cpo are doing great things for lesser known music, many times
undeservedly neglected works. The cycle of Kurt Atterberg’s nine
symphonies is one recent project, gloriously realised, Carl Loewe’s
songs and ballads is another long-time undertaking; I reviewed
volume 20 not long ago, and Franz Lehár’s “other” operettas – apart
from that handful that is frequently played – have been given
brand new recordings.
This is the third within a year (see my reviews of Schön
ist die Welt and Ziegeunerliebe).
They may not always have picked
the
best singers
in
the business
and presentation has sometimes been a bit slipshod, but operetta
lovers must still feel grateful that the music becomes available.
Eva has never been much of a success and
set beside some of his other stage-works the musical – or
rather – melodic inspiration seems a bit meagre. The only
hit-song is Eva’s Lied early in act I, Wär es auch nichts
als ein Augenblick, which also appears a couple of times
later on in the operetta as a kind of Leitmotif. There
are good enough melodies of typical Lehár Schmalz and
a great deal of light-hearted rhythmic dances, but they tend
to slip out of one’s memory as soon as they are over. What
is obvious though is his masterly handling of the orchestra
and more than in any other operetta I know gives grateful
and attractive solos to many of the instrumentalists in a
transparent orchestral web. I think he is closer to Puccini’s
sensuality than Richard Strauss’s overblown bombast, even
though in the second act finale there are reminiscences of Der
Rosenkavalier, which was premiered almost a year before Eva was
first performed, on 24 November 1911 at Theater an der Wien.
That was the same theatre that also saw the premiere of Die
lustige Witwe, and the first Hanna Glawari and Danilo,
Mizzi Günther and Louis Treumann, also sang the leading roles
in the new operetta.
The libretto is a variant of the old Cinderella story, where
the poor factory girl wins the prince, in this case the owner
of the
glass factory, situated near Brussels. A kind of social realism,
one could think, but in the second act we are back in the
normal upper class operetta world, in Octave Flaubert’s villa.
The third and last act takes us, not for the first time in
a Lehár operetta, to Paris. There are rather few arias, and
those few are labelled Lied (song) to make them less pretentious,
since they are often very short. Most of the musical numbers
are duets, but there are no less than three melodramas that
grow into songs or duets. The three finales are quite extended
numbers, the one in act II is almost 14 minutes long, and
here, just as in the melodrama numbers, Lehár works in freer,
partly recitative style, more related to opera. It is also
in these more ambitious numbers that his inventive scoring
is at its most colourful. This recording is complete with
all the spoken dialogue, in some places fairly stilted and
unatmospheric but there are several heated scenes where the
acting is lively and involved. It is a pity, though, as is
unfortunately often the case, that the spoken dialogue is
recorded at a seemingly lower level. This means that you
have to turn up the volume quite a bit to hear it properly
and then turn it down again when the music starts. The melodramas
are likewise afflicted and even though Lehár has scored the
music lightly, the orchestra still tends to mask some of
the spoken words. I also regret that the sung and spoken
texts are not printed in the booklet, which would have been
a great asset even for fluent German speakers. Apart from
the balance problem the recording is good without being very
atmospheric. It was recorded in the Festival Hall in Bad
Ischl, where every summer there is a Lehár festival. Lehár
lived in a beautiful villa in Bad Ischl in Salzkammergut
in Austria, from 1910 until his death, but he also had a
house in Vienna. This recording was not made during performances
but with a cast that had played a number of performances
and were settled into their roles. Conducted by Wolfgang
Bozic, who is well versed in this genre – I have heard him
conduct operetta in Vienna – and he finds that typical Lehárian
lilt in the music with tempos that feel absolutely right.
The chorus is good. There is even some a cappella singing
at the beginning of Act I.
Of the soloists Morenike Fadayomi impresses in the title role with
a large vibrant dramatic soprano voice. It comes as no surprise
to find that she has been singing both Aida and Salome. Reinhard
Alessandri, an experienced operetta singer. I saw his Edwin
in Die Csardasfürstin at Volksoper some years ago.
He is a good actor while his voice is rather small and he
has some trouble with the top notes. But he can sing meltingly
beautifully when the tessitura is not too high and in the
main he makes a positive impression. Zora Antonic as Pipsi
is fully into her role and Thomas Malik is just perfect for
the comic part as Dagobert with his expressive and fluent
buffo tenor. Stefan Frey contributes one of his well-researched
liner notes and also a synopsis that unfortunately isn’t
related to the track-list, but rather gives a general overview.
On the credit side it is nice to have several photos, both
from the original production back in 1911 and from the Bad
Ischl event.
A matter of swings and roundabouts but operetta lovers will find much
to enjoy here.
Göran Forsling
Morenike
Fadayomi (soprano) – Eva;
Zora Antonic (soprano) – Pipsi; Reinhard Alessandri (tenor) – Octave
Flaubert; Thomas Zisterer (baritone) – Prunelles; Thomas
Malik (buffo tenor) – Dagobert; Gerhard Balluch (actor) – Bernard
Larousse; Karl Herbst (actor) – Voisin; Peter Andreev (bass-baritone) – Matthieu;
Florian Widmann (baritone) – Fredy; Christian Giglmayr (baritone) – Teddy. 
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