Die Zauberflote without dialogue
Jay
thrilled with it. It's my only copy though. One thing I don't like are
the spoken parts. I don't know a word of German. I don't recall that
this bothered me on the Davis/Dresden version, though, and that had
dialogue.
Can someone recommend a good one without dialogue? Maybe a Figaro,
too?
Thanks,
Jay
Simon Roberts
"Jay" <j_far...@msn.com> wrote in message
news:51faf895.01102...@posting.google.com...
Try Klemperer's Magic Flute or, if you don't mind mono and a lot of
cooing rather than singing, Karajan's first recording, both on EMI. For
Figaro, Karajan/EMI too, though I understand that Barenboim/EMI was
recently reissued on a twofer without most of the recitatives (is that
right?).
Simon (who doesn't share your bias; to these ears, without the dialogue
and recitatives, they're no longer operas but extended sets of
highlights)
Bob Lombard
wrote:
Don't know about your recording, but many of them give
separate tracks to the spoken parts; you can program around
them.
bl
Brian Cantin
For Zauberflote, Klemperer.
--
Brian Cantin
An advocate of poisonous individualism.
To reply via email, replace "dcantin" with "bcantin".
Victor
is that there is no libretto either.
-Victor
"Jay" <j_far...@msn.com> wrote in message
news:51faf895.01102...@posting.google.com...
Martha & Russ Oppenheim
Actually, it would be of great help if some knowledgable person could
provide a list of recordings of the major Mozart operas which contain:
a. No dialog (or less desirably, dialog on separate tracks)
b. No (or reduced) recitative
c. Libretto nevertheless
My good wife is scandalized that our CD collection contains >>no<<
Mozart operas, although I do have all Prokfievs, all R Strauss (except
Danae), 6 Wagners, 4 or 5 Schuberts, and a few others. But no Mozart
because recitative makes my eyes glaze over.
Jay
Yeah. What he said.
Jay
David7Gable
Hey. For God's sake. Don't miss out on Mozart because of the secco recitative!
Can't you push a button and skip to the next track? And the enormous finales
in Don Giovanni, Cosi, Figaro, and Magic Flute all last somewhere around 20
minutes: no secco recitative in sight. And these are among the finest
splendors of the musical imagination.
-david gable
Jaime J. Weinman
Especially when the words of the secco recitatives are as interesting as Da
Ponte's (some of the exchanges in COSI FAN TUTTE are downright hilarious, like
the pathetic attempt at small talk in Act 2: "The trees...they've got more
leaves than fruit!"). And a good Papageno can be a total delight in his
dialogue scenes. Of course, it helps to read the libretto and translation
closely. But to me, poorly performed dialogue or recitatives (or worse, none at
all) seriously detract from the overall worth of a recording. I find it
difficult to enjoy a recording as a totality if it has slow, clunky recitatives
or dialogue spoken by actors.
Jaime J. Weinman
Frank Geck
>One thing I don't like are
> the spoken parts. I don't know a word of German.
The spoken parts are even harder to stand, if you know german <g>.
It's the old Zauberflöte question (not answered yet):
Was it just a kind of popular musical to please the not educated
suburb audience of vienna, or is there any deep philosophical truth
beyond it. There are books dedicated to this question...
Klemperer optes for the second. If I had to choose only one version,
this is it. Superb singing.
But the Da Ponte operas without the secco recitatives? Never!
Okay, they are often neglected by the recording artists.
Generally spoken, HIP recordings take more care on it.
Regards, Frank
Carlo Gerelli
the best of them all : Klemperer on EMI.
Sadly, without dialogues which are essentials (IMHO).
Second choice : Boehm on Decca.
> Maybe a Figaro, too?
Figaro has not dialogues, just recitatives ;-)
regards
--
---------------------------------------------------
----- carlo gerelli : sof...@libero.it -------
Edward A. Cowan
> But the Da Ponte operas without the secco recitatives? Never!
> Okay, they are often neglected by the recording artists.
