Here it is: our Garrulous Old Moneygrubbers' Week bonus -- and now it's a double bonus!

THURSDAY UPDATE: The second part of the bonus isn't just ready but now has additional circumventions and digressions.

I tried like heck to find an image that might be taken as somehow relating to a ship's crewman falling asleep while sitting watch. This is as close as I got.

After the worst of the storm in Act I of The Flying Dutchman --

The STEERSMAN, having been left on deck to stand watch while captain Daland and the rest of the crew, exhausted by their exertions coping with the near-fatal storm, rest below deck. He made one more round of the deck, then sat near the rudder. Now he yawns, then rouses himself as sleep comes over him.

Steersman's Song
Through thunder and storm, from distant seas
I draw near, my lass!
Through towering waves, from the south
I am here, my lass!
My lass, were there no south wind,
I could never come to you:
ah, dear south wind, blow once more!
My lass longs for me.
Hoyohe! Halloho! Yoloho! Hoho!
[A wave breaks against the ship, shaking it violently. The STEERSMAN starts up and looks around. Having satisfied himself that no harm has been done, he sits down again and sings, while sleep gradually overcomes him.]
On southern shores, in distant lands,
I have thought of you.
Through storm and sea, from Moorish strands
a gift I have brought for you.
My lass, praise the fair south wind,
for I bring you a golden ring.
Ah, dear south wind, then blow!
My lass would fain have her gift.
Hoyohe! Halloho! Hoyohe! Halloho!

The STEERSMAN struggles with his fatigue and finally falls asleep. The storm begins to rage violently; it grows darker. In the distance appears the ship of the "Flying Dutchman" with blood-red sails and black masts. She rapidly nears the shore, on the side opposite the Norwegian ship; with a fearful crash, she casts anchor. -- DALAND's STEERSMAN starts up from his sleep; without leaving his place he glances hastily at the helm and, reassured that no harm has been done, murmurs the beginning of his song,

My lass, were there no south wind --

and falls asleep again. -- Mute and without making the slightest noise, the spectral crewmen of the DUTCHMAN furl the sails.

-- translation by Lionel Salter

Fritz Wunderlich (t), Steersman; Staatskapelle Berlin, Franz Konwitschny, cond. EMI-Deutsche Schallplatten, recorded 1959

Harald Ek (t), Steersman; Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Karl Böhm, cond. DG, recorded live, July-Aug. 1971

Ernst Häfliger (t), Steersman; RIAS Symphony Orchestra (Berlin), Ferenc Fricsay, cond. DG, recorded 1952

Uwe Heilmann (t), Steersman; Vienna Philharmonic, Christoph von Dohnányi, cond. Decca, recorded March-Nov. 1991

by Ken

I didn't see how it could be done: to get as close as we got, in this week's post ("Ohmygosh, it's turned into Garrulous Old Moneygrubbers' Week here at Sunday Classics -- or has it?"), to the Steersman's Song in Act I of The Flying Dutchman and not hear the song itself. At any rate, I don't know how to do it. And since, as I mentioned, we had a fine sampling of performances in the Sunday Classics audio archive, I gave up trying to resist.

Actually, we're going to significantly more: something I've long longed to hear. Again, I can't help myself. For now, though, here we are, with the sea captain Daland's little ship anchored offshore after being blown violently off course by a sudden storm that attacked it just as it was within sight of home -- Daland could literally see his house. The little Act I excerpt we heard took us right up to the point of the Steersman is left alone on deck, just as he was about to break into song in an effort to keep himself awake.


READY TO JUMP TO THE SECOND HALF OF OUR BONUS?

Ohmygosh, it's turned into Garrulous Old Moneygrubbers' Week here at Sunday Classics --or has it?

NOTE: If the audio clips don't all load, try refreshing the post -- more than once if necessary. They're all ready and waiting.

His chance encounter-at-sea with the mysterious -- and rich as all get-out -- Dutchman (Darren Jeffery) gives Daland (Steven Gallop) ideas about his marriageable daughter's future, in Melbourne's 2019 Flying Dutchman.


CAUTIONARY NOTE ABOUT THIS SET OF AUDIO CLIPS: They're all, er, special, in a particular way, and are here for a reason. (Okay, okay: We might call these "Garrulous Old Moneygrubbers' versions.") If your ears and brain are screaming, "Yuck, I can't stand it!," farther down we've got a heap of clips, of both selections, that are special in a way different way. -- Ed.

