Performances to Stream June 10-11, 2023
This week is a light one for opera and vocal music on the airwaves, but we have performances from America, Switzerland, and Germany.
Richard Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer from the Metropolitan Opera on WQXR and BBC Radio 3
The last broadcast of a sumptuous 2022-23 Metropolitan Opera season, we end on an opera from Wagner. Hailed by the composer himself as his real start to composing opera, the story seems a trifle thin for me compared to what Wagner’s contemporaries were producing at the time. Nevertheless, a ship encounters a ghost ship in the night as they are returning home from sea. The captain is visited by the ghost captain, “The Flying Dutchman,” who agrees to marry his daughter off to this stranger for a mere chest of treasure. When the captain introduces the Dutchman to his daughter Senta, she vows her faithfulness to him upon first sight despite the fact that she is in a relationship with a man named Erik, a local huntsman. The Dutchman was once cursed by Satan for swearing an oath, and he must forever roam the sea until a woman’s faithfulness break the curse Erik and Senta get into a lovers’ quarrel over who Senta truly loves, and the Dutchman thinks his chances at redemption are lost. He sets sail on his ship, but Senta throws herself into the sea after him declaring that she chooses to be faithful to the Dutchman. Saved by Senta’s display of fidelity, the ghost ship disappears, and Senta and the Dutchman both ascend into heaven. The cast stars Tomasz Konieczny as Holländer, Elza van den Heever as Senta, Dmitry Belosselskiy as Daland, Eric Cutler as Erik, and Richard Trey Smagur as Steuermann with Thomas Guggeis leading the orchestra. This live performance airs on WQXR and BBC Radio 3’s Opera on 3 at 1PM EDT on Saturday, June 10, 2023. Depending on where you elect to hear it, you can listen to this performance again following its airing.
Richard Wagner’s Götterdämmerung from the Kassel Staatstheater on HR2 Kultur
The final installment of Wagner’s Ring cycle, Götterdämmerung tells the story of the end of the gods’ reign over the world. Siegfried, the son of Brünnhilde and Siegmund has woken his mother from her eternal sleep on the mountain and shattered Wotan’s spear with the sword he crafted from the shards of Nothung, his father’s sword. Even more importantly, however, he also retrieved the ring of power from Fafner, and now he entrusts it to Brünnhilde as a token of his love for her. Brünnhilde also loves Siegfried, never mind that she is his mother, but this is opera and fantasy, two worlds where our moral understanding is often begged to be cast aside for the purpose of our entertainment. Siegfried leaves for Gunther’s lair to meet this ruler of Gibichungs, for his reputation reaches even Siegfried’s ear in his exploits, but Gunther has designs for Siegfried’s visit. He wants a wife for himself and a husband for his sister Gutrune. Gutrune drugs Siegfried with a special potion, and he loses memory of his love for Brünnhilde. Gunther begs Siegfried to deliver him a wife, so Siegfried tells him about Brünnhilde and eventually agrees to facilitate their union. Gunther is pleased, Gutrune is elated, but Hagen, their brother and a minister of the court, has an even more sinister plan. He knows Siegfried has the Ring of Power and plans to obtain it for himself as Siegfried endears himself to the royal court. Siegfried disguises himself with the Tarnhelm as Gunther and goes back to Brünnhilde’s rock. He claims Brünnhilde as his wife and easily takes the ring from her in her mortal form. Keeping an oath he made with Gunther, he places his sword between himself and Brünnhilde overnight as they sleep so that they cannot sleep in the other’s arms. Siegfried and Gunther switch places overnight, and everyone returns to the hall of the Gibichungs. Siegfried proclaims his love for Gutrune, and Brünnhilde feels betrayed by Siegfried, whom she now knows was the one who took the ring from her hand the prior evening. A wedding feast is about to begin, but Brünnhilde does not allow it to arrive until she accuses Siegfried of breaking his oath with Gunther by tricking her into sleeping with him in his disguise before Gunther’s arrival. Hagen makes Siegfried swear to the falseness of the claim on his spear with Siegfried saying that he would be killed by Hagen’s spear if he ever even loved Brünnhilde, and away he goes, leading the Gibichung vassals to his wedding feast. Brünnhilde swears an oath on Hagen’s spear, as well, saying that Siegfried will surely die upon the spear for the lie he has told. Gunther, embarrassed by the revelatory accusation made by Brünnhilde about his blood-brother Siegfried, decides that Siegfried must pay for his sin with death, which is the lawful punishment as suggested by Hagen. Once they agree to lure him into the forest, Brünnhilde, not knowing Siegfried is under the spell of a strong potion, reveals to Hagen that Siegfried can only be killed if he is stabbed in the back. Armed with this knowledge, Gunther and Hagen invite Siegfried on a hunting party in the forest. Amidst all of the plotting of earthly beings, the Rheinmaidens encounter a lost Siegfried on the bank of the Rhine. Knowing he has the ring crafted from their Rheingold, they plead