The Busch and Karajan I recordings of _Le nozze di Figaro_, both
originally issued on 78s, omitted the recitatives. In the case of Busch,
his recording of _Figaro_ was the first ever, and there were questions
of economy as well as questions of the viability of recitatives on
recordings. Evidently these questions were resolved in such a way that
they were included in the Busch recordings of _Don Giovanni_ and _Così
fan tutte_.
In the case of Karajan I (on EMI CMS 7 69639 2), LP was looming, and the
omission of the recitatives seems, in the circumstances, not very
forward-looking on the part of what is now EMI. (For the 78rpm numbers
for Karajan I, see WERM-2, p.144. Karajan's contemporaneous recording of
_Die Zauberflöte_, without dialogue, was also issued on 78s. See WERM-2,
p.146. Worth recalling is the fact that Karajan's 1951 Bayreuth
performance of _Die Meistersinger_ was also issued on 78s -- sixty-eight
sides!! See WERM-1 Supplement, p.854.)
--
E.A.C.
Jay
> Jay <j_far...@msn.com> wrote in message
> 51faf895.01102...@posting.google.com...
> > I've just bought the Ostman version of Die Zauberflote, and I'm not
> > thrilled with it. It's my only copy though. One thing I don't like are
> > the spoken parts. I don't know a word of German. I don't recall that
> > this bothered me on the Davis/Dresden version, though, and that had
> > dialogue.
> >
> > Can someone recommend a good one without dialogue?
>
> the best of them all : Klemperer on EMI.
> Sadly, without dialogues which are essentials (IMHO).
> Second choice : Boehm on Decca.
>
> > Maybe a Figaro, too?
>
> Figaro has not dialogues, just recitatives ;-)
>
> regards
What is the difference between dialogue and recitatif?
Thanks, Jay
William D. Kasimer
>What is the difference between dialogue and recitatif?
Dialogue is spoken, usually without any musical accompaniment (although
there
are occasional examples of accompanied dialogue, e.g. FIDELIO, CARMEN).
Recitative is sung, and accompanied, usually by a keyboard instrument.
Bill
William D. Kasimer
wkas...@quincymc.org
wkas...@mediaone.net
David7Gable
>there
>are occasional examples of accompanied dialogue, e.g. FIDELIO,
The technical term for dialogue accompanied by music is melodrama.
>Recitative is sung, and accompanied, usually by a keyboard instrument.
Perfunctory recitative accompanied by keyboard (generally the harpsichord), is
referred to as secco recitative or "dry" recitative. There is also recitativo
accomagnato or accompanied recitative: recitative accompanied by full
orchestra. The distinction only pertains in opera that uses both. Very often
secco recitative will give way to full blown recitativo accompagnato, which
normally prepares an aria. The aria for Susanna in the last act of Figaro,
"Deh, vieni non tardar" is preceded by a patch of recitativo accompagnato:
"Giunse alfin il momento." Nobody is suggesting cutting the accompanied
recitative. It's only the dry stuff some of us avoid in listening to
recordings. (Doesn't bother me at all in the theatre.)
-david gable
Andrew Clarke
> j_far...@msn.com (Jay) wrote in message:
> >One thing I don't like are
> > the spoken parts. I don't know a word of German.
>
> The spoken parts are even harder to stand, if you know german <g>.
I read somewhere in a review that the scenes with the Crone (Papagena
dressed up) are later additions and were not in Schikaneder's (sp?)
original. Is that so?
I have the disadvantage of only knowing about 12 words of German, but
yes, i have the libretto in translation, and better still, the only
performances of the work I'm familiar with are on film, so I can see
what's going on. Even better, the only version I actually possess has
singers who can act, and really act. Even the Crone ....
> It's the old Zauberflöte question (not answered yet):
> Was it just a kind of popular musical to please the not educated
> suburb audience of vienna, or is there any deep philosophical truth
> beyond it. There are books dedicated to this question...
It is a mystery within a mystery, and to me (and my children). To me
it all hangs together in some strange way. But a recording without
dialogue just isn't the Magic Flute. It's a cpompletely different
work, some kind of suite.
> Klemperer optes for the second. If I had to choose only one version,
> this is it. Superb singing.
>
> But the Da Ponte operas without the secco recitatives? Never!
