LINKS
Complete libretto - in German
- no translation
http://www.impresario.ch/libretto/libdaltie.htm
Eugen d’Albert site
http://www.jcarreras.homestead.com/Tiefland2.html
Leni Riefenstahl’s film of Tiefland
http://www.powernet.net/~hflippo/cinema/tiefland.html
Tiefland
("The Lowlands") is one of
the earliest verismo operas, dealing
with the contrast between simple innocence
and ingrained depravity. The wealthy
landowner Sebastiano many years ago
purchased an orphan girl, Marta, from
her stepfather and has kept her imprisoned
to serve his lusts. Now in financial
difficulties he proposes to marry a
rich woman, but to quell the village
gossip and appear honourable, he sets
about to marry Marta off to Pedro, a
simple mountain-dwelling peasant, giving
as a dowry a mill in the lowlands. At
first Marta fears this is just a change
of slave-masters, but Pedro is truly
kind and comes to love her, and she
returns his love. Sebastiano’s marriage
plans fall through; when he comes by
to take Marta back by force, Pedro kills
him and the two lovers escape back to
Pedro’s high mountain homeland.
I subjected this recording
to the ordeal I always perform when
approaching an opera I’ve never heard
before: Ignoring the libretto, I put
it on in the background and get busy
with something else and dare the music
to gain my attention, purely as dramatic
music. This recording passed the test
well. The overture begins with shepherd’s
flute sounds, then proceeds directly
into the drama which at once engrosses.
D’Albert was one of the most famous
and successful of Liszt’s later students
and had the taste to borrow only from
Wagner’s better music. His own musical
ideas, when they appear, aren’t bad
either. The orchestration is skilled
and some scenes are effectively atmospheric.
Technically this (monophonic)
recording is exceptional considering
the time it was made. The lack of a
text or translation with this recording
should be no problem if you have a reasonable
command of German (I don’t) as the singers
project the text with great clarity
and the story is a simple one. I was
unable to find a public domain translated
libretto on the Internet, but your local
music library may be able to provide
one. The opera libretto has been translated
back into the Catalan language for performances
in Barcelona. Catalá is generally
more like Castillian Spanish (e.g.,
Terra Baixa = Tierra Baja) than is Portugese,
but in the case of this title the Catalá
and Portuguese are identical (Terra
Baixa = Terra Baixa).
The excerpts from the
1943 recording are less clear and a
little distorted but still quite thrillingly
urgent, and different enough from the
later production to be well worth hearing,
although the tenor drifts off pitch
on loud high notes.
Don’t buy this recording
just for the magic name of Christa Ludwig;
her part is a walk-on and there is no
opportunity for her special talent to
shine. I probably know the sound of
her voice as well as any of her admirers,
and without a libretto I couldn’t recognise
her in the ensembles where she appears.
Paul Shoemaker