Korngold’s Ring des Polykrates (on the occasion of the Freiburg performance)

[ewk]

Dear all,

as announced earlier in the Violanta thread, I report about the Freiburg Performance of Korngold's early opera »Ring des Polykrates«. On that occasion I would be interested in a discussion about the work in general.

I found three reviews, all of them in German:
http://www.omm.de/veranstaltungen/musiktheater20192020/FR-korngold.html
https://www.die-deutsche-buehne.de/kritiken/humorfrei-durch-die-buergerliche-hoelle
https://www.badische-zeitung.de/kosmos-korngold-ein-komponist-wird-besichtigt--181851507.html

1) The apparent: The mixture of concert and opera. This worked very well for me, although I wouldn't have needed the little gags that should tie the two parts of the evening together (the Hofkapellmeister from polycrates sits on stage during the »theme and variations« and reads along in a score and, after the piece, is praised by the conductor as if he was the composer of the piece). I think there would have been possibilities to create real links between the pieces, but this didn't help a lot I think. The »Passover Psalm« and the  Sechs einfache Lieder op. 9 impressed me most (some of the Lieder were very touching!), while I was not very impressed by »Der Sturm«.

2) The opera itself. It was critisized for a lack of mise-en-scene in the Deutsche Bühne review. Well, the orchestral stage of the first half was the theater stage of the second half, the orchestra having moved into the pit. Well, for me, an opera with near to no plot can do with very little mise-en-scene and for the subject, I found this a rather clever idea. It may be  caused by my dislike for the plots (or lack thereof) of many comic operas, but I found the plot relatively dumb, to be honest. The finale is funny and enjoyable and also during the piece, there are some very funny moments. However, in my opinion, it takes to long for no action when the Hofkapellmeister Wilhelm thinks about putting his wife on test and finally does so and also during the beginning.
That being said, the music impressed me far more. Again, the beginning was not the part that impressed me the most. Relatively fragmentary, no big lines or melodies. But the more the work progressed, I absolutely loved the music, the orchestration, the melodies, the atmosphere created. Wonderful!
While I am no expert to judge the singing, especially the women sang very nicely for my ears. Irina Jae-Eun Park (Lieschen) also impressed and touched me with the Sechs einfache Lieder. The orchestra under Fabrice Bollon played well, wonderful piano, bombast where needed, but doing the young genius justice.

I may want to listen to the music again without reading the surtitles in order to fully concentrate on the music which was, for me, the undisputed highlight of the evening. Especially, but surely not only as it was written by a teenager, very impressing.

What are your opinions about »Ring des Polykrates«?

Best wishes,
ewk