[3/12/2011] Special: Remembering Margaret Price, Part 5 -- as Weber's Agathe (continued)

Pay no attention to the idiotic visuals, and even bearing in mind the sound YouTube comment "Beautiful tone but the tempo is too fast," you'll get a vague glimmering of the wonderfulness of the Huntsmen's Chorus from Act III of Der Freischütz. (You'll find the English text below, by the way.)

Oh jeez! It baffles me why people continue to perform works for which they have such evident contempt and loathing. Is it just for the paycheck? Or perhaps to show how clever they are? But what if, far from being clever, they show themselves to be gibbering idiots? Contemptible and loathsome gibbering idiots at that. Here, by contrast, is a performance that's definitely on the bracingly quick side but stays within the realm of actual musical response and allows the music to register some visceral impact.

Der Freischütz: Act III, Huntsmen's Chorus

Bavarian Radio Chorus and Symphony Orchestra, Eugen Jochum, cond. DG, recorded December 1959


BACK TO THE BEGINNING OF DER FREISCHÜTZ

Before we get to Price as Agathe (who doesn't even appear until Act II), we have some remedial work to do on the Overture, which I think is just too important and too wonderful a piece to be given short shrift. Since we're going to be hearing Price in the Italian Radio performance conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch, I thought we should hear that Overture, even though the playing and sound aren't of the best -- it's still a heck of a performance. Then we hear the Overture from three complete recordings of the opera.

Der Freischütz: Overture

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Eugen Jochum, cond. DG, recorded December 1959
Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Lovro von Matačić, cond. Eurodisc, recorded February 1967
Staatskapelle Dresden, Sir Colin Davis, cond. Philips, recorded January 1990
Orchestra of RAI Rome, Wolfgang Sawallisch, cond. Myto, broadcast performance, Jan. 27, 1973

As we proceed with the opera, we should be clear that a "free shooter," as in the title, referring to our hero, Max, is a hunter using bullets over which a spell of dark enchantment has been cast. Max is driven to this desperate expedient (in this community of exceedingly orthodox Christian piety, consorting with the forces of darkness is especially frowned on) by what appears to him as a run of dreadful life luck which is about to shatter all his hopes.

The one indisputably spectacular piece of good luck in Max's life is having won the undying love of the lovely and innocent Agathe, who as we finally meet her at the start of Act II -- in the company of her cousin Ännchen -- is already experiencing feelings of impending dread.

Der Freischütz: Act II, Scene and Aria, Agathe, "Wie nahte mir der Schlummer" . . . "Leise, leise, fromme weise"

How did sleep come to me
Before I saw him?
Yes love and anxiousness take care
Always to go hand in hand.
Is the moon too laughing on its course?
[She opens the balcony door to reveal a star-bright night.]
What a beautiful night!
[Goes onto the balcony and raises her hands in pure rapture.]
Softly, softly,
My pure song!
Waft yourself to the region of stars.
Resound, my song!
Solemnly float
My prayer to the halls of heaven!
[Looking out.]
O how bright the golden stars are,
With how pure a gleam they glow!
There only, in the distant mountains
A storm seems to be brewing up.
There too in the forest hovers a clump
Of dark clouds, brooding and heavy.
To you I turn
My hands,
Lord without beginning or end!
From dangers
To guard us
Send your hosts of angels!
[Looking out again.]
All things have long betaken themselves to rest.
Dear friend, where are you tarrying?
Even when my ear listens keenly,
Only the tops of the firtrees rustle.
Only the birchleaves in the grove
Whisper through the wondrous silence.
Only the nightingale and cricket
Seem to enjoy the night air.
And yet? Do my ears deceive me?
That sounds like footsteps!
From the middle of the firs there
Someone is coming!
It is he, it is he!
Let love's banner flutter!
[She waves with a white kerchief.]
Your maiden is watching
Even thought it is night!
He does not seem to see me yet!
God, if the moonlight
Does not deceive me,
A bunch of flowers adorns his hat!
For sure he has made the best shot!
That tells of good luck for tomorrow!
O sweet hope, o courage new revived!
All my pulses are beating,
And my heart pants wildly,
Full of sweet enchantment at his approach!
Could I dare to hope it?
Yes, luck has returned
Back to my dear friend,
And will stay faithful tomorrow!
Is it no mistake? Is it no madness?
Heaven, receive these tears of thanks
For this pledge of hope!
All my pulses are beating,
And my heart pants wildly,
Full of sweet enchantment at his approach!
Enchanted at his approach!

Margaret Price (s), Agathe; Orchestra of RAI Rome, Wolfgang Sawallisch, cond. Myto, broadcast performance, Jan. 27, 1973

Let's continue on. Max finally arrives, and he and Agathe swap details of his disastrous day, which has been strangely mirrored in hers. Finally he discloses that he must leave again, immediately, with a cockamamie story about having shot a huge stag that has to be brought in -- by way of covering up his real mission, which is to join the alarming huntsman Caspar in the forging of those demonically charmed bullets. Perhaps trying to offer a measure of verisimilitude in his story, he reveals that he will be near that most fearsome of local destinations, the Wolf's Glen. (Actually, it's the Wolf's Glen he's headed for -- and one of opera's great spine-tingling scenes, the forging of the bullets by the demon Samiel.) Naturally Agathe's dread is only compounded by this revelation.

