Grand opera and a tumultuous passion meet operetta in Die Kathrin.
This is Korngold's fifth and final opera. It runs 18 mins short of three
hours. It is here recorded without scene 3 which comprises spoken dialogue
only. The words are printed in the booklet.
Here we have a late grand opera not as late as Walton's Troilus and Cressida
but late enough. It was written between 1932 and 1937, being completed
very close to his very fortunate departure for the USA to score the film,
The Adventures of Robin Hood. Listening now to so much of his concert
music we realise that rather than his concert music sounding like his film
music his swooningly effective style was well established in his concert
works first. You notice it all the more in this full-strength opera complete
with grand orchestra including orchestral piano, three saxes and a spot-on
vibraphone.
Korngold subtitled the work 'a folk-opera' and you can see or hear why,
especially in the final Act. It charts an extremely sentimental story with
music to match.
CPO have, in short, done the work proud. Their cast, though not without
weakness, is very good and the eponymous lead is wonderful. David Rendall
(a name suddenly known because of a recent incident in which after a stage
dagger retractor mechanism failed he inadvertently stabbed a fellow singer)
as the romantic soldier-chansonnier, François is in good voice though
he shows some strain. I cannot swear to the faithfulness of the accents but
they sound authentic.
The story (apologies for brutal compression here) is one of Kathrin falling
in love with a garrison soldier (François) whose heart is in music,
the lute and singing rather than soldiering. He seduces her to the backdrop
of glorious music and the two fall in love. A child (a boy - inevitably called
François) is born. The garrison leaves the town and with it goes
François. Kathrin (in early pregnancy) goes to Marseille in search
of her love. She is almost seduced by a night club owner who, by typically
operatic coincidence, has hired François as a chansonnier. François
believes the owner has seduced Kathrin and is shot by Monique (an associate
of the owner) though everyone believes it was either Kathrin or Francois.
François goes to prison. Kathrin goes to Switzerland and there has
the child. The couple are reunited five years later and live blissfully ever
after.
From the first track of Scene 1 we are treated to Korngold in confident
resplendently bright music (pre-echoing his film music). There is a Mahlerian
female chorus and the music rushes and surges in romantic waves like a Viennese
Nutcracker (The Snowflakes). The singing has a heady Puccinian urbanity and
an elated ecstasy. The first hints of operetta are heard in a brightness
mixed with Elgarian audacity. In 'Es ist ja wahr' vigorous and noble
trumpets erupt in silvery flamboyant fanfare. Sliding and mildly discordant
washes of string sound evoke the Franz Schmidt of the second symphony. The
caressing and trembling tenderness of the love duet is pointed up by the
vibraphone which instantly recalls the fine use of this instrument in the
film scores. Truly sumptuous.
The second scene opens with a (Richard) Straussian duet for two sopranos,
Kathrin and Margot, and leads into Kathrin's aria as she writes her farewell
letter to the delightfully-named lover, François Lorand. François
comes to her room in the moonlit night and the 'Dear John' letter, Kathrin's
letter, is never sent. You can hear her ecstatic despair and joy melt and
flow together in the lava flow of Korngold's melody. Ardent romance smokes
and fumes on François's words 'Kathrin ich habe dich gern'. Echoes
of Robin Hood and Elizabeth and Essex resonate around the embrace which ends
the scene in gossamer sensuality. A master-stroke is the almost tangible
picture of the 'Dear John' letter blowing off the table as the warm night
air fills the room.
Track 7 opens with several minutes of orchestral entr'acte: a thunderous
and clangorous prelude which reminded me of one of Arnold Bax's stentorian
Irish marches - just a tad bombastic. It slips into an eldritch processional
- kitsch but effective. The next scene can be envisioned as a slow motion
wave of passion frozen then haltingly moving forward. From this develops
a heroic trio with François's music utterly wonderful despite being
delivered with a faintly steely edge The drinking song scene rather lets
the track record down. It is a blowsy carouse to the prominent words:
"Valleri! Vallera!" For me it is a miscalculation, superficial and
weak with a skittering and tramping chorus of students and girls. It is
punctuated by a prominent xylophone. This has the worst overtones of Verdi
at his most tawdry. Appalling cheap brummagem stuff. This however is lightened
by the touchingly tender 'Mein mann hat mich vermieden', predicting
music from Tomorrow and The Sea Wolf film.
Act II depicts Kathrin's fate while wandering to find her François,
armed with expired passport and a love letter. Vulnerable and lonely she
is gulled by Malignac (the night club owner) who gets her a fake passport.
