Naturally, we've got a "Prélude"
West German Radio (WDR) Symphony Orchestra, Cologne, Riccardo Chailly, cond. DG, recorded in the Forumhalle, Leverkusen (across the Rhine from Cologne), February 1979
by Ken
As I mentioned in the Kurt Moll-themed posts from Saturday ("Preview: 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 --") and Sunday ("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!' "), it was a chance hearing of KM in what I've dubbed "an Unexpected French Role" which got me to thinking about him.
There's no other "news" peg for this 1979 recording -- the very recording from which we've just heard, as a curtain-raiser, the Prélude. It's a recording I was pretty sure I had on LP but realized I had no clear recollection of when I spotted a cheap CD copy in my used-CD mart of choice (no mystery: Academy Records on West 18th Street in Manhattan), where periodically, despite knowing that goodness knows I don't more damn records, I allow myself to browse -- especially on the "$1.99 and under" shelves, but also (when I have, or make, time) among the pricier $2.99- and $3.99-per-disc offerings, not to mention the cheap DVDs and Blu-rays. [POSTSCRIPT: Just to be clear, those aren't my CDs. I just borrowed the image to represent a tiny fraction of mine. (I only wish I had shelves like those!) -- Ed.]
At times it seems to me almost a moral issue not to allow tantalizingly underpriced musical items of value to languish unloved, like the time I came upon an irresistibly modest-priced copy of a pristine-looking EMI CD set of the 1953 Furtwängler-RAI Ring, of which my original copy, though I believe all the CDs are still playable, is badly beaten up from the heavy use it continues to get. Notwithstanding that Ring's undeniable limitations, it remains a repository of all manner of in-performance wisdom which makes it almost as essential to me, in its very different way, as the Solti-Decca and Karajan-DG Ring cycles. (Did I mention that I also have two LP editions of the Furtwängler-RAI Ring, the original American one and a later reissue made from supposedly better source material?)
So for the asked $5.98, I added that set to my growing pile. But then at home I never seemed to be in the mood to listen to it it, and it sat for months among a clump of other as-yet-unlistened-to CDs. Until one day I decided I wouldn't mind taking a listen.
And what a difference! I'm guessing that when I first acquired the LPs, which I indeed found neatly in place on my LP shelves, I sampled it and didn't much cotton to it, as I didn't with most of the growing number of recordings of this once-infrequently-recorded opera. Maybe I held its German provenance against it? It was made by Deutsche Grammophon, as German a record company as there is (though of course long since internationalized in its a&r thinking and its audience reach), with a German orchestra and supporting cast, and while most of the vocal principals and the conductor aren't German, they aren't French either, and neither is anybody else involved, in an opera by the most French of composers.
SAY, THIS IS GETTING TO BE AN AWFUL LOT OF
TALK -- HOW 'BOUT WE HAVE SOME MORE MUSIC?
Okay, can do!
SO WHERE DOES KURT MOLL FIGURE IN ALL OF THIS?
The thing is that, first, KM didn't sing much in French (or all that much in Italian), and, second, by 1979 he was turning 41 and reasonably well-established internationally as a front-line bass (he had already recorded Sarastro twice!). In fairness he was still occasionally recording small but important (i.e., normally non-front-line) roles: Lodovico in Otello (1977), Monterone in Rigoletto (later in 1979), the Kammersänger in Intermezzo (1980), Bartolo in The Marriage of Figaro (1981), in addition to the Bailiff, which isn't very long, and is often sloughed off on cartoonly-comic basses but is a role that can have a serious dramatic impact. In this case the way we perceive the Bailiff can affect the way we perceive the two characters who are thrown together so fatefully in this act -- one of them the Bailiff's eldest child, the other a first-time visitor to this home, which is not just the physical setting but the world that underpins all the action of the opera.
Before proceeding into the act, I suggest we back up to the Prélude, and hear it this time in multiple versions to get a more varied sense of how it might fall on us if we'd just settled into our seats and are eagerly awaiting the rise of the curtain. Let me add that the choice of these recordings wasn't a matter of deeply analytical consideration. It happens, to my surprise, that they're the only recordings of the opera I have in digital form. Nevertheless, I think they make an interestingly diverse group.
