Quite right, Sir Georg: We'll need to hear not just Haydn's orchestral depiction of "pre-Creation" chaos but the "breathtaking" explosion when suddenly "there was light!"

[PLUS: Some serial aural remembrances of Kurt Moll]

[MONDAY EVENING UPDATE: Now with various sorts of upgrading, to bring the post a tiny bit closer to what I'd hoped to make -- notably fleshing out the section of Moll archival clips, with English text added, along with minimal comments and some non-Moll performances]

CHORUS: "Und es ward licht!" ("And there was light!")
[from "The First Day," in Part I of Haydn's Creation]

"I can think of no other work by any composer in which a single chord comes as such a surprise." -- Georg Solti (see below)

Bavarian Radio Chorus and Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein, cond. DG, recorded live in the Herkulessaal of the Residenz, Munich, June 1986

Stockholm Radio Chorus, Stockholm Chamber Chorus, Berlin Philharmonic, James Levine, cond. DG, recorded in the Jesus-Christus-Kirche, December 1987

Chicago Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti, cond. Decca, recorded live in Orchestra Hall, Oct. 29-30 & Nov. 2, 1993

"A personal note by Sir Georg Solti" -- from the CD booklet for his 1993 re-recording of Haydn's Creation

The older I get, the more deeply I love the genius of Haydn, especially his two late oratorio masterpieces, The Creation and The Seasons.

In re-recording The Creation, I was struck by the incredible modernity as well as the startling originiality of so much of the score. To mention just two examples: the opening "Representation of Chaos," with music that so poignantly symbolizes the emptiness and hopelessness before creation; and, immediately thereafter, the breathtaking C major of "Light." I can think of no other work by any composer in which a single chord comes as such a surprise. How completely I can understand the reactions at the first public performance, as my friend Robbins Landon so well describes in his article [a reprint in the CD booklet of a long, wide-ranging background piece by the great Haydn scholar H. C. Robbins Landon].

I was joined in my excitement and passion for this work by all my colleagues, soloists, orchestra and chorus alike. Rarely can I recall such exuberant joy and sheer enchantment as we shared during these Chicago concerts. I hope this will come across to the listener.

[Note: In the first paragraph I've taken the shocking liberty of reversing the order of Sir Georg's reference to the great late-Haydn oratorios, so that The Creation comes before The Seasons, as they did in real life. Is it possible that an editor suggested this to him c1994? I don't think so; I think he'd not only have approved but been grateful. Now I'm afraid it's too late to ask. -- Ed.]

by Ken

I was surprised how moved I was re-encountering this "personal note" from Georg Solti (1912-1997) about his experience re-recording Haydn's Creation -- days after his 81st birthday. In that late period of his life he memorably re-recorded a number of big vocal works that were clearly close to his heart, some of which had gone just fine in his earlier efforts -- I think in particular of Mozart's Così fan tutte and Magic Flute and Verdi's Falstaff; the latter two, notably if possibly coincidentally, are works that as a fledgling conductor in the 1930s he had helped Arturo Toscanini prepare at Salzburg) -- and others, at least to me, not so fine, like Mozart's Don Giovanni, Wagner's Meistersinger, Verdi's Otello -- and The Creation. (Among those happy late-life "big works" recording projects we should note as well Sir Georg's companion recording, this one his first ever, of Haydn's final "big work," The Seasons.)

What's so moving about Solti's Creation note is that it rings so true. "The older I get, the more deeply I love" declarations are so common as to be commonplace as applied to, say, Mozart, but Haydn [seen here as sculpted on the Frieze of Parnassus, encircling the base of London's Albert Memorial -- from the blog London Remembers], not so much. In fact, real imaginative identification with Haydn isn't common at all. A lot of performers you sense approach Haydn's music as kind of like Mozart's only not quite -- an approach that hardly ever works. We can talk about this more after we've heard today's Creation clips.

