Unsung Composers

THis month marks the centenary of the world premiere of Schreker's opera "Die Gezeichneten".

I have just written an extended article about him and this opera (published yesteday) which I thought might be of interest to some forum members here.

Here's the link:

http://www.momh.org.uk/exhibitions-detail.php?cat_id=5&prod_id=356&iotm=1

Very nice. Thanks for sharing.

A really interesting article - thanks. For me, the test of good writing is whether it encourages me to go back and listen again to the music. I'm not the world's greatest Schreker fan, but as a result of reading this article I shall certainly be giving Die Gezeichneten another listen today...

Bravissimo, brendangcarroll  ;D
During many years, Schreker's daughter Haidy and I were friends. I was one of the first talking and lecturing about Schreker here in Switzerland in the 1970's. At the time I occasionally performed as a singer, I gave in Zurich a full-Schreker recital of his early Lieder. My extended archive of Schreker documents (scores, books, 78's and LPs etc.) is now located at the Zurich Central Library.
There is an interview with Haidy on my website:
http://www.adrianomusic.com/resources/1983-Haidy.pdf
The coming season, there will be a new production of "Die Gezeichneten" at the Zurich Opera. The last one was in 1992, in a very intersting staging by Joanthan Miller. The conductor was Eliahu Inbal - but that is another story...
However I would not consider Schreker's "Die Gezeichneten" an unsung piece anymore...

Adriano, you are a marvel!!  :)

Thanks very much, semloh  8)
As you see, I do my best to promote unsung composers since ages... The same was promoting Respighi at a time only his Roman Trilogy and Ancient Dances were known.
In my audio/live/broadcast Schreker archive I have 5 more performances of "Die Gezeichneten", besides the ones officially issued on CD. And, in 1985, I produced on my own label a historical LP with pieces by Schreker, Bizet and Grieg, all conducted by Schreker. These were transfers from 78s of my own collection, including an unpublished "Die Gezeichneten" Prelude to the III Act of 1928. In the meantime, a splendid 3-CD collection has been issued on the Symposium label ("Schreker conducts - complete surviving recordings"), in which my rare item is also included.

QuoteAdriano, you are a marvel!!  :)

I say it again :)

Well, I said I'd return to Die Gezeichneten and I have done so. And my reaction's the same as it always has been: admiration for such masterly deployment of the orchestra, but utter frustration at passage after passage of vocal writing that has no allure at all. Of course, if better singers with more attractive voices recorded the opera, it might help; as it is one has to put up with shouting and yelping against what is a truly magnificent orchestral backdrop. Of course, this may be Schreker's fault (ducks incoming fire!) - but that's probably heresy.

Glad my article was enjoyed by so many erudite members here!

Regarding the vocal writing....of course Schreker (like Korngold, Strauss, Zemlinsky et al) composed for truly great voices able to penetrate and be supported by his massive orchestra.

Sadly none of the recorded versions I have do this score justice vocally  (the same is true of Korngold's "Das Wunder der Heliane" by the way)

One of the problems is that the big, important singers of our time do not want to spend the time learning and sinnging an opera of such difficulty which they feel they will never be asked to sing again - or hardly ever. So it falls to lesser talents to do it and they just  'sing the notes'.

I feel we are not actually hearing these works as they should really sound. When one reads the casts that originally sang these operas before the war in  Vienna, Berlin, Frankfurt etc - it is clear the wide gulf, between then and now.

I can imagine how it might sound in my mind however, which is why I will continue to champion these fabulous works.

Thanks to all for reading and commenting!

That's the most helpful comment I've heard about the available recordings - thank you. The implication is that if as much care were lavished on casting as it is on preparation of the orchestral writing, we'd actually have something that was listenable. As it is, I just can't bear the majority of the singing.

Perhaps if a great conductor were to take on one of the operas he could persuade the world's best singers to commit themselves to a recording. Two examples that spring to mind are Karajan's Pelléas et Mélisande and Solti's Die Frau ohne Schatten. But those were decades ago now...

Solti's "Frau ohne Schatten" is one of the worst opera recordings ever, with totally inadequate singers (except van Dam) and a fully tone-deaf conductor...

Oh dear, what a can of worms I've opened. I disagree totally - and, quite honestly, that sort of vituperative comment ('totally inadequate singers'; 'tone-deaf conductor') belongs elsewhere - not here.