with him to cast the ring in the river to avoid Alberich’s curse. He laughs at them for such a suggestion, but, unbeknownst to many, Hagen wants the ring for himself because he is Alberich’s son! Siegfried rejoins the hunting party, and Hagen slips him the antidote to the potion from Gutrune, which causes him to remember his love for Brünnhilde. He talks about it with his companions, among whom are Hagen and Gunther, and this is precisely the confession Hagen needed for grounds to exact his lethal blow upon Siegfried. Siegfried dies from Hagen’s treacherous stab to his back, and the Gibichungs deliver Siegfried’s body back to their hall with a funeral procession. Hagen claims Siegfried’s ring as his own back at the hall, and when Gunther objects, he kills his master. Brünnhilde in a transfigured state now arrives and brings with her the knowledge of the ring’s curse and Siegfried’s innocence in the entire affair. Brünnhilde takes the ring for herself to oversee its destruction, and she challenges the gods with Siegfried’s death, for his death through love has atoned for the sins of the gods and broken the curse of the ring. Brünnhilde lights Siegfried’s funeral pyre and dies with her lover and son while letting the ring be purified by the flames. The fire overtakes the hall of the Gibichungs, and the Rhine rises to quench the flames and to cleanse the place of its filth. Hagen desperately attempts to make one final grasp for the ring, but the Rheinmaidens drag him into the water and drown him while reclaiming their gold from the mortals and gods of the world. The sky is also consumed in a flaming red as Valhalla burns at the invocation of Loge by Brünnhilde before her death, as pennance for the death of Siegfreid, who was free and innocent, yet swept up in the schemes of gods and earthly beings and betrayed by a curse perpetuated by others that he had no possibility of avoiding. The cast features Daniel Brenna as Siegfried, Kelly Cae Hogan as Brünnhilde, Hansung Yoo as Gunther, Albert Pesendorfer as Hagen, Thomas Gazheli as Alberich, Margrethe Fredheim as Gutrune, Ulrike Schneider as Waltraute, Marta Herman as First Norn / Floßhilde, Ilseyar Khayrullova as Second Norn, Doris Neidig as Third Norn, Vero Miller as Wellgunde, and Clara Soyoung Lee as Woglinde. Francesco Angelico conducts the orchestra and chorus of the Kassel Staatstheater in this live broadcast. This performance airs at 1:55 PM GMT on Saturday, June 10, 2023, on HR2 Kultur. It will not be available for future listening following its airing.
Johannes Brahms’s Nänie and Schicksalslied and Louis Théodore Gouvy’s Requiem from the Alten Schmelz, St. Ingbert on SR 2 Kulturradio
Brahms’s contributions to this program, composed in 1881 and 1871, respectively, are a funeral march of sorts for chorus and a work on the fleeting nature of life. Such works complement the subject of the requiem mass quite easily, so they are perfectly at home in this concert. Gouvy’s Requiem was composed in 1874, and this composer, whom you may find unfamiliar to listeners and performers today, was quite well known among composers in his time for championing both the musical styles of France and Germany in his compositions. However, his music never really caught on outside of music circles and academia, so his work mostly faded into obscurity upon his death. However, in recent years (since 1995), there has been a resurgence of interest in his catalogue of compositions thanks to an annual festival in his name with the purpose being to elevate Gouvy’s name in musical circles once again. Interestingly, this performance comes to our ears from the student artists at the Chor der Hochschule für Musik Saar and the Kammerchor Saarbrücken, which is the region where Gouvy was born and where his family lived. Our soloists are soprano Johanna Winkel, alto Anke Vondung, tenor David Fischer, and bass Dietrich Henschel. The artists and choirs are accompanied by the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie under the direction of Georg Grün. This performance is broadcast live on Sunday, June 11, 2023, at 9:00 AM GMT on SR 2 Kulturradio’s SR-Konzert. It may be available for future listening following this airing.
The Lausanne Vocal Ensemble Perform Palestrina, Bruckner, and Liszt from the Romainmôtier Abbey on RTS Espace 2
If I could sing only one composer’s music for the remainder of my days, I would choose to sing Palestrina with hardly a second thought, and it is Palestrina’s two compositions on this program for which I am most excited. We hear the O! Crux Ave! motet and his setting of the Stabat mater for 8 voices on this concert. 12 minutes of music may not seem like much, but its beauty and freshness for the past half a millenium or so keep it welcome to my ears. Also on the docket are much newer pieces from composers more well known for their instrumental works. We also enjoy Franz Liszt’s Via Crucis from 1879 and Anton Bruckner’s final motet, the Vexilla regis, from 1892. Vincent Perrenoud joins the Lausanne Vocal Ensemble and the Concerts de Romainmôtier at the organ, and Pierre-Fabien Roubaty conducts. This performance was recorded on April 7, 2023. It is scheduled to air on Sunday, June 11, 2023, at 3:00 PM GMT on RTS Espace 2. It will be available to stream again following the broadcast.