The Wexford Festival was founded in
1951. It aims to present three rarely
performed operas each year. The performances
are spread over eighteen days and draw
audiences from all over the world. Notable
names such as Mirella Freni and Ugo
Benelli appeared at Wexford in their
early careers, gaining much valuable
experience and exposure.
On completion of his
opera Der Freischütz in the summer
of 1820 Weber decided on a comic opera,
Die drei Pintos, to a libretto written
by Theodor Hell. He worked on the score
during 1821 but complications over dedicating
it to the King caused him to put the
work aside. He never completed it. His
plan was for the opera to consist of
an overture and sixteen numbers. When
Weber stopped work there were only sketches
for seven items. Weber’s widow passed
the sketches to Meyerbeer for him to
complete the work. He did nothing with
them for twenty years before declaring
the task to be impossible. In 1886 the
young Gustav Mahler, then aged 26 and
with none of his compositions published,
undertook the task. He found that the
sketches needed not only orchestration
but to be figured and harmonized as
well. Mahler filled out extra material
from Weber’s other music. In an erudite
sleeve-note, Michael Kennedy gives the
final scenario with indications of which
‘extra’ numbers were chosen.
The implausible plot
concerns the substitution, twice, of
Don Pinto on his way to Seville to marry
Clarissa who is in love with Gomez.
Needless to say the second substitution
makes Gomez the third Pinto and he marries
Clarissa. Eventually the real Pinto
turns up and Clarissa’s father is furious,
but all ends happily. A happy outcome
cannot be posed for this recording.
The best live recordings come about
when audiences stifle their coughs and
limit their applause to the ends of
scenes or acts. With recordings of live
opera performances there are the further
complications of off-microphone singing
and the noise of stage movement, the
latter being beyond the control of the
recording engineer. In a comic opera
there is likely to be much coming and
going and audience laughter if the performance
is going well. It does go well here,
but I have to admit to finding so much
extraneous noise seriously limiting
enjoyment and appreciation. Consequently
I cannot seriously recommend this recording
to those interested in Weber’s intentions
or Mahler’s realisation. I do realise
that when such recordings are envisaged,
the recording company does not know
how the production will pan out and
they take a gamble. Those interested
in the opera should pursue the early
1970s RCA recording with Lucia Popp,
Werner Hollweg and Hermann Prey. The
only people likely to enjoy this recording
are those who were present at the Wexford
performances and who want a memento
of the occasion.
Robert J Farr
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Wexford Festival Opera Chorus 