BEETHOVEN: Fidelio: Act I, Rocco, "Hat man nicht auch Gold beineben" ("If you don't have money too")

[FOR ENGLISH TEXT, SCROLL DOWN IN POST]


Kurt Böhme (bs), Rocco; Vienna Philharmonic, Lorin Maazel, cond. Decca, recorded March 1964

Herbert Alsen (bs), Rocco; Vienna Philharmonic, Wilhelm Furtwängler, cond. Live performance from the Salzburg Festival, Aug. 3, 1948

WAGNER: The Flying Dutchman: Act II, Daland, "Mein Kind, du siehst mich" ("My child, you see me") . . . "Mögst du, mein Kind" ("Might you, my child")

[FOR ENGLISH TEXT, SCROLL DOWN IN POST]


["Mögst du, mein Kind" at 1:43] Josef Greindl (bs), Daland; Annelies Kupper (s), Senta; RIAS Symphony Orchestra (Berlin), Ferenc Fricsay, cond. DG, recorded 1952

["Mögst du, mein Kind" at 1:45] Josef Greindl (bs), Daland; Anja Silja (s), Senta; Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Wolfgang Sawallisch, cond. Philips, recorded live, August 1961

by Ken

We've got so many balls hanging precariously in the air that I was really hoping we snatch and ground one or two this week. Instead we're tossing up another.

The obvious follow-up to the "post-taste" I offered earlier today (or maybe it was yesterday -- you know, one of those days in there), which included performances of Beethoven's Creatures of Prometheus Overture, would have been something I've had in mind for several weeks, for some point in the future: a look into the mystery of the master's overture-making skills, as reflected in the four specimens he created over that nine-year period for Fidelio, which include two gems and -- yes, I'm going to use the word -- two duds.

First page of the Fidelio Overture

The mystery becomes a little less mysterious when we factor in that, as I pointed out in the post-taste, while by 1805 the 35-year-old Beethoven had already have produced a large body of music of a high level of mastery in a wide variety of genres, as an overture-writer he was still a novice, whereas by 2014, when he sealed the deal with the fourth and final overture for the opera, the one we know as the Fidelio Overture, he was one of music's all-time master overturists. What may be most amazing is that in his second attempt at an operatic overture, as early as 1806, he gave us what may not be a useful operatic curtain-raiser but nevertheless is one of the great masterpieces of music. And then he produced a real dud. Maybe it just goes to show that by and large "easy" wasn't in Beethoven's working vocabulary.

Again, though, this was a subject for the future -- no way it was going to be doable on the spot, even if I curtailed the plan I'd roughed out, which would have included hearing all of the canonical Beethoven overtures.

Similarly, I didn't see any way of jumping from where we are to the lesson of Fidelio.


WHAT WE'RE DOING, THOUGH, ISN'T UNRELATED

Today's "post-taste": Yes, we're finally gonna have a guide box to the "Lesson of Fidelio" posts (oh, and we've got some music too)

Before Beethoven set out in 1805 to write an overture for the opera we know as Fidelio, the only overture he'd written -- at least that I've ever encountered -- was the bracing one for his 1801 ballet The Creatures of Prometheus. (Above we see Prometheus, god of fire, at Rockefeller Center, as rendered in gilded cast bronze by Paul Winship in 1934.)

BEETHOVEN: The Creatures of Prometheus, Op. 43: Overture


Berlin Philharmonic, André Cluytens, cond. EMI, recorded c1957

Utah Symphony Orchestra, Maurice Abravanel, cond. Vanguard, recorded c1964

Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, cond. EMI, recorded Nov. 25, 1957

New Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, cond. EMI, recorded October 1969

by Ken

Ever since the second or third post in this series of posts on "The Lesson of Fidelio I've known we were going to need a listing guide. I've also known, as the series lumbered along, that to be at all useful this guide box was going to have to include some description of the post contents, and I knew that it was going to be a long and tedious job, resulting in a long and probably impenetrable "guide box." (Even I'm kind of shaky on what exactly has been included in the published posts and what hasn't, which has made it increasingly difficult to try to sort through the assortment of post-drafts clogging the Sunday Classics blog dashboard, a problem I've mostly solved by kind of not looking back or peeking at the unpublished post-drafts.)


