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Erich Wolfgang KORNGOLD (1897-1957)
Die tote Stadt (1920) [143:42]
Paul – Klaus Florian Vogt
Marietta – Camilla Nylund
Marie (Silent role) – Kirsti Valve
Frank / Fritz – Markus Eiche
Brigitta – Sari Nordqvist
Juliette – Kaisa Ranta
Lucienne – Melis Jaatinen
Victorin – Per-Håkan Precht
Count Albert – Juha Riihimäki
Gaston – Antti Nieminen
Finnish National Opera Chorus, Children’s Chorus and Orchestra/Mikko Franck
rec. 2010, Finnish National Opera, Helsinki
OPUS ARTE OACD9050D [72:12 + 71:30]

This CD release enshrines a staged/DVD performance of Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt that has been available for the best part of a decade – the actual performances were given in 2010 although the DVD was not released for a couple of years. I have not seen the DVD but a quick skim through reviews of the time suggest a performance and staging that was very well received. Listening to this performance in audio-isolation I must admit to not being nearly as swept away – but more about that later.

Back in the mid 1970’s it did seem as if Die Tote Stadt as a viable/stageable opera was going to languish in the unrequited dreams of opera aficionados. The neurotically high-Romantic style of the music, the huge vocal demands on the principals and large expensive pit orchestra seemed out of step with the Modern Age. But the unwavering conviction of the composer’s son George Korngold resulted in a revelatory studio recording under Erich Leinsdorf that to this day nearly fifty years later is still the reference version against which all others are measured. There was still a twenty year hiatus until the next widely available recording [on Naxos] appeared which seems to have followed the pattern of all subsequent releases by being based on actual theatrical performances. This comes at a certain musical and technical ‘cost’. With music and orchestral writing on this opulent and extravagant scale it is problematic for singers to find a balance between the scale of a performance that registers in the opera house whilst also being true to the dramatic/musical imperatives of the work. Korngold – how could he possibly write in such an assured manner in his early twenties?! – does not exactly help his singers. The two main roles are some of the most taxing in the repertoire. The tenor playing neurotic anti-hero Paul has to have the lightness of a French lyric tenor with the heft of a Wagnerian hero. Soprano/Marie/Marietta is alternately a chaste Mimi, feisty Musetta and Amazonian Brünnhilde. Add to that Paul’s most taxing sing comes towards the end of two and a bit hours singing. All of which makes a live recording especially demanding. Interestingly the tenor here – Klaus Florian Vogt - featured in the same role on another recording at much the same time – for Sebastian Weigle and the Frankfurter Opern – und Museumsorchester recorded live in November 2009 for Oehms Classics. The positives are that Vogt was clearly deeply immersed in the role at this point in his career. But to my ear, for all the plaudits raining down on the Opus Arte/Finnish Opera recording considered here, Vogt was in fresher voice, more warmly recorded and with a better orchestra (also better recorded) for Oehms.

Possibly Korngold’s only error of dramatic judgement is that Paul is really not a very sympathetic character – neurotic, self-obsessed a kind of latter day spoilt rich-boy. Musically this can translate into what might be termed helden-brat singing. Which is fine as long as it is able to be balanced by the sensitive lyrical passages. In both performances Vogt is powerful and accurate but for Weigle the gentler passages are truly beautiful. His duetting with Marietta in the famous Lute Song,"Glück das mir verblieb" is gently rapturous in Frankfurt in a way he does not achieve to such great effect in Finland. Likewise the actual recording of the orchestra of the Finnish National Opera is not nearly as detailed or generally impressive as their German counterparts. Not that it is anything but fine just flatter, more congested and lacking the extraordinary colours that Korngold wrote into the score. This work really does embody the Korngold “sound” with harps, orchestral keyboards and tuned percussion decorating the rich harmonies and memorable melodies with ravishing results. Weigle I find to have a greater urgency in his presentation – this is not just a question of speed or tempo but an emotional volatility within a passage or scene that seems to chime with the neuroses that lie at the heart of the score. Franck can sound ‘safer’ when safety is not necessarily a desirable attribute.

In Finland Vogt is partnered by soprano Camilla Nylund. Vocally she is strong and imperious – certainly in the climactic scenes in Acts 2 and 3. Of course, her most famous aria in the opera is the aforementioned Lute Song and here she lacks the sheer ease that Carol Neblett brought so memorably to the 1975 studio recording. As an aside – I do enjoy Angela Denoke in the Donald Runnicles’ live performance at this point. Runnicles risks a rapturously slow tempo that Denoke is able to float with riveting ease. Several references are made in the brief liner to the visual and staging impact of this Finnish production by director Kasper Holten. Certainly the couple of production stills included in the booklet suggest a striking theatrical experience which the audio track alone cannot convey. A good example of this is the opera’s other famous excerpt; The Pierrot Lied Mein Sehnen, mein Wähnen. For Leinsdorf Hermann Prey gives an achingly nostalgic rendition urgently supported by the Munich Radio Orchestra. For Franck, Markus Eiche has arguably the more attractive voice but without the “longing and melancholy” Holten references in the CD liner. Immediately before the Pierrot Lied is where both the Leinsdorf and Franck sets split the CD’s. There is no perfect solution to this but I must admit I really disliked the Opus Arte choice of fading out the music and fading it back in. The original RCA set repeats the final musical phrase from disc one as an introductory one on disc two [the recent Dutton SA-CD re-release changed the disc split point]. Clearly this ‘adds’ music Korngold did not write but for me it makes much more musical sense. On the subject of adding/cutting music – this is an opera which has been subject to varying degrees of textural tinkering. Without access to a score I cannot say if this performance is musically complete. Again a price paid for staged productions is that often cuts made for staging/dramatic purposes destroy the composer’s original/complete conception – by timing alone it would seem that Franck is very close to the 145 minutes for the score indicated on the Korngold Society website.

The CD’s cover cautions listeners that because this is a live performance it includes “audible stage and audience noise”. I have to say I did not find this intrusive. The latter is limited to just some fairly modest and quickly faded applause at the end of acts – the ‘big’ arias are not so marked. Stage noise is present but not excessively so. I have not heard or seen the most recent video of the opera with Kirill Petrenko, Jonas Kaufmann and Marlis Petersen at the Bayerische Staatsoper. Again the staging there seems to have been very well received as have the musical performances there and my guess is that Petrenko is the recent recording to seek out – certainly the number of awards the Petrenko has garnered would support that view. Forty five years ago it would have seemed an absurd pipe-dream to be able to nit-pick between the relative virtues of some ten or so performances of this work. Petrenko is not available as an audio-only recording. That being the case my personal preference remains the still-impressive Leinsdorf from 1975 with Weigle/Vogt a powerful alternative. In such company, Franck/Vogt is good but not as good. The Opus Arte documentation is limited – no libretto just a fairly brief synopsis. The sound recording is good if slightly airless with little bloom around the voices or detail in the orchestra. Franck’s conducting likewise good but without the impulsiveness this youthful score really requires.

This would not be my performance of choice, but to have any kind of choice with this genuinely remarkable score is rather wonderful.

Nick Barnard