Emil Nikolaus Joseph von REZNIČEK (1860-1945)
rec. live, Chemnitz Opera House, Saxony, November 2010
Full texts, libretto and translations are provided in the booklet.
CPO 777 653-2 [2 CDs: 93:09]
Emil Nikolaus Joseph, Freiherr von Reznicek was born in
1860, the son of an Austrian Military noble and a Rumanian princess.
‘Freiherr’ was a title, roughly equivalent to ‘Baron’,
of ancient origin in the Holy Roman Empire. He lived most of his life
as an aristocrat and like Richard Strauss, he became entangled with
the Nazi regime at a musically administrative level, but his wife was
of Jewish stock and so he feared for her and his daughter. Musically,
the Nazi’s didn’t think much of him, and several of his
works were not performed in Germany. He was very friendly with Strauss,
and although his music never became as popular, he was certainly very
highly regarded in central Europe for much of his compositional career,
and as all the recordings of his works show, he was Strauss’ equal
as a master of the orchestra.
CPO have been industriously recording Reznicek’s output –
the five symphonies (review
~ review
~ review),
several lengthy symphonic poems and concertos (review),
the operas Ritter Blaubart (review)
and Donna Diana (review).
Now we have this hitherto unperformed opera, Benzin, described
in its title as a ‘cheerful fantastic play with music in two acts’.
It is, in fact, Reznicek’s eleventh opera (if one includes operettas
in the list). The basis of the piece is essentially the Odysseus and
Circe story as re-told by the 17th century Spanish dramatist
Pedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco
y Riaño. Naturally, Reznicek decided to update it further by adding
a journey by Zeppelin to Circe’s island! On the CPO website and
in the CD booklet one can read that “it is a farcical, fantastic
drama à la E. T. A. Hoffmann in which grotesque exaggeration renders
tolerable the depths and perils of human existence”.
Having much enjoyed all my earlier purchases of Reznicek CD’s,
I was much looking forward to listening to this opera. Unfortunately,
I didn’t enjoy it very much, and that is not the fault of the
performance or recording. I have never been at all fond of Strauss’s
‘Die Schweigsame Frau’, because of its almost continual
chatter, and ‘Benzin’, preceding it by three years, has
much the same characteristic.
The first act begins with a few seconds of orchestral music, and the
singing starts as it continues – very wordy, with little or no
chance for the development of lyrical arias. When an individual has
a lengthy stretch of text to sing, it tends to be a recitative-like
descriptive of the situation.
A zeppelin is observed flying over an unnamed island and is perceived
to be approaching for a landing. It is identified as being an airship
attempting to win a round the world speed title, and when it lands,
its pilot Ulysses Eisenhardt says that his craft is running short of
petrol (= Benzin) and he is delighted to observe such superb facilities
for re-fuelling. His crew disembark and are welcomed by the island’s
manager, Joe M. Plumcake, who tells them that the island is the property
of billionaire Jeremias D. Thunderbolt and that his daughter, Gladys
lives there and treats it as her own. In an aside he makes mysterious
comments about the fate awaiting the aviators. When Gladys appears,
she is immediately taken by the dashing Eisenhardt and prepares to have
‘fun’ with him and his crew. She is accompanied by several
female friends, who are impressed by the male aviators and who likewise
refer to the fun that they are about to have, although one of them,
Violet, is concerned to keep Freidank, the engineer away from Gladys.
It transpires that Gladys is a hypnotist of amazing powers, who delights
in making slaves of the visitors to the island by making them behave
as if they are animals. She uses her powers on the crew who promptly
start to make animal noises.
However, Eisenhardt is made of sterner stuff and by exercising his will,
is able to resist her mesmeric powers. Taken aback, she removes the
hypnotism from all the crew and invites them to her palace where they
dance with Gladys’ friends.
By the end of this first act it is apparent that the singers are all
extremely good – no squally sopranos or hoarse tenors. In fact,
Johanna Stojkovic as Gladys and Guibee Yang as Violet are exceptionally
fine, as is Carsten Süss as Eisenhardt and Kouta Räsänen as Thunderbolt.
The orchestra is very good and the performance is as propulsive as is
necessary for such a wordy piece. They are all captured by a well-balanced,
audience noise-free, live recording and the conductor, Frank Beermann,
has already recorded several of CPO’s earlier Reznicek CD’s.
One can only applaud the efforts of the Chemnitz Opera in their revival
of the piece, and wonder at the sheer number of Opera houses in Germany
– about 80 in all, compared with Britain’s 14. Apparently,
in 2013 no fewer than 1/3rd of all the world’s opera
performances took place in Germany. This situation has arisen for historical
reasons – before the German states were united by Bismarck, more
or less each little Grand Ducal State had its own court orchestra and
opera, and many have survived to the present day.
