Reyer: Sigurd

Opera no 138

Reyer: Sigurd

Soloists

ORTF Orchestra Philharmonique

Manuel Rosenthal

This is one of the operas I had been most looking forward to including in this project. Last year I was impressed by Reyer’s Salammbô https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1115302661835546773/7844049923808258817 and said that I wanted to hear Sigurd. I managed to track down a recording of the radio broadcast from 1974. The recording has quite significant cuts but even so is still long, spreading over three CDs.

Sigurd is Reyer’s version of the Nibelungen legends - apparently he was aware that Wagner was writing the Ring while he was working on his opera. The opera was hugely successful for the years up to the beginning of the First World War, but then fell completely out of favour.

I enjoyed it immensely and thought that it was a superb piece. Had it not been for the similarly of subject matter with the Wagner it could have stood a chance of remaining in the repertory. It is very much in the Meyerbeerian grand opera tradition but with significant influence of Berlioz. There are some Wagnerian influences, though these are from the earlier operas, particularly Lohengrin. There is a great sense of propulsion throughout the score and one can see why the work was so effective on stage. I’m so pleased that I finally got to hear the opera. I’ve know about it for years and have always been intrigued by what is might sound like.  

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.