lehár, franz
Tatjana / jurowski, schubert, schellenberger, lippert, mewes, lemme, berlin rso, berlin radio chorus

Kommentar des Verkäufers :
Lehár: Tatjana / Jurowski, Schellenberger, Lippert, Mewes

Release Date: 09/17/2002
Label: CPO Catalog #: 999 762 Spars Code: DDD
Composer: Franz Lehár
Performer: Dagmar Schellenberger, Karsten Mewes, Roland Schubert, Carsten Sabrowski, ...
Conductor: Michail Jurowski
Orchestra/Ensemble: Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Radio Chorus
Number of Discs: 2
Recorded in: Stereo
Length: 2 Hours 2 Mins.
EAN: 0761203976225

Works on This Recording
1. Kukuska by Franz Lehár
Performer: Dagmar Schellenberger (Soprano), Karsten Mewes (Baritone), Roland Schubert (Bass),
Carsten Sabrowski (Bass Baritone), Hanne Fischer (Mezzo Soprano), Olaf Lemme (Baritone),
Sebastian Bluth (Baritone), Dieter Scholz (Bass), Herbert Lippert (Tenor)
Conductor: Michail Jurowski
Orchestra/Ensemble: Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Radio Chorus
Period: Romantic
Written: 1896/1905; Austria
Date of Recording: 2001
Venue: Deutschland Radio, Berlin, Germany
Length: 122 Minutes 20 Secs.
Language: German
Notes: Lehár composed this opera in 1896, but later (1905) revised it under a new title, "Tatjana."

Notes and Editorial Reviews
Description by Bruce Eder [-]
Franz Lehár's opera Tatjana has a convoluted history dating from a period before the composer was established. Lehár was 29 years old and still trying to juggle a budding career as a composer with his more mundane work -- carrying on a family tradition -- as a military bandmaster, when he completed the original version of Tatjana, entitled Kukushka. It was to go through extensive revisions and receive performances in Budapest, Leipzig, and Konigsberg, but due to bad timing, the bankruptcy of its original publisher, and other unfortunate circumstances, it never had its best chance to be heard and disappeared after transmuting into Tatjana in 1903. The success of The Merry Widow in late 1905, heralding Lehár's emergence as the leading voice in operetta of his generation, overlapped with Tatjana's failure in Vienna in 1906. It disappeared, except for a 1937 broadcast performance conducted by the composer and was unheard for more than 60 years. The work represents a side of Lehár's music that is largely forgotten, his attempts at full-blown grand opera which, based on the evidence here, lacked the energy and graceful flow of musical ideas that characterized his operettas. Tatjana deals with a journey to Siberia by a prison convoy, and the love of the guard Alexis for Tatjana, the daughter of the Volga River fisherman Sergey. In Act I, they meet and fall in love; but the people become roused against Sergey when a prize sturgeon he catches is stolen and he prophesizes that no one will catch any fish. When he is accused of being in league with the devil, Alexis tries to protect him but is ordered aside by observers representing the Tsar. Not willing to see an innocent man killed, Alexis disobeys and stops the crowd. He is, in turn, banished to Siberia and bids farewell to Tatjana. In the second act, Alexis is caught up in prison politics and threatened with death by another inmate, Sasha; in defending himself, he foregoes the chance to kill his attacker and, instead, earns Sasha's gratitude. In the third act, Tatjana arrives with a convoy of prisoners seeking out Alexis, only to learn that he has escaped with the help of Sasha, who now takes her to find him. The two lovers are reunited amid the snow-covered wasteland, with pursuing Cossacks approaching. It ends in a duet, at once joyful and tragic, and they are swallowed up by the blizzard.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Produktinfo

Lehárs einzige Oper

»Lehárs Musik könnte an Adel und Empfindung Tristan und Isolde und alles Größeste illustrieren und würde immer ein eminentes Talent beweisen.« Mag diese Uraufführungskritik von 1896 auch noch so enthusiastisch daherkommen, das traurige Schicksal des betreffenden Werkes hat sie nicht aufhalten können. Schrieb doch der Komponist selbst viele Jahre später: »Da von diesem Kind meiner Muse niemand etwas wissen wollte, beschloß ich, es zu vergessen.« Und doch ist dieses Schmerzenskind immer sein Lieblingskind geblieben: Sein Erstlingswerk, die Oper Tatjana, die in der Erstfassung übrigens noch »Kukuschka« hieß. Eins ist (für mich) sicher: Ohne seine späteren Operetten, die halt bahnbrechender in ihrer Gattung waren, als es die Tatjana in derjenigen der Oper ist, wäre sie heute ein Repertoirestück mit ihren genialen Melodien und zahllosen wundervollen musikalischen Einfällen. Auf diese Produktion bin ich besonders stolz.

Pressestimmen

Klassik-heute. de: "Alle wirken zusammen, um ein verschollenes und dennoch absolut kennenswertes Werk lebendig und leuchtkräftig zu präsentieren." FonoForum 12 / 02: "Sorgfältiges Plädoyer für Lehars Frühwerk." Orpheus 11 / 202: "Lehar erweist sich bei seinem Jugendwerk bereits als souveräner Meister der Instrumentierung und zeigt einen ungeahnten Farbenreichtum, viel Sentiment, slawische Schwermütigkeit und Klangschwelgerei." Klassik. com: "Hervorragende Interpreten. Ein überzeugendes Plädoyer."