So this is 'totally inadequate' singing from Domingo, is it?>>>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLW14CEAf70 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLW14CEAf70)

Now let us return to the topic in hand. I apologise for the examples I gave (which are personal favourites of mine), although the point I was trying to make stands: Schreker needs great singers.

But it can happen sometimes that a (good) singer who had to learn a (difficult Schreker or Korngold) part since he is part of an opera ensemble, he is being contracted later on as a guest for the same part by other houses. Of course it's quite hard to learn such difficult parts - and frustrating not to have to sing them anymore later one. Once again, only agents and opera managers decide upon the destiny of singers and operatic repertoire. And many of that authoritative category also can make wrong decisions and ruin singer's careers. I have know 4 different Zurich opera managers, and could write a book about their wrong castings - from which quite a few singers still suffer today!

Do you believe that there is a conductor of sufficient standing today to attract the best singers for a performance/recording of a Schreker opera? After all, there was a time when Les Troyens hadn't been recorded complete - and then along came Davis et al.... (and before him great conductors such as Beecham and Kubelik had flown the flag for that great opera).

There are two ideal conductors for this repertoire in my opinion : Vladimir Jurowsky and Marc Albrecht. Both formidable, both have a profound understanding of the style and musical profile of this particular strand of music history. Albrecht just conducted a superb performance of Korngold's Das Wuunder der Heliane in Berlin which was beyond my wildest dreams regarding detail, tempi, balance, phrasing and dynamics. It was recorded for commercial release later this year!

That's good to hear. But can they attract the top singers to learn this repertoire?

It's the managers and intendants that are responsible for attracting singers, not conductors.  They have the power to hire and pay. So it is the Peter Gelbs of this world who weild the chheque books.

But do they really know about singers? Is Albrecht, for example, getting the singers he needs - or just the singers he's given?

As already mentioned earlier, Alan, they mostly don't. And, mostly, conductors are the last ones, to be asked. For such repertoire, they (agents, mangers, conductors) first just look around for whom is already singing such parts. It does not make sense of promoting a new/joung singer through a Schreker or a Korngold opera. It's the Verdis and Mozart which count. In the 1990s we had in Zurich soprano Gabriele Lechner, who gave a wonderful Carlotta in Inbal's unfortunate "Gezeichneten" (with an already problematic Protschka). She was hired later by other conductors for such repertoire, especially for concert performances, like a superb Radio France "Schreker program" (with vocal and symphonic pieces) of 1995 conducted by Michael Gielen - or another similar concert (with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande) of one year later conducted by Armin Jordan (both also using tenor Michael Austin). Gabriele Schnaut was also a very interesting Schreker soprano - and she also liked this composer.
So one can even say that there will always be a little group around, specialized in such repertoire. This is also very practical for last minute illnesses, in case "experimental singers" are being used. One must also consider particular cases: elderly singers sometimes accept such repertoire in order to remember audiences that they are still there, like James King, who sang "Die Tote Stadt" much too late - if I am not wrong. Today we have former Rossini/Mozart tenor Roberto Saccà, who developed into the dramatic repertoire (he sang "Der Ferne Klang" in Zurich a few years ago, the same thaatre where he sang Almaviva & Co. And he is an intelligent singer with poerfect German pronounciation. Another good example of a good singer is baritone Michael Volle, who is in good shape and likes Schreker - and is being hired repeatedly for such music. But he is "just a baritone"... Most tenors today are not perfectly German speaking, and it is always painful to hear their defective pronounciation - in operas where the text is also very important. I fear the times of cultured "Korngold, Schreker and Zemlinsky singers" singers like Firtz Uhl, René Kollo and Josef Protschka have gone by for ever. Tomas Moser may also belong to this category. I don't speak about their technical values. Schreker and Korngold also call for intelligent singers, not only for excellent Wagner-Verdi types. Hearing today Maria Schreker singing pieces from her husband's operas - and arias by other composers - one just wonders why such a tiny voice could reach gallery audiences - and I am sure her voice does not sound tiny because of the insufficient shellack audio technique!
The forthcoming season's Zurich production of "Die Gezeichneten", incidentally, will be conducted by Jurowski, its cast will be communicated next week.
(Please note that my postings are not those of Schreker authority!)

