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Franz LEHÁR (1870-1948) Die Lustige Witwe Operetta in 3 Acts (1905) [74:09] Johann STRAUSS II (1825-1899) Künstlerleben Op. 316 [9:21]; Rosen aus dem
Süden Op. 388 [8:54]; “Die Zigeunerbaron” Overture
[7:13]; Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald Op. 325
[12:04]; Kaiser-Walzer Op. 437 [10:29]; “Die
Fledermaus” Overture [7:48]; An der schönen
blauen Donau Op. 314 [9:39]
Hanna
Glawari – Dame Felicity Lott (soprano); Count Danilo
Danilowitsch – Thomas Hampson (baritone); Valencienne – Elzbieta
Szmytka (soprano); Camille de Rosillon – John Aler (tenor);
Vicomte Cascada - Kurt Azesberger; Baron Mirko Zeta – Robert
Poulton (baritone); Raoul de St Brioche – Rudolf Schasching;
Kronow – Stuart MacIntyre; Bogdanowitsch – Christopher
Parke; Pitschitsch – Howard Quilla Croft; Grisettes – Anna
O’Byrne, Paula O’Sullivan, Philippa Daly, Michelle Walton,
Alison Duguid, Joanna Campion; The Glyndebourne Chorus
London Philharmonic Orchestra/Franz Welser-Möst
rec. (Lehár) live, Royal Festival Hall, London, July 1993;
(Strauss) No 1 Studio, Abbey Road, London, April 1990 EMI CLASSICS
5209742 [74:09 + 65:28]
There is already
a profusion of good and very good recordings of “The Merry
Widow”, including those featuring Elizabeth Schwarzkopf,
and those conducted by Karajan, Gardiner or Stolz. If you
prefer it in English, you could go back to the old Sadler’s
Wells version with June Bronhill and Thomas Round, the
New Sadler’s Wells set with Eiddwen Harrhy, or to that
with Joan Sutherland conducted by Richard Bonynge. All
of these have strong claims as do others, but even in this
distinguished company the present reissue is worth considering.
Admittedly it is let down by the recording and presentation,
but the performance gives such pleasure that I urge you
to ignore these defects and concentrate on its virtues.
This was one
of a number of concert performances under the auspices
of Glyndebourne while the new opera house was being constructed.
It was given in the Royal Festival Hall, and was linked
by a narration in English by Tom Stoppard spoken by Dirk
Bogarde. On this recording that narration is omitted, so
that numbers simply follow each other in succession, with
occasional applause, and, very oddly, an encore for the
March-Septet in Act 2. I would much prefer to have a brief
break between numbers, such as the brief snatches of dialogue
that DG managed to include on a single disc in Sir John
Eliot Gardiner’s Vienna recording with Cheryl Studer and
Boje Skovhus. However the lack of dialogue applies also
to the classic earlier Schwarzkopf recordings so that in
itself does not rule the recording out. In addition EMI
have not helped the listener by including only the briefest
of summaries of the plot and by omitting a libretto. When
the singers have all obviously worked hard to point the
lines with such care this does seem to show a lack of understanding
of the recording’s particular qualities. That said, many
potential purchasers will already have a version with a
libretto, and at the very low prices at which the set can
be obtained it would be a mistake to allow EMI’s decision
to put you off.
The cast is
extremely well chosen, and there is a delightful sense
of a real performance taking place. It would have been
better if it had been taking place in another location,
as the size of the Hall seems to have required most of
the singers to sing more forcefully than is ideal in this
music. I do not know whether it is because of this or because
of unsuitable positioning of microphones, but the voices
of almost all of the main singers, with the exception of
Elzbieta Szmytka as Valencienne, seem to have acquired
a harshness which I suspect they do not normally have when
heard live, and which they certainly do not have on their
other recordings. Dame Felicity Lott and Thomas Hampson
both have voices of singular beauty, but as heard here
there is a touch of hardness which detracts from the results.
However even this does not stop them being very winning
performances, fully inside their characters. The smaller
roles are generally well taken, although here too there
is a tendency to sing louder than is good for the music.
The chorus sounds fine but perhaps too large and well rehearsed
to sound like party guests, however grand the party.
The main pleasure
comes, however, from the playing of the orchestra. Even
when compared with such rivals as the Vienna Philharmonic
and the Philharmonia in its early days, the London Philharmonic
here play with rare delicacy and understanding of the idiom,
half way between classical Viennese operetta and the musical
comedies of the early twentieth century. Nothing is overdone,
but everything is in its place in the sometimes lush textures.
It is hard now to understand why some people at that time
were dismissive of the talents of Franz Welser-Möst. As
he has shown even more clearly since then, he is a conductor
of rare ability, especially in opera. I think that it can
largely be put down to him that this is such an enjoyable
performance, well worth adding to your collection as a
first or second recording of the opera.
The Strauss
items on the second disc are also enjoyable, although it
might have been more so with a less hackneyed programme,
and again EMI show a penny-pinching approach in omitting
the zither in “Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald” (Tales from
the Vienna Woods). Admittedly the small string group that
is used is shown as an alternative in the score, but the
effect of the zither is so individual that it is hard to
see how anyone could willingly leave it out. Nonetheless
overall this disc too is worth hearing with its idiomatic
but unexaggerated performances, although it is for the
first disc that I would recommend this set.
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