Even Strauss’s staunchest
supporters have had trouble with Daphne.
That doyen of the composer’s biographers,
Norman Del Mar, ends his typically illuminating
chapter on it with these words: ‘There
are undoubtedly faults and uneven qualities
which have to be considered ... yet
Daphne contains passages which
are the quintessence of what the ageing
Strauss had to say, of that rich mellifluousness
which found its ultimate expression
in the Four Last Songs’. Gregor’s
libretto often shoulders much of the
blame, and the work has had a hard life
in the opera house, not having the pulling
power of the other one-acters Salome
and Elektra, whilst being difficult
to programme with anything else. It
does however, as Del Mar indicates,
have many glorious moments; the famous
final Transformation Scene is as soaring
and memorable as the Rosenkavalier
Trio or Elektra’s Recognition
Scene and, like them, is often performed
out of context. Maybe that’s why it’s
the ideal gramophone opera, having done
well on disc over the years.
This new high profile
studio version from Decca, one of the
greatest of all recorded opera stables,
has a lot going for it. Firstly, it’s
conducted by Semyon Bychkov, whose long
affinity with Strauss’s music shows
at every turn. His Avie recording of
Ein Heldenleben and Metamorphosen
with this very orchestra was one of
my discs of the year a while back [review]
and once again they respond magnificently
to Bychkov’s supple beat. As in the
previous disc, he and his band are alive
to all Strauss’s teeming detail without
losing the sumptuous sweep and sheen
that his music so needs. With veteran
producer Michael Haas in charge of proceedings,
you are guaranteed a true Straussian
aural experience.
The obvious selling
point vocally is the title assumption
by Renée Fleming and this particular
part might have been written for her.
Her creamy, expansive tone is ideally
suited to so many of Strauss’s lines
and she makes light of most of the taxing
technical demands of the part. Some
of the cruelly high tessitura does stretch
even her considerable capabilities -
she is no match, in this respect, for
Hilde Gueden on Böhm’s classic
1964 set - but one always feels she
is in control. Her way with the text
and acting ability are second to none,
easily matching her most illustrious
predecessors, Lucia Popp included.
The tenors tend to
play second fiddle to Daphne, but both
are good here. Johan Botha gets the
principal role of Apollo and his strong,
virile tone is well suited to the part.
He also has some high-lying passages
and copes easily, top Bs and B flats
proving no problem. Michael Schade’s
lovelorn Leukippos characterises well,
but is a shade light for my taste, and
certainly no match for the incomparable
Fritz Wunderlich for Böhm. The
other women cope well with parts that
seem basically underwritten, but I do
like the wonderfully rich, chesty tone
of Anne Larsson’s Gaea.
Having mentioned the
Böhm as severe competition for
this new set, it’s also worth drawing
attention to a well received recording
from 1989 conducted by Haitink (EMI).
I haven’t been able to sample it, but
by all accounts it’s worth seeking out.
Böhm’s set is cheaper; he does
make a few cuts (as he often did in
Strauss operas) but they’re tolerable
– some might even say they do the piece
a favour. The sound has also worn very
well, though inevitably the rich, full
Decca experience is very persuasive
in this music. I feel that this aspect,
allied to Bychkov’s conducting and Fleming’s
intelligent portrayal, are this new
set’s chief assets. Whether they are
enough to carry the day in the face
of a classic set from a legendary Straussian,
who has at his disposal a truly starry
cast (Gueden, Wunderlich, King, Schöffler)
is the question. You may well have to
try before you buy on this one.
Tony Haywood
WDR Symphony Orchestra, Cologne/Semyon Bychkov