For those who weren't here for yesterday's preview post ("I won't go out on a limb and say this is the most beautiful bass voice I've ever heard, or this the most beautiful minute-and-a-half of singing. Then again --"), the explosions of light we "heard" above are from the same recordings of The Creation I teased therein, offering their accounts of the remarkable hushed lines uttered by the angel Raphael -- the first singing heard in the oratorio, Haydn's setting of some of the most famous words in the human record, the opening of the Book of Genesis.

The plan for today, in addition to filling in the somehow-missing performer identifications (notably of the bass soloists), was to fill in Haydn's introductory orchestral depiction of the chaos out of which the world would be created. Now in addition, inspired by Sir Georg's personal note, I've realized we also have to continue on a few extra minutes, to hear God conjure up light. I've remade the ready-made audio clips accordingly.


A GOOD CUE TO CUE UP THE PROMISED "FULLER-CONTEXT"
VERSIONS OF THE OPENING CHUNK OF THE CREATION

["Im Anfange schuf Gott" at 6:39; "Und es ward licht" at 9:02]
Kurt Moll (bs), Raphael; Thomas Moser (t), Uriel; Bavarian Radio Chorus and Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein, cond. DG, recorded live in the Herkulessaal of the Residenz, Munich, June 1986

["Im Anfange schuf Gott" at 9:40; "Und es ward licht" at 12:12]
Kurt Moll (bs), Raphael; Gösta Winbergh (t), Uriel; Stockholm Radio Chorus, Stockholm Chamber Chorus, Berlin Philharmonic, James Levine, cond. DG, recorded in the Jesus-Christus-Kirche, December 1987

["Im Anfange schuf Gott" at 5:15; "Und es ward licht" at 6:53]
René Pape (bs), Raphael; Herbert Lippert (t), Uriel; Chicago Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti, cond. Decca, recorded live in Orchestra Hall, Oct. 29-30 & Nov. 2, 1993

Obviously the fellow about whom I wasn't quite prepared to say yesterday that he had the most beautiful bass voice I've ever heard, but also wasn't quite prepared to say that he didn't, is Kurt Moll (1938-2017), and the audio clip I wasn't quite prepared to declare the most beautiful minute-and-a-half's worth of singing I've ever heard, but again wasn't quite prepared to say isn't, is his declamation of those deeply resonant opening lines of Genesis: "In the beginning God created heaven and earth." If you can, it's worth seeing the video recording of the Bernstein-Bavarian Radio performance, made by Unitel and Bavarian Radio in Ottobeuren Abbey, in the Bavarian town of Ottobeuren ("11 km southeast of Memmingen," if that's any help to you), and released on VHS by DG. I cling to my VHS copy, having been unable to find any trace of a DVD release, but I see you can watch it on YouTube (complete with Spanish subtitles, if those are any help to you).

[Note: It's only thanks to a YouTube commenter named Young Choi (who tells us he lived at least for a time in Andover, MA -- and who seems to have come relatively recently to classical music, writing of Lenny B: "By his name I thought he is an European virtuoso, but I became know he is an American conductor who led the same era of classical music with Herbert von Karajan") that I know the performance took place in Ottobeuren Abbey. I couldn't find venue information anywhere in the VHS package or in the video itself, or anyplace else I thought to look. I don't know how he knew, but thanks, Young!]

It's not that we see Moll doing anything special in the video version. The camera picks him up just before his first entrance, standing ready with his score in front of him. Maybe it's the very absence of any fuss (or strain), just seeing the human person doing a day's work, sending out all that effortlessly rolling tone, reaching with absolute assurance down to plummy depths and uup to commanding heights, singing loud and soft, caressingly and forcefully, always guided by alert presence in the moment -- this isn't a singer we look to for uncharted interpretive depths, but he doesn't ever seem either vocally or textually unprepared.


THE BERNSTEIN-MUNICH VHS CREATION WAS THE FIRST
CLASSICAL VIDEO THAT TOLD ME HOME VIDEO MIGHT BE . . .

. . . for classical-music lovers something other than, something more than, a meager substitute for live performances. I wish I could say I've had a lot of such experiences since. Lenny was in something like transcendent form, inspiring his musical team in a way we don't get to witness often -- a way that comes through in the video capture. Fortunately, it also comes through in the CD version recorded back in the Herkulessaal in Munich.