MASSENET: Werther: Prélude to Act I
West German Radio (WDR) Symphony Orchestra, Cologne, Riccardo Chailly, cond. DG, recorded in the Forumhalle, Leverkusen (across the Rhine from Cologne), February 1979
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Richard Bonynge, cond. Live performance, Feb. 3, 1979
London Symphony Orchestra, Antonio Pappano, cond. EMI, recorded in Abbey Road Studio No. 1, August 1998
NOW WE'RE READY FOR THE RISE OF THE CURTAIN!
The family at home: The Bailiff (Jonathan Summers) presides over eldest daughter Charlotte (Joyce DiDonato) and five of her younger siblings at Covent Garden, 2016. [photo by Bill Cooper/Royal Opera House]
Kurt Moll (bs), the Bailiff; László Anderko (b), Johann; Alejandro Vazquez (t), Schmidt; Arleen Augér (s), Sophie; Cologne Children's Chorus, West German Radio (WDR) Symphony Orchestra, Cologne, Riccardo Chailly, cond. DG, recorded in the Forumhalle, Leverkusen (across the Rhine from Cologne), February 1979
Andrew Foldi (bs), the Bailiff; Andrij Dobriansky (bs), Johann; Nico Castel (t), Schmidt; Kathleen Battle (s), Sophie; Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Richard Bonynge, cond. Live performance, Feb. 3, 1979
Jean-Philippe Courtis (bs), the Bailiff; Jean-Marie Frémeau (b), Johann; Jean-Paul Fouchécourt (t), Schmidt; Patricia Petibon (s), Sophie; Tiffin Children's Choir, London Symphony Orchestra, Antonio Pappano, cond. EMI, recorded in Abbey Road Studio No. 1, August 1998
I WONDER IF YOU'RE FEELING THAT THE DIGNITY OF
MOLL'S BAILLIFF AFFECTS THE FEELING OF THE SCENE
I still want to look a bit at the later scene in Act I in which the Bailiff reappears, after which we never see or hear from him again! As I said, it's such a short role -- so short that it's really surprising to encounter a singer of Moll's stature and quality, though I vividly recall, when the Met revived Werther in 1971 for the first time since 1910, how lovely Donald Gramm was in the role, and again what a difference it makes in the way we see and think about Charlotte, and for that matter how we take in poetic effusions about the idyllic life he sees represented in the household of the Bailiff. If the latter is rendered as a comic stereotype, Werther can appear to be either inventive imagining or highfalutin condescension. Now, I don't want to disparage either Andrew Foldi or Jean-Philippe Courtis. I do think, though, that Moll brings a dimension to the role which changes the scene, in a way that for me colors the whole opera. And his French, by the way, seems to me quite good.
It would be interesting to know (I don't) whether this is a role Moll had sung earlier in his career or one he learned for the recording. Either way, it's a treat, which is why I do want to spend a little time with the rest of his contribution. In anticipation, I've already made clips from our three recordings for this whole part of Act I, and even though I do want to at least touch on, not just the Bailiff's later scene but those poetic effusions of Werther's, not to mention our first in-person encounter with the heretofore-much-talked-about Charlotte, for now I thought I'd throw in those longer clips. Fortunately, we have in Plácido Domingo, Alfredo Kraus, and Roberto Alagna three quite worthy Werthers, and in Elena Obraztsova, Régine Crespin, and Angela Gheorghiu three worthy (and strikingly different) Charlottes.