AS YOU'LL SEE IF YOU CLICK THROUGH, THE
FAMOUS GUIDE BOX IS NOW ACTUALLY BEGUN

Getting it done is today's principal order of business. I figure there's bound to be some music too.

UPDATE: If you'd like, you can now click through to the main post.

We hear Beethoven reference Florestan and Leonore in his first overture for Fidelio, and we hear Leonore make a crucial decision

"Fidelio" (Christine Brewer) and Rocco (Arthur Woodley) in Act I of Fidelio, San Francisco, 2005 (photo by Terence McCarthy)

ROCCO: Make haste, dig on;
it won't be long before he comes.
LEONORE [trying to view the prisoner, aside]:
Whoever you may be, I will save you,
by God, by God you won't be a victim!
For sure, for sure I'll loose your chains;
I will, you poor man, free you!

Kirsten Flagstad (s), Leonore; with Alexander Kipnis (bs), Rocco; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Bruno Walter, cond. Live performance, Feb. 22, 1941

Sena Jurinac (s), Leonore; with Gottlob Frick (bs), Rocco; Covent Garden Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, cond. Testament, recorded live, Feb. 24, 1961

Helga Dernesch (s), Leonore; with Karl Ridderbusch (bs), Rocco; Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, cond. EMI, recorded 1970

Birgit Nilsson (s), Leonore; with Gottlob Frick (bs), Rocco; Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra, Erich Kleiber, cond. Broadcast performance, June 1956

Birgit Nilsson (s), Leonore; with Oskar Czerwenka (bs), Rocco; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Karl Böhm, cond. Live performance, Feb. 13, 1960

Birgit Nilsson (s), Leonore; with Kurt Böhme (bs), Rocco; Vienna Philharmonic, Lorin Maazel, cond. Decca, recorded March 1964

Birgit Nilsson (s), Leonore; with Franz Crass (bs), Rocco; RAI Rome Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein, cond. Broadcast performance, Mar. 17, 1970

by Ken

In last week's post, "What's that, a trumpet? We hear two Great Moments in Act II to prepare to root around further in Beethoven's overtures for Fidelio," I explained that we were originally going to hear not two but three "Great Moments in Act II" of Fidelio. The deal was going to be to have you reckon which of the three were referenced in any of the four overtures Beethoven composed for the opera, when in fact only two of them were: No. 1, the imprisoned Florestan grappling with his past in his dungeon; and No. 3, the assistant jailer "Fidelio" revealing "himself" as the secret prisoner's wife in a desperate attempt to save her husband from the revenge of his enemy Don Pizarro.

This week, as I mentioned in the earlier "Taste of this week's post," in addition to continuing our investigation of those overtures, we fill in Great Moment No. 2, which I've summarized above as "Leonore makes a life-changing decision that really doesn't require much thought." Above we've heard the critical moment, and eventually we're going to hear the whole of this little "melodrama and duet," immediately following Florestan's Act II-opening monologue. It's another in a series of moments Leonore has worked so hard to achieve in the long time that she has been searching for her vanished husband Don Florestan. I don't believe we're told how long she has been searching, but it's long enough that everyone except Leonore believes he's dead.


I'D SAY THIS IS THE "CLIMAX" OF THE SCENE, EXCEPT
LEONORE STILL DOESN'T KNOW WHETHER IT REALLY IS

A taste of today's post -- coming soon, I swear! (Yes! See the link below!)

(1) A QUICK REFRESHER:

"In des Lebens Frühlingstagen" ("In the spring days of life")

Jon Vickers (t), Florestan; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Karl Böhm, cond. Live performance, Feb. 13, 1960

James McCracken (t), Florestan; Vienna Philharmonic, Lorin Maazel, cond. Decca, recorded March 1964

James King (t), Florestan; Staatskapelle Dresden, Karl Böhm, cond. DG, recorded c1968

Plácido Domingo (t), Florestan; Staatskapelle Berlin, Daniel Barenboim, cond. Teldec, recorded 1999

Julius Patzak (t), Florestan; Vienna Philharmonic, Wilhelm Furtwängler, cond. Live performance from the Salzburg Festival, Aug. 3, 1948
[Yes, I've reordered the clips. Why not have McCracken second? For a while I even had him first. Then for kicks I relistened to Vickers on that ever-so-happy Saturday afternoon in February 1960, and my goodness! Then I relistened to King, and he's pretty fine too, but I didn't change the order again. -- Ed.]