Lenny B, we should recall, had long since demonstrated that he was an uncommon conductor with a seeming pipeline to Haydn. Back in his New York Philharmonic days, his recording of the six "Paris" symphonies (Nos. 82-87) was reviewed in High Fidelity with something like ecstasy by none other than H. C. Robbins Landon. (I should say that this was long before I had any connection to the magazine except as an avid reader, though in my later time as music editor I'm happy to say it was still possible to coax occasional reviews out of Rob Landon.) In New York Lenny also made dandy recordings of the 12 Haydn "London" Symphonies (Nos. 93-104), in addition to his fine, youthfully vigorous Creation.

You'll have noticed that the Raphael of the Levine-DG Creation, made not much more than a year after the Bernstein-DG, is one Kurt Moll. While I have a marginal preference for the Bernstein version, he's still pretty spectacular in the Levine. And in Part III, where the angels Raphael and Gabriel (a soprano role) retire and give way to the humans Adam and Eve and most conductors bring in new soloists, a baritone for Adam and a second soprano for Eve, Levine sticks with his A team, Moll and Kathleen Battle, and they do him proud. Levine himself also seems freer and more intuitive in Part III, which gets quite a lovely performance.

Back in Part I, you'll surely have noticed wild discrepancies in timings among our three performances. The Lenny B of 1986 had an inspired sense of how this early music could be stretched for great expressive effect, and then along came Maestro Levine stretching even farther. Not a bad idea, necessarily, but I think Levine was better at sensing where slow tempos might be a good idea than at making the slow tempos work. Still, the Berlin Philharmonic works with him, in a way that, say, the Met Orchestra generally couldn't or just didn't. And later on, while his tempos certainly aren't lickety-split, they're generally pretty manageable. I might mention that Levine completes his strong solo team with a strong tenor, Gösta Winbergh.

It's not by novelties of tempo that the Solti of 1993 shows his more fully developed feeling for Haydn; he just seems to have a more intuitive sense of how to shape and fill out a Haydn line -- as he showed too in his own recording of the Haydn's 12 "London" symphonies. Solti has as his Raphael the not-yet-30-year-old René Pape, certainly a good choice for the part. And he sings it pretty well -- nothing fancy, not much to write home about, and maybe not best heard side by side with Kurt Moll's Raphael.

[UPDATE: Note, for one thing, the way Pape -- like most basses -- often "reaches" for a pitche before "settling into" the more-or-less-right one, and note that Moll, without in any way calling attention to it, doesn't do this. He just hits the pitch directly, dead-center, in whatever vocal formation he has chosen for beginning (or continuing) that phrase. And note that he does have choices, from which he's chosen for particular expressive purposes!]


I SEE I STILL HAVEN'T EXPLAINED HOW
I CAME TO BE THINKING ABOUT KURT MOLL

And I guess that's not going to come till a later post. We've wound up doing an exactly backwards version of what I originally imagined, which was to start with the source of my Moll-mania, which was a chance hearing of KM in a fairly unexpected role recorded way back when -- a rather small, which in the opera house could hardly justify the casting of a front-line bass -- and a French role at that -- but also a rather important role, whose casting can have a major impact on the opera's setting and general feeling. I had never paid much attention to this particular recording, and found myself hearing the positive impact KM's work was having on the performance.

So I set about paying proper attention to it, and naturally what I had originally imagined as an easy once-through started dragging me down paths I'd never anticipated. Even as this "easy" part of the project was slowing to a crawl, at several points during my Moll-musing I was having occasion to dip into the Sunday Classics Archive to retrieve specific items I knew were there, and at some point it occurred to me to actually look at what what Moll material is stored in the archive. It turned out to be something like 30 clips, and I got the idea of supplementing my discussion of KM in his unexpected French role with a simple presentation of a sampling of the performances of his we've already heard. Piece of cake, I figured, if I don't let myself fuss over things like providing texts. Just the music.