MASSENET: Werther: Prélude & Act I opening scene
through the departure for the ball and nightfall
[(2) at 4:30, (3) at 11:21, (4) at 16:23, (5) at 22:16] Kurt Moll (bs), the Bailiff; László Anderko (b), Johann; Alejandro Vazquez (t), Schmidt; Arleen Augér (s), Sophie; Plácido Domingo (t), Werther; Elena Obraztsova (ms), Charlotte; Wolfgang Vater (b), Brühlmann; Gertrud von Ottenthal (ms), Käthchen; Cologne Children's Chorus, West German Radio (WDR) Symphony Orchestra, Cologne, Riccardo Chailly, cond. DG, recorded in the Forumhalle, Leverkusen (across the Rhine from Cologne), February 1979
[(2) at 4:07, (3) at 12:08, (4) at 16:05, (5) at 21:49] Andrew Foldi (bs), the Bailiff; Andrij Dobriansky (bs), Johann; Nico Castel (t), Schmidt; Kathleen Battle (s), Sophie; Alfredo Kraus (t), Werther; Régine Crespin (s), Charlotte; Dennis Steff (b), Brühlmann; Barbara Bystrom (s), Käthchen; Metropolitan Opera Children's Chorus and Orchestra, Richard Bonynge, cond. Live performance, Feb. 3, 1979
[(2) at 4:14, (3) at 11:15, (4) at 16:10, (5) at 21:37] Jean-Philippe Courtis (bs), the Bailiff; Jean-Marie Frémeau (b), Johann; Jean-Paul Fouchécourt (t), Schmidt; Patricia Petibon (s), Sophie; Roberto Alagna (t), Werther; Angela Gheorghiu (s), Charlotte; Pierre Dupont (b), Brühlmann; Sophie Boulanger (ms), Käthchen; Tiffin Children's Choir, London Symphony Orchestra, Antonio Pappano, cond. EMI, recorded in Abbey Road Studio No. 1, August 1998
STILL TO COME -- No, we're not done with Werther
And we can consider whether perhaps the "Germanness" of the DG Werther is more a feature than a flaw.
West German Radio (WDR) Symphony Orchestra, Cologne, Riccardo Chailly, cond. DG, recorded in the Forumhalle, Leverkusen (across the Rhine from Cologne), February 1979
by Ken
As I mentioned in the Kurt Moll-themed posts from Saturday ("Preview: 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 --") and Sunday ("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!' "), it was a chance hearing of KM in what I've dubbed "an Unexpected French Role" which got me to thinking about him.
At times it seems to me almost a moral issue not to allow tantalizingly underpriced musical items of value to languish unloved, like the time I came upon an irresistibly modest-priced copy of a pristine-looking EMI CD set of the 1953 Furtwängler-RAI Ring, of which my original copy, though I believe all the CDs are still playable, is badly beaten up from the heavy use it continues to get. Notwithstanding that Ring's undeniable limitations, it remains a repository of all manner of in-performance wisdom which makes it almost as essential to me, in its very different way, as the Solti-Decca and Karajan-DG Ring cycles. (Did I mention that I also have two LP editions of the Furtwängler-RAI Ring, the original American one and a later reissue made from supposedly better source material?)
So for the asked $5.98, I added that set to my growing pile. But then at home I never seemed to be in the mood to listen to it it, and it sat for months among a clump of other as-yet-unlistened-to CDs. Until one day I decided I wouldn't mind taking a listen.
And what a difference! I'm guessing that when I first acquired the LPs, which I indeed found neatly in place on my LP shelves, I sampled it and didn't much cotton to it, as I didn't with most of the growing number of recordings of this once-infrequently-recorded opera. Maybe I held its German provenance against it? It was made by Deutsche Grammophon, as German a record company as there is (though of course long since internationalized in its a&r thinking and its audience reach), with a German orchestra and supporting cast, and while most of the vocal principals and the conductor aren't German, they aren't French either, and neither is anybody else involved, in an opera by the most French of composers.
SAY, THIS IS GETTING TO BE AN AWFUL LOT OF
TALK -- HOW 'BOUT WE HAVE SOME MORE MUSIC?
Okay, can do!
Act II: Prélude
Act III: Prélude
Act IV: 1st Tableau, "The Night Before Christmas"
West German Radio (WDR) Symphony Orchestra, Cologne, Riccardo Chailly, cond. DG, recorded in the Forumhalle, Leverkusen (across the Rhine from Cologne), February 1979
[Note: The all-orchestral 1st Tableau of Act IV is marked to follow immediately the fall of the curtain on the final sung words of Act III -- as the character who sings them flies out the door, "désespérée" ("in despair"). Strictly speaking, at 4:23 we're in the 2nd Tableau -- I just couldn't bear to stop the clip. The following stage direction isn't in either of my scores, so it must be in a source libretto I don't have. -- Ed.]The little village of Wetzlar, the night before Christmas. -- The moon casts great clarity on the the trees and roofs, covered with snow. -- Some windows light up little by little. -- It's snowing. -- Then total obscurity.
