Commentaire du vendeur :
D'albert: Die Toten Augen / Weikert, Dresdner Philharmonie
Release Date: 12/06/1999
Label: CPO Catalog #: 999 692 Spars Code: DDD
Composer: Eugène d' Albert
Performer: Norbert Orth, Margaret Chalker, Eberhard Büchner, Cornelia Wosnitze, ...
Conductor: Ralf Weikert
Orchestra/Ensemble: Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra
Number of Discs: 2
Recorded in: Stereo
Length: 1 Hours 48 Mins.
EAN: 0761203969227
Works on This Recording
1. Die toten Augen by Eugène d' Albert
Performer: Norbert Orth (Tenor), Margaret Chalker (Soprano), Eberhard Büchner (Tenor),
Cornelia Wosnitze (Soprano), Hartmut Welker (Baritone), Angela Liebold (Mezzo Soprano),
Sabine Brohm (Soprano), Barbara Hoene (Soprano), Gerald Hupach (Tenor),
John Maxham (Baritone), Eberhard Bendel (Bass), Olaf Bär (Baritone),
Lothar Odinius (Tenor), Dagmar Schellenberger (Soprano), Anne Gjevang (Alto)
Conductor: Ralf Weikert
Orchestra/Ensemble: Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1916; Germany
Date of Recording: 03/1997
Venue: Kulturpalast, Dresden, Germany
Length: 107 Minutes 52 Secs.
Language: German
Notes and Editorial Reviews
If you like Wagner and Strauss, chances are you'll like Die Toten Augen, Eugen d'Albert's most mystical, lushly orchestrated score. Its one act is set in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. A shepherd discovers that one of his lambs is missing and he goes to look for it. Nearby, beautiful, blind Myrtocle lives happily with her husband Arcesius who is Roman envoy to the senate in Jerusalem; he is ugly and malformed and does not want his wife's blindness cured. She is told that Jesus will be passing by later that day and that he has performed miracles. Arcesius and the young Roman Captain Galba, who is secretly in love with Myrtocle, leave for the senate. Jesus passes by and Myrtocle is indeed cured. When Arcesius and Galba return, she runs toward Galba, mistaking him for Arcesius and they embrace, Galba professing his love. Arcesius kills Galba in a jealous rage. Myrtocle stares into the sun until she goes blind again. The shepherd crosses the courtyard with the lamb in his arms.
There is an interesting recording of this work on Myto from 1951 in cruddy sound, but Marianne Schech's Myrtocle is immensely moving and beautifully sung. Here Dagmar Schellenberger is a bit sharper-edged, but she has no trouble with the high tessitura and offers us a vivid picture of this complicated character. Hartmut Welker is a gruff but effective Arcesius, but Norbert Orth's Galba is only fair--to be honest, the role is the least well conceived of the three and even Wolfgang Windgassen on Myto has trouble bringing the character to life. The others in this large cast are very good and Lothar Odinius as the tenor Shepherd is simply beautiful. Ralf Weikert leads the Dresden forces vividly and CPO's engineers have given us a stunning recording that allows us to hear all of d'Albert's details. This is not a great work but it's oddly fascinating. Recommended.
Artistic Quality: 8
Sound Quality: 10
--Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com
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CPO have made something of a speciality of hyper-romantic operas. I thought it was time we looked at some of these, many of which have been 'sleepers' in the catalogue for years.
D'Albert was born in Scotland but had little time for the place. He studied in London and then at Weimar with Liszt. Although there are a brace each of symphonies and piano concertos (the latter on Hyperion) and a cello concerto (on Koch International) his 'fame' rests on his operas. More accurately that refers to Tiefland, a worldwide success in 1903 and, to a slightly lesser extent, to the present opera.
D'Albert wrote twenty operas (listed below) though none fulfilled the composer's fervent hope of equalling or exceeding Tiefland. Die Toten Augen was premiered at the Dresden Court Opera on 5 March 1916 conducted by no less than Fritz Reiner. It seems that critical reaction was discouraging but the public lapped up this lavishly orchestrated and luxuriantly themed music. It held its place in the opera seasons for some twenty years until the arrival of Nazis resulted in the work, with its Jewish setting, being proscribed. After 1945 it made a return appearing in Vienna (1950), Klagenfurt (1954), Antwerp (1955), Nuremberg (1964) and Bern (1980).
The plot is ornate. The setting: Jerusalem. The blind Myrtocle is the wife of Arcesius, the deformed Roman ambassador. She imagines Arcesius handsome and irresistible. When given her sight by Jesus she mistakes Galba for her husband and they make love. Arcesius, hiding because he realises Myrtocle will soon know his ugliness, sees it all. Arcesius kills Galba. Myrtocle cursed by her sight yearns for her blindness and turning to the sun gazes at it unblinkingly and blinded again. Arcesius and Myrtocle are seen happily re-entering their house - reconciled in her restored blindness.
