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Jaromír WEINBERGER (1896-1967)
Frühlingsstürme (Spring Storms)
Operetta in 3 acts (1933) (Reconstructed and arranged by Norbert Biermann)
Dancers and Orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin/Jordan De Souza
Recorded live at the Komische Oper Berlin, 25 January 2020
Sound Format PCM Stereo, DTS HD MA 5.1 Surround; Picture Format 16:9, 1080i; Regions A, B, C: Subtitles English, French, German, Korean, Japanese
Reviewed in surround
NAXOS NBD0122V Blu-ray [154 mins]

I can do no better than to defer to my colleague Michael Cookson in his review of Weinberger’s only successful opera Schwanda the Bagpiper (review) for as much background information on this one-work composer as is required. And yet, this current recording is not of that one work but of a very different piece, and one he was unable, thanks to Nazi rules, to turn into a success - his operetta Frühlingsstürme. So far as can be gleaned from the oddly incomplete booklet notes, it seems that all of Weinberger’s music is present but somewhat reorganised, partly to satisfy the director’s explicit wish to “create something new for a 21^st Century audience… we extended the dance sections in a couple of numbers or actually interpolated music for the dancers. But 85 percent of it is original Weinberger.” Hmmm! The regie director is still clearly alive and well in Berlin – yes, I know, Barry Koski is Australian! The other problem is that all the Komischer Oper had to work with was a piano & vocal score because the original was lost. An informative article in the New York Times explains how the team were encouraged by the fact of a Czech Radio broadcast in 1947 but still unable to find an actual score. In the end Norbert Biermann was drafted in to reconstruct the orchestration: whether he was responsible for Lensky’s Aria from Eugene Onegin creeping into Scene 8 we are not told.

That is not to suggest this is anything other than a good, or even very good, performance. I am just left wondering how close this is to the 1933 run of performances, starring Richard Tauber no less, that lasted just ten days before being closed down by Hitler’s new government. The very thing that Weinberger was lampooning, the marauding Nazi storm troopers, are understandably nowhere to be seen in this very 21^st century re-staging. The extended, and interesting, interview with renowned stage director Barry Kosky, goes to great lengths to explain all the shibboleths he is avoiding. There are arguments to be made, and he does, for adapting operettas to fit the age, but when you are resurrecting, for the first time in 87 years, a clever and tuneful work like Frühlingsstürme part of me wishes we had a chance to hear and see what the composer expected, if only just once. Poor old Weinberger only had one real success as noted above and even Schwanda the Bagpiper has dropped out of the repertoire almost everywhere. On the strength of this he should be given another chance. Frühlingsstürme is full of good tunes and only familiarity is needed to make them as well known as some of the other operettas and musicals of the period, like Die Dreigroschenoper, No, No, Nanette or Showboat. When Weinberger, very wisely, fled to the USA in 1939 he stepped off the ladder in Europe and entered a much changed, less subversive and too competitive, marketplace for stage musicals.

What of this present performance, whatever it’s ingredients? I have nothing but praise for singers, actors, dancers and orchestra. The Komische Oper can turn their skills to anything and here they radiate energy and enthusiasm to the n^th degree. The nods in the direction of the American musical are handled with total command, more especially since this is a single complete performance, not the result of endless edits to make it perfect. The utterly essential subtitles (just occasionally paraphrasing rather than translating) keep one in touch with the plot. The singers enunciate with great clarity, aided by mostly well-placed microphones. Given the amount of dancing, dialogue and acting skill needed throughout, let alone in the overextended Whitehall farce of the final act, it is a source of wonder that the singing is absolutely superb. As can be seen in the header, no chorus is involved, so the soloists listed below are the only singers. The orchestra, surely more experienced in opera than Broadway, display all the rhythmic instincts of a USA pit-orchestra. The costumes are lavish, the scenery spartan but very functional and the choreography/stage direction has wonderful precision. Well worth the money, I feel, even if the last act gives too much time to that revolving door in the hotel entrance and makes us wait a long time for the touching music at the close. I suspect Weinberger would be forgiving of the director’s input so I shall do the same.

All this combined with excellent video and sound quality, the audience is where they should be, just behind in the surround recording, a sensible set of menus plus a moderately useful booklet lacking only information on the composer (!) and on the extensive reconstruction needed (!!), makes this a good purchase.

Dave Billinge

Cast
Stefan Kurt, General Wladimir Katschalow; Tatyana, Alma Sadé; Lydia Palowska, Vera-Lotte Boecker; Roderick Zirbitz, Dominik Köninger; Ito, Tansel Akzeybek; Colonel Baltischew, Tino Lindenberg; Grand Duke Michailowitsch, Luca Schaub
Direction & Design
Stage Director: Barrie Kosky
Set and Lighting Designer: Klaus Grünberg
Costume Designer: Dinah Ehm
Choreographer: Otto Pichler
Dramaturge: Ulrich Lenz
Video Director: Götz Fileius