Be careful what you wish for...

(written for Parterre.com)


When our coquine Doyenne invited those interested to review recordings I kindly requested Italian belcanto and early French works. Instead, I got Schubert’s “Alfonso und Estrella” (ahem, in German!), thus the title of this review… It was one of those WTF moments, and I thought La C. was in a PMS attack. The only few words I know in German is “Ich komme Helga!” (pre-condom era porn line), “Ich liebe sexy Marcello Giordani”, and “What on earth Aprilo Millo is saving her voice for?” (the latter is not in German, but I had to get it off my chest.) Anyway, I couldn’t disappoint La C., therefore I decided to take the challenge, pulled my long wavy auburn hair back, put my Biki crepe de soie robe de chambre, un peu plus de noir sur mes yeux (à la Dalida,) and put myself to work.

The production comes from Theater an der Wien, filmed during performances in May of 1997, as part of the celebrations for Schubert’s 200th anniversary. Many may not know that Schubert wrote any opera at all. My researches showed me that he attempted at least ten operas and this was the first one that actually got finished, in collaboration with the librettist Franz von Schober who was always faithful to him ( I smell kind of Cary Grant-Randolph Scott thing there,) following an invitation by Domenico Barbaia, then the newly appointed Italian manager of the theater. The fact that it was first rejected may be partly due to an unenthusiastic Michael Vogl (for whom the part of Froila was conceived), soprano Anna Milder-Hauptmann, and Weber who kept bitching about it. In 1854, long after Schubert’s death, an adapted version was given its premiere in Weimar by Franz Liszt for whom Schober acted as secretary.

The storyline is simple: The setting is eighth century Spain. Alfonso lives with his father Froila, the rightful king of Leon whose throne is usurped by Mauregato (he is mean, so mean you have no idea, a real cattivo.) Estrella is the latter’s daughter, she and Alfonso make out big time, I mean fall in love. A horny Adolfo, rejected by Estrella leads a rebellion (it was certainly easy to do this type of show-offs at those times,) but is captured by Alfonso. All ends happily.

The cast is quite decent. Luba Orgonasova as Estrella gives an outstanding performance. Schubert was most generous to her part in his work. Lubika is blessed with a gorgeous and voluptuous instrument. The Slovak soprano is mainly known to European audiences, especially for her Mozart interpretations. She looks à la Sutherland sometimes.

The part of Alfonso is sung by Endrik Wottrich, the only disappointment of this production. Such a sublime part could only be sung this bad. One wishes a spinto lirico tenor in this part with a great deal of lied experience to do justice to it. At one point in the beginning of Scene II, he says to his father “I lack the strength of voice.” He is damn right.

The part of Adolfo is a very demanding one, sitting mainly on the top register. Blessed with a strong bass, Alfred Muff disappoints with his complete acting disability, one of those who constantly need to look at the conductor.

On the other hand, Olaf Bar, as Mauregato exhibits all his successful lieder background. The projection is effortless, smooth and legato, although the voice is small in size.

As Froila, Thomas Hampson sings beautifully but never in the persona, as is always the case. My prayers to hopefully see him one day change his constant facial expression remain unanswered (once described here as the “look Ma, I can sing” look.) His pronunciation is exquisite and his interpretation is exemplary. Since I don’t have a score in hand, I’m not sure if the high pianissimi are as written or his choice to cover his natural strain on his top register. Nevertheless, Hampson has always been a true musician and the production is clearly standing on him. He eventually gets the warmest reception from the audience.

Our maestro for the occasion is Nikolaus Harnancourt. Nikky does a decent job, especially during the beautiful overture. This is not a very hard piece to conduct, since the music is not complex in the “grand opera” tradition. His orchestra responds well to him. They obviously prepared well for this.

The production is dark, simple and monochrome. The set is modern; it doesn’t belong to any country or specific era. The first scene is Froila’s bedroom that looks like a cell; Scene II is a war field with a huge glacial curtain and women soldiers all in red uniforms and machine guns. Scene III is almost completely dark and we only see shadows singing, with minimum light. Overall speaking, I did not come across any other production of this opera, therefore it is hard to compare the approach of director Jürgen Flimm or the singing. After establishing himself as one of the exponents of Regietheater, Flimm was called to manage renowned theaters and festivals in Europe. In summer 2000, he staged a new version of Wagner's Ring for the Bayreuth Festival, and in June 2002, he was responsible for the scenic realisation of the world premiere of Der Riese vom Steinfeld by Friedrich Cerha at the Vienna State Opera.

The image quality is absolutely fine. The cameras are having an easy time since the production is quite static, with main soloists basically standing still facing the audience and performing. Subtitles are exclusive to solos, which makes it hard to understand what is going on during the duets, ensembles and choral parts.

The opera is obviously an experimentation for this greatest lied composer. The reasons he did not pursue composing in this field are unknown to me. The composition is balanced, priority is give to voice and the orchestra is only a background accompaniment serving it. The solos may not be qualified quite as arias, but a series of gorgeous lieder, almost like a song cycle. At the end, the music is an absolute beauty and one wonders why it hasn’t been performed more frequently. As I always defend, this and many other hidden pieces of art may well be performed concert or semi-staged style.

In a world where we get to watch the same core repertoire (and productions) over and over, discovering a new little night music like this was a true marvel to me, and I enjoyed every minute of it.
Be Careful w