Leo FALL (1873-1925)
Paroli or Frau Denise, comic opera in one act with dialogue (1902)
Anke Krabbe (soprano) - Denise, Andrea Bönig (alto) - Marquise von Gaillardière, Jörg Dürmüller (tenor) - Jean, Michael Roider (tenor) - Josef Drechsler, Ralf Lukas (baritone) - Marquis von Gaillardière, Henning Freiberg - narrator
WDR Rundfunkchor Köln
WDR Rundfunkorchester Köln/Axel Kober
rec. Philharmonie, Cologne, Germany, 2012
CPO 777 899-2 [51:54]
Leo Fall’s compositional period fell at the end of
the Strauss-Millöcker romantic era and coincided with the advent of ‘The
Musical’ genre promoted by Lehár, Jones and Porter. To my ears his style
anticipates certain new musical directions that stage shows were by 1900 starting
to take. Fall is best known for The Dollar Princess (1907) and Madame
Pompadour (1922) (review)
and the Electrola (EMI) recordings brought them to a wide audience. Fall came
from a Berlin musical family where his father had been comfortably employed
as a Royal Military bandmaster. Leo was sent to the Vienna Conservatoire to
study composition but this he abandoned when aged nineteen and he returned
to Berlin to help the family in writing opera as a lucrative, combined family
effort.
Fall’s Paroli - this obscure short comic opera - is more a
chamber work than an operetta. It has been little heard of so a study of this
composition is made all the more interesting. On a first hearing, the music
by this 29-year-old composer is not so easily assimilated as a stage show
and it is only on repeat listening that one can form more definite opinions.
We find that the composer has worked sensitively to provide a good opening
chorus and finale with horn motif. Also notable is the strong melody in Denise’s
song (No. 2), where Anke Krabbe delights with her agility and endearing timbre.
Ralf Lukas makes a splendid Marquis in his duet with Denise (No. 5). These
numbers are of immediate appeal. In the score there are a few instances (as
in Jean and Denise’s duet) where there seems to be a lull in the compositional
framework. On a closer study one realizes that such unexpected turns in the
vocal line follow a change of mood described in the lyrics. That said I find
that Fall’s orchestration rarely achieves anything like a multi-layered
rich tutti. His harmonization is occasionally thin and the accompaniment is
conveniently picked up by isolated sections of the orchestra. Axel Kober achieves
a high level of success nevertheless with his conducting, and the orchestra
responds energetically throughout.
The soloists are strong especially in their superbly delivered Terzette.
It is difficult to single out individual singers for praise with such limited
exposure on this short disc: sadly the playing time of the score’s music
is limited to 43 minutes. The duets and ensembles are nicely balanced both
in colour and strength. The dialogue is individually tracked and so can easily
be omitted if one doesn’t understand German.
The recording balance is good and bathed in the warm acoustic of Cologne’s
Philharmonie hall. The booklet notes are in German and English. It's
a shame that the characters are not shown in the track-listing. It is also
unfortunate that Michael Roider’s photograph is captioned with the soprano’s
name.
Earlier Fall operetta issues from CPO include Der
Fidele Bauer and Madame
Pompadour. In recent years these have been joined by a Naxos recording
of The Rose of Stambul (review
review)
and an Arthaus DVD of Die Dollarprinzessin (review)
Raymond J Walker
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