With work on the Unexpected French Role bogging down, and no end in sight, work on the archive dip coming along, it was just a matter of time before the exhumed KM Creation clip with Lenny B got me to thinking that at some point we ought to think specifically about KM's remarkable Raphael.

Which proved a perfect opening into a new sideways path, with nothing getting completed, and gradually the "offshoot" projects have, er, matured before the earlier ones.


SO NOW I'M JUST GOING TO DUMP OUT THE ARCHIVE CLIPS

UPDATE: Well no, as it turns out. I wound up doing my best to track these clips' previous appearance, and to provide usable translations for all of them. For the record, here's what I wrote in the original version of this post:

"I keep thinking I should do stuff with them. Probably most if not all of them had texts when they were used before, so if I could just track down the previous posts, that might be doable. Or maybe just some quick "establishing" notes for each of the selections. And surely some at least occasional notes on the performances.

"I don't swear that some or all of these things may yet happen. But for now, let's just have some music. It's not going to be anything like a "Portrait of Kurt Moll," which would have required more thinking and especially the making of more clips. So these are just archival pluckings. Let's let them tell a story if they will."

[1] (if anyone's counting)

HAYDN: Die Schöpfung (The Creation): Opening, Raphael, "Am Anfange schuf Gott Himmel und Erde" ("In the beginning God created heaven and earth")

[Note that this is a pre-existing clip, containing all the sung portion of the clip newly made for this post, just without the preceding orchestral "Representation of Chaos."]

Kurt Moll (bs) Raphael; with Thomas Moser (t), Uriel; Bavarian Radio Chorus and Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein, cond. DG, recorded live in the Herkulessaal, Munich, June 1986

[2] (if anyone's counting)

MOZART: Don Giovanni: Act II, Not-quite-final Scene, Statue of the Commendatore, "Don Giovanni, a cenar teco m'invitasti" ("Don Giovanni, to have supper with you you invited me")

After DON GIOVANNI's supper has already suffered one interruption, from the ever-importuning DONNA ELVIRA, an offstage cry as she makes her way out of the DON's home alerts him and his servant LEPORELLO to some unaccountable commotion. The DON goes out to investigate, and then --

LEPORELLO hides under the table as DON GIOVANNI returns to the reception hall accompanied by THE STATUE OF THE COMMENDATORE.

THE STATUE: Don Giovanni, to have supper with you
you invited me, and I've come!
DON GIOVANNI: I would never have believed it;
but I'll do what I can.
Leporello! Another supper
have brought at once!
LEPORELLO [from under the table]: Ah master! We're all dead!
DON GIOVANNI: Go, I say!
THE STATUE: Stay a bit!
He does not partake of mortal food
who partakes of celestial food!
Other cares more grave than this
has brought me here below!
LEPORELLO: I seem to have fever . . .
and to keep my limbs still . . .
I can't anymore!
DON GIOVANNI [overlapping]: Speak then!
What do you wish? What do you want?
THE STATUE: I speak, listen! I have no more time!
DON GIOVANNI [overlapping]: Speak, speak! I stand listening!
LEPORELLO [overlapping]: Ah, I can't keep my limbs still anymore!
THE STATUE: You invited me to supper,
now know your obligation!
Respond to me, respond to me,
will you come to have supper with me?
LEPORELLO [standing well back]:
Oh dear, oh dear! I don't have time, excuse me!
DON GIOVANNI: I'll never be wrongly accused of cowardice!
THE STATUE: Decide!
DON GIOVANNI: I've already decided!
THE STATUE: Will you come?
LEPORELLO: Tell him no, tell him no!
DON GIOVANNI: My heart is firm within my breast:
I'm not afraid, I'll come!
THE STATUE: Give me your hand in pledge!
DON GIOVANNI [giving his hand]: Here it is! Ah! Alas!
THE STATUE: What's the matter?
DON GIOVANNI: How ice cold this is!
THE STATUE: Repent, change your life!
It's the ultimate moment!
DON GIOVANNI: No, foolish old man!
THE STATUE: Repent!
DON GIOVANNI: No!
THE STATUE: Repent!
DON GIOVANNI: No!
THE STATUE: Yes!
LEPORELLO: Yes, yes!
DON GIOVANNI: No, no!
THE STATUE: Ah, there's no longer time!
[THE STATUE leaves. Flames burst out from all directions.]
DON GIOVANNI: With what unaccustomed terror
I feel the spirits assail me!
Whence issue these swirling flames
so fraught with horror?
CHORUS OF SPIRITS [from below]: All is as nothing to your crimes!
Come! There is worse in store!
DON GIOVANNI [overlapping]:
Who is rending my soul? Who is tearing at my viscera
What torture, alas! What frenzy!
LEPORELLO [overlapping]:
What a desperate grimace! What gestures of a soul in hell!
What screams! What wailing!
DON GIOVANNI: What terror! etc.
LEPORELLO: How it fills me with terror! etc.
CHORUS OF SPIRITS: All is as nothing etc.
DON GIOVANNI [as he is swallowed up by the ever-increasing flames that burst through the mansion]: Ah! [The flames suddenly increase and engulf DON GIOVANNI.