Agreed. Opera is drama, and if we don't understand the drama it's our
job to learn to understand, not the producer's job to leave the less
melodious bits out. Besides, da Ponte knew what he was doing.
> Okay, they are often neglected by the recording artists.
> Generally spoken, HIP recordings take more care on it.
>
> Regards, Frank
Andrew Clarke
Canberra
Jay
Thanks, david. That was a great explanation.
Jay
Carlo Gerelli
> >there
> >are occasional examples of accompanied dialogue, e.g. FIDELIO,
>
> The technical term for dialogue accompanied by music is melodrama.
I assume you meant "melologue" ...;-)
all the best
Carlo Gerelli
Jon A Conrad
>I read somewhere in a review that the scenes with the Crone (Papagena
>dressed up) are later additions and were not in Schikaneder's (sp?)
>original. Is that so?
Not that I've ever heard. Peter Branscombe's Cambridge Opera Handbook for
DIE ZAUBERFLOETE makes no mention of such addition. And in fact he refers
to the original playbill, in which the character is listed not as Papagena
but as "ein altes Weib" (an old woman), presumably so as not to give away
the surprise.
There are a few added bits for Papagena which crept in as "traditional,"
particularly in Vienna, but basically the full libretto as originally
performed has been preserved. It's not included complete in most
recordings, but it can be had in the Nimbus issue of the Beecham
recording (which itself of course contains no dialogue), and also in the
ENO Guide to the opera. Of all the recordings, only the Levine/RCA, based
upon the Salzburg production directed by Ponnelle, comes close to
including all the dialogue. There's a lot of it; it makes for a very
different speaking/music proportion than we're used to, which is
interesting to think about.
>It is a mystery within a mystery, and to me (and my children). To me
>it all hangs together in some strange way. But a recording without
>dialogue just isn't the Magic Flute. It's a cpompletely different
>work, some kind of suite.
I agree completely. I don't want a FLUTE without dialogue, even as an
audio experience. The numbers come from nowhere and go nowhere.
Jon Alan Conrad
Department of Music
University of Delaware
con...@udel.edu
Andrew Clarke
> Andrew Clarke <a...@cts.canberra.edu.au> wrote:
>
> >I read somewhere in a review that the scenes with the Crone (Papagena
> >dressed up) are later additions and were not in Schikaneder's (sp?)
> >original. Is that so?
>
> Not that I've ever heard. Peter Branscombe's Cambridge Opera Handbook for
> DIE ZAUBERFLOETE makes no mention of such addition. And in fact he refers
> to the original playbill, in which the character is listed not as Papagena
> but as "ein altes Weib" (an old woman), presumably so as not to give away
> the surprise.
[further interesting material snipped here]
> I agree completely. I don't want a FLUTE without dialogue, even as an
> audio experience. The numbers come from nowhere and go nowhere.
>
> Jon Alan Conrad
Dear Jon,
Thanks very much for that information -- have you read about the
recent performances in Paris where the dialogue was spoken in French
but the arias were sung in German? I think this compromise has been
done before, but what is original about this production by Claude
Santelli was its location -- the Cirque Gruss in the Bois de Boulogne.
The orchestra was at the back of the ring, the cast, largely made up
of young singers, performed in front of them, the whole lot was gently
amplified to cope with the acoustics of the Big Top, and the horses,
elephants, jugglers and trapeze artists all put in an appearance at
various times. The costumes, judging by a photograph, were fairly
traditional, but with that indefinable touch of lightness and elegance
you'd expect from the French. And the review by Francois Deletraz in
Le Figaro Magazine was an extremely solid and favourable one: "It
wasn't an attempt at vulgar popularisation of the opera (he wrote) but
the reworking of an opera"(reecriture in French, but I'm sure
rewriting in English ain't it). In fact he recommended that the 80,000
people who went to a disappointing "Aida" at the Stade de France would
do well to go off to the Bois de Boulogne to see it.
The only sad note was that Santelli wasn't able to attend the
performances. He'd been badly injured -- accidentally -- by Cynda the
Elephant during a rehearsal ...