Act II, Trio, Agathe, Ännchen, and Max, "Wie? Was? Entsetzen!"

AGATHE: What? Where? Appalling!
There in the glen of terror?
ÄNNCHEN: The wild huntsman rages there, they say,
And he who hears him flees.
MAX: Can fear dwell in the huntsman's heart?
AGATHE: But he who tempts God, sins!
MAX: Can fear dwell in the huntsman's heart?
I am aquainted with that horror,
The midnight murmuring in the forest,
When oaks rustle in the storm,
And jay squawks, the owl hovers.
[He takes his hat, his hunting bag and rifle.]
AGATHE: I am so afraid, do stay!
Don't hurry away so fast.
ÄNNCHEN: She is so afraid, do stay!
Don't hurry away so fast.
MAX: gazing at the balcony beyond
The moonlight is not waning yet;
Its shimmer still beams clear and bright;
But soon it will lose its gleam --
ÄNNCHEN: D'you want to observe the heavens?
That wouldn't be up my street!
AGATHE: Cannot my fear, then move you?
MAX: My word and my duty call me hence!
AGATHE, MAX and ÄNNCHEN: Farewell! Farewell!
MAX [hurrying out, turns round at the door]:
But have you really forgiven
The reproaches, the suspicion?
AGATHE: My heart feels only its quaking.
Take heed of my warning!
ÄNNCHEN: That's a huntsman's life,
No rest, day or night!
AGATHE: Alas, I must leave you!
Think on Agatha's words!
MAX: Soon the moon will grow pale,
My destiny tears me away!
ÄNNCHEN [to Agatha]: Try to take hold of yourself, dear one!
[to Max] Think on Agathe's words!
[MAX, cramming his hat over his eyes, rushes out violently.]

Margaret Price (s), Agathe; Helen Donath (s), Ännchen; James King (t), Max; Orchestra of RAI Rome, Wolfgang Sawallisch, cond. Myto, broadcast performance, Jan. 27, 1973

Originally I was only going to include the above two excerpts from Price's Agathe. But with Strauss's Ariadne cleared from tonight's schedule, we can include Agathe's second aria as well. But before we get to that, we've got a Freischütz bonus.

FREISCHÜTZ BONUS: LOVE THOSE HUNTERS --
AND THEIR HORNS!

Der Freischütz: Act III Entr'acte,
and Act III, Huntsmen's Chorus

What pleasure on earth can compare with the hunter's?
Whose cup of life sparkles so richly?
To lie in the verdure while the horns sound,
To follow the stag through thicket and pond,
Is joy for a prince, is a real man's desire,
Is strengthens your limbs and spices your food.
When woods and rocks resound all about us,
A full goblet sings a freer and happier song!
Yo ho! Tralala!

Diana is present to brighten the night;
Her darkness cools us like any refreshment in the day.
To fell the bloody wolf, and the boar
who greedily roots through the green crops,
Is joy for a prince, is real man's desire,
It strengthens your limbs and spices your food.
When woods and rocks resound all about us,
A full goblet sings a freer and happier song!
Yo, ho! Trala!

The reason I threw in that dubious video clip of the Freischütz Huntsmen's Chorus is mostly that for me this is some of the most irresistible music ever written -- both in its choral form and in purely orchestral form, as heard earlier in the Entr'acte.

Entr'acte
Huntsmen's Chorus
Chorus and Orchestra of RAI Rome, Wolfgang Sawallilsch, cond.
 Myto, broadcast performance, Jan. 27, 1973

Now let's hear our Berlin and Dresden performers. (We've already heard the Jochum-Munich Huntsmen's Chorus; the Entr'acte was omitted from the original recording, presumably to help fit the opera on two LPs. Back in 1959 it didn't occur to anyone that one day this would make for two meagerly filled CDs.)

Entr'acte
Huntsmen's Chorus
Chorus and Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Lovro von Matačić, cond. Eurodisc, recorded February 1967

Entr'acte
Huntsmen's Chorus
Leipzig Radio Chorus; Staatskapelle Dresden, Sir Colin Davis, cond. Philips, recorded January 1990

Now back to the "action." A still-jumpy Agathe prepares for the great celebration, including a shooting competition, at which she and Max are to be formally pledged to each other.

Der Freischütz: Act III, Cavatina, Agathe, "Und ob die Wolke"

AGATHE, dressed in bridal white with green ribbon, is kneeling at the prie dieu. She gets up and sings with melancholy devotion.

Even when clouds hide it,
The sun still shines in the tent of heaven;
One holy will rules there;
No blind chance governs the world.
That eye, eternally pure and clear,
Looks lovingly after all creation!
Our Father will care for me too,
With my childlike heart and trusting mind,
Even if this were my last morning,
If his paternal word would call for me, a bride:
His eye, for ever pure and clear
Looks upon me too with love.

Margaret Price (s), Agathe; Orchestra of RAI Rome, Wolfgang Sawallisch, cond. Myto, broadcast performance, Jan. 27, 1973


TOMORROW IN PART 6 OF OUR
REMEMBRANCE OF MARGARET PRICE . . .

As noted above, we move on to one of Price's later roles, Richard Strauss's Ariadne. (And maybe this would be the logical time to listen to a little more of her recording of Isolde?)


RETURN TO THE BEGINNING OF THE POST

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