Sunday Classics preview: Another taste of Old Vienna

Seiji Ozawa and the Vienna Philharmonic kick off the 2002 Vienna New Year's Concert with a rousing performance of the Fledermaus Overture.

by Ken

In last night's preview we sampled Johann Strauss II's No. 2 operetta, The Gypsy Baron. Continuing our Viennese weekend, we advance to No. 1, Die Fledermaus. As I mentioned in the 2009 New Year's Strauss-family post I referenced last night, the chapter on Fledermaus was one of those I did for The Metropolitan Opera Guide to Recorded Opera, and instead of coming away not being able ever to hear another note of the damned thing, as I feared, I emerged from the saturation exposure crazy in love with the piece.

I don't see any need for much more yammering. If ever an overture spoke for itself, Fledermaus's does. For the recordings we're hearing tonight, I've noted the first appearance of the great Fledermaus waltz, not because it's better than the others, but because I'm thinking it's probably the operetta's best-known music, and then I thought it would be fun to hear the Overture along with the source of two of its most wonderful tunes, which are linked in the Overture as they are in the Act I trio, a singularly wonderful exhibition of musical crocodile tears.

Unbeknownst to all the others, each of the participants in this trio -- Gabriele von Eisenstein, his wife Rosalinde, and their maid Adele -- have been invited to a ball at the home of the rich Russian prince Orlofsky. Officially, Eisenstein is headed to prison to serve an eight-day sentence he has been given; the highly theatrical Adele is off to take care of her poor, poor sick aunt; and left-behind Rosalinde is facing eight days of lonely torment. (As it happens, she is immediately joined by her old flame, the tenor Alfred, of whom we hear a snatch in the Philips version of the trio, in the spoken dialogue that I left in.)

J. STRAUSS II: Die Fledermaus (The Bat): Overture

Vienna Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, cond. Decca, recorded June 1960
[waltz at 2:42, "So muss allein" at 3:52; "O je, o je" at 5:00]

Bavarian State Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber, cond. Live performance, Dec. 31, 1974
[waltz at 2:43, "So muss allein" at 3:53; "O je, o je" at 4:58]

Vienna Philharmonic, André Previn, cond. Philips, recorded November 1990
[waltz at 2:45, "So muss allein" at 4:02; "O je, o je" at 5:15]


Die Fledermaus: Act I trio, "So muss allein ich bleibe" ("So I must remain alone") . . . "O je, o je, wie rührt mich dies" ("Oh dear, oh dear, how this touches me") . . . "Es gibt ein Wiedersehen" ("We'll see each other again")

ROSALINDE: So I must remain alone
eight days without you!
How am I to describe for you
my suffering, how frightful!
How will I bear it,
being abandoned by my husband?
To whom am I to lament my suffering?
o God, how this touches me!

I shall think of you
in the morning over coffee,
when I go to give you one,
see the empty cup,
can offer you no greeting,
in my misery I will surely
drink it black and bitter.
Ah!

EISENSTEIN: O God, how this touches me!

ALL THREE: O God, how this touches me!

ALL THREE: O dear, o dear, how this touches me! etc.

ROSALINDE: Where will our domestic circle be
when midday comes around?
For the beef as for the soup,
for the roast, no husband!
And when the veil of night falls,
it will tear at me again.
My pain will be monstrous.

ALL THREE: O dear, o dear, how this touches me! etc.

EISENSTEIN: What's the use of complaining?
I'm quite losing my head!

ROSALINDE: My head is totally dazed.

ADELE: Mine is totally empty.

EISENSTEIN: Farewell, I must go now.

ALL THREE: But there remains one consolation so sweet.

ADELE: We'll see each other again!

ALL THREE: We'll see each other again!
O God, how this touches me!
O dear, o dear, how this touches me! etc.

[EISENSTEIN exits, followed by ADELE.]

Hilde Gueden (s), Rosalinde; Erika Köth (s), Adele; Waldemar Kmentt (t), Eisenstein; Vienna Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, cond. Decca, recorded June 1960
["O je, o je" at 1:23; "Es gibt" at 2:48]

Gundula Janowitz (s), Rosalinde; Carol Malone (s), Adele; Eberhard Wächter (b), Eisenstein; Bavarian State Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber, cond. Live performance, Dec. 31, 1974
["O je, o je" at 1:25; "Es gibt" at 2:52]

Kiri Te Kanawa (s), Rosalinde; Edita Gruberová (s), Adele; Wolfgang Brendel (b), Eisenstein; Richard Leech (t), Alfred; Vienna Philharmonic, André Previn, cond. Philips, recorded November 1990
["O je, o je" at 1:32; "Es gibt" at 3:06]

Bear in mind that Johann II, like his father, made his living as a composer and conductor of his and his family's music with his own orchestra. So you could hardly blame him for trying to get the most mileage out of his own compositions. Last night we heard the Treasure Waltz he composed from Gypsy Baron music. Here is a Fledermaus-Quadrille.

J. STRAUSS II: Fledermaus-Quadrille, Op. 363

Vienna Philharmonic, Willi Boskovsky, cond. Decca


IN TOMORROW'S SUNDAY CLASSICS POST --

It's all overtures, all by one composer, and as I mentioned last night featuring some of the best performances of any music I've ever heard.


DON'T FORGET TOMORROW'S BIG CONTEST GIVEAWAY

As I mentioned, I happen to have an extra copy of the splendid CD we'll be featuring, which I'm prepared to give it away, but I'm not up to another failed contest. So the tentative deal is that I'm prepared to bestow it upon someone who does something to earn it.


SUNDAY CLASSICS POSTS

The current list is here.

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