In the fourth scene operetta raises its head again with jerkily romantic
and winningly bright-eyed music. The ladies choir sings with silvery tone.
This music might almost be by Stephen Sondheim as in A Little Night Music.
The luxuriantly floated high notes from Lillian Watson, as Chou Chou, are
a treasurable moment amongst many. A softly seductive trio of saxes permeate
the music. At 2:47 in track 5 (Disc 2) we get a truly lovely Viennese impression
(yes I know the locale is meant to be Marseille) breathing coffee and cream.
Malignac muses satyr-like on the pleasures of enjoying Kathrin, his plan
all along. Korngold allows him some fine music in one of those steady
mountain-climbing, stepped melodies of which Korngold is a master-craftsman.
There is a mildly distressing wobble in the voice of Robert Hayward (Malignac)
but nothing too distracting. The seduction proceeds but in front of
François who interrupts only when he realises that it is Kathrin before
him. This episode slips intothe next scene with the orchestra's wild
caterwauling, howling and shouting of death. The music then begins to toll
and shudder after the death of Malignac. Kathrin is left musing on her fate
as Francois is dragged away to trial and prison.
The third Act is the shortest of the three, at 43:32. It is in four scenes
and all have a folk-opera feel. The music may well have been influenced by
Delius's 'A Walk To the Paradise Garden'. The setting is the Swiss
mountains. The melodies and airs have around them a halo of innocence and
a lightness which suggests Canteloube's orchestrations of the Songs of
Auvergne. A devastatingly poetic moment comes at the opening of scene
2 when the orchestra vividly pictures clouds piercing the mountain heights
just as François arrives singing. Surely Korngold wrote this music
to be sung along to - a Viennese karaoke. François, the journeyman
singer, serenades Kathrin for a lovelorn tailor - a Cyrano de Bergerac
moment. The lute song is sweetly sung and in the middle of it François
recognises Kathrin and recognition is marked by a Schrecker-like crisis in
the orchestra.
We are then treated to more bright Sondheim-like eagerness as they reproach
and then forgive themselves and fall into each others arms to meltingly swooping
strings and burnished eloquent brass crying out to heaven. The strings subtly
touch in the moonlight as the lovers go to the house, borne along on the
glimmering glow of the strings. A happy ending with very little sourness
but just enough grit and steel to sustain this major structure.
Now, opera managements forget your fly-on-the-wall stardoms and let's have
an operatic season with Die Kathrin included. Come the day! Audiences
glowing with this experience will walk out into the night after the performance
onto wet streets. The recording, which is remarkably rich, delivers a great
frisson. Just listen to 'Bin dir weib (man) das sich selbst durch dich gewann.'
Utterly wonderful. I confess to being moved to tears by this exuberantly
emotive music.
Brendan G Carroll author of THE Korngold biography (The Last Prodigy)
is the author of the 116 page notes. Everything is thoroughly well documented.
I noted many fine little touches showing a discriminating judgement: e.g.
the brave and successful decision to keep any printing off the covers of
the CD insert - just a great photo of a 40 year old Korngold. The libretto
is in German and English. There is a synopsis. The notes - though not the
libretto - are in English, French and German.
This is a superb production: music of your most romantic dreams and packing
a grand emotional punch with smouldering and flaming fervour. Hotly recommended.
If you liked Die Kathrin let me also recommend the Chandos CDs of
Walton's Troilus and Cressida; Othmar Schoeck's two operas Massimila
Doni (Koch) and Venus (MGB) and, as an off-beat link-in, Stephen
Sondheim's Sweeney Todd (BMG) and A Little Night Music (Sony-CBS).
Reviewer
Rob Barnett
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Another contribution from Ian Lace
Rather than repeat the detail of Rob Barnett's fine review I would like to
contribute some broader thoughts.
I write after listening to this 3 CD set for the third time. Each successive
hearing has revealed more and more delights. So many highlights from this
sumptuously scored opera are imprinted upon my memory. There is the fine
singing throughout of Melanie Diener as Kathrin, but I felt that she was
particularly memorable and poignant in her Act I letter song and in the closing
aria of Act II, "War ist geschehn" - in which she agonises over her
lover's (wrongful) arrest for murder and then summons up her courage to rise
above it all and live for their still unborn child. Equally splendid is Lilian
Watson, outstanding in the demanding high-voiced role of Chou-Chou in her
Act II aria as she tries to win François's affection (there is a lovely
passage in this aria as François, in response, tells her that he cannot
forget Kathrin). The only sympathetic aria for Malignac, "In einer
Viertelstund", strongly sung by Robert Hayward, is another highlight
of Act II. The sumptuous romantic orchestral scoring as François and
Kathrin discover and sublimate their love through Act I is delectable and
then there is the lovely pastoral-evocative orchestral opening to Act III;
and the simple charm of François's Act III song "Wo ist mein
Heim", (Where is My Home..?) Rendall is at his best in this little gem.