SO WHERE DOES KURT MOLL FIGURE IN ALL OF THIS?
Before proceeding into the act, I suggest we back up to the Prélude, and hear it this time in multiple versions to get a more varied sense of how it might fall on us if we'd just settled into our seats and are eagerly awaiting the rise of the curtain. Let me add that the choice of these recordings wasn't a matter of deeply analytical consideration. It happens, to my surprise, that they're the only recordings of the opera I have in digital form. Nevertheless, I think they make an interestingly diverse group.
MASSENET: Werther: Prélude to Act I
West German Radio (WDR) Symphony Orchestra, Cologne, Riccardo Chailly, cond. DG, recorded in the Forumhalle, Leverkusen (across the Rhine from Cologne), February 1979
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Richard Bonynge, cond. Live performance, Feb. 3, 1979
London Symphony Orchestra, Antonio Pappano, cond. EMI, recorded in Abbey Road Studio No. 1, August 1998
NOW WE'RE READY FOR THE RISE OF THE CURTAIN!
The Bailiff's House (July 178_). At left, the house, with a wide bay window, with a usable veranda covered with greenery, accessed by a wooden stairway. At right, the garden. At the rear, a small door with a clear view. In front, a fountain.
At curtain rise THE BAILIFF is sitting on the veranda amid his six younger children, whom he's having sing. The curtain rises on a great burst of laughter, very prolonged, from the children.
THE BAILIFF [grumbling]: Enough! Enough!
Will you listen to me this time?
Let's start again! Let's start again!
Above all not too much voice, not too much voice!
THE CHILDREN [singing brusquely, very loud and without nuance]: Noël! Noël! Noël!
Jesus has just been born,
here is our divine master . . .
BAILIFF [overlapping, annoyed]:
But no! It's not that!
No! No! It's not that!
[Severely] Do you dare to sing that way
when your sister Charlotte is in there?
She must be hearing everything on the other side of the door!
[The CHILDREN have appeared totally moved at CHARLOTTE's name. They take up the "Noël" again with seriousness.]
CHILDREN: Noël! . . .
BAILIFF: That's good!
CHILDREN: Noël! . . .
BAILIFF: That's good!
CHILDREN: Jesus has just been born,
here is our divine master,
kings and shepherds of Israel!
In the firmament,
faithful guardian angels
have opened their wings wide,
and go about everywhere singing: Noël!
BAILIFF [joining in]: Noël! &c
[And as the CHILDREN continue the "Noël" --]
It's just like that!
Noël! Noël Noël! Noël Noël!
[JOHANN and SCHMIDT, who had stopped at the garden entrance to listen to the children's chorus on the other side of the greenery, have entered the yard.]
[Note: Try to remember (I usually don't!) that the BAILIFF's friend SCHMIDT is the tenor, JOHANN the baritone. -- Ed.]
JOHANN: Bravo for the children!
SCHMIDT: Bravo for the couplet!
CHILDREN [running up joyfully]:
Ah, Monsieur Schmidt! Ah, Monsieur Johann!
[SCHMIDT and JOHANN hug and congratulate the children.]
JOHANN [to the BAILIFF]: Eh, but you're singing "Noël" in July,
Bailiff, isn't that getting way ahead of time?
BAILIFF [who has come down and shakes his friends' hands]: That makes you laugh, Johann!
But why? Everyone isn't an artist like you!
And it's no bagatelle teaching singing,
singing, to these young brains.
SCHMIDT [to SOPHIE, who has just entered]: Good day, Sophie!
Eh, eh! Charlotte won't be far away!
SOPHIE [doing a little curtsy for him]:
Indeed, Monsieur Schmidt, since we take care,
Charlotte and I, of the family.
JOHANN [to the BAILIFF]: Superb weather! You'll come?
BAILIFF [to JOHANN]: In an instant . . .
SOPHIE [to JOHANN, continuing their conversation]:
My sister is getting dressed for the ball.