(2) AND NOW:

Example 1

Example 2

Which we can hear at, respectively, 00:45-3:24 and 6:32-7:04 --

Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, cond. EMI, recorded Nov. 5-6, 1963

by Ken

A thousand pardons, but this has proved incredibly, multifariously laborious. To give you a taste of what's to come, this is one part of what we're going to be up to in today's post, picking up more or less where we left off in last week's post, "What's that, a trumpet? We hear two Great Moments in Act II to prepare to root around further in Beethoven's overtures for Fidelio."

And no, we haven't heard the eponymous trumpet yet. Well, we have and we haven't. Tune in later and all will be clear. Okay, clearish. (Word of caution: I'm finding audio clips loading not-so-great just now. Busy Sunday at Internet Archive? If necessary, try reloading, and if necessary retry -- they're all there. This doesn't exactly bode well for the main post.)


WAIT, WHILE WE'RE AT IT, WE SHOULD PROBABLY
CHECK OUT THE TRUMPET CALL IN LEONORE NO. 2

Because that, of course, is what we're listening to: Leonore No. 2, the overture Beethoven wrote for the rousingly unssuccessful original (1805) version of Fidelio.

So here's the plan. We're not going to get as far as I would have liked with the four Fidelio overtures, but in the main post we will check out Leonore No. 2 a bit more. And we're going to tend to the other major piece of business left over from last week: regarding Leonore herself: her Act II dungeon scene with Rocco, immediately after Florestan's monologue.

CLICK HERE FOR THE MAIN POST --
"We hear Beethoven reference Florestan and Leonore in his first overture for Fidelio, and we hear Leonore make a crucial decision"

#

What's that, a trumpet? We hear two Great Moments in Act II to prepare to root around further in Beethoven's overtures for Fidelio

"Töt' erst sein Weib" ("First kill his wife"): In this presumably, er, staged shot featuring the stars of Decca's 1964 Fidelio recording, Birgit Nilsson and James McCracken (with Lorin Maazel conducting), Leonore shields Florestan from his would-be executioner.

Do you hear a trumpet?

We pick up deep into Act II of Fidelio, in the secret deep-underground dungeon where the prison governor Don Pizarro has been keeping his old enemy Don Florestan. Pizarro is about to take his final revenge on the dastardly truth-teller (it's hard to believe, but there were olden times when certain depraved villains regarded truth-telling as subversive to the proper order of things). At the last moment the young assistant jailer Fidelio, present in the dungeon with his boss, the head jailer Rocco, steps in front of the prisoner to shield him, and makes a startling revelation.

LEONORE [shielding her husband]: First kill his wife!
DON PIZARRO: His wife?
ROCCO: His wife?
FLORESTAN: My wife?
LEONORE [to FLORESTAN]: Yes, here see Leonore!
FLORESTAN: Leonore!
LEONORE [to the others]: I am his wife,
I have sworn comfort for him,
destruction for you!
DON PIZARRO: His wife?
ROCCO: His wife?
FLORESTAN: My wife?
DON PIZARRO: What incredible courage!
FLORESTAN [overlapping]: My blood stands still with joy!
ROCCO [overlapping]: My blood stands still with fear!
LEONORE [overlapping, aside]: I defy his rage!
Destruction for him,
I defy his rage!
DON PIZARRO: Ha, Shall I tremble before a woman?
Then I sacrifice them both to my fury!
You have shared life with him,
now share death with him!
LEONORE [overlapping]: Death I have sworn you,
first you must stab this heart. [Suddenly brandishes a pistol.]
One more sound -- and you are dead!
The trumpet sounds from the tower.
LEONORE: Ah, you are saved! Almighty God!
FLORESTAN [overlapping]: Ah, I am saved! Almighty God!
DON PIZARRO [overlapping]: Ha! The Minister! Death and damnation!
ROCCO [overlapping]: O! what is that? Righteous God!
[PIZARRO and ROCCO stand dumbfounded. LEONORE and FLORESTAN embrace.]
The trumpet sounds again, but louder.
[JAQUINO, two oficers, and soldiers bearing torches appear at the uppermost opening on the staircase.]
JAQUINO: Father Rocco! Father Rocco! The Lord Minister has arrived!
ROCCO [joyful and surprised, aside]: Praised be God!