Kurt Moll (bs), Commendatore; Bernd Weikl (b), Don Giovanni; Gabriel Bacquier (b), Leporello; London Opera Chorus, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti, cond. Decca, recorded in Kingsway Hall, Oct.-Nov. 1978

[3] (if anyone's counting)

MOZART: The Magic Flute, K. 620: Act II, Final scene, Sarastro, "Die Strahlen der Sonne" ("The sun's rays")

[Is it possible that we've never "done" SARASTRO's arias? I didn't find them in the archive, but I did find (from the post "Inaugural Edition, no. 2: Post tease: Sarastro sings a mouthful when he sings, 'The rays of the sun drive away the night' " of Jan. 24, 2021) lots of versions of this climactic moment in the final scene when he hails -- of all things! -- the re-emergence of sunlight!

[I haven't researched it intensively, but I'm aware of at least four studio recordings of The Magic Flute, between 1972 and 1990, in which Kurt Moll sang SARASTRO, and I've got three of 'em in digital form. I'm thinking someday we need to go back and "do" the arias, and maybe some other stuff, but for now, isn't this an amazing moment? (The text, and I think maybe the clip, comes from a post called " 'In this life scoundrels always receive their just desserts': Now that we know the lesson of Don Giovanni, how does it square with the lesson of Fidelio?," from June 20, 2020.)]

SARASTRO: The rays of the sun drive away the night,
destroy the dissemblers' ill-gotten might.

Kurt Moll (bs), Sarastro; Bavarian State Opera Orchestra, Wolfgang Sawallisch, cond. EMI, recorded in the Bürgerbräu, Munich, Aug. 8-16, 1972

Kurt Moll (bs), Sarastro; Staatskapelle Dresden, Sir Colin Davis, cond. Philips, recorded in the Lukaskirche, January 1984

Kurt Moll (bs), Sarastro; Vienna Philharmonic, Sir Georg Solti, cond. Decca, recorded May and Dec. 1990

[4] (if anyone's counting)

BEETHOVEN: Fidelio, Op. 72: Act I, Rocco, "Hat man nicht auch Gold beineben" ("If one doesn't also have money at hand")

[This text and clip, like those for Daland's aria from The Flying Dutchman below, come from a post called "Ohmygosh, it's turned into Garrulous Old Moneygrubbers' Week here at Sunday Classics -- or has it?" from Sept. 20, 2020.]

ROCCO: If you don't have money too,
you can't be really happy.
life drags sadly by,
many an anxiety sets in.

But when it clinks and rolls in your pockets,
fate is then you captive,
and money will bring you power and love
and satisfy your boldest dreams.

Luck, like a servant, works for wages;
it's a lovely thing, is money;
it's a precious thing, is money.

If you add nothing to nothing
the total is and stays small;
If you find only love at meal times,
you'll be hungry afterwards.

Then let fortune smile kindly upon you,
and bless and guide your efforts;
your sweetheart in your arms, money in your purse,
so may you live many years.

Luck, like a servant, works for wages;
it's a mighty thing, is money.

