AVAILABILITY
dux@dux.pl
The people at the Polish
company Dux have fought an uphill battle
to produce this world premiere recording.
They have had the digital masters on
their shelves for three years awaiting
funding. At last a benefactor has stepped
forward to join the Polish National
Commission for UNESCO and Opera Dolnośląwska
- Institute of Culture.
Dux have already done
more for Paderewski’s musical legacy
than any other company but this set
crowns their achievement. Their numerous
Paderewski discs have been reviewed
on this site.
First let’s set the
scene .... Paderewski studied with Zelenski
at the Warsaw Conservatoire before moving
to Berlin where he worked with Kiel
and Urban. His most important influence
was Leschetitsky. Paderewski’s career
was launched by his first Vienna concert
in 1887. Well into the 1920s he remained
the world’s most highly paid concert
pianist. However he had political nationalist
beliefs. In 1910, in Cracow, he raised
funds for and implemented an imposing
monument to the Poles’ victory over
the Prussians in 1410 - I wonder if
it survived the German occupation. Paderewski
quickly let his interest in playing
and writing music slip away as politics
became the ascendant impulse. He was
present at Versailles in 1919 as Head
of State for Poland in the Treaty negotiations.
Like many an artist since he made come-back
tours; these taking place in 1922 and
1923. Sadly he lived only long enough
to see the despoliation of his homeland
by the Nazis. He died in New York voicing
the Polish cause to the USA.
Paderewski did not
write an enormous amount and Manru
is his only opera. He had long cherished
the idea of writing a grand opera; Manru
is the fulfilment of that dream.
The plot of Manru:
The Tatra mountains are the scene of
this opera - the same Tatras portrayed
by Vitezlav Novák in his tone
poem In the Tatras and
the scene of the death of the composer
Mieczyslaw Karłowicz in an avalanche.
Ulana, has eloped with Manru, a gypsy.
She returns to her village, and implores
her mother, Hedwig, mortified by the
elopement, to forgive her. Hedwig will
do this if she will abandon Manru.
Ulana is having none of this and Hedwig
throws her out. Ulana then troops off
to see the dwarf wizard Urok. He gives
her a magic potion to secure the love
of Manru who now hankers for the open
road.
In the next act Ulana
sings a lullaby to her baby. Manru is
there but still torn between love for
Ulana and the wandering life. Urok pays
them a visit to the sound of a gypsy
violin. This is too much for Manru who
disappears into the forest. The gypsy
fiddler Jogu tries to lure him back
and there is temptation in the shape
of the beautiful gypsy Asa. Somehow
Ulana finds him and Manru drinks the
potion - which soon has the desired
result though it is transient.
Act III, like Act II,
is set in the mountains, this time near
a lake. The troubled Manru wanders the
moonlit scenery then falls asleep. He
is woken by the arrival of the gypsy
families. Asa intercedes with Oros,
the gypsy chief, to be reconciled with
the wayward Manru. The gypsies forgive
Manru and make him their chief supplanting
Oros who then makes off. Manru at last
succumbs to Asa. Ulana, in despair drowns
herself in the lake. Manru and Asa are
idyllically happy but as they walk the
mountains they are waylaid by Oros who
pushes Manru to his death. Finis.
A fuller synopsis can
be found at:-
http://opera.stanford.edu/Paderewski/Manru/synopsis.html
Ulana, as sung by Eva
Czermak, is an incendiary role with
plenty of formidably volatile emotional
singing. Czermak has a strong Slavonic
voice with a sustained explosive power
to impart to fricatives and set piece
dramatics as in Scene VI - ‘Matko, matko
moja’. The strain tells more clearly
on her ‘Manru’ Ivaniv (e.g. in scene
1 of Act 2, tr. 11) who seems to be
under pressure vying with the stormy
instrument that is Czermak’s voice.
In fact it is the role of Ulana that
has real prominence and the opera might
easily have been called ‘Ulana’.
We
are told by Jacek Marczyński that
Manru is ‘undoubtedly inspired by Wagner’s
music’. Personally I do not hear this.
More often I was reminded of Tchaikovsky
both Iolanta and Onegin
among the operas and Nutcracker among
the other works. One of the main recurrent
melodic cells instantly recalls the
pendant part of the theme from the Onegin
- Letter Scene. In this vein there
is some flamboyantly romantic and dramatic
music in Act 1, Scene VII between Ulana
and Urok. The duet between Ulana and
Manru in Scene VI of Act II blazes with
a slow-blooming passion - wonderful
stuff!
Vigorous and extremely
attractive folk dances, voiced by the
choir, look forward, through a glass
darkly, to Szymanowski’s dances in Harnasie
and to the early idyllic country
estate scenes in Prokofiev’s War
and Peace. This can be heard in
Scenes VIII and IX of Act 1. Massed
choral textures clothing dance figures
recur for scene 2 of Act 3. This writing
recalls the choral dances in Omar
Khayyam, Bantock’s contemporaneous
secular trilogy of carpe diem cantatas.
Ulana’s part is blessed
indeed. Listen to the tenderly spun
Śpij
juź section of Act 2,
scene 1. There is also some villainous
cackling laughter from time to time
but not too much and not desperately
over the top.