You may not be a Schreker authority, but you write with authority about the problems of casting singers! Thank you!

My pleasure, Alan  8)
My "desert island" Schreker opera is definitely "Der Ferne Klang". Listening to that "old" Radio recording of 1955, conducted by Winfried Zillig (with Helmut Krebs, Helga Pilarczyk and Hans-Herbert Fiedler), one gets a bit nostalgic and sad, that often today one does not have such singers anymore. Consider the fact that Krebs's voice was not particularly fit this part on stage, but listening to him in this Radio Concert-hall, one cannot even believe... Even the earlier historical version (1948!) of "Der Ferne Klang", also conducted by Zillig (with Ilse Zeyen and Heinrich Bensing) is a treasure. Another excellent "concert" (broadcast) version is the one conducted by Ernst Märzendorfer in 1976 with both excellent Eberhard Büchner and Maria de Francesca in the title roles) - which was available on BJR or MRF records (and I personally know the guy who was responsible for this...). In 1960, Zillig also recorded "Die Gezeichneten" for the Radio, and again with Helmut Krebs! Besides him we have the splendid couple Evelyn Lear and her Thomas Stewart. What more do we want? 
Of "Der Ferne Klang", we must not forget the CD recordings published by Naxos-Marco Polo (1989), by Capriccio (1991) and by Ars (2011), which are quite recommendable, considering the enormous difficulties of the piece! I think the last one is even better conducted than Gerd Albrecht's version for Capriccio.
But, as far as Kaufmann singing a Schreker role, I have my doubts. But he surely has a perfect German pronounciation...

Kaufmann will never be tempted to sing this repertoire, I'm pretty sure. He's aiming for Tristan...

Jonas Kaufmann has sung (in) Szymanowski's Krol Roger, so he's not wholly allergic to undersung music (though Szymanowski does not fall within _our_ purview, he's still relatively undersung- not as much so as once, true.)

As far as I can see that was back in 1997, though...

Thank you all! I am delighted Jurowsky is to conduct Die Gezeichneten.

As for Kaufmann, he has announced that he is learning the role of Paul in 'Die tote Stadt' but as yet, no production has been announced for him to debut in the part.

Surely not the New York Met? (although in 2021 it will mark the centenary of its famous production with Jeritza and Orville Harrold...so maybe....)

For Saariaho-levels of agonizing, which aren't actually very. (Or Berg's Lulu (1935- 80 years old, fgs!!!!) values of "Contemporary" (2014-15 season.) One's 80-year-old parents should feel so contemporary...) but yes, it does look like they may not have performed Korngold since 1927 (Violanta) (Not sure.) ? (though NY City Opera revived a Korngold opera in 1975 and 2006 at Lincoln Center.)

The cast of the new Zurich Opera production of "Die Gezeichneten"
(conductor Vladimir Jurowski - alternating with Mrs. Giedre Slekyte), stage director Barrie Kosky, scenic design: Rufus Didwiszus)
(September 23, 26 - October 2, 9, 12, 17, 20, 23, 2018):

Herzog Antoniotto Adorno / Der Capitaneo di giustizia Christopher Purves
Graf Andrae Vitelozzo Tamare Thomas Johannes Mayer
Lodovico Nardi, Podestà der Stadt Genua Albert Pesendorfer
Carlotta Nardi, seine Tochter Catherine Naglestad
Alviano Salvago John Daszak
Guidobald Usodimare N. N.
Menaldo Negroni Iain Milne
Michelotto Cibo Oliver Widmer
Gonsalvo Fieschi Cheyne Davidson
Julian Pinelli Ildo Song
Paolo Calvi / Dritter Bürger / 2. der jungen Leute Ruben Drole
Ginevra Scotti Natalia Tanasii
Martuccia Judith Schmid
Pietro Omer Kobiljak
Ein Jüngling Thobela Ntshanyana
Dessen Freund / Diener Jung Rae Kim
Ein Mädchen Sen Guo
Erster Senator / Erster Bürger / 3. der jungen Leute Jamez McCorkle
Zweiter Senator Dean Murphy
Dritter Senator Alexander Kiechle
Zweiter Bürger / Vater Yuriy Tsiple
Eine Dienerin, Mutter Asahi Wada
Philharmonia and Chorus of the Zürich Opera

https://www.opernhaus.ch/spielplan/kalendarium/die-gezeichneten/season_50348/?utm_source=NL+Saisonvorschau+18%2F19-FINAL&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=eNewsletter&bpid=2000015995&nlid=2282671128&mid=100085556&chk=Rmh6RTVaFX

Hallo Brendan, I have a peripheral question. I read in your article that Maria Binder "was bisxual and enjoyed extra-marital affairs". This information is totally new to me and I would like to know more, if possible. Could you please tell me where did you find it? I'm very interested. Thanks!

