“The Young Lord” is a true ensemble opera, with impressive songs and an orchestra hardly larger than that of a Mozart opera, the characters being accompanied by respective leitmotifs or instruments. Henze frequently uses purely tonal structures. Yet this does not mean that Henze returns to the past, or that he betrays his avantgarde achievements. His style reveals a kind of highly ‘artificial’ and witty handling of tradition. The connoisseur recognizes many subtle allusions to tradition, while the ordinary listener enjoys everything he expects from a comic opera: lightness, tempo, wit, warmth and a touch of dream-world. “The Young Lord” was commissioned by the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Although Henze knew what artistic talent and possibilities were to be expected there, his justifiably high expectations were probably surpassed when he saw the first performance on 7 April 1965. Filippo Sanjust conjured up a most imaginative and accurate picture of the Biedermeier world upon the stage, which contains just enough fantastic exaggeration to fit the work. The producer, Gustav Rudolf Sellner, has put life into all those details in a manner that particularly benefits the film. Finally, Christoph von Dohnányi has proved to be the ideal Henze conductor.
I Pagliacci
“Pagliacci” is often celebrated as one of the finest examples of verismo, or realist opera. It is even based on a true story: Leoncavallo’s father, a judge, once presided over the trial of an actor who, in a fit of jealousy, murdered his wife immediately following a performance. “Pagliacci” is frequently performed along with Mascagni’s one-acter “Cavalleria Rusticana”. Director and conductor Herbert von Karajan does not simply recreate a standard work; rather, he examines, it, psychoanalyzes its protagonists, lays bare the people behind the masks. In the process, he also makes a magnificent musical statement. Karajan is obsessed with faces – open, shadowed, distorted – suggesting his belief in the adage that eyes are the windows of the mind and the soul. Through elaborate intercutting from four or five cameras, he moves stealthfully from members of the crowd to his principals and back, gradually tightening the dramatic knot which binds them all together in this tale of love, hate and retribution. Joining the superb Jon Vickers is soprano Raina Kabaivanska as Nedda. Hers is a brilliant, multi-faceted performance of fascinating detail. The fine Tonio is Peter Glossop; George Wakhevitch designed the elaborate setting, the square of an Italian village.
La Cenerentola
The popularity of Rossini’s delightful fairy-tale opera is, to a great extent, due to Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s now legendary production, first seen at La Scala of Milan in 1971. Claudio Abbado, who was then the artistic director of La Scala, has put together for this production a cast – including Frederica von Stade, Francisco Araiza and Paolo Montarsolo – that boasts an outstanding affinity for Rossini’s humor in addition to peerless musicality.
Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville)
Based on Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s highly acclaimed Salzburg production, the action was filmed in a Munich studio, while the voices and music were taped in Milan, using the Scala orchestra and chorus. The brilliant cast includes Teresa Berganza, Hermann Prey, Luigi Alva and Enzo Dara, all great names in the international operatic world.
Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro)
Few conductors have mastered the fluidity of melodic control, the rhythmic drive and the dramatic characterization of Mozart’s operas to the extent of Karl Böhm. This production, filmed in London in 1976, abounds in splendid singers, all of whom give performances of the highest vocal and dramatic distinction: Hermann Prey is the definitive Figaro, charming in his vigorous self-confidence; Mirella Freni’s Susanna is a personification of innocence and beauty; Kiri Te Kanawa’s Countess is a touching portrait of wronged womanhood; Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s Count is a deceitfully flirtatious despot; and Maria Ewing’s Cherubino is a passionate study of adolescent naivety. Böhm’s wonderfully supple conducting reflects his lifelong devotion to Mozart. Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s direction perfectly translates the polished stylishness and the beauty and warmth of Böhm’s musical direction into scenes and character portrayals of luminous naturalness. “And what a gloriously photogenic and euphonious cast led by the uniquely differentiated quartet of Fischer-Dieskau’s subtle Count Almaviva versus Hermann Prey’s defiant Figaro, and Kiri Te Kanawa’s honeyed Countess versus Mirella Freni’s not at all playful Susanna. Great singers all, they were guided by Ponnelle in a production without a moment of cliché¿ The playing of the Vienna Philharmonic under Böhm couldn’t have been more Mozartian.” (The Daily Telegraph, 9.3.77) “A million-dollar TV Figaro that improves on the original… Productions of this caliber have been televised from stages before, but never has the dramatic and visual potential of opera freed from such constraints been so ambitiously addressed. The result is eye-opening, and despite an occasional overuse of the new tools, the production establishes beyond doubt that the TV screen can add an important new dimension to the operatic experience.” (The Washington Post, 5.10.77)
L’Orfeo
Monteverdi’s first opera “L’Orfeo”, one of the earliest operas in the history of the genre, composed for Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga of Mantua and performed in 1607, unfolds before our eyes through a perfect harmony of theater, dance, opera, music and film. The camera shows us every minute detail of an imaginary court entertainment in Northern Italy at the beginning of the 17th century; and through this attention to detail, we too are drawn into the entertainment. The now legendary Zurich Monteverdi cycle, consisting of three productions of Monteverdi’s only surviving operas (“L’Orfeo”, “The Coronation of Poppea” and “The Return of Ulysses”) mounted in the Zurich Opera House during the late 1970s, is one of the finest achievements of the mutually inspiring partnership of director Jean-Pierre Ponnelle and conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt. With sets of startling visual appeal by Ponnelle himself, lovingly recreated period costumes by Pet Halmen, these productions are pure delight. The Zurich productions were shown in Hamburg, Vienna, Edinburgh, Berlin, Milan, Wiesbaden and Munich. The orchestra plays exclusively on original instruments or carefully reconstructed copies.
