Along
with the Lyric Symphony, Eine Florentinische
Tragödie kept Zemlinsky’s name
alive in the decades after his death.
The appearance of this third CD recording
since Gerd Albrecht’s pioneering 1983
Schwann LP is an acknowledgement of
its rise through the repertory ranks.
The setting is renaissance Florence.
Following a sensually tempestuous Prelude,
wealthy merchant Simone returns home
to find wife Bianca in post-coital relaxation
with Prince Guido Bardi, son of the
city’s ruling Duke. At first he feigns
indifference, obsequiously presenting
him with his costliest goods, an attitude
which Bianca finds contemptible. When
finally he provokes Guido to a fight
and strangles him on the floor, her
feeling shifts: "Why did you not
tell me you were so strong?" "Why
did you not tell me you were so beautiful?"
Simone responds, and as the curtain
falls husband and wife come together
in a passionate embrace over the corpse.
The
ending has been called lurid and implausible,
so not the least pleasure of this issue
is François-Gildas Tual’s specially-written
essay Turmoil and Mystery, which
aligns Zemlinsky’s opera with Wedekind’s
(and Berg’s) Lulu, Weininger’s
infamous Sex and Character and
other radical expressions of the Viennese
zeitgeist in which woman is depicted
not as man’s redeemer, but as the alien
creature who unwittingly drags him down
into the depths of depravity. Shocking
it may be, but Bianca’s volte face
is no more sensational kitsch than Klimt’s
Der Küss. As in the tone-poem
Die Seejungfrau Zemlinsky uses
musical expression to salve the scars
of his relationship with Alma Schindler/Mahler,
but Eine Florentinische Tragödie
transcends autobiography just as surely
as the orchestral work. His two operas
on Wilde texts probe this twin mystery
at the heart of fin-de-siècle
Vienna’s artistic life — woman and sexuality.
Der Zwerg is a subtle work which
clothes the debate in the complexities
of fairy-tale, but this earlier one-acter
presents the obsession in the raw, recalling
the method if not the manner of that
most infamous of Wildean operas, Salome.
Zemlinsky’s essay in superheated emotion
equals Strauss’s in opulence as surely
as it surpasses it in purely musical
interest.
I’m
afraid we’re still waiting for a completely
satisfactory recording. The rock on
which the three previous contenders
foundered was undercasting in the central
role. The opera is virtually a monologue
for Simone, requiring the subtlety of
a Fischer-Dieskau, the range of a Terfel
and the stamina of a Red Rum. Albert
Dohmen, who’s already recorded it under
Riccardo Chailly (Decca, 1997) is certainly
least stolid of the bunch; but eight
years on his saturnine tone has hardened,
and his power above the stave has diminished
without any compensatory gain in subtlety.
His Bianca is once again the faultless
Iris Vermillion, more matronly than
before but no less sensual in this enigmatic
role. Viktor Lutsiuk’s Guido is disappointing.
His bleached Slavonic timbre fails to
convey lyric ardour, and his observance
of pitch and dynamics is not as secure
as Heinz Kruse’s in the earlier recording,
let alone the superior David Kuebler
in James Conlon’s lucid but theatrically
undercooked reading.
EMI
captured that 1997 version "live"
in Cologne, but over three rehearsal
days — which might explain its sonic
superiority. If Simone is one of Zemlinsky’s
protagonists, his orchestra is the other.
Armin Jordan here keeps a firm hand
on the tiller, but although he whips
up plenty of excitement and adrenaline
runs high, the orchestral balance isn’t
ideal with the strings too often subjugated
by the lusty but coarse Paris brass.
Nor can Naïve’s comparatively dry
recording match the dynamic splendour
of its Decca or EMI rivals. No doubt
in the concert hall the performance
fully deserved its ovation, but in the
cold light of day its virtues only duplicate
Decca’s at a lower level. Conlon makes
the piece sound less like Strauss and
more like Zemlinsky, so choice rests
between his orchestral clarity on EMI
and Chailly’s stronger sense of drama.
Realistically, two performances of Eine
Florentinische Tragödie are
going to be enough for most collectors,
and — introductory essay apart — the
new Naïve simply isn’t compelling
enough to oust those 1997 versions from
the shelf. Now if Bryn Terfel were to
have a shot at it ….
Christopher
Webber
DISCOGRAPHY (Complete CD versions)
- Doris Soffel, Kenneth
Riegel, Guillermo Sarabia; RSO Berlin,
c. Gerd Albrecht (Schwann CD 11625,
1983)
- Iris Vermillion,
Heinz Kruse, Albert Dohmen; Concertgebouw
Orchestra, c. Riccardo Chailly (Decca
Double 4737342, 1997) AmazonUK
- Deborah Voigt, David
Kuebler, Donnie Ray Albert, Gürzenich-Orchester
Kölner Philharmoniker, c. James
Conlon (EMI Classics 7243 5 56472
2, 1997)
Iris Vermillion (mezzo-soprano) — Bianca
