Joseph HAYDN (1732-1809)
Philemon und Baucis (1773)
Christoph Genz (tenor) - Philemon
Maren Engelhardt (mezzo) - Baucis
Jan Petryka (tenor) - Aret
Alexandra Reinprecht (soprano) - Narcissa
Actors: Frank Hoffmann - Jupiter; Hermann Beil - Merkur
Vocalforum Graz
Haydn Sinfonietta Wien/Manfred Huss
rec. May 2008, Floriankirche, Straden, Austria
BIS-SACD-1813 [59:43]
This is part of the series of releases which has brought the Vienna Haydn Sinfonietta
and BIS together in some of Haydn’s most extraordinary work. Having already
been mightily impressed by the lively freshness of the Overtures and
the nice big box of court
music, I was more than a little intrigued about a little-known aspect of
Haydn’s creative output, that of the marionette operas.
Philemon und Baucis is the only known survivor of Haydn’s work in
this genre, and even this is incomplete. With only fragmentary sections of the
score extant, this recording resorts to a version prepared for a production in
Paris in around 1800. This followed a standard practice of the time, shoe-horning
work by other composers to turn the piece into a viable stage production. Names
which appear include Gluck and Carlo d’Ordonez, and bits from other works
by or attributed to Haydn, including the famous ‘Chorale St Antoni’,
are also worked into the final track-listing. Without knowing these things you
wouldn’t notice anything particularly odd going on, and there is a good
sense of continuity here which transcends the remedies involved in reviving the
remnants of a remarkable score.
The marionette opera was no children’s entertainment in this period, and
the story is as infuriatingly complicated as any serious opera of the time, especially
ones involving those wilfully obtuse classical gods. The puppets would have been
life-size, and Manfred Huss points out that Haydn appears to be contrasting the
artificial nature of the marionettes by giving them “music that is especially
poignant and powerful in expression”. There are indeed some lovely moments,
just one such highlight being Aret’s aria Wenn am weiten Firmamente,
with a beautifully played oboe obbligato. The singing is good throughout, though
the vocal demands of the score require no really coloratura fireworks. There
are also some highly dramatic moments, from the sturm und drang of the
overture’s Allegro con espressione to an especially effective storm
scene helped by realistic sound-effects. The spoken texts are done in well enunciated
German and with a superbly gravelly Jupiter played by Frank Hoffmann. These do
not dominate, and in any case there are English translations of all texts in
the booklet.
As with the other releases in this series which I have encountered, this is a
beautifully recorded production, lively in dynamics and with a warmly embracing
surround-sound element. This probably gives a richer and more resonant acoustic
picture than one might have encountered in the original grotto-like Marionette
Theatre described in 1784, but makes for attractive listening in this case. With
no weak points and bags of refreshingly performed strong ones this is a self-recommending
release for a very wide audience.
Dominy Clements
Superb production deserving of a very wide audience.... see Full Review