PLANNED FOR TODAY -- I'LL EXPLAIN EVENTUALLY]
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. THE BAILIFF is sitting on the veranda with his youngest 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!
[curtain rise at 4:28] Kurt Moll (bs), the Bailiff; 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
And if Werther begins with "Christmas in July," it ends, of course, on Christmas Eve (in French "la nuit de Noël," "Christmas Night," which to them is definitely Christmas Eve and not, as we might take it, "the night of Christmas Day"). Let's recall the purely orchestral Scene 1 of Act IV:
Stage direction for the scene: "The little village of Wetzlar, Christmas Eve. -- The moon casts a great clarity on the roofs and trees, covered with snow. -- Some windows light up little by little. -- It's snowing. -- Then total obscurity."
West German Radio (WDR) Symphony Orchestra, Cologne, Riccardo Chailly, cond. DG, recorded in the Forumhalle, Leverkusen (across the Rhine from Cologne), February 1979
WE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE CONTINUING (OR REALLY FINISHING UP) WITH SCHUBERT'S THREE SERENADES
I did figure out how we want to proceed: by roughly framing the three serenades between two mileposts in the preposterously productive, explosively creative two and a half years before the composer's death, in November 1828, more than two months before his 32nd birthday: the last of his string quartets, the G major, D. 885 (June 1826), and the sublime C major String Quintet, D. 957 (August-September 1828).
Which meant that, along with the already-designated material, I had to figure out how to do more than simply dump out performances of those two extaordinary works, which entailed a whole new round, or two new rounds, of clip-making. As I labored over that, I worried about an ongoing concern as we give final ponderance to performances of the three serenades: a crucial element that's missing in a lot of them, having to do with the basic dynamics of a serenade, and it occurred to me that one way to get at it would be to consider some "real" serenades, which is top say examples drawn from operas, where even the least theatrically adept singer has at least a basic idea of the person he or she is singing to and why. Which meant yet another round of pondering and clip-making.
I think it means two further posts; I'll do my best to keep them from calving more posts. Meanwhile, the holiday season is apt at some point to project the wonderful opening scene of Werther in my head. We actually spent a fair amount of time on it in an April post, "We're going to be hearing Kurt Moll in his famously "Unexpected French Role" -- so curtain up!."
AT THE TIME OF THE APRIL POST I'D BEEN THINKING
ABOUT HOW THIS SCENE CAN REDUCE TO CARTOONERY
Hey, there's so much emotional upheaval to follow, the thinking might go: Why can't we just have some cheesy little domestic country-hick comedy?
Which I think: (a) is a serious missed opportunity, and (b) can leave us seriously under-understanding the effect on young Werther's psyche produced by his encounter on his encounter with the home life of the Bailiff, his family, and his neighbors and friends. As I tried to explain in April,
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.Because Werther doesn't simply fall madly in love with Charlotte. He's enthralled by everything about the life of this home, in this unglamorous village. It's easy to reduce this to a simple perception of people living an idyic life, but it's a lot more than that. Behind the uncomplicated warmth and genrosity of his host, he becomes keenly aware of the trauma he and his household have been coping with in the loss of the person who held that household together: the Bailiff's wife, all those children's mother. He's overwhelmed by Charlotte's unhesitating and uncomplaining embrace of the role of replacement mother to all those brothers and sisters. Finally, when he's hit with the devastating news that Charlotte is engaged to Albert, it isn't even possible to dislike or resent the man who stands in the way of all his happiness, because there just isn't anything to dislike about Albert.
The shame is that Werther doesn't have the emotional resiliency of the family he's come to feel so close to, that he could apply the lesson the Charlotte and the rest of her family applied to their cataclysmic loss: that life goes on.
WHY NOT LISTEN AGAIN TO THE EARLY CHUNK OF THE
SCENE, IN PERFORMANCS I HAPPED TO HAVE DIGITALLY?
By way of introduction, here's the 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
AT THIS POINT IN APRIL, I HAD A SUBHEAD THAT READ:
"I wonder if you're feeling that the dignity of Molly's Bailiff affects the feeling of the scene."
I think it's safe to say that I was.
At this point in April, I had to take note of how little of Act I we'd gotten through -- we were right up to the moment of Werther's entry but just hadn't managed to get him onstage! Also, we hadn't even gotten to the end of teh Bailiff's role (after the opening scene he never appears again), and I was keen on pushing a bit farther into the act, and had even made audio clips for that purpose. If you're curious, you can check them out in the original post.
COMING UP --
Again, as I noted earlier, we're probably going to be setting the stage for our final reckoning with the Schubert serenades by checking out some classic musical serenades, starting with another go at Fenton's "Horch', die Lerche singt im Hain" from Nicolai's Merry Wives of Windsor. Then we have Rossini's Count Almaviva with his two serenades in The Barber of Seville, Mozart's Don Giovanni, and I'm thinking Gounod's and/or Berlioz's Méphistophélès.
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