Another in the series of releases from the rich archive
of performances taken from the past fifty years at the Vienna State
Opera. This disc features the great but tragically short-lived tenor
Fritz Wunderlich singing excerpts from Hans Pfitzner’s glorious opera
Palestrina, on all but three minutes of the CD but regrettably
not the whole opera. The impressive line-up of the other members of
the cast includes a fabulous angelic trio of young house sopranos, Coertse,
Popp, and Janowitz singing the Kyrie eleison - did Vienna never have
a golden age? - as well as Wiener, Jurinac and Ludwig. As news spread
during 1964 that Wunderlich was scheduled by the State Opera to sing
the title role in Palestrina, so did incredulity. This had been
the domain of Julius Patzak, before him Erich Schmedes, how would Wunderlich
cope with the top C, let alone the brooding, restless nature of the
hero himself? Barely five years since his debut in Freiburg as Tamino
in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, and only two since he had sung
for the first time in Vienna, Wunderlich’s voice was considered too
light and lyrical for such a densely scored post-Wagnerian drama, but
as events turned out it proved to be the highlight of his pitifully
short seven-year career. He sailed to the top C with head voice, his
relative youth belied the success of his probing search for the character
of Palestrina. His portrayal shows vividly the various uncertainties
of mind and conscience he underwent while resisting the external pressures
from clerics, but eventually he saved the art of his liturgical music
for the Catholic Church. Wunderlich was about the same age as Palestrina
in the opera and, judging by the intensity and the involvement of his
singing on this record, he appeared to identify very closely with the
character. It must have made a deep impression upon the hushed audience
in this live recording, and remains a wonderfully clear rebuke to those
who rejected the possibility that he would develop into a Wagnerian
singer (the Steersman in Der fliegende Holländer was one
of his roles, so too was David in Die Meistersinger). Apart from
Tamino, Wunderlich was also a fine singing actor in the morally upright
roles of Don Ottavio and Lensky, in both instances invariably endangered,
but in reality never overshadowed, by the baritones singing the title
roles of both operas in which these two characters appear. Although
he continued to sing the sort of roles in which he had been supreme,
ending with Count Almaviva in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia
in April 1966, a few months before he was killed in a fall down stone
stairs, this production put him on the road leading to Florestan and
Walther von Stolzing. That he would eventually sing Parsifal is surely
one of the great might-have-beens in twentieth century opera.
Despite the amazing cast of singers assembled for this
production, of which these excerpts are a treasured legacy, it is the
unforgettable voice and impeccable diction of Fritz Wunderlich which
will sear itself upon your memory. There’s simply nothing more to say.
Christopher Fifield
Vienna State Opera Chorus