-- translation by William Mann

Kurt Moll (bs), Rocco; Staatskapelle Dresden, Bernard Haitink, cond. Philips, recorded in the Lukaskirche, November 1989

I can't resist adding this performance, from my favorite Fidelio:

Karl Ridderbusch (bs), Rocco; Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, cond. EMI, recorded in the Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Oct. & Dec. 1970

[5] (if anyone's counting)

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

[For source info, see the Fidelio aria above.]

A spacious room in DALAND's house. On the side walls, pictures of sea subjects, maps, etc. On the rear wall, the picture of a pale man with a dark beard and in black clothes.

SENTA, who earlier in Act II shared with the village girls the legend of the Flying Dutchman, her private obsession, is now alone and has been staring at the portrait of the legendary character on the wall. The door opens. DALAND and the DUTCHMAN enter. SENTA's gaze sweeps from the portrait to the DUTCHMAN, and remains as if spellbound, without taking her eyes off him.

The DUTCHMAN slowly comes forward.

DALAND [having remained standing at the threshold, comes forward]: My child, you see me at the door . . .
What? No embrace? No kiss?
You stand rooted to the spot --
Senta, do I deserve such a greeting?
SENTA [as DALAND comes up to her, grasps his hand]:
God give you greeting! [Drawing him closer to her]
Father, say, who is this stranger?
DALAND: Do you press me?
Might you, my child, bid this stranger welcome?
He is a seaman like me, and asks our hospitality.
Long homeless, always on far distant voyages,
in foreign lands he has gained great wealth.
Banished from his native land,
for a home he will pay handsomely:
Speak, Senta, would it displease you
if this stranger stayed with us?
[SENTA nods her approval.
DALAND turns to the DUTCHMAN.]
Say, did I praise her too much?
You can see for yourself -- does she please you?
Should I let my praises still overflow?
Confess, she is an ornament to her sex.
[The DUTCHMAN makes a gesture of assent.]
Should you, my child, show yourself well disposed to this man,
he also asks for the gracious gift of your heart;
give him your hand, for bridegroom you will call him.
If you are true to your father, tomorrow he'll be your husband.
[SENTA makes a convulsive movement of pain. DALAND produces some jewelry and shows it to his daughter.]
Look at this ring, look at these bracelets!
Of what he owns, these are but a trifle.
Dear child, do you not long to have them?
All this is yours if you exchange rings.
[SENTA, disregarding him, does not take her eyes off the DUTCHMAN, who likewise, without listening to DALAND, is absorbed in contemplating her. DALAND becomes aware of this; he looks at them both.]
But no one speaks . . . Am I not wanted here?
I see! I'd better leave them alone.
[to SENTA] May you win this noble husband.
Believe me, such luck will not occur again.
[to the DUTCHMAN] Stay here alone! I'll leave you.
Believe me, she is as true as she is fair.
[He goes out slowly, watching the two with pleased surprise.]

-- translation (mostly) by Lionel Salter

["Mögst du, mein Kind" at 1:51] Kurt Moll (bs), Daland; with Dunja Vejzovic (s), Senta; Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, cond. EMI, recorded in Berlin and Salzburg, 1981-83

Among many versions we heard, here are two more I like a lot:

["Mögst du, mein Kind" at 1:52] Karl Ridderbusch (bs), Daland; Gwyneth Jones (s), Senta; Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Karl Böhm, cond. DG, recorded live, July-Aug. 1971

["Mögst du, mein Kind" at 1:44] Gottlob Frick (bs), Daland; Marianne Schech (s), Senta; Staatskapelle Berlin, Franz Konwitschny, cond. EMI-Eterna, recorded in the Grunewaldkirche, February 1960

[6] (if anyone's counting)

WAGNER: Lohengrin: Act I, King Heinrich, "Ruft die Beklagte her!" ("Call the accused here!")

[All I could track down was a post from July 2013 which contained (or at least once contained, many online-format changes ago) a shorter clip (which I've appended below), beginning after ELSA has actually appeared, to the wonderment of the assembled crowd, from DG's earlier Lohengrin, conducted by Rafael Kubelik, with the equally -- but differently -- spendiferous King Heinrich of Karl Ridderbusch. (Maybe this clip was made for a post that never got written?)]

