SOLDIER: Make him be quiet!
FIRST SOLDIER: He is a holy man.
SECOND SOLDIER: He always says laughable things.
FIRST SOLDIER: He is very gentle.
Every day when I give him to eat, he thanks me.
A CAPPADOCIAN: Who is he?
FIRST SOLDIER: A prophet.
A CAPPADOCIAN: What is his name?
FIRST SOLDIER: Jochanaan.
A CAPPADOCIAN: Where does he come from?
FIRST SOLDIER: From the desert.
A swarm of youths was always there around him.
A CAPPADOCIAN: About what does he speak?
FIRST SOLDIER: It's impossible
to understand what he says.
A CAPPADOCIAN: Can one see him?
FIRST SOLDIER: No, the Tetrarch has forbidden it.
NARRABOTH: The princess is getting up!
She is leaving the table.
She is very agitated.
She is coming this way.
THE PAGE: I beg you, don't look at her!
NARRABOTH: She is like a lost dove.
[SALOME enters, excited.]

James King (t), Narraboth; Julia Hamari (ms), Page; Neil Howlett (b) and David Kelly (bs), Soldiers; Sherrill Milnes, Jochanaan; London Symphony Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf, cond. RCA, recorded June 1968

Kim Begley (t), Narraboth; Randi Stene (ms), Page; Frode Olsen (bs) and Georg Paucker (bs), Soldiers; Bryn Terfel (b), Jochanaan; Vienna Philharmonic, Christoph von Dohnányi, cond. Decca, recorded Apr. 11-18, 1994

Waldemar Kmentt (t), Narraboth; Josephine Veasey (ms), Page; Zenon Koznowski (bs) and Heinz Holecek (b), Soldiers; Eberhard Wächter (b), Jochanaan; Vienna Philharmonic, Georg Solti, cond. Decca, recorded October 1961

Wieslaw Ochman (t), Narraboth; Ursula Boese (c), Page; Kurt Moll (bs) and Carl Schultz (bs), Soldiers; Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (b), Jochanaan; Hamburg State Opera Orchestra, Karl Böhm, cond. DG, recorded live, Nov. 4, 1970

An added note about the performances: You're probably tired of hearing me go on about the wonders of the Leinsdorf-RCA recording, and anyway we've already heard this clip. Still, in both the casting and the conducting it's pretty darned wonderful. Still, in the company here of some really fine Narraboths -- in particular the often unpredictable Waldemar Kmentt (Solti-Decca) is heard here at his very best and Wieslaw Ochman (Böhm-DG) also seems to me outstanding -- RCA's James King rises to a whole other level with that big, beautiful voice, under such precise, smart control.

We also have a couple of exceptionally fine Pages in Josephine Veasey (Solti-Decca) and especially Ursula Boese (Böhm-DG); it's only when the singer makes the most of her limited opportunities that we get how important the role can be, complementing Narraboth's hunger for Salome with the Page's for Narraboth. (And in that tingly RCA cast, Julia Hamari is very much on point.) As often happens with great operatic composers, even the small roles are so vividly imagined that it can be a special pleasure to hear singers connect with them in various way. The First Soldier, for example, has a special perspective on the action that can color the whole opera, and it's a special joy to hear the music sung with the gorgeous dignity brought by Kurt Moll (Böhm-DG). Again, though, RCA's Neil Howlett is really fine. (I might add that the Hamburg-DG Salome, a live recording of a new production by August Everding, inspired Böhm to perhaps the loveliest Salome I heard him do.)

With Strauss the big roles usually offer special challenges, and the prophet Jochanaan is really challenging. Without some really high-quality vocalism not only is it difficult if not impossible to communicate the visionary ecstasy of the music but it's easy to become a windy bore. And while the role does seem to ask for the vocal heft of a deep baritone or bass-baritone, I've never heard anyone create that almost erotic ecstasy as ringingly as Eberhard Wächter (Solti-Decca) in his vocal prime. Sherrill Milnes (RCA) and Bryn Terfel (Dohnányi-Decca), while less individual, sing their music well enough to afford pleasure that also gives a nice sense of the character. This probably wouldn't have been an option for Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Böhm-DG), but the hectoring, almost assaultive quality that comes with the way he pushes his voice through the music is dramatically defensible for Jochanaan (we might say that this is probably the way Queen Herodias, a frequent target of the prophet's diatribes, always hears him!), if less interesting, not to mention aesthetically pleasurable, than the sort offered here by Wächter -- it's only fair to note that when the voice was in less lustrous shape, his Jochanaan became noticeably less interesting.

[B] R. STRAUSS: Elektra, Op. 58: Opening scene
Mycenae. The inside courtyard, which is bounded by the back wall of the palace and by the low buildings that the servants live in. On the left at the front, the maids are round the well, with the overseers among them.