This shouldn't be much of a surprise. This source offers confirmation:
https://forbiddenmusic.org/2014/07/02/music-from-the-end-of-time-franz-schreker-1878-1934/ (https://forbiddenmusic.org/2014/07/02/music-from-the-end-of-time-franz-schreker-1878-1934/)

Back to the music, please...

Thanks, Alan :-) My comment to savvy would have been "so what??"

Agreed.

Thank you for the information.

By the way: I wrote my Master (in Italian) about the Lieder of Schreker (all of them) and I'm writing my PhD (in german) about "Die Gezeichneten" and other operas set in the Italian Renaissance. I've seen 5 different productions of "Die Gezeichneten" in the last 5 years, too. So much about my interest for the music.

It seems, though, that you are unaware of information that is already widely available on the 'net. Is that because you haven't been looking at articles in English?

No, it's only because I've read directly the "Forbidden Music" book and alas not the blog. That information is neither in the book nor in other Schreker's biographies I knew.

Fair enough, so maybe we can now get back to Schreker himself.

I have been listening a lot to Die Gezeichneten over recent days and I have to say I find it a frustrating experience: so much care is lavished on the gorgeous orchestral writing and yet there is so little that is attractive or remarkable in the vocal writing, which is predominantly conversational or declamatory. In fact I'd go so far as to say that the result is almost schizophrenic, with the orchestral backdrop being virtually totally at odds with the vocal line.

I don't believe that Schreker's operas will ever 'make it' in the English-speaking world as so much depends on understanding what the singers are singing. This is not too much of a problem for me as a German speaker, but I would think that his operas would have to be done in translation to make much of an impression.

Perhaps someone far more expert than me can enlighten me as to Schreker artistic aims in his operas?

candidate for "operas in" native language series? though insofar as music is fit well to words in the original the translation should be as well, which (viz even Sondheim's American and British musical productions) can require major changes by people who know what they are doing.

You are right, Alan, I have similar thoughts about die Gezeichneten (and very similar arguments against Korngold's Wunder der Heliane!). With all my respect, I find it a rarther turgic piece, with not all too exciting vocal lines; perhaps he wanted to try out something like Strauss's later Konversationsstil. Sometimes (and in my modest personal opinion), I have the impression that Schreker would have composed the music first and added the vocal lines only later. He tried out perhaps a kind of "symphonic accompaniment" which did not always work and which was against his high theatrical intuition and skill. But I may be wrong (have warned in here that I am not a Schreker expert). Although it has some sublime moments (the Overture, and, of course its separate extended masterwork-like concert piece transformation into Vorspiel zu einem Drama). The painting study duet between Carlotta and Alviano is also very valuable. The last act is quite chaotic and a musical disappointment. The piece has, in my opinion, not the impact of Der Ferne Klang. Der Ferne Klang is, in my opinion, the best Schreker Opera: I like it because it has different styles and orchestral colours, cleverly used to feature the different characters, dramatic situations and places of action. But still has a great unity. An important difference beteween this opera and Die Gezeichneten is that in Der Ferne Klang, the musical accomapniment is also a protagonist or a "other level's" commentary, and never just an accompaniment; this not only through themes and motifs, but variable orchestral colours and forms.Just imagine the final, short half-spoken monologue by Fritz, accompanied at first by a celesta at and followed by transparent strings later! This works better than a 90 piece orchestral accompaniment à la Strauss. Who else at that time would have had such a super idea, using a simple celasta! And those extra instrumental groups in the brothel scene; this is already like Charles Ives!
It could also be considered a verismo piece, particularly in the first scene. At the end of the second, Schreker wants the noise of a departing train to be heard... Thematically, Schreker conceived an almost watchmaker's leitmotif and cell scheme. Their variations and metamorphoses are absolutely clever and motivated, and not recogniseable at first. In other words, the music does only appear as mostly nearly improvised (a thing which would also work, of course)!
There is a highly specialised book on the Ferne Klang's harmonic build-up by Gösta Neuwirth and a fabulous 400-page study by Ulrike Kienzle, with psychological and thematic analyses, dramaturgical technique analyses and a lot of historical considerations. Every scene is considered and explained, it's an immense help to understand the piece in detail; although it is also understandable for non-professional, willing and sensitive/emotional musical lovers. This is the only opera by Schreker of which I treasure a full score. Of course I also have scores of his song cycles and orchestral pieces; but I think Der Ferne Klang will be the last music/score to accompany me till the end of my life. The major bulk of my Schreker collection is already at the Zurich Central Library. It also containes about 2 dozens of (very early) books on this composer, videos, photos, 78s conducted by Schreker etc.