I mustn’t ignore the
orchestra as the extremely well-balanced
recording emphasises that Paderewski
intended it to be as much a character
(the most complex and emotionally articulate
of all) as any of the sung roles. It
can be heard to brooding effect in the
prelude to Act III, the only purely
orchestral interlude, in the solo violin
and in the anvil clangs that appear
sparingly in all three Acts.
Stanisław
Czermak’s solo violin puts in a substantial
appearance, with predictably gypsy overtones,
at Scene 2 of Act 2. As the scene proceeds
the violin solo interweaves with the
gypsy singing. In the same scene the
cimbalom delectably cuts through the
singing. The violin writing links
with typically flammable fiddle writing
as well as transiently reflecting impassioned
Brahmsian gestures. Both solo instruments
recur in Scene 3 of Act 3. In the final
scene the mood darkens still further
with Puccinian thunder and lightning
coruscating in all directions preparatory
to the tragic dénouement.
Manru was premiered
in Dresden on 29 May 1901 with George
Anthes in the title role. The orchestra
was conducted by Ernst Schuch. The work
was then given again, this time in Polish,
on 8 June 1901, in the Lwow (Lemberg)
opera house. There were national premieres
of the work in Prague on 24 November
1901, Zurich on 30 January 1902 and
Warsaw in May 1902. It was also given
at Nice, Monte Carlo, Bonn and Kiev.
The 1901-2 season saw four performances
at the Met, the first of which was on
14 February 1902, with Alexander Von
Bandrowski as Manru and Marcella Sembrich
as Ulana. It is the only Polish work
ever produced at the Met. There were
also fixtures at Philadelphia, Pittsburgh,
Boston, Chicago and Baltimore.
Manru’s reception
by the US media is documented in detail
at:-
http://www.usc.edu/dept/polish_music/PMJ/issue/4.2.01/pibermanru.html
If you are at all interested there is
a substantial essay on the Stylistic
and Dramatic Features of Manru:-
http://www.usc.edu/dept/polish_music/PMJ/issue/4.2.01/koniecznamanru.html
Its later performance
history is recounted in Dux’s chunky
little booklet. Grand Opera Theatre
in Warsaw revived the work in 1930 and
gave a further run of performances
in 1936. Poznán Opera launched a completely
new production in 1938. Since 1945 there
have been no productions outside Poland.
The Polish performances included ones
in Poznán and Warsaw in 1961 and another
in Wrocław in 1990 to mark the
composer’s
130th birthday. In 2001, this time to
mark the 60th anniversary of Paderewski’s
death, Wrocław Opera gave a concert
performance. It is this version on which
the present recording is based.
Unfortunately I could
not find the libretto anywhere on the
web but it is included in the sung Polish
in the 70 page booklet. There are no
word for word translations as part of
the set. Instead we are given a detailed
track-related synopsis in English. Still,
it is a pity that the libretto is not
also given in English translation.
The booklet, in addition
to including the libretto and synopsis
also offers
profiles of all the artists involved,
a full list of personnel of the choir
and orchestra as well as Jacek Marczyński’s
compact essay on the composer and the
opera.
The set comprises an
old-style double thickness case for
the 2 CDs which is rather extravagant
with shelf space, I am afraid. This
and the booklet slip into a light card
case decorated, as is the front of booklet,
with Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s striking
1898 portrait of Paderewski.
Part of Act III, Scene
4 survives on a 1902 Mapleson cylinder
preserving in seemingly very poor sound
the singing of Fritzi Scheff as Ase,
Alexander Von Bandrowski as Manru and
Adolph Mühlmann as Oros with the
Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra
conducted by Walter Damrosch. This apart
the present set is Manru’s recording
premiere.
Dux’s overwhelmingly
confident Manru deserves wide
publicity. I hope that this will happen.
If you are at all open to Tchaikovsky,
late-romantic folk-opera, Mussorgsky
and perhaps partial to a little operatic
Rachmaninov then this is for you. You
will not be disappointed.
Demand this set from
your record store if they do not stock
it. Also a word to the wise: sets this
attractive and rare often disappear
at short notice. Do not let it slip
away. Order soon.
Rob Barnett
Having just had a successful
foray to the "Collector's Room"
in Salisbury at the start of their annual
sale, I was particularly excited to
come across a copy of the DUX recording
of "Manru", substantially
reduced.
After reading your review in Musicweb,
I set out to find an English version
of the libretto, and came across the
following web pages, I wonder if you
are aware of them:
http://www.usc.edu/dept/polish_music/PMJ/issue/4.2.01/nossigmanru1.html
http://www.usc.edu/dept/polish_music/PMJ/issue/4.2.01/nossigmanru2.html
http://www.usc.edu/dept/polish_music/PMJ/issue/4.2.01/nossigmanru3.html
I expect the German version was published
at the time and may be available through
antiquarian booksellers. I was very
lucky to come across a German libretto
for Rozycki's "Eros and Psyche"
published in the 1920s, which was a
great help in listening to the CDs,
not having had the LP version with its
fuller documentation.
Now if only the Swedes would release
even one of their recordings of Rangstrom's
"Kronbruden", this really
would be a good year!!
Robin Lim
(Salisbury Recorded Music Society)
Chorus of the Lower Silesian Opera
in Wrocław/Małgorzata Orawska