Best wishes,
Andrew Clarke
Canberra
Margaret Mikulska
No, he meant what he said. Spoken part accompanied by instruments (or a
whole work composed this way) is called melodrama in Eng., Melodram(a)
in German, mélodrame in French, but melologo in Italian (only rarely
melodramma). In Spanish, both melólogo and melodrama are used; all
European languages in which I encounted a term for this genre or
technique use a word derived from the French mélodrame (the word and
genre go back to France of the 1770s).
-Margaret
Carlo Gerelli wrote:
Jay
events, which is my definition of melodrama, take its name from opera,
or was it opera who borrowed the term from drama? (Whichever, it
certainly makes it easier to see where the term "soap opera" comes
from.)
Thanks, Jay
Margaret Mikulska <miku...@silvertone.princeton.edu> wrote in message news:<3BD61474...@silvertone.princeton.edu>...
Jon A Conrad
\
>con...@copland.udel.edu (Jon A Conrad) wrote
>[further interesting material snipped here]
>
>Thanks very much for that information -- have you read about the
>recent performances in Paris where the dialogue was spoken in French
>but the arias were sung in German? I think this compromise has been
>done before, but what is original about this production by Claude
>Santelli was its location -- the Cirque Gruss in the Bois de Boulogne.
Thanks for a very interesting report. I hadn't heard about this at all. (I
should add that although I know the dialogue-in-vernacular,
singing-in-original combination has been done before in various countries,
I can't see the point: are we to get involved in a musico-dramatic
experience, or not? I can accept that characters onstage move from speech
to song as their emotions or needs become more intense; but I can't accept
that they change their native language at the same time.) But this
certainly does sound like a memorable production.
As you mentioned the general youth of the cast, I thought it might be
interesting to pass along Branscombe's information about the original cast
(I find this one of the most informative handbooks in the Cambridge
series). These are in order of the original playbill.
Papageno was of course the librettist-director, Emanuel Schikaneder. He
was 40.
Sarastro (Franz Xaver Gerl) was 24.
Tamino (Benedikt Schack) was 33. He was a flutist, though it is only a
supposition that he actually played the instrument onstage.
The speaking-only priest was a Herr Winter (theater stage-manager), age
apparently unknown.
The Act-I-finale priest (Urban Schikaneder, the boss's brother) was 45.
The tenor priest was Johann Michael Kistler, the bass a Herr Moll (ages
unknown). They apparently sang the Armed Men as well, who aren't listed.
The Queen was Josepha Hofer, Mozart's sister-in-law, age 32.
Pamina was Anna Gottlieb (the original Barbarina at 12!), age 17.
The 3 ladies were Mlle Kloepfer (a soubrette), Mlle Hofmann (specializing
in "young lovers and naive roles"), and Elisabeth Schack, the Tamino's
wife.
Old Woman (Papagena) was Barbara Gerl (the Sarastro's wife).
Monostatos was Joseph Nouseul, at 49 the oldest in the cast and primarily
an actor.
The 3 slaves (speaking only) were Karl Gieseke (sometimes credited with a
share in the libretto), Wilhelm Frasel (an actor of young heroes and comic
parts), and Herr Starke (a player of minor roles).
The 3 boys, surprisingly, are not listed. Tradition says that the first
was sung by Anna Wchikaneder (Urban's daughter), age 24. A source of
doubtful authenticity has the other two performed by boys, surnames
Handelgruber and Maurer.
That's a much younger company than any that would perform it now!
Jay
Thanks, Victor. I just "won" a copy on eBay. This is my imprint
version, so I wonder how I'll like it without dialogue/recitative.
Those things never bothered me until this Ostman version.
Andrew Clarke
> Thanks for a very interesting report. I hadn't heard about this at all.
Le Figaro Magazine, international edition, 13th October. Not cheap,
but over 180 big glossy pages, and sometimes with a supplement inside
as well. Some superb photography -- some of the ads are worth framing.
(I
> should add that although I know the dialogue-in-vernacular,
> singing-in-original combination has been done before in various countries,
> I can't see the point: are we to get involved in a musico-dramatic
> experience, or not? I can accept that characters onstage move from speech
> to song as their emotions or needs become more intense; but I can't accept
> that they change their native language at the same time.)
