In 1779 a theatre
group visited Salzburg and Mozart wrote this Singspiel for
them, but for some unknown reasons it was never performed
and was probably turned down while the composer was still
at work with it. With no performances within sight Mozart
obviously lost interest in the project and instead set to
work on the opera seria Idomeneo, which was first performed
in Munich on 29 January 1881.
What is left of
Das Serail, which was the original title – the present
name Zaide was attached to it in the 19th
century – is fifteen vocal numbers: mostly arias but also
a duet, a trio and a quartet – much of this is very fine music,
the soprano aria Ruhe sanft, mein holdes Leben in act
one even has claims to be one of his most beautiful creations.
Very interesting are the two melodramas, i.e. spoken text
accompanied by the orchestra, which are to my knowledge unique
in Mozart’s oeuvre and point forward to Fidelio and
Der Freischütz. He wrote no overture, the final number,
the quartet, ends in a state of chaos – being a Singspiel
it shouldn’t end in tragedy and the booklet notes say “… it
is not clear from the existing sources how a … happy ending
was to be reached.” – and the connecting spoken text has been
lost. For these performances actor and writer Tobias Moretti
has provided a narrative that tries to give a plausible storyline.
It is spiced with references to the present times and as a
starting point he has the topical opposition between the Muslim
and the Christian worlds, and writing this on the five-year-anniversary
day of the World Trade Center catastrophy, I couldn’t help
feeling a bit uneasy. Mr Moretti is of course very serious
in his intention, even though I am not quite sure that this
is the best way of preaching. It also prolongs the opera with
about 20 minutes; on the other hand all these Zwischentexts
are separately banded and so can be skipped at
further listening.
The missing overture
has been substituted in this recording by the symphony in
E flat major, KV 184, which fits well in mood and instrumentation
even though it thus becomes the longest of all Mozart overtures
at 8+ minutes. According to another source the symphony in
G, KV 318, would be a more likely candidate, especially since
it is practically contemporaneous with Zaide.
The story and
the setting of course makes one think of Die Entführung
aus dem Serail and Zaide can almost be seen as
a blueprint for that masterpiece. But Zaide has a tone
of its own, actually more Sturm und Drang, which makes
the symphony KV184 a good choice for overture, with its gawkiness
and surprisingly dark undertones. The “jagged” playing by
the as always excellent Concentus Musicus, further underlines
a feeling of foreboding. In view of this the play ending,
not in joy and conciliation, but seemingly in unsolved conflict,
is after all logical.
The music is on
a high level of invention and Nicolaus Harnoncourt, who can
sometimes be a quirky Mozartean with eccentric tempos, here
paces the music admirably, with sprightly playing, always
rhythmically alert. The only tempo that can be questioned
is in the well-known aria Ruhe sanft (CD1 track 6)
which is very slow indeed. Compared to the recent recording
with Miah Persson on her BIS recital (see review)
Diana Damrau takes almost 1½ minutes longer. It is still a
fine reading of the aria and Ms Damrau sings it lovely with
feeling. Her voice tends to be a bit shrill occasionally,
more so in the act II aria Treulos schluchzet Philomele
(CD2 track 8), but elsewhere there is much fine singing from
her, best of all perhaps the little duet in act I, Meine
Seele hüpft vor Freuden (CD1 track 9), where she is partnered
by the seemingly omnipresent Michael Schade, one of Harnoncourt’s
favourite singers. And he is his usual expressive self, the
melodrama – or melologo as it is called here – Unerforschliche
Fügung! (CD1 track 4) executed with involvement and intensity
and the aria Rase, Schicksal, wüte immer (CD1 track
7) a dramatic tour de force. In the first act we also encounter
the slave-master Allazim, sung with sonorous, steady and beautiful
tone and a natural feeling for the text, by Florian Boesch.
I first heard him just a couple of months ago as Caronte in
Harnoncourt’s recording of Haydn’s Orlando Paladino,
and I wrote then: “Certainly someone to watch.” Now here he
is again and more than fulfilling the expectations. It will
be interesting to follow his development.
In the second
act we meet the Sultan, Soliman, and he is sung by the powerful
Rudolf Schasching in high strung, almost over-the-top readings
of his two arias. Mozart would not have expected such outgoing
singing but it is unquestionably thrilling. The experienced
Anton Scharinger with his round bass voice in fine shape has
only one chance to make his mark and he does so with aplomb
in this “laughing aria” (CD2 track 4).
I haven’t had
an opportunity to compare this recording to earlier offerings,
the only one I have had some fleeting contact with is the
30-year-old Bernhard Klee version on Philips with Edith Mathis
a charming Zaide, but whatever the merits of that and other
offerings I am pretty sure that Harnoncourt has little to
fear, with splendid playing on period instruments, lively,
un-eccentric readings and with five highly accomplished singers.
The music itself is certainly worth a place on anyone’s shelves.
Tobias Moretti’s narrative can be both thought-provoking and
entertaining (the audience appreciated him a lot) but for
future listening I may just skip it. The Grosser Saal in Musikverein
is of course famous for its acoustics and the recording is
faultless. Full texts and translations plus a good essay by
Thomas Betzwieser further contribute to making this a highly
desirable set.
Göran Forsling
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Diana
Damrau (soprano) – Zaide; Michael Schade (tenor) – Gomatz; Rudolf Schasching
(tenor) – Soliman; Florian Boesch (baritone) – Allazim; Anton Scharinger
(bass) – Osmin;
