Hakon
Børresen was one of the last romantic Danish composers. He
was eleven years Carl Nielsen’s junior but was much more conservative.
He became even more stubborn the older he got and refused to accept
any of the new musical ideas that influenced his contemporaries
during the first decades of the 20th century. He learnt
his trade from Johan Svendsen and, besides
his teacher and mentor, Gade, Grieg
and Wagner served as his models. He didn’t compose much: his Symphony
No. 3 from 1927 carries opus number 21 and after that very little
came from his pen. He wasn’t much of a melodist but a brilliant
orchestrator. Indeed some of his orchestral compositions are
well worth hearing for their inventiveness, especially the aforementioned
symphony and its nearest predecessor, “The Sea”, written in 1904.
These two works are to be found on a Dacapo
disc (in Sweden
on Naxos) with the Aalborg
Symphony Orchestra conducted by Owain Arwel Hughes. There is a
companion disc with the charming music for the ballet “På
Uranienborg” about the famous Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. This is colourful music, partly drawing on folk
tunes from Denmark,
Sweden
and Scotland.
The disc also contains the prelude to “The Royal Guest”, which
is often played, even today, as a concert piece. And it is riveting
music, presenting some themes that are to appear later on in the
opera proper.
The opera
is labelled “opera comedy” and it fits the bill, but is more than
that. The action takes place in the home of Doctor Høyer
and his wife who have been married for
some years and now lead a calm life with few guests. What passion
there has been has withered. Suddenly in the evening, sleigh bells
are heard – very realistically painted in the orchestra – and
an unknown man appears. He doesn’t want to reveal his identity.
“Call me Prince Carnival”, he says. He is invited and turns out
to be very sociable, very musical and arranges a nice party for
the three of them. He decorates the house with flowers and during
the dinner Emmy becomes more and more
drawn to the enigmatic stranger who finally crowns her with roses
in her hair. This makes Arnold
feel that the Guest “has crossed the line”. So Prince Carnival
leaves the house but tells them to let joy and magic into their
life. And after a slight row they decide they have learned something
from their guest and walk arm in arm into the bedroom. A comedy
it is but with a serious message.
“The Royal
Guest” is often referred to as a conversation opera. Most of it
is sung in a recitative like parlando. Now and then there are arioso passages but no arias
and it isn’t wrong to say that the main protagonist is the orchestra.
It lives its own life illustrating, underlining, commenting.
There are some “themes” that recur, so even if there is nothing
like the Wagnerian Leitmotif-technique, Børresen
at least gives a nod to the Bayreuth
master. Just as in the other orchestral music the instrumentation
is dazzling. At the premiere at the Royal Opera in Copenhagen
in November 1919 the opera was a great success and continued to
be so for 45 years until Paul Wiedemann,
who also sang at the premiere, decided to retire. He had then
sung the role of Arnold
134 times; it still counts as the most played Danish opera ever.
Den kongelige Gæst
needs good singing actors with a feel for verbal nuance. For this
recording Dacapo have gathered some of the most experienced members
of the Royal Opera: Tina Kiberg, Stig
Fogh Andersen and Guido Paevatalu;
singers who also have significant international careers. But singing
heavy roles in big houses has left their mark and both Kiberg
and Andersen are here afflicted with a heavy beat in their voices
and a loss of resonance. Hearing them both in Stockholm
just a few years ago in Schönberg’s
Gurre-Lieder, they were both in much better
shape. Paevatalu, who has concentrated
on lighter roles, especially Mozart, has fared much better. However
when it comes to the interpretation all of them are well inside
their characters, finding the right expressions and after the
Royal Guest has left, both husband and wife take on a warmer,
more rounded tone, indicating that the change they have experienced
may remain. Hungarian-born Tamás Vetö, who started his career
with the Royal Danish Opera in 1958, knows how to keep things
moving and it is to a large extent thanks to him that this comedy
works so well even on disc. Comparing the Prelude with Arwel Hughes’
version it is interesting to notice that Vetö is almost two minutes
faster, mainly because Arwel Hughes lingers more over the slow
string-dominated – and very beautiful – moments near the end of
the piece. Vetö is more rhythmically alert elsewhere. Both are
valid interpretations.
The booklet
provides splendid documentation in three languages (Danish, English
and German). From this source I have gleaned much of the information
in this review. Of course there is a synopsis and a full libretto
with line-by-line translation. Exemplary!
The singing
could at times have been more easy on
the ear, but anyone who wants to go on an excursion along some
lesser known operatic paths can still safely choose this one.
Göran Forsling