[1st trumpet call at 0:53, no following spoken dialogue] Birgit Nilsson (s), Leonore; Paul Schoeffler (bs-b), Don Pizarro; Gottlob Frick (bs), Rocco; Hans Hopf (t), Florestan; Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra, Erich Kleiber, cond. Broadcast performance, June 1956

[1st trumpet call at 0:46] Birgit Nilsson (s), Leonore; Hermann Uhde (bs-b), Don Pizarro; Oskar Czerwenka (bs), Rocco; Jon Vickers (t), Florestan; Charles Anthony (spkr), Jaquino; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Karl Böhm, cond. Live performance, Feb. 13, 1960

[1st trumpet call at 0:57] Birgit Nilsson (s), Leonore; Tom Krause (b), Don Pizarro; Kurt Böhme (bs), Rocco; James McCracken (t), Florestan; Donald Grobe (spkr), Jaquino; Vienna Philharmonic, Lorin Maazel, cond. Decca, recorded March 1964

[1st trumpet call at 0:59, no following spoken dialogue] Birgit Nilsson (s), Leonore; Theo Adam (bs-b), Don Pizarro; Franz Crass (bs), Rocco; Ludovic Spiess (t), Florestan; RAI Rome Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein, cond. Broadcast performance, Mar. 17, 1970

by Ken

The next post here was supposed to be "Fidelio by the numbers: How do Three Great Moments in Act II go into four overtures?" -- as forecast in last week's tease-post. However, even though most of the elements for that post have been pretty much ready to roll all week, as soon as I figure out how to do it, my revised thinking is that maybe we better stick closer to the overtures, the four of them, that Beethoven wrote for his only opera. We're going to start by re-presenting the overtures in the same form we heard them last Sunday, despite what I believe I described as two quite different kinds of "temporal anomalies" in this seemingly straightforward-as-can-be presentation of them.

Quick nomenclatural note: It's well known that Beethoven preferred Leonore as the opera's title, which is how the first three overtures her wrote have come down to us as Leonore whatever. I happen to think Fidelio is a better title, referencing not Leonore personally but the character she has invented and impersonated for the long, arduous, and seemingly hopeless search for her husband, missing and presumed dead by everyone except her. But my preference aside, the finally revised version was presented as Fidelio, and since 1814 Fidelio it has been.

THE FOUR OVERTURES FOR FIDELIO

Leonore Overture No. 1, Op. 138

Leonore Overture No. 2, Op. 72a

Leonore Overture No. 3, Op. 72b

Fidelio Overture,  Op. 72c

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis, cond.

A tease for this week's post: "Fidelio by the numbers: How do Three Great Moments in Act II go into four overtures?"

by Ken

This has been nuts. All week I've been trying to figure out what we can cover in a single post -- not only which elements but what would go into them -- and subconstructing the modules, to the point where there are pieces of the thing all over the damned place, all of them still works in progress that not only have had to be completed individually but at some point in some way fitted together.

So while I've had lots of musical bits and pieces I thought of as candidates for "pre-posting" or "tease-posting," I really couldn't think of one that would make sene on its own.

At a certain point, though, to heck with sense! I actually know (sort of) where this little module is going to fit into the actual post, but I think it will stand well enough on its own. As everyone knows, we have a total of four overtures that Beethoven wrote for his only opera, at one point intending each to raise the curtain on it. I think it's well settled that the overture we know as Leonore No. 1 was never actually performed as part of the opera (and presumably not performed in Beethoven's lifetime?), that Leonore No. 2 was the overture for the highly unsuccessful 1805 premiere, and Leonore No. 3 was popped into its place the following year for the heavily revised and even less successful version. The version of the opera we know didn't come into existence until 1814, at which point the reordering of Act I required an overture in a different key from the previous efforts, and for that occasion Beethoven produced the overture we know as the Overture to Fidelio.


THAT SAID, WHY DON'T WE LISTEN TO THE FOURSOME?