During the visiting KING HEINRICH's appearance before his Brabantine subjects, FRIEDRICH VON TELRAMUND -- official guardian of the two children of the late Duke of Brabant -- has made the shocking claim that the daughter, ELSA, is responsible for the disappearance of her younger brother, GOTTFRIED, linking it to her inexplicable refusal to marry him, supposedly as part of a nefarious scheme to give herself instead to a shameful mysterious lover. THE KING has no choice but to do his duty by his subjects.

KING HEINRICH: Call the accused forth!
The trial will now begin!
God let me be wise!
ROYAL HERALD: Shall a trial by right and might be held here?
KING HEINRICH [solemnly hanging his shield on the oak tree]:
This shield will no longer protect me
until I have rendered strong yet merciful justice.
ALL THE MEN [drawing their swords, with the KING's party of Saxons and Thuringians planting theirs in the ground in front of them while the Brabantine locals set theirs flat on the ground]:
Our swords will no longer return to their sheaths
until judgment has been rightly pronounced.
ROYAL HERALD: Where you behold the King's shield,
there will you behold it until justice is pronounced.
Therefore I call a summons loud and clear:
Elsa, appear here in this place!
[ELSA enters with her attending women.]
THE MEN: See there, she nears, the harshly accused!
Ha! How she appears so light and pure!
He who has dared to accuse her so heavily,
how certain he must be of her guilt!
KING HEINRICH: Are you she, Elsa of Brabant?
[ELSA nods her head affirmatively.]
Do you recognize me as your judge?
[ELSA turns her head toward the KING, looks him in the eye, and then affirms with a trust-filled gesture.]
Then I ask you further:
Is the charge known to you,
which has been brought so weightily against you?
[ELSA glances at TELRAMUND and ORTRUD, shudders, bows her head sadly, and affirms.]
What do you have to say against the charge?
[ELSA through a gesture: "Nothing!"]
So you acknowledge your guilt?
ELSA [staring sadly for a long time around her]: My poor brother!
ALL THE MEN: How wondrous! What strange behavior!
KING HEINRICH: Speak, Elsa, what do you have to confide to me?

Kurt Moll (bs), King Heinrich; Andreas Schmidt (b), Royal Herald; Cheryl Studer (s), Elsa von Brabant; Vienna State Opera Concert Chorus, Vienna Philharmonic, Claudio Abbado, cond. DG, recorded in the Grosser Saal of the Vienna Musikverein, Nov. 1991 & May-June 1992

Here's that 2013 clip, picking up after Elsa has entered:

Karl Ridderbusch (bs), King Heinrich; Gerd Nienstedt (bs-b), Royal Herald; Gundula Janowitz (s), Elsa von Brabant; Bavarian Radio Chorus and Symphony Orchestra, Rafael Kubelik, cond. DG, recorded in the Herkulessaal of the Residenz, Munich, April 1971
 

[7] (if anyone's counting)

WAGNER: Die Walküre: Act I, Hunding, after his dramatic entrance, "Heilig ist mein Herd" ("Sacred is my hearth")

[This text-and-clip, along with clips featuring Emanuel List, Ludwig Weber, and Karl Ridderbusch (also beautifully sung), and Herbert Alsen, Josef Greindl, and Kurt Böhme (not-so-beautifully sung), comes from a post called "If we're aiming to focus on Hunding -- and we are -- then first we need to get him onstage," from Oct. 25, 2020.]

Of course this is HUNDING's stark utterance to SIEGMUND, upon returning home and receiving his wife SIEGLINDE's explanation for the unexpected guest her husband has been confronted with.

HUNDING: Sacred is my hearth:
may my house be sacred to you!

