Schumann: Genoveva
Soloists
Chamber orchestra of Europe
Nicholas Harnoncourt
Schumann is one of the composers I turn to a lot - his song cycles have been a central part of my musical experience since my student days. Yet rather to my surprise I have never heard Genoveva, his only opera, before.
It was well worth the wait. There was some superb music here. Much of it was unmistakably Schumann, but there were some elements which reminded me of Mendelssohn, a few moments of Marschner-like gothic excitement and more than a hint of middle period Wagner. The opera is largely through-composed with a fairly fluid structure without obvious distinction between aria and recitative. The musical langue is sophisticated with some really piquant chromatic harmony that is so characteristic of Schumann’s musical language.
So why it this such a rarity? I think that it is partly because this style of opera got superseded by Wagner, but also because in many ways it has the feel of an oratorio or other concert work rather than a work for the stage. Schumann gives himself the luxury of long postludes to arias and highly developed choral writing - things which sound wonderful but probably feel overlong on the stage. Ultimately I missed the spell of the greasepaint which you get in some of the other works in the selection of German operas I have been listening for this blog - even though in purely musical terms they are not on the save level of invention as Schumann’s work. The comparison between what works on the stage and purely musical values is a fascinating one.