BAILIFF [turning back to SCHMIDT]:
Yes, the ball for friends and relatives
that they're putting on in Wetzlar.
They're coming to pick Charlotte up.
SCHMIDT: Just so!
Koffel will wear his old dress coat.
Steiner has hired the brewer's horse.
Hoffmann has his gig, and Goulden his berlin.
Even Monsieur Werther has seemed to me less dreamy.
BAILIFF [to his two friends]: Very nice, that young man!
JOHANN: But not so strong in matters of cuisine.
BAILIFF [insisting]: He's educated, very distinguished.
SCHMIDT: A little melancholy!
BAILIFF [pursuing his idea]:
The Prince promises him, they say, an ambassadorship.
He esteems him and wishes him well.
JOHANN [with contempt]: A diplomat! Bah!
That counts for nothing at table!
SCHMIDT [the same]: That one doesn't know how to drink down a real drink!
JOHANN [to the BAILIFF, shaking his hands]:
Until a little later, at the Golden Grape?
SCHMIDT [the same]: You still owe us a return match!
BAILIFF [crying out]: Still?
JOHANN [retracing his steps]: Indeed!
And then, today is crayfish day!
Big ones, fat like your arm -- Gretchen promised us!
BAILIFF: O the gourmands! Two accomplices!
[The two men make a show of leaving.]
BAILIFF: Then you're not waiting for Charlotte, my friends?
SCHMIDT [to JOHANN]: We'll see her this evening.
We want to take a little walk along the rampart.
BAILIFF [smiling, to JOHANN]: To expand your appetite?
JOHANN [growling a little, to SCHMIDT]:
Always he exaggerates. Let's go, come, it's late.
SCHMIDT [coming back to the BAILLIFF]:
By the way, when does Albert return?
BAILIFF [simply]: I'm not aware.
He still hasn't said anything to me about it.
But he writes to me that his business is going really well.
SCHMIDT: Perfect! Albert is a worthy and faithful lad.
He's a model husband for your Charlotte,
and we old-timers will dance
till our breath gives out at their upcoming wedding.
[The two men go off arm in arm.]
[Gaily] Hey, good night, children!
JOHANN [gaily]: Good night, children!
SCHMIDT [to the BAILIFF quietly]: Till later!
JOHANN [the same]: Till later!
SOPHIE, BAILIFF, SCHMIDT, JOHANN, and the
CHILDREN: Good night! Good night! Good night!
JOHANN and SCHMIDT [in full voice]:
Vivat Bacchus! semper vivat! Vivat Bacchus! semper vivat!
&c [fading into the distance]
BAILIFF [to the CHILDREN]: Go back in!
We'll repeat our Noël this evening before supper, note for note.
[THE BAILIFF has climbed the steps, and once in the house --]
Sophie, you have to go see what Charlotte is doing.
[SOPHIE leaves. THE BAILIFF settles into his leather armchair. His younger children huddle around his knees and listen religiously to the lesson he gives them.]
-- French libretto by Edouard Blau, Paul Milliet, and Georges Hartmann, based on Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther
Kurt Moll (bs), the Bailiff; László Anderko (b), Johann; Alejandro Vazquez (t), Schmidt; Arleen Augér (s), Sophie; Cologne Children's Chorus, West German Radio (WDR) Symphony Orchestra, Cologne, Riccardo Chailly, cond. DG, recorded in the Forumhalle, Leverkusen (across the Rhine from Cologne), February 1979
Andrew Foldi (bs), the Bailiff; Andrij Dobriansky (bs), Johann; Nico Castel (t), Schmidt; Kathleen Battle (s), Sophie; Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Richard Bonynge, cond. Live performance, Feb. 3, 1979
Jean-Philippe Courtis (bs), the Bailiff; Jean-Marie Frémeau (b), Johann; Jean-Paul Fouchécourt (t), Schmidt; Patricia Petibon (s), Sophie; Tiffin Children's Choir, London Symphony Orchestra, Antonio Pappano, cond. EMI, recorded in Abbey Road Studio No. 1, August 1998
I WONDER IF YOU'RE FEELING THAT THE DIGNITY OF
MOLL'S BAILLIFF AFFECTS THE FEELING OF THE SCENE
I still want to look a bit at the later scene in Act I in which the Bailiff reappears, after which we never see or hear from him again! As I said, it's such a short role -- so short that it's really surprising to encounter a singer of Moll's stature and quality, though I vividly recall, when the Met revived Werther in 1971 for the first time since 1910, how lovely Donald Gramm was in the role, and again what a difference it makes in the way we see and think about Charlotte, and for that matter how we take in poetic effusions about the idyllic life he sees represented in the household of the Bailiff. If the latter is rendered as a comic stereotype, Werther can appear to be either inventive imagining or highfalutin condescension. Now, I don't want to disparage either Andrew Foldi or Jean-Philippe Courtis. I do think, though, that Moll brings a dimension to the role which changes the scene, in a way that for me colors the whole opera. And his French, by the way, seems to me quite good.