Kurt Moll (bs), Hunding; Staatskapelle Dresden, Marek Janowski, cond. Eurodisc, recorded in the Lukaskirche, Aug. 22-29, 1981

[8] (if anyone's counting)

R. STRAUSS: Der Rosenkavalier, Op. 59: Act II closing, Baron Ochs, "Da lieg' ich!" ("There I lay!") . . . Annina, "Herr Kavalier"

[I did finally track down a couple of posts in which we heard this wonderful scene, but I don't think I've ever attempted to offer a translation. It's really hard, because all the translations I've looked at take the "wounded" Baron Ochs's blitherings, uttered in deeply and coarsely colloquial German (either a real Austrian dialect or an invention of librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal, or something in between) and render them into tidily grammatical English, wildly misrepresenting those blitherings. For now, my best solution is to resort to plot synopsis:

[Following the complete unraveling of sanity that follows the pseudo-ceremonial "Presentation of the Rose" (in fact, as far as I know, an invention of Hofmannsthal's, which inspired from Strauss some of the most amazing music ever created), leaving the baron wallowing in self-pity over what's surely nothing more than a flesh wound, being pampered to the limit by multiple teams of servants, his own and Herr von Faninal's, the inexcusable oaf is left alone, bemoaning the things that can happen to a person in this city of Vienna. A servant appears bearing wine, and the baron has a twinge of pain trying to drink it, leaving him cursing young Octavian, whose real trespasses, truly unfortivable, are being young, strikingly handsome, and cultured. Imagining his revenge on the Satanic pipsqueak cheers him up enought to call for more wine! In time he's approached by the intriguer Annina -- of the intriguers-for-hire team of Annina-and-Valzacchi, bearing (she informs him) a letter for him. Unable to find his glasses, he instruct her to read it.

"Herr Kavalier," she begins. "Sir Knight." The letter goes on to identify its author as "Mariandel," the supposed maid of the Marschallin as which Octavian hastily disguised himself in Act I when the baron barged in on Octavian and the Marschallin's morning tryst. She declares herself to have been too shy to own up to her infatuation with the baron, and with great trepidation but also great anticipation invites him to a dinner the following evening, declaring herself waiting for an answer. The oaf swallows it all whole, and becomes lost in a waltz-besotted fantasy ("Mit mir, mit mir" -- "With me, with me") of the libido-fueled tête-à-tête to come. Which we'll all get to see play out after the opera's second intermission!

Kurt Moll (bs), Baron Ochs; Doris Soffel (ms), Annina; Vienna Philharmonic, Christoph von Dohnányi, cond. Live performance from the Salzburg Festival, July 26, 1978

Wanna hear the best Annina we're ever likely to hear?

Walter Berry (bs-b), Baron Ochs; Christa Ludwig (ms), Annina; Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Heinrich Hollreiser, cond. Eurodisc-RCA, recorded 1963
[Rosenkavalier-wise, Ludwig went from one of the most notable Octavians of her time to maybe the finest Marschallin. This clip is from an LP of Richard Strauss operatic scenes (also included: Elektra and Die Frau ohne Schatten) that she and Berry, a notable Ochs, recorded while still married.]

And here are other swell performances we've heard:

Ludwig Weber (bs), Baron Ochs; Hilde Rössl-Majdan (ms), Annina; Vienna Philharmonic, Erich Kleiber, cond. Decca, recorded in the Grosser Saal of the Vienna Singverein, June 1954

Karl Ridderbusch (bs), Baron Ochs; Margarethe Bence (ms), Annina; Bavarian State Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber, cond. Live performance from the Bavarian State Opera, Munich, July 20, 1974

[in English] Noel Mangin (bs), Baron Ochs; Joan Davies (ms), Annina; Scottish National Orchestra, Alexander Gibson, cond. Live performance from Scottish Opera, King's Theatre, Glasgow, May 22, 1971

[in English] John Tomlinson (bs), Baron Ochs; Elizabeth Vaughan (ms), Annina; London Philharmonic Orchestra, David Parry, cond. Chandos, recorded in Blackheath Halls, Dec. 14-18, 1998


COMING SOON -- Kurt Moll in his Unfamiliar French Role

Maybe we should whip up a French Opéra cake for the occasion?
(Epicurious has a recipe.)

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UPDATE: Done! Find the post here.