Review: Five Expressionist Operas For A Rainy Day

[@pawdaw]

I saw a double bill of Bluebeard's Castle and Erwartung directed by Robert Lepage. The set for Bluebeard had these big pools on either side of the stage. We all thought they were just decorative. But at the end of the opera the bodies of all the dead wives came up out of the pools - naked and covered in blood. Everyone gasped. The Woman in Erwartung had a number of 'doubles' through the performance - one was a naked male who, entwined with a wooden armchair, proceeded to somersault across the stage. Great stuff.

[@larrywprice2]

Except, according to the libretto, the wives are alive!....Judith: "living, living, they are living!"

[@porcepic44]

@David Hurwitz : Thanks for having made me discover the Korngold. What a fabulous, gorgeous work ! I'm going to order the recording quickly. That's what I like the most in your videos : introducing your viewers to works rarely or never scheduled in the concert halls or in the opera houses. In addition to the Korngold, I already have a pile of new works to order (Suk, Dessau, Petersson, Freitas Branco...).

[@alwa6954]

What a coincidence. I just heard Violanta (and watched it on the Regio Torino video) for the first time 2 nights ago. Incredibly beautiful and luscious music.

[@duncanjams889]

Dave, you've made these bleak, torrid, harrowing works sound absolutely hilarious! I bet you could even make Winterreise a fun riot!

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Winterreise IS a fun riot!

[@teeker2012]

This review was seriously entertaining and informative!! Thanks!!

[@murraylow4523]

Thanks! As you wisely stuck to shorter ones, hopefully we can look forward to Schreker - such an underrated composer- Berg (of course!), Elektra.... Not sure Zemlinsky’s other operas qualify as “expressionist” but worth exploring

[@anwla]

Very good video, David. Very funny! Loved the reference Arrested Development - those blue guys

[@mjkFendrich]

There are two other works coming to my mind in this context, both non-operatic and non German expressionistic - one as prequel and the other as sequel: André Caplet's 'Conte fantastique' after E.A.Poe's 'Mask of the Red Death' for harp & string quartet (with obligato narrator) - the other one is Ge Gan-Ru's flute concerto 'Fairy Lady Meng Jiang' (on BIS with Sharon Bezaly) inspired by some old Chinese fairy-tale.

[@neilcameronable]

Its a very rainy day so time for Violanta!...Sancta Susanna going to give a listen to aswell.Ive never heard it in fact Hindemith is a composer i havent heard much of.But you have fired me up to hear early works after your talk.

[@hiphurrah1]

this was hysterical fun! 😄

[@122112guru]

Great additional audio fare to add to my water and wood Nymph CD collection.Thanks.

[@Poeme340]

Love Korngold and had this CD once. “Die Tote Stadt” is also a melodramatic masterpiece-thanks for your super interesting commentary and discussions.👍

[@johnwright7749]

Lots of fun! My go-to recording of Bluebeard’s Castle is the one you recommend by Ludwig, Barry/Kertesz. I’ve seen the Met productions a few times, but prefer just to listen on CD. Also have Erwartung with Bryn-Julson/Rattle, but haven’t subjected myself to that for sometime. Will listen to that again soon. Thanks for the tip on the Hindemith. I see there are a few videos available on KZbin.

[@2906nico]

Full house! I have all of these recordings. Great pieces!

[@barryguerrero7652]

Dave, Inge and I DID see all three stage works together at the ENO in 1981. It was fantastic!

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Cool!

[@henrygingercat]

I listened to Sancta Susanna for the first time thanks to this. I was on my own but it still made me blush.

[@davidmayhew8083]

That was fun. I can't wait!

[@MrRichiekaye]

Greatly enjoyed, David!

[@hwelf11]

Great topic. Your choices could not be improved upon - your synopses were priceless. There is another one-acter that might fit in this company, having an equally weird plot and a suitably dire outcome for the diva: Schreker's "Flammen." You should do him sometime.) There is another fine recording of the Florentine Tragedy with James Conlon and Deborah Voight.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Love Shreker--got to do Die Gezeichneten at some point. I've got the Conlon too. I mean, how much fun can we stand?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

p.s. Schulhof's Flammen is a lot of fun too, although not in one act.

[@hwelf11]

@@DavesClassicalGuide Absolutely - a wild opera from another fascinating composer. Mauceri's recording is one of my favorites in Decca's outstanding Entartete Kunst series - I'm grateful that project survived as long as it did before the bean-counters put their foot down, if you'll pardon the mixed metaphor.

[@Arixflipar]

There is one interesting non-musical connection in Erwartung that always fascinated me. The librettist for Erwartung was closely related to Bertha Pappenheim who was famously treated by Freud. He wrote about her in a seminal paper called Anna O (which is included in a book called Studies in Hysteria) which became one of the founding texts of the psychoanalytic movement.

[@gaylelinney180]

This would make a great topic for a book-length study: The Psychotic Female Character in Twentieth Century Opera. Her ancestry would be Abigaille and Lady Macbeth and Kundry, continuing through Salome and Elektra and then these five and Renata (Prokofiev's Fiery Angel) to Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and Elle (Poulenc's Voix Humaine). When are you going to write it?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Actually, it's sort of been done. There are many musicological studies on this topic.

[@gaylelinney180]

@@DavesClassicalGuide Yes but the trouble with so many musicological studies (at least the ones I have come across) is that they are REALLY DULL. Schenkerian analysis, inductive poietics, blah blah blah. Yours would be much more entertaining.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

@@gaylelinney180 Thank you for the vote of confidence!

[@allthisuselessbeauty-kr7]

Fascinating talk, not least for the spinach revelation! Sancta Susanna is the operatic equivalent of Ken Russell's The Devils!

[@elizabethj8510]

@@paxpaxart4740 Indeed he did and it is very Penderecki-an.

[@richmelvin2]

I am rather late in the game but I would add B.A. Zimmermann's 'Die Soldaten' to the list. I own both the CD and DVD of the opera after listening/watching it, I felt like my head had been in a vice for a sustained period of time.

[@philscott6085]

It's out of the period, but Penderecki's The Devils of Loudon is another good insane-fest.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

A real toe-tapper, that one!

[@jessebrennan7130]

A Spinach Tragedy 😂😂

[@AlessandroZir]

👍👍👍🤗🖤🌚

[@AlexMadorsky]

This video makes me want to do something I never, ever do: listen to opera. (Almost).

[@hiphurrah1]

what is the reason why most labels won't permit that you play fragments of it? Sounds completely stupid, you want to sell cds but don't want anyone getting an idea what the music sounds like...crazy business...

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Yes. The reason has less to do with classical music than with pop music and the need to protect illegal use of copyrighted material, but some classical labels are just as bad. And you're right. It makes no sense.