I see your point, unless they're taking it to Alsace/Lorraine. Or
perhaps they assumed that the audience all have recordings with the
arias and no dialogue, so they'd understand the sung bits any way.
>But this
> certainly does sound like a memorable production.
What do you think of that amazing performance under John Elliot
Gardiner at the Concertgebouw, with Gerald Finlay as a formidable
Papageno? -- the film/video I mean. I seem to be the only person on
the Internet who thinks it's brilliant-- except possibly members of
the Amsterdam audience who gave it a standing ovation.
> As you mentioned the general youth of the cast, I thought it might be
> interesting to pass along Branscombe's information about the original cast
> (I find this one of the most informative handbooks in the Cambridge
> series). These are in order of the original playbill.
>
> Papageno was of course the librettist-director, Emanuel Schikaneder. He
> was 40.
[snip]
> The 3 boys, surprisingly, are not listed. Tradition says that the first
> was sung by Anna Wchikaneder (Urban's daughter), age 24. A source of
> doubtful authenticity has the other two performed by boys, surnames
> Handelgruber and Maurer.
It's amazing how many posts I've read from people who don't like the
Three Boys sung by three boys. I suppose a truly HIP performance will
have to replace them by svelte sopranos.
> That's a much younger company than any that would perform it now!
I am fascinated by where it was first produced and what it must have
looked like, and what the audience's expectations would have been
overall. My own hunch -- based unblushingly on absolutely no research
whatsoever -- is that nobody would have expected it to have been more
than entertainment, which isn't to say of course that they would have
accepted any old junk, far from it.
Do we know what the expectations of 18th century opera audiences were
in general? Were they -- as I'd anticipate -- very different from
those of modern audiences, hanging upon every note of the latest diva
and with a tendancy towards the Romantic doctrine of Art as some kind
of secular religion almost?
>
> Jon Alan Conrad
Andrew Clarke
Canberra
Margaret Mikulska
drama that depends on external events". Could you elaborate?
BTW, the problem with having one's own definitions is that you can't
communicate with other people. The English word melodrama, as used in
musicology, denotes a work featuring a speaking actor or actors and an
instrumental ensemble (or even solo piano), or else an excerpt in a
larger work (usually opera) written this way. That's all. It doesn't
matter what events are presented.
-Margaret
Jay wrote:
>
> So, Margaret, did then the sort of drama that depends on external
> events, which is my definition of melodrama, take its name from opera,
> or was it opera who borrowed the term from drama? (Whichever, it
> certainly makes it easier to see where the term "soap opera" comes
> from.)
>
> Thanks, Jay
>
> Margaret Mikulska <miku...@silvertone.princeton.edu> wrote in message
>
Margaret Mikulska
claim pops up rather late, and there is no good evidence for that.
-Margaret
Margaret Mikulska
Andrew Clarke wrote:
> I am fascinated by where it was first produced and what it must have
> looked like, and what the audience's expectations would have been
> overall. My own hunch -- based unblushingly on absolutely no research
> whatsoever -- is that nobody would have expected it to have been more
> than entertainment, which isn't to say of course that they would have
> accepted any old junk, far from it.
>
> Do we know what the expectations of 18th century opera audiences were
> in general? Were they -- as I'd anticipate -- very different from
> those of modern audiences, hanging upon every note of the latest diva
> and with a tendancy towards the Romantic doctrine of Art as some kind
> of secular religion almost?
In the case of Zauberflöte, this was not the first opera of the
fairy-tale kind presented by Schikaneder. One year earlier, in
Sep.1790, he was greatly successful staging a collaborative singspiel
"Der Stein der Weisen", whose composers, according to a copy of the
score, were Henneberg, Schack, Gerl, Mozart, and Schikaneder himself.
(Mozart's authorship of a few numbers in Der Stein is still a matter of
some discussion, although it is certain that he was involved in some
way.) This work was performed all over Germany and Austria at least
until ca. 1810, which was quite a long time for a singspiel.