1st MAID [lifting her water jug]: Where is Elektra?
2nd MAID: It is her hour;
the hour when she wails for her father,
making all the walls resound.
[ELEKTRA comes running out of the hallway, which is already growing dark. Everyone turns round to look at her. ELEKTRA jumps back like a beast into its lair, with one arm shielding her face.]
1st MAID: Did you see how she looked at us?
2nd MAID: Spitefully, like a wild cat.
3rd MAID: The other day she lay there, groaning.
1st MAID: Always when the sun is low
she lies there groaning.
3rd MAID: Then two of us went too close to her.
1st MAID: She cannot bear people looking at her.
3rd MAID: Yes, we came too close to her.
Then she spat at us like a cat.
"Get away, flies!" she screamed.
4th MAID: "Get away, bluebottles!"
3rd MAID: "Don't land on my wounds!"
And she struck us with a wisp of straw.
4th MAID: "Get away, bluebottles!"
3rd MAID: "You shouldn't take pleasure
in my pain. You should not like your lips
at my frothing convulsions."
4th MAID: "Go away and hide,"
she screeched after us.
"Eat fat things and sweet things
and go to bed with your husbands,"
she cried, and this girl . . .
3rd MAID: I wasn't slow --
4th MAID: . . . she gave her her answer!
3rd MAID: "Yes, when you're hungry,"
I said to her, "you eat too." Then she jumped up,
glaring horribly, stretched her fingers out at us like claws
and screamed: "I am nurturing a vulture in my body."
2nd MAID: And you?
3rd MAID: "That's why you're always crouched,"
I said to her, "where the smell of carrion attracts you,
scratching after an old corpse!"
2nd MAID: And what did she say then?
3rd MAID: She just howled and threw herself into her corner.
1st MAID: Imagine the queen
letting such a devil roam around freely in the house.
2nd MAID: Her own child!
1st MAID: If she were my child, by God,
I would keep her under lock and key.
4th MAID: Don't they treat her harshly enough for you?
Don't they put her food bowl down with the dogs?
Have you never seen the master strike her?
5th MAID: I want to throw myself down
before her and kiss her feet. Is she not
a king's daughter, and she suffers such disgrace?
I would like to anoint her feet and dry them with my hair.
OVERSEER [pushing her]: Inside with you!
5th MAID: There is nothing
in the world more regal than her.
She lies in rags on the doorstep, but nobody,
nobody here in this house can look her in the face.
OVERSEER [pushing her through the low door down to the left, which is lying open]: Inside!
5th MAID [trapped in the doorway]: Not one of you is worthy
to breathe the same air as she breathes!
Oh, if I could see all of you hanging by the neck
in a dark shed, because of what you have done to Elektra!
OVERSEER [slamming the door]: Do you hear that?
What we have done to Elektra?
She who pushed her dish off our table
when they told her to eat with us
who spat in front of us and called us bitches!
1st MAID: What?
She said, "No dog can be degraded to the state
which we have been trained into.
We should wash away the undying blood
from the floorboards with water,
again and again with fresh water" --
3rd MAID: "And sweep away the shame," she said.
"The shame that is renewed daily into a corner . . ."
1st MAID: "Our bodies," she screamed,
"are thick with the filth that enslaves us."
[The maids carry the jugs into the house.]
OVERSEER [having opened the door for them]:
And when she sees us with our children she shrieks:
"Nothing, nothing can be so accursed as the children
that, groveling, we have conceived and borne
in this house, where the stairs are slippery with blood."
Does she say this or not?
4th MAID: Yes! Yes!
OVERSEER: Does she say this or not?
[The OVERSEER goes inside and the door closes.]
1st-4th MAIDS [inside]: Yes! Yes!
5th MAID: They're beating me!
[ELEKTRA steps out of the house.]

Cvetka Ahlin (c), 1st Maid; Margarete Sjöstedt (ms), 2nd Maid; Sieglinde Wagner (ms), 3rd Maid; Judith Hellwig (s), 4th Maid; Gerda Scheyrer (s), 5th Maid; Ilona Steingruber (s), Overseer; Staatskapelle Dresden, Karl Böhm, cond. DG, recorded October 1960

Joan Khara (c), 1st Maid; Wendy Hillhouse (ms), 2nd Maid; Diane Kesling (ms), 3rd Maid; Emily Rawlins (s), 4th Maid; Cynthia Haymon (s), 5th Maid; Marita Napier (s), Overseer; Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, cond. Philips, recorded live, Nov. 12-23, 1988

Daphne Evangelatos (c), 1st Maid; Shirley Close (ms), 2nd Maid; Birgit Calm (ms), 3rd Maid; Julie Faulkner (s), 4th Maid; Caroline Maria Petrig (s), 5th Maid; Ilona Steingruber (s), Overseer; Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Wolfgang Sawallisch, cond. EMI, recorded January 1990

