Mendelssohn: Die Hochzeit des Camacho

Opera 53

Mendelssohn: Die Hochzeit des Camacho

Soloists

Anima Eterna

Jos van Immerseel

I knew that Mendelssohn had written some early operas - though to speak of early works of a composer who wrote masterpieces in his teens seems slightly odd - but I had assumed that they were modest domestic pieces. So this took me by surprise. It is a full scale work lasting about 90 mins with a full cast, chorus and sizeable orchestra. It didn’t make much of an impact when it was first performed and indeed some of the criticism seems to have persuaded Mendelssohn that opera was not for him. That was a great pity because there is much to enjoy in this piece and it could have formed the basis of a significant operatic oeuvre had things turned out differently.

This is very much the Mendelssohn of the Octet and the overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream - light and airy with a real sense of style and rhythmic impetus. The Magic Flute is an obvious influence as probably were the early works of Weber. What surprised me most was the choral writing - this was much more developed and extensive that one would expect from operas of this period (other than in France). It pointed the way towards the Mendelssohn of Elijah is some of the grander elements, though it never became sentimental in the way that some of the composer’s choral writing sometimes become.

So quite a discovery. One which gave me a lot of pleasure but ultimately was the ‘road not taken’. Had things turned out differently I a well image that Mendelssohn would have taken a place alongside Weber as the distinctive voice of early 19th century Romantic opera.