Nessler: Der Trompeter Von Säckingen

Opera no 66

Nessler: Der Trompeter Von Säckingen

Soloists

WDR radio orchestra

Helmuth Froschauer

You come across this opera from time to time in histories of German music and of 19th century opera. It was hugely successful in its time but has disappeared from the state. I had no idea what to expect from it - but I wasn’t expecting it to start with rousing student songs in the simplest of styles. But that was a clue to what was to follow. This is the lightest of operas - looking forward perhaps to Johann Strauss or Lêhar, but without any of their subtlety of refinement. There were some attractive moments in the score, particularly in the more reflective passages, but to be frank a lot of it was very crude and second rate. Now I like light opera, but there is a difference between lightness and banality and unfortunately banality is the right word for this work. I can see that on a warn evening with an undemanding audience it might be quite entertaining for a while, but that its about it.

Oddly there are two links with Mahler to note. The first is that early in his career he wrote incidentlal music to a play based on the original poem which is the subject of the opera. That music is lost other than one movement which became the Blumine  movement of the original version of his first symphony before it was removed when the work was reduced from five to four movements. Secondly in the early part of his career Mahler didn’t have a choice over the operas he performed and he had to conduct this work many times. He hated it and thought that it was an awful work. I can quite understand why.