Franz Lehár (1870-1948) was incontestably one of the foremost masters of the operetta. He abounded in creative ideas, was a supreme craftsman, a temperamental musician whose artistry flowed in his blood, and a dramatist who succeeded in breathing genuine life into the hackneyed figures of the operetta genre. His most popular operettas were premiered between 1925 and 1929. These were the works whose wealth of ideas and emotionally florid, sometimes even sentimental, melodies brought them greater fame than the brilliant early works such as “The Count of Luxembourg” (1909) and “Gypsy Love” (1910) – save for “The Merry Widow” (1905), his most popular operetta of all. The works of this second creative period were also conceived with one particular singer in mind: Richard Tauber. The most typical works of this period are “Paganini” (1925), “The Czarevitch” (1927), “Friederike” (1928) and “Das Land des Lächelns” (1929). “Giuditta”, Lehár’s last operetta, was premiered at the Vienna State Opera in 1934 under the musical direction of the composer and with Richard Tauber in the tenor role of Octavio. Franz Lehár, who became known and revered in his later years as the King of the Silver Operetta, died in his villa in Bad Ischl, Austria, on 24 October 1948.
Bach, Matthäuspassion (St. Matthew’s Passion) BWV 244
Karl Richter, the world-renowned Bach specialist who died in 1981, recorded the St. Matthew Passion at the splendid Benedictine abbey of Ottobeuren with two choruses, his Munich Bach Orchestra and the outstanding soloists Peter Schreier (Evangelist), Ernst Gerold Schramm (Jesus), Siegmund Nismgern (Judas) as well as Helen Donath, Julia Hamari, Walter Berry and Horst Laubenthal. Director Hugo Käch took the cross as his main motif for his stage setting by using a gigantic cross above the performers to suggest menace and oppression as well as protection. Richter’s style blends the solid craftsmanship of a Leipzig “cantor” and a profound need for the freedom of improvisation. “I cannot gauge the tempo from the metronome; I have to take to it from my pulse, since the pulse is linked to the center of man, the heart.” (Karl Richter)
Die Csárdásfürstin
Emmerich Kálman (1882-1953) ranks next to Franz Lehár as one of the leading representatives of the “Silver Era” of the operetta, which was stamped above all by the works of the Austro-Hungarian cultural sphere, and which followed the classical period of the Viennese operetta. Kálmán’s “Herbstmanöver”, premiered at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna in 1908, immediately confirmed the young composer’s talent for this genre. The roots of the phenomenal originality of his melodies lie in his love of Hungarian gypsy music and his natural affinity for the Viennese waltz tradition, which characterize such musically original, international successes as the operettas “The Czardas Princess” (1915) and “Countess Maritza” (1924). Kálmán emigrated to America in 1939 but returned to Europe after the War and died in Paris on 30 October 1953. Beginning in the 1920s, he increasingly incorporated elements of modern dance music into his stage works. Particularly worthy of mention among his other successful works are “Die Bajadere” (1921), “The Circus Princess” (1926) and “Das Veilchen vom Montmartre” (1930).
Der junge Lord
“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.
Bach, h-Moll Messe (Mass in B minor) BWV 232
Karl Richter (1926-1981), founder of the Munich Bach Choir and Munich Bach Orchestra, was a noted conductor, organist and harpsichordist. The B minor Mass was one of his “warhorses”, which he often performed on concert tours. One of the most perceptive assessments of Richter’s reading of the B minor Mass appeared in a Munich daily following his last performance of the work in November 1980: “One of the reasons why Richter’s account of the B minor Mass is so compelling is that, in contrast to the historicizing Bach readings of today, it takes into account both the present and the 250-year-old history of Bach interpretation.” The work was filmed in the splendid Baroque abbey church of Diessen in Bavaria, which dates from Bach’s time.
Geblendeter Augenblick (Dazzled Moment) – The Death of Anton Webern.
Bach, Johannespassion (St. John’s Passion), BWV 245
Over the course of his long career as conductor, organist and harpsichordist, Karl Richter (1926-1981) became synonymous with Bach. He founded the Munich Bach Choir and the Munich Bach Orchestra, and helped trigger the Bach revival in the 1950s. He recorded all the major choral and orchestral works of Bach, including more than 100 cantatas. Although Richter saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his own style, which was considered revolutionary in the 1950s and 60s. This was a “de-romanticized” Bach which featured a reduced body of performers more in keeping with the composer’s original forces. Richter’s style also accented a cool, brisk, almost abstract attitude toward the music. Our recording with the Munich Bach Choir and Orchestra features such world-renowned soloists as Helen Donath, Julia Hamari, Peter Schreier and Horst Laubenthal.
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)