It would be interesting to know (I don't) whether this is a role Moll had sung earlier in his career or one he learned for the recording. Either way, it's a treat, which is why I do want to spend a little time with the rest of his contribution. In anticipation, I've already made clips from our three recordings for this whole part of Act I, and even though I do want to at least touch on, not just the Bailiff's later scene but those poetic effusions of Werther's, not to mention our first in-person encounter with the heretofore-much-talked-about Charlotte, for now I thought I'd throw in those longer clips. Fortunately, we have in Plácido Domingo, Alfredo Kraus, and Roberto Alagna three quite worthy Werthers, and in Elena Obraztsova, Régine Crespin, and Angela Gheorghiu three worthy (and strikingly different) Charlottes.
MASSENET: Werther: Prélude & Act I opening scene
through the departure for the ball and nightfall
(1) Prélude
(2) The Bailiff, "Assez! Assez! M'écoutera-t-on cette fois?"
("Enough! Enough! Will anyone listen to me this time?")
(3) entrance of Werther, "Alors, c'est bien ici la maison du Bailli?"
("This then is indeed the home of the Bailiff?")
(4) Children, "Jésus vient de naître" ("Jesus has just been born");
Werther, "Chers enfants" ("Dear children")
(5) Werther, "Ô spectacle idéal d'amour et d'innocence!"
("O ideal spectacle of love and of innocence!")
[(2) at 4:30, (3) at 11:21, (4) at 16:23, (5) at 22:16] Kurt Moll (bs), the Bailiff; László Anderko (b), Johann; Alejandro Vazquez (t), Schmidt; Arleen Augér (s), Sophie; Plácido Domingo (t), Werther; Elena Obraztsova (ms), Charlotte; Wolfgang Vater (b), Brühlmann; Gertrud von Ottenthal (ms), Käthchen; Cologne Children's Chorus, West German Radio (WDR) Symphony Orchestra, Cologne, Riccardo Chailly, cond. DG, recorded in the Forumhalle, Leverkusen (across the Rhine from Cologne), February 1979
[(2) at 4:07, (3) at 12:08, (4) at 16:05, (5) at 21:49] Andrew Foldi (bs), the Bailiff; Andrij Dobriansky (bs), Johann; Nico Castel (t), Schmidt; Kathleen Battle (s), Sophie; Alfredo Kraus (t), Werther; Régine Crespin (s), Charlotte; Dennis Steff (b), Brühlmann; Barbara Bystrom (s), Käthchen; Metropolitan Opera Children's Chorus and Orchestra, Richard Bonynge, cond. Live performance, Feb. 3, 1979
[(2) at 4:14, (3) at 11:15, (4) at 16:10, (5) at 21:37] Jean-Philippe Courtis (bs), the Bailiff; Jean-Marie Frémeau (b), Johann; Jean-Paul Fouchécourt (t), Schmidt; Patricia Petibon (s), Sophie; Roberto Alagna (t), Werther; Angela Gheorghiu (s), Charlotte; Pierre Dupont (b), Brühlmann; Sophie Boulanger (ms), Käthchen; Tiffin Children's Choir, London Symphony Orchestra, Antonio Pappano, cond. EMI, recorded in Abbey Road Studio No. 1, August 1998
STILL TO COME -- No, we're not done with Werther
And we can consider whether perhaps the "Germanness" of the DG Werther is more a feature than a flaw.
#
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