Alas mention of Rendall brings me to the debit side of the recording; I have
to say that I was generally disappointed with his singing; I did not care
too much for the timbre of his voice which is marred by an excessive vibrato.
I am told, too, by friends in Europe that, generally, language pronunciation
is not too secure either.
I understand that Decca was originally going to produce Die Kathrin but
cancelled out. We owe it to Brendan Carroll that he came to the rescue and
persuaded the BBC and CPO to proceed with the project. It should be
stressed that this is a live performance/broadcast after limited rehearsal
time and produced on a small budget. Under such circumstances, Brabbins and
his performers have achieved a small miracle.
Film fans will recognise echoes of much material that Korngold used in his
film scores and there is an added fascination - the opera's opening scene
is set outside a cinema - it is used as a device to introduce François
to Kathrin for the latter cannot go inside without being escorted by the
former.
To broader issues. Die Kathrin was Korngold's fifth and last opera.
Before it came Das Wunder der Heliane (The Miracle of Heliane) a
magnificent epic drama which failed because of the backlash against Korngold's
works due to the immense interest in Krenek's jazz-opera Jonny Spielt
Auf and Korngold's father's ill-advised critical pillorying of the work.
Heliane's failure shook Korngold's confidence and he turned to adapting arranging
and conducting a series of operettas.Alas fate was also to rob him of public
acceptance of Die Kathrin which was about to be staged in Vienna when
the Nazis entered the City and the premier was cancelled. When it was eventually
premiered in Stockholm, in October 1939, it met with hostile anti-Semitic
reviews. Furthermore, when it was given its belated Vienna premier in 1950
it was derided as being hopelessly outdated.
Working against the emergent tide of serialism, Die Kathrin is resolutely
tonal - even of the ripest most effulgent late Romanticism one could imagine.
The libretto is weak and the concept follows a well worn path. The story
echoes too closely, perhaps, those used by Puccini in La Rondine and
Lehar in Giuditta. So it is no little wonder that the 1950 Vienna
war-weary and cynical audience was in no mood for it. Having said all that,
one must recognise the unique differences in Die Kathrin, from preceding
works of that nature even though these were clearly insufficiently strong
to have made an impact on audiences and critics. Die Kathrin might
be regarded as three operas/operettas in one. (As Rob Barnett rightly infers
it is something of a hybrid and hybrids are notoriously difficult to accept
- Puccini, for instance, was heart-broken at the failure of his La
Rondine.) You have a traditional lush late Romantic first act followed
by a more modern second act with a significant jazz content and an orchestrally
pared down third act which resembles something of a folk opera (Rob's allusion
to the Delius of A Village Romeo and Juliet is pertinent). What probably
also went unnoticed was the unusual scoring of Die Kathrin - a large
orchestra is used with many additional instruments including three jazz
saxophones, guitar, accordion and vibraphone.
Korngold's fate was not unusual - how often has a composer experienced adulation,
followed by rejection and then by years of derision and abandonment before
he is rediscovered as times and tastes change? Personally, I think that as
much as this fickleness might be abhorred, in a way, it is a necessary process
for it permits the natural progression of musical ideas. As much as many
of us abhorred atonality and other modern music it was necessary that it
should have its day. Hopefully the best of it will inform the best of the
music of tomorrow together with the best of Korngold, and the late Romantics
in general and the classical composers before them. You will get my drift...
Now if I can take this point and parallel it with the history of film music,
we can see a similar rebellion against the traditional forms of Korngold,
Steiner and Alfred Newman etc. in the early 1950s with the emergence of the
jazz-based scores of Alex North, the dissonances of Leonard Rosenman and
the sparer more economical scores of Elmer Bernstein. These and other changes
have informed the scores being written today which do not hesitate to embrace
many styles in one score to the benefit, and closer understanding of the
screenplay.
In conclusion I would add that I hope Decca might be shamed into reconsidering
a further recording of Die Kathrin employing a first class cast and orchestra.
After all, EMI employed Gheorghiu and Alagna spectacularly successfully in
their Award-winning recording of Puccini's La Rondine an opera that
was thought by too many people who ought to have known better to have been
little more than a disaster.
Ian Lace