It is also apparent that Reznicek had the ability to write memorable
musical material to accompany the singers, and provides a foxtrot for
the first act dance and a tango in the second. I just wish that he had
composed true arias for the lovers – for such Gladys and Eisenhardt
become at the end of the second act. This is 26’ minutes longer
than the 33’ first act, and contains the bulk of the interaction
between the primary and secondary characters. The basic scenario revolves
around Glady’s determination to keep Eisenhardt on the island,
being unable to stomach her ‘defeat’ at his hands. To this
end, she persuades Violet to seduce him. Violet is reluctant because
she has fallen for Freidank, but consents because she wants to make
him jealous. Meanwhile two of the colleagues of Eisenhardt have fallen
for Lissy and Nell, and try to persuade them to go with them to Munich
and Berlin…..and so on and so forth. The whole thing is a ridiculous
concoction, becoming impenetrably complex as when Plumcake is turned
into a parrot after a disagreement with Gladys’, and then her
father appears, demanding that his daughter release Eisenhardt and the
crew because he has a multi-million bet that he will win the race. He,
incidentally, falls for an unnamed ‘old woman’ who appears
towards the end of the opera.
So much is going on, with short-breathed melodic cells characterising
the singing, that I found it difficult to sort one character from the
next. Occasionally, as in a short duet between Violet and Freidank,
a good tune will appear, but not for long. I suppose that the whole
thing is too brittle for there to be much chance of relaxation into
long-breathed lyricism, and a tendency to excessive recitative is apparent
throughout. By the end, I was gasping for an extended aria or lyrical
duet that never appeared.
Although I know little of Reznicek’s other operas, I rather wish
that Chemnitz had decided to put on one that allowed his very impressive
melodic ability to flower at greater length than Benzin permits.
For example, a beautiful orchestral interlude for violin and harp appears
towards the end of the act; it lasts for about 3 minutes, and that’s
it. Typically, it is followed by more chatter. The last six minutes
of the opera ramp up to the all’s-well-that-ends-well finale,
but even here, as the cast wonder whether Gladys and Eisenhardt will
be reconciled there is much orchestral jiggery-pokery as the airship
is refuelled and prepares to take off. The composer evidently believed
that a very brief ‘Eisenhardt!’ - ’Gladys!’
interchange was all that was necessary to provide an operatic culmination
to their strange love-affair, and then the hero and heroine enter the
airship. The opera closes with general rejoicing.
If I am presumptuous enough in Reznicek’s defence, that he had
a super ability to conjure dance music – there are several episodes
where the music takes on a dance-like quality, and it is here as much
as anywhere else, that his melodic facility is displayed. I recall that
his 5th Symphony is subtitled ‘Dance Symphony’
(review).
The booklet that accompanies this 2-CD set is produced to CPO’s
usual exactingly high standards. A detailed biography of Reznicek is
included, together with an immensely detailed discussion and description
of the opera, a tracked synopsis of each act and full texts and translations
(German/English). Unlike some earlier CPO notes, which have been irremediably
convoluted, the essays here are fluent and easily understood. Photographs
of the production are also included along with the usual biographies
of the principals.
Jim Westhead
Performance details
Benzin – ‘A Cheerful Fantastic Play in Two Acts’
Kouta Räsänen (Bass) – Jeremias Thunderbolt (Billionaire)
Johanna Stojkovic (Soprano) – Gladys, his daughter
Guibee Yang (Soprano) – Violet, her friend
Susanne Thielemann (Soprano) – Lissy
Tiina Pentttiten (Contralto) – Nell
Thomas Mäthger (Bass) – Joe M. Plumcake, an admirer of Gladys
Heidrun Göpfert (Soprano) – an older woman
Matthias Winter (Baritone) - Meyer, Head Servant in Gladys’ Palace
Carsten Süss (Tenor) – Ulysses Eisenhardt, Commander of the Zeppelin
Andreas Kindschuh (Baritone) – Engineer
André Reimer (Tenor) – Radio Operator
Martin Gäbler (Bass) – Franz Xaver Obertupfer
Mathias Kunze (Tenor) – Müller
Peter Heber (Tenor) – Lehmann
Stephan Hönig (Bass) – A servant
Ulrike Bader (Soprano) – A lady
The Chemnitz Opera Choir/director Mary Adelyn Kauffman
The Robert-Schumann-Philharmonie/Frank Beerman
