MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger


Support us financially by purchasing from

Johann Simon MAYR (1763–1845)
Elena
Opera semiseria in two acts (1814)
Elena / Riccardo – Julia Sophie Wagner (soprano)
Costantino – Daniel Ochoa (bass)
Paolino / Adolfo – Mira Graczyk (soprano)
Carlo – Niklas Mallmann (bass)
Edmondo – Markus Schäfer (tenor)
Anna – Anna-Doris Capitelli (mezzo-soprano)
Ernesta – Anna Feith (soprano)
Governor – Fang Zhi (tenor)
Herald – Harald Thum (tenor)
Urbino – Andreas Mattersberger (bass)
Simon Mayr Chorus, Concerto de Bassus/Franz Hauk
rec 17-25 August 2018, Kongregationssaal, Neuburg, Germany
World premiere recording
The Italian libretto together with a German translation may be accessed at the Naxos website
Reviewed as downloaded from press preview
NAXOS 8.660462-63 [73:34 + 77:21]

“Rescue opera” was a popular genre in the early 19th century. To quote Thomas Lindner’s liner notes for the present issue, a rescue ope ra is an opera “in which an innocent hero or heroine is accused of a capital offence they have not committed and condemned to death, before finally, after various mishaps and complications, escaping by the skin of their teeth and having their names cleared.” The best known, and the artistically and musically best example, is Beethoven’s Fidelio, which started life as Leonore when it premiered in Vienna in 1805. It was later reworked and foreshortened, and after further revisions it was presented in the shape we know it today in May 1814.

The German libretto was based on a French one by Jean-Nicolas Bouilly, and he was also the brain behind Étienne Mehul’s Héléna (1803), which in its turn was used as a master by Andrea Leone Tottola’s Elena, set to music by Johann Simon Mayr and presented during the carnival in Naples on 28 January 1814, the same year as Fidelio saw the light of day. Elena is an opera semiseria, i.e., a heroic-comic opera, and the plot is complex: Duke Costantino was falsely accused of murdering his father, a ruler of Arles, by Romualdo, a relative of his father. Romualdo usurped the throne and Costantino had to flee. His wife Elena also fled, disguised as a man under the name Riccardo.

When the opera begins Riccardo has just arrived at the property of Carlo, a wealthy landowner, who soon realises that Riccardo in fact is a woman. She reveals to Carlo her identity and tells him that she left her son outside Carlo’s farm three years ago. Carlo found the boy and took him in and has regarded him as his son. Mother and son meet, and in a beautiful romance “Riccardo” tells her son Paolino what had happened to her in the shape of a fairy tale. Soon Costantino arrives and husband and wife rejoice. Costantino tells her that Romualdo is dead, but his son Edmondo, is now Costantino’s enemy. Costantino flees again. The Governor, who is on the look-out for strangers, arrives and arrests Paolino. Elena reveals her identity, and both she and Carlo are also arrested.

In the second act Edmondo appears. After various complications he gathers those present, among whom the Governor is keen to have Costantino, Elena and Paolino condemned to death. Now Edmondo confirms that Costantino is innocent. Romualdo left a written confession on his deathbed that it was he who killed Costantino’s father! Everyone is happy and rejoices.

There are subplots that I have left open, but you get the gist, I hope. By 1814 Mayr had turned 50 and was deeply experienced as opera composer. His music doesn’t have the depth of Beethoven’s, but he was an instinctive dramatist, and the long score – the music takes 2˝ hours, not counting the interval – unfolds efficiently and without longueurs. The secco recitatives may be a liability, but they are delivered most of the time convincingly and with insight. As always, his instrumentation is skilful, he employs the woodwind elegantly and flute and clarinet get ample opportunities as soloists. The clarinet has a field day in Edmondo’s aria in the second act (CD 2 tr. 6) with a fine obbligato part. Trumpet fanfares are also heard – in the overture and then in the long finale to the first act, when they herald the arrival of the Governor. Mayr was an inspired melodist and the lively potpourri overture brims over with delicatessen. Everything points to a happy end, which readers who plodded through the plot will already know.

There are several fine musical numbers, beginning with the jolly chorus of peasants that opens the proceedings. Riccardo’s romance (CD 1 tr. 12) is touching, the first act finale, mentioned above (CD 2 tr. 2), is a masterly scene which fizzes along swiftly and with growing intensity. Edmondo’s aria, also mentioned before, and, even more, Edmondo and Carlo’s duet (CD 2 tr. 8) is something to savour. The Governor also has an aria (CD 2 tr. 10) with a melody that really sticks, and towards the end the Sextet (CD 2 tr. 14) is another masterpiece, that was hailed by both critics and audiences in Naples and Milan.

The singing is generally good, with Julia Sophie Wagner as the eponymous heroine standing out. She shines especially in the aria in act II (CD 2 tr. 12), beautifully sung with a lot of dramatic coloratura. Daniel Ochoa as Costantino is a grand dramatic bass with great stage presence, and Markus Schäfer as Edmondo, in his late 50s, has retained his smooth lyric tenor, so successful in Bach and Mozart, and sings with elegance. The other tenor, Fang Zhi as the Governor, has more heft as befits the role.

Anna-Doris Capitelli (Anna), Niklas Mallmann (Carlo) and Andreas Mattersberger (Urbino) also contribute honourable achievements. At the helm is Franz Hauk, whose untiring work for many years to re-establish Simon Mayr’s reputation as one of the important composers of his time, has been invaluable, and is worth all the accolades he has received. This latest instalment is another feather in his well-supplied cap.

Göran Forsling




Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing