August ENNA (1859–1939)
Kleopatra (1894)
Danish National Opera Chorus, Odense Symphony Orchestra/Joachim Gustafsson
rec. 8-10 April 2019, Carl Nielsen Salen, Odense Koncerthus, Denmark
Libretto with English translation enclosed
First recording
DACAPO 8.226708-09 [47:17 + 64:16]
Thirteen years ago I had for review a German language opera titled Heisse Liebe (Hot Love) by one to me completely unknown composer named August Enna. He turned out to be Danish and from the notes I learnt that he once was a rather successful composer who was played also abroad but pretty soon fell into oblivion and when he died in 1939 he was already long forgotten. Hearing Heisse Liebe it was easy to understand why. Composed around the turn of the century 1900 and premiered in 1904 it was totally out of phase with the development of the musical language that was taking place around him. Comparing his opera with Carl Nielsen’s almost contemporaneous Maskarade, Enna felt bland and unadventurous – and still they were almost the same age. Nielsen was eight years younger but stylistically they belonged to two different generations. Enna had imbibed the sounds of his great idol Wagner but also the music of Leo Delibes and in Heisse Liebe one can trace both – but heavily diluted. It’s an agreeable opera with many lyrical and melodious moments – the leading tenor, Andreas, has a truly impassioned aria in the second act that can stand comparison with the best of Lortzing – but in the long run it is rather uninteresting.
Kleopatra was composed about a decade earlier and also here it is the lyrical music that leaves the greatest impression. There are some impassioned love scenes that are worth returning to, but there is also a lot of bombastic Wagnerianism that threatens the eardrums and forces the soloists to fight a losing battle against the orchestra. Henrik Engelbrecht’s excellent essay in the booklet informs us that the title role was conceived for the Swedish dramatic soprano Ellen Gulbranson, for many years a leading singer at the Bayreuth festival with Brünnhilde and Isolde among her signature roles. For contractual reasons she wasn’t available at the premiere in the spring of 1894 and was replaced by another soprano, whose ‘slender voice and limited acting abilities [were] quite unsuitable for Kleopatra’s dramatic part’. Her voice was ‘more suited to soubrette roles than to the heroic’. Since the tenor singing Harmaki had a ‘goat-like vibrato’ it’s no wonder that the premiere was not a success. It all ended, as Berlingske Tidende wrote, in ‘howling and roaring’. After only seven performances the Royal Opera called it a day. However, Enna rewrote parts of the score and when the opera was revived in April 1895 Ellen Gulbranson was at hand and there were other changes of singers as well, and now it was a huge success. During the next couple of years it was given 20 times at the Royal Opera and was also seen in Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Breslau, Riga, Zürich, Antwerp, Rotterdam and The Hague and, most conspicuously in Amsterdam where it amassed 50 performances in 1897 alone. He continued to write operas until 1932 but by then he was out of fashion. Besides Heisse Liebe there is one more opera that has been recorded: The Little Match Girl, based on H. C. Andersen’s tale, which I haven’t heard.
The story is essentially as follows: Harmaki, the last of the Pharaohs, plans to murder Queen Kleopatra to liberate Egypt from the Roman influence, but when he meets her he becomes so infatuated that he can’t accomplish the deed. When he realises that he has failed and let down his compatriots he kills himself.
The present recording has its origin in performances by the Danish National Opera during 2019, when it was heard for the first time in 124 years, after which it was brought into the studio, in this case the Odense Koncerthus, during a period of three days in April, when it was set down for posterity.
The recording is excellent and in particular the orchestra plays magnificently. That is also a kind of drawback, since it makes the singers sound rather recessed. Whether it is the balance engineering or the conducting that should be blamed is hard to decide. Primarily though it is the composer who is the greatest sinner. The casting may also be part of the problem. Elsebeth Dreisig in the title role is an experienced singer and vocally well-endowed, but after all she is a lyric soprano with Madama Butterfly as her signature role. She sings well and characterises convincingly but I can’t help feeling that she is a size too small for a role that should have needed a singer like Gitta-Maria Sjöberg or the latest Scandinavian rising star Lise Davidsen. Still she makes a good shot at the part. Ruslana Koval as Charmion, a role just as important as the title role, is also good but with the same limitations. To this should be added that the two women have very similar voices and it is difficult to tell the one from the other. Magnus Vigilius as Harmaki has the right kind of voice, a steely dramatic tenor. His voice carries through even the thickest orchestration. I heard him a couple of years as an excellent Erik in Der fliegende Holländer and he is scheduled to sing at the Bayreuth Festival in 2021. What he may lack is some lyrical warmth for the more intimate moments, which are not inessential. Lars Møller is a reliable High Priest.
The opera is uneven and the drama unfolds rather slowly, but at its best, in scene 3 and 4 of the second act as well as Kleopatra’s long solo with harp in act III and Charmion’s lament at the very end the music finally rises to the heights one had hoped for much earlier. I wrote in my review of Heisse Liebe: ‘Not a forgotten masterpiece’. That is a valid statement also here. To this I want to add: ‘but an interesting memento of a composer who was out of phase with his time even when he was at the height of his powers.’ In the last resort Dacapo should be applauded for making this work available for the general music public.
Göran Forsling
Previous review: Paul Corfield Godfrey
Cast:
Kleopatra, Queen of Egypt – Elsebeth Dreisig (soprano)
Harmaki, the last of the Pharaohs – Magnus Vigilius (tenor)
Sepa, high priest – Lars Møller (baritone)
Charmion, Sepa’s daughter, in service at Kleopatra’s court – Ruslana Koval (soprano)
Schafra, Egyptian prince – Jens Bové (bass)
Iras, Kleopatra’s lady-in-waiting – Kirsten Grønfeldt (soprano)
