Gramophone – September 2019

108 GRAMOPHONE SEPTEMBER 2019 gramophone.co.uk

OPERA REVIEWS

This is really
rather good. Styled
a chamber opera,
As One (2014) is also
a sequence of 15 songs (with instrumental
introduction), scored for two solo singers
and string quartet, giving it – as here on
disc – the feel of an integrated song-cycle.
It succeeds as both forms equally well but its
dramatic nature justifies the several notable,
acclaimed stagings it has received in the US.
Unsurprisingly, it is As One’s subject
matter that has received the most attention,
relating the journey of the transgender
Hannah, born a boy, to womanhood in
the teeth of familial, educational and social
opposition. The two singers represent
Hannah’s inner monologue, the baritone
her birth self – ‘Hannah Before’ – the
mezzo the finally reconciled ‘Hannah
After’. Both sing throughout, representing
the contrasting sides of Hannah’s
personality, though – as one might expect –
dominance subtly shifts from male to
female as the work progresses.
Part 1, comprising the Introduction
and first six songs, deals with Hannah’s
childhood, the recognition of her nature
and her efforts to keep it secret. In Part 2
(songs 7-14), emergent adulthood brings
both deeper joy and greater conflict,
culminating with a ‘harrowing assault’:
here, the mezzo recounts the incident
counterpointed by the baritone’s listing a
string of victims of even more horrendous
attacks around the world. The third and
concluding part is a single, extended aria,
‘Norway’ (prefigured by a snatch of Grieg
in the preceding song), the refuge where
Hannah finds a degree of peace.
Laura Kaminsky’s mostly luminous score
elicits a radiant performance from the six
performers. Sasha Cooke and Kelly
Markgraf are beautifully balanced as the
voices in Hannah’s head, at times inward-
looking, at times reflecting the outside
world, but concluding ‘as one’. The Fry
Street Quartet accompany with elegance
and subtlety. A remarkable achievement.
Guy Rickards

Lehár

Die lustige Witwe
Marlis Petersen sop ....................................Hanna Glawari
Iurii Samoilov bar ..................Graf Danilo Danilowitsch
Barnaby Rea bass....................................Baron Mirko Zeta
Kateryna Kasper sop ......................................Valencienne
Martin Mitterrutzner ten ................Camille de Rosillon
Theo Lebow ten ......................................Vicomte Cascada
Michael Porter ten ............................Raoul de St Brioche
Klaus Haderer sngr ......................................................Njegus

Chorus of Frankfurt Opera; Frankfurt Opera and

Museum Orchestra / Joana Mallwitz

Oehms F b OC983 (97’ • DDD)

Recorded live, May & June 2018

Includes synopsis

The Merry Widow

wasn’t born a

billionairess, and

before Lehár’s

masterpiece was a worldwide smash – and

long before it became the stuff of superstar

casts and Metropolitan Opera galas – it

was simply a potboiler by an unproven

composer, rushed onstage with minimal

rehearsal and second-hand sets to fill a gap

in the Theater an der Wien’s New Year

schedule. Which is by way of saying that

while it’s always nice to have Schwarzkopf,

Terfel or the Vienna Philharmonic, it’s

possible to stage an enjoyable, idiomatic

Widow that’s entirely in the spirit of the

piece without a single big name in sight.

Perhaps that sounds like I’m managing

expectations for this new recording, taken

from live performances at the Frankfurt

Opera in May and June 2018. But this is a

perfectly enjoyable account, possibly closer

in spirit to the piece’s light-footed, popular

theatre roots than the more sumptuous

classic recordings. It certainly conveys the

atmosphere of a live performance, complete

with audience laughter, applause, onstage

thuds, a recessed and sometimes splashy

chorus and some of the most raucous

grisettes I’ve heard on disc.

All part of the fun, of course, and

there’s only one really serious oddity. The

Frankfurt director Claus Guth reassigns

Camille and Valencienne’s Act 1

Hauslichkeit duet to Danilo and Hanna,

and repositions it – incomprehensibly, in

the absence of any printed libretto – before

Danilo’s usual entrance. Don’t expect any

help from the booklet note, either; a word-

perfect parody of Teutonic academese

which references Adorno and (I’m not

joking) Samuel Beckett.

Those provisos apart, there’s plenty

to enjoy, starting with bright and buoyant

conducting from Joana Mallwitz. She takes

care of details without overindulging them,

whether Lehár’s swirling woodwind

countermelodies or the quiet string

slides and little splashes of harp that

accompany the Vilja-Lied. As Camille

and Valencienne, Martin Mitterutzner and

Kateryna Kasper make a likeable couple,

and if you might have hoped for a little

more shine to Mitterutzner’s top notes,

Kasper’s soprano has a smiling quality that

gives the Pavilion duet the requisite glow.

Iurii Samoilov is perhaps a slightly

woolly-sounding Danilo – which makes

perfect sense in his hungover early scenes.

He does smarten up a little as the story

progresses, without ever cutting what you

might call a dash. But he blends nicely with

Marlis Petersen’s singing as Hanna; and

while it’s not fair to the rest of the cast to

say that she carries the show, her soft-

centred tone and graceful, light-touch

phrasing certainly give this performance its

heart. Her Vilja has a poise and a youthful

freshness that I found utterly beguiling.

Hanna Glawari might be a widow but she’s

no moping Marschallin, and (musically, at

least) this performance never forgets to be

merry. Richard Bratby

Marschner

Hans Heiling

Heiko Trinsinger bar ......................................Hans Heiling

Jessica Muirhead sop ....................................................Anna

Jerey Dowd ten ..........................................................Konrad

Rebecca Teem sop ..............Queen of the Earth Spirits

Bettina Ranch mez ..................................................Gertrude

Karel Martin Ludvik bass-bar...............................Stephan

Hans-Günter Papirnik bar ..........................................Niklas

Chorus of Aalto Theatre; Bergwerksorchester

Consolidation; Essen Philharmonic Orchestra /

Frank Beermann

Oehms F b OC976 (140’ • DDD)

Recorded, February 2024, 2018

Includes synopsis and German libretto

A spot of research –

but not in the regular

catalogues – should

uncover around half a

dozen recordings of Heinrich Marschner’s

1833 Schauerromantik (‘horror romance’)

opera. They include the live DVD from

Cagliari which I reviewed in December

2005 and a 1960s broadcast from Cologne

under Joseph Keilberth with a strong-

looking cast including Hermann Prey

in the title-role. If you’ve looked into the

early history of German Romantic opera,

especially its connections with Wagner,

the names of both composer and work will

be familiar. But you’ll only find excerpts

from the score – especially ‘An jenem

Tag, da du mir Treue versprochen’,

Heiling’s declaration of love to the mortal

village girl Anna – on recital discs of pre-

1950s singers.

The very title of that aria will

remind you of Erik pleading with Senta

in Der fliegende Holländer and indeed it’s

Wagner’s borrowings from every aspect

of Marschner’s opera (libretto by its star

singer and Wagner colleague-to-be Eduard

Devrient) that have helped keep at least its