While the commentary refers to the influence of Wagner I hear little of that. There is far more of Strauss, Puccini and Korngold and pretty wonderful it is too although the flame sometimes flickers after the first twenty minutes. This confection is laced with the impressionism of Debussy's Faune and La Mer as well as Ravel's Daphnis. The crashingly crowned climax of the Prelude is superbly done as is the plunging climactic writing of Myrtocle's Geliebter aria (CD2 tr.4, 1.32). The largely self-taught d'Albert also uses an extremely beguiling and sinuous flute theme. Delius must presumably have heard this and later used something similar in the music for the Fountain in his score for Flecker's Hassan in 1925. The vocal line usually has a Puccinian magnificence perhaps diluted by an easier lyrical flow from operetta (typically Lehár). There is also some macabrely humorous writing depicting the false healer Ktesiphar. While the orchestral prelude is superbly judged other moments creak. For instance the high calorie orchestral introduction to Myrtocle's aria 'Ein Spiegel' in which she can at last admire her own beauty now that the Prophet has restored her sight is not out of the top drawer. The cast is uniformly strong with a specially vibrant contribution from Schellenburger. She is extremely affecting in the tender yet masochist self-sacrifice of the blinding (CD2 tr.8) when the Korngold opulence of the writing rises to another towering and tortured peak.
The admirable booklet is in German, English and French. The libretto is given in German and English side by side.
I hope that this will not be the last time that Weikert and CPO will record D'Albert. There are plenty of other operas in the d'Albert canon.
This is certainly for you if you are a devotee of glorious verismo soused in Hollywood radiance. It may have a few less than wonderful moments but for the most part you will want to luxuriate in this fine score. Do make sure you hear it if you already enjoy Korngold's Violanta, Die Kathrin or Tote Stadt or Zemlinsky's Die Gezeichneten and Schrecker's Die Ferne Klang.
Rob Barnett
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D'ALBERT - A REFERENCE
d'ALBERT, Eugen (Eugène Francis Charles) [Glasgow 10.4.1864 - Riga, Latvia 3.3.1932]
Pianist. Son of dance composer Charles d'Albert [25.2.1809-26.5.1886]. Though born in Glasgow (9, Newton Tce.) soon taken by parents to live in Newcastle-on-Tyne. A precocious child he began studies with his father then at the National School of Music, London (later became RCM) studying w. Ernst Pauer (piano), Stainer, Prout and Sullivan (theory). Later following Mendelssohn Scholarship w. Hans Richter, Vienna and Franz Liszt, Weimar. His virtuoso pianism provoked comparison with Mozart and Mendelssohn. His keyboard style was instinct with a sense of both poetry and structure and was much admired by Hans von Bülow. Liszt dubbed him "the young Tausig". His abilities as an executant remained largely undimmed despite his later conversion as an almost exclusively operatic composer. Premiered Richard Strauss's Burleske for piano and orchestra on 21.6.1890 at Eisenach with the composer conducting. Briefly court conductor at Weimar, 1895. Succeeded Joseph Joachim as Director Hochschule fur Musik, Berlin, 1907. During Great War renounced his British citizenship and took German nationality and a German name openly declaring his Teutonic convictions and condemning English culture and his British teachers. His strident criticism won him a degree of revulsion and enmity which played its part in the almost total eclipse of his music. The only real survivor is the opera Tiefland which is occasionally revived and has been recorded. Married six times, including to pianist Teresa Carreno, 1892-5, singer Hermine Finck, 1895-1910, and Ida Theumann, 1910-12. Lived in Lucerne. He made some recordings including one notable electric recording of the first movement of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto, one for the Polydor company of Arnold Bax's Mediterranean, and another in which he conducted extracts from his own Tiefland with the tenor Gotthelf Pistor.
musicweb-international
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Produktinfo:
Als 1916 in Dresden die Uraufführung der „Toten Augen“ von Eugen d´Albert stattfand, war der Jubel riesengroß. Das Publikum ließ sich auf Anhieb von der Dramatik dieser Bühnendichtung einfangen. Eine schöne Blinde ist mit einem hässlichen Mann verheiratet, den sie aber für schön hält. Als Jesus sie von ihrer Blindheit heilt, hält sie den schönen Freund ihres Mannes für diesen und stürzt in seine Arme. Das Eifersuchtsdrama nimmt seinen Lauf. … D´Albert verstand es, den dramatischen Text in ein leuchtendes Orchestergewand zu hüllen und in veristischer Manier, blühende Melodik mit einer an Richard Strauss gemahnenden Harmonik zu verbinden. cpo präsentiert nun den Live- Mitschnitt einer absolut phänomenalen konzertanten Aufführung, die vor 2 Jahren in Dresden stattfand: Mit Dagmar Schellenberger in der Hauptrolle, sowie u. a. Margaret Chalker, Hartmut Welker, Norbert Orth, Olaf Bär und Lothar Odinius. Die Dresdner Philharmonie spielt unter der Leitung von Ralf Weikert.
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Rezensionen
Orpheus 2 / 2000:
"Eine absolut überzeugende, weiträumige und musikalisch wie stimmlich erstklassige Neuaufnahme. Höchst üppige, rauschende und großformatige Wiedergabe, wo die fabelhafte Dresdner Philharmonie streicherselig und klangüppig intoniert. Dazu kommt ein Chor bester Qualität. Die Aufnahme des Monats."
Neue Württembergische Zeitung 5.2.2000:
"Sinnlich-blühend und kraftvoll-farbig, höchst eindrucksvoll inszeniert."
FonoForum 3 / 2000:
"Kniefall für Dagmar Schellenbergers lyrischem Sopran mit seiner betsrickenden Leuchtkraft."
Klassik heute 3 / 2000:
"Effektvolles, zu Unrecht vernachlässigtes Stück. Der Titelheldin widmet sich Dagmar Schellenberger mit faszinierender Intensität."
Das Opernglas:
"Ein prächtiges Stück Musiktheater." Salzburger NAchrichten: "Ein luxuriöses Ensemble."
BBC Music Magazine 5 / 2000:
"A triumph on disc."
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