Schikaneder's series of fairy-tale singspiels was probably a kind of
response to similar works staged by his competitors. Many of those
fairy-tale stage works were based on the collection of oriental stories
"Djinnistan", made available in German by the famous poet Chr. M.
Wieland (they were basically translations from French, which in turn
were translations or more likely paraphrases of genuine oriental
stories). In any case, at that time, fairy-tale operas/singspiels were
extremely popular in Vienna, so Schikander could safely invest in
producing several of such works.
Der Stein der Weisen bears so many similarities to Zflöte - both in its
libretto and the music - that it may be called a blueprint for the
latter. To get closer to your question: the expectation of the audience
of Zflöte was most likely "yet another great, entertaining fairy
tale!". As I probably wrote many times before, investigating the
context of the Zflöte - mostly its being "just" one of several
fashionable fairy-tale stage work - debunks quite a lot of mythology
about the specifically Masonic character of Mozart's opera and its
unique status.
A recording of Der Stein has been available on Telarc for the last two
years; another, shorter work, Der wohltätige Derwisch (The Benevolent
Dervish) has been recorded for Telarc and should be available soon.
This one, however, is more of a play with music than a bona fide
singspiel. (On the other hand, as Jon wrote, the amount of spoken
dialogue in Zflöte was originally much larger than can be found on any
recording, so most of the singspiels were closer to being plays with
music than to our perception of them as operas with occasional
dialogue. I would gladly like to have a recording of Zflöte with all of
the dialogue, but it's unfortunately true, I suspect, that there is
limited market for such recording outside German-speaking countries.)
-Margaret
Jay
I was wondering while watching the news last night what the word
ending "...istan" means, as in Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and
now Djinnistan.
"...land"?
Thanks, Jay
Margaret Mikulska <miku...@silvertone.princeton.edu> wrote in message news:<3BDA2093...@silvertone.princeton.edu>...
Many of those
> fairy-tale stage works were based on the collection of oriental stories
> "Djinnistan",
> -Margaret
Jay
terms) as actions in a play that don't spring out of character so much
as they are imposed upon the character, usually sensational or
hyperromantic or violent plot points, used mainly to move the story
along, at the end of which there's often a happy ending (though I
suppose that wouldn't be the case in a lot of operas).
The most common examples that spring to mind are literal cliffhangers,
perhaps the heroine/victim tied to the train tracks waiting for the
hero to come and cut her loose, or the deus ex machina. Soap opera is
very, very melodramatic.
BTW, it's not "(my) own" definition.
The reason I asked is because I'd never heard the word used in music
before. I don't know much about opera, other than whether I like the
music of a given work. I didn't know there was specific musical
definition for the word, so I thought I would ask.
Sorry if I was supposed to know the answer before I asked the
question.
Jay
Margaret Mikulska <miku...@silvertone.princeton.edu> wrote in message news:<3BDA1A7E...@silvertone.princeton.edu>...
Edward A. Cowan
> Margaret (or anyone) -
>
> I was wondering while watching the news last night what the word
> ending "...istan" means, as in Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and
> now Djinnistan.
>
> "...land"?
There seem to be seven countries with names ending in -stan: Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Tadjikistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan, and
Uzbekistan. The Kurds want a country called "Kurdistan."
FWIW, someone has dreamed up a fictional sort-of Russian-speaking
country called "Muzhikistan"... (_Muzhik_ means "peasant".)
--
E.A.C.
REG
"Edward A. Cowan" <eac...@anet-dfw.com> wrote in message
news:1f1xfpv.17h5zs11xvx76yN%eac...@anet-dfw.com...
David Wake
>
> I was wondering while watching the news last night what the word
> ending "...istan" means, as in Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and
> now Djinnistan.
I remember reading a few weeks ago on slate.msn.com that it comes form
a Persian word meaning "city". Unfortunately, Slate's , their
(Microsoft -- what a surprise) software is playing up and I can't find
the link to the actual page.
David7Gable
>terms) as actions in a play that don't spring out of character so much
>as they are imposed upon the character, usually sensational or
>hyperromantic or violent plot points, used mainly to move the story
>along
Like many words, "melodrama" means different things in different contexts. If
I asked you to stop being so melodramatic, it wouldn't mean I wish you'd stop
speaking while being accompanied by instruments.
