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NORBERT KLESSE - EKKEHARD PANSA - RAFAEL HARNISCH
Anyone interested in the fifteen operas of Richard Strauss should reference first and foremost Norman Del Mar’s three volume critical biography of the composer. For lighter reading Charles Osborne’s volume dealing strictly with the operas is a fast read. And best of all the collected correspondence of Strauss and Hofmannsthal especially re Der Rosenkavalier is a must. In any case, no composer had so complex a relationship with his librettists as Strauss. Fifteen operas – Seven authors. Hofmannsthal for six, Strauss himself for two. Gregor for two and a half. The rest very miscellaneous. This is the first professional recording of Friedenstag, which leaves the early Gruntam as the only Strauss opera yet to be recorded. Performances both here and abroad are a rarity. And a listening to the short –seventy-five-minute – work will immediately tell you why. The libretto is dull and preachy and the music somewhat less than Strauss’ best work. The libretto began when Strauss was working with Stefan Zweig on Schweigsame Frau. What the talented Zweig would have done with the idea and what Strauss would have then written is anybody’s guess. The composer was never enthusiastic about either Gregor’s libretto or for that matter Zweig plot outline. In any case Zweig was well out of it by the time of the opera’s debut in 1938. In the seven years since it’s inception much had changed in Germany. Zweig was Jewish and – as the libretto makes abundantly clear – a pacifist. To put it mildly his feelings and his race did not set well with the Third Reich. The Nazis banned Schweigsame Frau after its premiere in 1935. Gregor – who appears to have been non denominational politically – took the plot as Zweig had presented it and wrote the libretto. It was duly premiered and by 1938 disappeared from German repertoire. How much of this can be blamed on the Nazis and how much on Strauss is – again – a mute question. In any case Strauss had his own problems with the Reich. On the one hand he was the world’s best-known composer and on the other hand he did all sorts of things that aggravated the Reich and then turned around and did their bidding. Stated briefly this is a moralist story set at the time of The Eighty Year War in the early seventeenth century. One city besieges another city and things look grim until there is a knock on the gate and the opposing besieging Captain says, "Let’s call it quits." And that is pretty much it. Not what you might call ‘a fast read’. Thankfully getting back to the recording: It is first rate. The two principals – Albert Dohmen and Deborah Voigt – are of course well known and in the best of voices. The rest of the cast does well in all respects. Apparently this is Sinopoli’s last recording done some three years ago and he does what can be done for the work. The recording itself is very good and may I add this is probably the loudest piece of music ever written. Good notes and a full libretto to be sure. Example used: Der Kaiser stand in Saal …
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Richard Strauss: FRIEDENSTAG