La Clemenza di Tito
Jean-Pierre Ponnelle was in great part responsible for making the musical world aware of the true importance of Mozart’s last opera “La Clemenza di Tito” and for the fact that the opera is now regularly performed all over the world. He created a television version of his Salzburg Festival production of this work, an “opera seria” which Mozart composed in 1791 for the coronation of Emperor Leopold II in Prague. Ponnelle makes use of the wonderful gardens and ruins of Hadrian’s Villa, the Thermae of Caracalla and Rome’s Forum Romanum not because of their authenticity, but because of their unique atmospheric quality. The humanity of Mozart’s characters is fully expressed thanks to the conductor James Levine and the outstanding cast of singer-actors led by the grandiose Tatiana Troyanos as Sextus and Eric Tappy as a commanding Tito.
Dido & Aeneas
For the opening of the International Baroque Festival at Melk Abbey, the ancient world makes its way into the Abbey Church. With Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, the composer’s brilliant opera and at the same time one of the central works of music history, the festival takes on the love and suffering of a couple who are granted happiness together for only a brief moment. The lovers’ fate finally culminates in one of the most poignant moments ever composed. The Concentus Musicus Wien under its conductor Stefan Gottfried and a cast of outstanding singers make this semi-scenic performance an unforgettable experience. “A stellar hour!” (Niederösterreichische Nachrichten)
Bastien und Bastienne (Mozart 22)
“Bastien und Bastienne” takes up the plot of the little French opera “Le devin du village” (The Village Soothsayer) by the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The “soothsayer” Colas, a wise old shepherd, advises the unhappy shepherdess Bastienne to secure the love of the fickle Bastien by arousing his jealousy. The despairing Bastien then also seeks advice from Colas, who pretends to use magic to bring the two lovers together again. “Der Schauspieldirektor” revolves around an impresario’s problems in assembling a group of singers for a performance. With “Die Entführung aus dem Serail” and “Die Zauberflöte,” Mozart made immortal contributions to the genre of the German Singspiel – German-language opera with spoken dialogues. But in the course of his career, Mozart also wrote two short German-language works that are different in musical craftsmanship, but both utterly delightful: “Bastien und Bastienne” K. 50, one of Mozart’s earliest dramatic works, and “Der Schauspieldirektor” (The Impresario) K. 486, a mature work written at the same time as “Le nozze di Figaro.” Entrusting the two operas to the world-famous Salzburg Marionette Theater for the Mozart 22 cycle was perfectly natural, especially since “Bastien und Bastienne” was the very first work staged by this theater at its inaugural performance in 1913. Nevertheless, Thomas Reichert, responsible for the stage direction, sets and costumes, hit upon a truly brilliant idea: instead of performing one piece after the other, he combined “Bastien und Bastienne” and “Der Schauspieldirektor” in a way that captures the world of the Singspiel in Mozart’s day. Here the impresario is still holding auditions, but now he’s casting the Singspiel “Bastien und Bastienne.” Finding a Bastien is easy, but two potential Bastiennes sing their arias so well that the impresario can’t decide. He makes a run-through of “Bastien und Bastienne,” after which the women continue to argue about who should get the role. The clever impresario hopes to squirm his way out by hiring both, one as the A-cast and one as the B-cast. But this only provokes a new quarrel about who will sing at the premiere… Led by its founder Elisabeth Fuchs, the Junge Philharmonie Salzburg and a cast of fresh young singers provide the spirited, light-hearted music to this charming double fill.
Der Schauspieldirektor (Mozart 22)
“Bastien und Bastienne” takes up the plot of the little French opera “Le devin du village” (The Village Soothsayer) by the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The “soothsayer” Colas, a wise old shepherd, advises the unhappy shepherdess Bastienne to secure the love of the fickle Bastien by arousing his jealousy. The despairing Bastien then also seeks advice from Colas, who pretends to use magic to bring the two lovers together again. “Der Schauspieldirektor” revolves around an impresario’s problems in assembling a group of singers for a performance. With “Die Entführung aus dem Serail” and “Die Zauberflöte,” Mozart made immortal contributions to the genre of the German Singspiel – German-language opera with spoken dialogues. But in the course of his career, Mozart also wrote two short German-language works that are different in musical craftsmanship, but both utterly delightful: “Bastien und Bastienne” K. 50, one of Mozart’s earliest dramatic works, and “Der Schauspieldirektor” (The Impresario) K. 486, a mature work written at the same time as “Le nozze di Figaro.” Entrusting the two operas to the world-famous Salzburg Marionette Theater for the Mozart 22 cycle was perfectly natural, especially since “Bastien und Bastienne” was the very first work staged by this theater at its inaugural performance in 1913. Nevertheless, Thomas Reichert, responsible for the stage direction, sets and costumes, hit upon a truly brilliant idea: instead of performing one piece after the other, he combined “Bastien und Bastienne” and “Der Schauspieldirektor” in a way that captures the world of the Singspiel in Mozart’s day. Here the impresario is still holding auditions, but now he’s casting the Singspiel “Bastien und Bastienne.” Finding a Bastien is easy, but two potential Bastiennes sing their arias so well that the impresario can’t decide. He makes a run-through of “Bastien und Bastienne,” after which the women continue to argue about who should get the role. The clever impresario hopes to squirm his way out by hiring both, one as the A-cast and one as the B-cast. But this only provokes a new quarrel about who will sing at the premiere… Led by its founder Elisabeth Fuchs, the Junge Philharmonie Salzburg and a cast of fresh young singers provide the spirited, light-hearted music to this charming double fill.