Škroup: Columbus (extracts only)
Soloists
Prague Radio Orchestra and Chorus
František Djk
After a group of French and then Italian operas I am off on my (metaphorical) travels again to listen to some Czech operas. My much missed former Ph.D supervisor John Tyrrell wrote the definitive book in English on Czech opera and I will be using it as a guide for this part of the project.
The first composer he deals in detail with is the rather splendidly named František Škroup, who wrote what is generally considered to be the first Czech opera. He also wrote the Czech national anthem.
This opera, based on the life of Christopher Columbus, is a much later work written when the composer had was working at the German opera in Rotterdam. In fact the work was written to a German text. It was not performed in a Czech version until the 1940s. This recording of extracts was a from a radio performance in the 1960s.
It is no forgotten masterpiece. In fact I thought some of it was absolutely awful. It was grotesquely trivial and uninspired. Now I don’t look for profundity in everything . I enjoy much music which is not of the first rate so long as it has character, but this was just bombastic without any real merit. Some of the quieter music was a bit more appealing but this was very old fashioned music for 1855 and had no character of its own. I this that this recording was made as a way of honouring a composer who was important in his day, but his time has long gone and I can’t ever imagine this opera being performed other than as curiosity. I’ve certainly no desire to hear it again. My only relief is that this recording was only of extracts - at least I didn’t have to endure the whole thing,
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