@eschiss1 - this reminds me of that horrible English sung opera series on Chandos. Was it not the Welsh National Opera that carried on with this fixation? Are they still?

I consider Die Gezeichneten to be a great work, truly one of the greatest and most original works in the operatic repertoire. I don't agree with the posit that the vocal writing is not attractive or grateful; not everything is going to be Norma and the writing fits perfectly with the narrative to be conveyed. It is music of fracture and disassociation, superbly realized by the composer. I believe it can hold the stage today as it did during Schreker's lifetime.

I do understand that the writing may not be to the taste of the more conservative among its audience.

Thanks, minacciosa :-)
It's good that we can discuss different opinions in here and I am sure there are more pro than cons in this case; and, just to specity, I am not "contrary" (or "more conservative"!) - and love this opera very much! After all, I just reveal my personal impressions and taste by saying that the vocal lines are "not too exciting". This opera may even be Schreker's most "mature" stage work, it is a great work for sure. I don't want it to be a Norma, but, knowing the earlier Schreker as a melodist, I just miss this a bit in the Gezeichneten, compared to Der Ferne Klang, where melody is, as I (personally) feel it, more characterised and straightfoward. I even dare to add that after the "more complicated" vocalism of Die Gezeichneten, Schreker went back again to his "earlier style" with Der Schatzgräber and Irrelohe (which I therefore both consider more "authentic Schreker" than Die Gezeichneten). Then, his following last three completed operas are again a change of style, using a "Neue Sachlichkeit"-like, more dry and more "modern" language... A very interesting development; did he fear that his Jugendstil expressionism would become old-fashioned?
At the time of its first performances, Die Gezeichneten was considered as an impressionistic work, but musicologist Paul Bekker pointed out that it had more dramatic power and sensuosness than, for example, Debussy's Pelléas. Some critics also said that it lacked melodic power, but Bekker prowed the contrary. Bekker even said that, compared to the Ferne Klang, Die Gezeichneten had more melodic phrases, arioso-like passages and "breadth". In his earlier writing about his own "Music Dramatic Idea", Schreker did not foresee this, and had to admit later, that, in a way, he developed himself with Die Gezeichneten. In that writing he had pointed out his (almost obessive?) preoccupation with timbre and color and his search of "pure sound, used with care, one of the essential music-dramatic expressive means, an atmospheric resource without equal" (which, he perfectly demonstrated in his "self-confessing" Der Ferne Klang). That is why I prefer Der Ferne Klang, finding it the most authentic and original Schreker piece (here I refer to some passages in Chris Hailey's fabulous Schreker book, in order not to write too many silly things :-)
Incidentally, Michael Gielen, who conducted Die Gezeichneten in Frankfurt in 1979, did not like the piece and found it a minor opera. It took a few years before he would change his mind (I am not convinced he really did). But he had accepted to conduct it in order to promote this important piece. So I was told by Schreker's daughter Haidy after she came back from Frankurt to visit me.

Brendan's article is superb.

It is indeed, I've just re-read it with interest and admiration :-)
Brendan, just one little thing: Schreker's opera "Flammen" has a libretto by Dora Leen, so he did not write all of his libretti.

apparently an alias for someone named Dora Pollak? but yes.

Right, eschiss1
Also four early Schreker songs are set on her poems.