>The reason I asked is because I'd never heard the word used in music
>before.
Not surprising. No autonomous melodrama is routinely performed, and there are
only two or three in operas in the standard repertory that features passages of
melodrama. Nevertheless, the technical term for such things is "melodrama."
Your meaning, the more familiar colloquial meaning, probably sprang up because
the melodramatic is the over the top, the exaggerated--as in opera, or at least
the opera of cliche.
-david gable
Celia A. Sgroi
> Not surprising. No autonomous melodrama is routinely performed, and there are
> only two or three in operas in the standard repertory that features passages of
> melodrama. Nevertheless, the technical term for such things is "melodrama."
> Your meaning, the more familiar colloquial meaning, probably sprang up because
> the melodramatic is the over the top, the exaggerated--as in opera, or at least
> the opera of cliche.
Maybe Richard Strauss's melodrama "Enoch Arden" is not yet *routinely*
performed, but nevertheless it's being performed increasingly often
these days. Jon Vickers has been performing it recently and so has
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who has several performances of the work
scheduled for next year with pianist Burkhard Kehring.
There are also a number of short melodramas that can be heard now and
then in concert or on recordings. My favorite is Schubert's "Abschied
von der Erde," first recorded by DFD and Gerald Moore in their big DG
Schubert collection and twice subsequently by Richard Jackson and
Graham Johnson on Hyperion. A couple of years ago I heard Thomas
Quasthoff perform it as an encore in a concert at the Schubertiade
Feldkirch. Schumann wrote some melodramas, and Liszt wrote one called
"Der traurige Mönch," that I have heard performed in concert. Also,
Nietzsche composed a melodrama to the text of Eichendorff's "Der
zerbrochene Ringlein." Since their respective retirements,
Fischer-Dieskau and Brigitte Fassbaender have given quite a few
concerts in which they performed melodramas by various composers.
Celia
Celia A. Sgroi
State University of New York
College at Oswego
sg...@oswego.edu
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Fischer-DieskauList
Jay
I've listened to almost nothing but this Ostman Die Zauberflote for
the past two or three weeks (Mozart, generally, is about all I've
listened to since Sept. 11), and I've grown quite taken with the
recitative. It seems quite of a piece to me now with the rest of the
opera.
I don't listen to music at a very high volume compared to most people,
and I've determined that what was bothering me was the fact that, at a
volume that worked for the music, I could barely hear the recitative.
Now I just turn it up.
I got Bohm's highlights LP. I don't like it nearly as much, but the
sound quality, even on what looks like a brand-new record, isn't very
good (a problem for me with a lot of DG LPs). The Davis hasn't yet
come in the mail. I may have re-imprinted with the Ostman.
It's such a beautiful thing, Die Zauberflote. Up there with Mahler's
3rd, Mozart's PCs 20, 23 and 27, Kind of Blue...oh, and Pet Sounds.
Gary Allen
> It's amazing how many posts I've read from people who don't like the
> Three Boys sung by three boys. I suppose a truly HIP performance will
> have to replace them by svelte sopranos.
gggg gggg
> I've just bought the Ostman version of Die Zauberflote, and I'm not
> this bothered me on the Davis/Dresden version, though, and that had
> dialogue.
> Can someone recommend a good one without dialogue? Maybe a Figaro,
> too?
> Thanks,
> Jay
https://www.google.com/search?q=zauberflote+highlights&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=657&ei=Md7iYszSNfGfkPIP44CqqAI&iflsig=AJiK0e8AAAAAYuLsQdbJTp4LGFGueeQKz0H8MV1cP6oP&ved=0ahUKEwiMr7LXo5z5AhXxD0QIHWOACiUQ4dUDCAc&uact=5&oq=zauberflote+highlights&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzoICAAQgAQQsQM6CwgAEIAEELEDEIMBOgUIABCABDoICAAQsQMQgwE6BAgAEB46BggAEB4QBToECAAQGFAAWLw7YOA8aAFwAHgAgAGkAogBoBWSAQYxNi40LjOYAQCgAQGqAQtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZw&sclient=img