[C] R. STRAUSS: Der Rosenkavalier, Op. 59: Orchestral introduction


Vienna Philharmonic, Georg Solti, cond. Decca, recorded November 1968

Vienna Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein, cond. CBS-Sony, recorded April 1971

AFTERTHOUGHT -- or, Why I Chose These Recordings: It was noted at the time how brave, if not positively brazen, it was for Bernstein to "bring" Rosenkavalier to the Viennese, and I think these snippets from two complete recordings of the opera made so close in time demonstrate why/how Lenny won them over. Solti's seems to me a wonderful performance in "traditional" mode, but Lenny brings something more -- an audacious yet confident and assured expansiveness, an intensity, a sheer joy in the piece, all of which for me radiates like mad.

[D] R. STRAUSS: Ariadne auf Naxos, Op. 60:

The Prologue: Orchestral introduction


Vienna State Opera Orchestra, Karl Böhm, cond. Live performance, 1967

Gewandhaus Orchestra (Leipzig), Kurt Masur, cond. Philips, recorded January 1988

Staatskapelle Dresden, Giuseppe Sinopoli, cond. Teldec, recorded Sept. and Dec. 2000

The Opera Seria: Opening scene
ARIADNE lies prostrate on the ground before the mouth of a cave. NAJADE is left, DRYADE right, ECHO at the back against the wall of the grotto.

["Is she sleeping?" first NAJADE and then DRYADE ask. "No, she is weeping," they determine. "Weeping in her sleep." "Day after day benumbed in sorrow." And they continue their lamentations, joined by the echoing ECHO, until finally ARIADNE awakens.]

Mimi Coertse (s), Najade; Hilde Rossl-Majdan (ms), Dryade; Liselotte Maikl (s), Echo; Leonie Rysanek (s), Ariadne; Vienna Philharmonic, Erich Leinsdorf, cond. RCA-Decca, recorded 1958

Erika Wustmann (s), Najade; Annelies Burmeister (ms), Dryade; Adele Stolte (s), Echo; Gundula Janowitz (s), Ariadne; Staatskapelle Dresden, Rudolf Kempe, cond. EMI, recorded 1967

[E] R. STRAUSS: Die Frau ohne Schatten, Op. 65:

Orchestral introduction only

Vienna State Opera Orchestra, Karl Böhm, cond. DG, recorded live, Oct. 23 and 27, 1977

Orchestral intro continuing with the Nurse-Spirit Messenger scene
On a flat roof above the imperial gardens. At the side the entrance to the private rooms, dimly lit.

THE NURSE [crouching in the shadow]: Light over the lake --
a flowing gleam -- fast as a bird!
Night's tree tops lit from above --
a fiery hand reaches out to seize me.
Is it you, Lord?
See, I keep watch by your child
by night, careworn and anxious!
SPIRIT MESSENGER [appears out of the darkness wearing armor, ringed by blue light: Not the master, not Keikobad, but his messenger.
Eleven of them have sought you out.
a new one with each waning moon.
The twelfth moon is down;
the twelfth messenger stands before you.
THE NURSE: I have never seen you before.
SPIRIT MESSENGER: Enough! I came and ask you:
Does she cast a shadow?
From the black water flowing around the island,
seven moon mountains couched round the lake --
and you, you she-dog, let the jewel be stolen!
THE NURSE: From her mother she inherited
an overpowering feeling for humans!
Alas that her father gave his child the power
to change her shape.
Could I follow a bird through the air?
Was I to hold the gazelle with my hands?
SPIRIT MESSENGER: Let me see her!
THE NURSE: She is not alone: Je is with her.
There was not one night in twelve moons
when he did not desire her.
He is a hunter and a lover; beyond that he is nothing!
At earliest dawn he creeps away from her;
when the stars appear he is there again.
His nights are her day,
his days are her night.
SPIRIT MESSENGER: Twelve long moons she was his.
Now he has her yet for three short days!
When they are done she returns to her father's arms.
THE NURSE: And I with her! O blessed day!
But him?
SPIRIT MESSENGER: He will turn to stone!
THE NURSE: He will turn to stone!
In that I recognize Keikobad and bow to him!
SPIRIT MESSENGER [disappearing: Keep watch over her!
Three days! Remember!
THE NURSE: He will turn to stone!

Reinhild Runkel (ms), the Nurse; Albert Dohmen (bs-b), Spirit Messenger; Vienna Philharmonic, Sir Georg Solti, cond. Decca, recorded 1989 and 1991

Hanna Schwarz (ms), the Nurse; Andreas Schmidt (b), Spirit Messenger; Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Wolfgang Sawallisch, cond. EMI, recorded Feb.-Mar., Nov.-Dec. 1987
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