A Glimpse At The German & The French Opera
Dec 05 '07 (Updated Mar 09 '08)
The Bottom Line A glimpse at the German and the French opera. If you like classical music from the Romantic Period, you'll like many of these!
GERMAN & FRENCH OPERA
For those who have not experienced the opera before and don't know what to expect, here is an overview with some Youtube clips to give you some ideas of whether you would like to explore this musical genre or not.
GERMAN OPERA
The German opera (not to be confused with the Singspielen, which are opera with spoken dialog instead of sung speech connecting the songs) pretty much began in the early Romantic Period with Carl Maria von Weber, who composed powerfully emotional music using louder and more colorful orchestra sound that is just as important in creating the drama as the singing voice is. Wagner transformed the genre even more in his contempt for 'songs' as being dramatically unnecessary, and worked to smooth out his 'musical dramas' in to long musical plays where all elements is seamlessly integrated (no show piece arias). One must really pay attention to the orchestra when one listens to a German opera, especially the Wagner 'musical dramas', since much of the story is told via arrangement of Leitmotifs (short musical passages that are associated with a specific character or idea).
With the declamation style and the large size of the orchestra, the singers of the German opera have a voice that is built for power... Sustained power that can survive having to compete with a 75+ instruments orchestra for up to 5 hrs at a time. Some great singers of this repertoire are: Helen Traubel, Kirsten Flagstad, Astrid Varnay, Birgit Nilsson, Gwyneth Jones, Lauritz Melchior, Fritz Wunderlich, Wolfgang Windgassen, Hans Hotter, Martha Mödl, Lotte Lehmann, Leonie Rysanek, Hildegarde Behren, Christa Ludwig, Karita Mattila, Nina Stemme, Ben Heppner, Rene Pape, Thomas Hampson, et.al.
So, what do German opera sound like? Here are a few samples:
1. Ludwig van BEETHOVEN's Fidelio
Clip: www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJPcf-v76NU (Karita Mattila sings Fidelio's Abscheulicher /Komm hoffnung)
It's a shame that Beethoven wrote only one opera. Premiered in 1805, Fidelio was a labor of love for him (the overture alone underwent at least 5 different transformations). Fidelio is actually Leonore, the political prisoner Florestan's faithful wife, who spends most of the opera under the male disguise to secure the job of helper to Rocco the Jailer while searching for her husband in the prison's secret dungeons. Fidelio/Leonore is perhaps second only to Penelope in Monteverdi's 'The Return of Ulysses' as the model of constancy. Her ordeals (including having to put up with getting constantly hit on by Rocco's daughter, Marcellina) bear good fruit in the end when the good governor, Don Fernando, sides with her instead of the villainous Pizarro and pardons her husband and other political prisoners.
2. Engelbert HUMPERDINCK's Hänsel und Gretel
Clip: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck1w1E71PU4 (Kathleen Battle and Frederica Von Stade sing the Evening Prayer)
Based on Hans Christian Anderson's famous tale, of course. The brother and sister of the title are lost in the forest after being sent on a strawberries-hunting mission by their mother. After a night under the stars, the siblings are captured by the wicked man-eating witch whose excellent idea of turning the youngsters into delicious meat pies backfires when they out-wit her and shove her into the oven before managing to free other kids she had rounded up as well. The parents arrive for the 'rescue' just in time to see the witch popping back out of the oven in the form of a gigantic honey cake... The moral of the story; eat not others, lest you be eaten yourself!
This clip is from early in Act II after the siblings are visited by the Sandman, who watches as they kneel to sing an evening prayer (Abends, will ich schlafen gehn?) before drifting off to sleep under the star. This cute as a button duet is a favorite recital number... even crossover singers love to sing it. Hänsel is sung by a mezzo soprano and Gretel by a soprano (or they can both be soprano, but the brother requires a darker voice than the sister). Can you just hear the 14 angles sprinkling stardust on them as they nod off into dreamland? That's the essence of German operatic music. The orchestra is a very dynamic painter of the operatic scenes.
3. Richard WAGNER's Tristan und Isolde
Clip: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLoHcB8A63M (Waltraud Meier sings Isoldes Liebestod)
If you are familiar with the story of the tragic love triangle between King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, and Sir Lancelot, then you won't have trouble getting the basic plot of Tristan and Isolde. In this case, the Arthur figure is King Marke of Cornwall, while his nephew Tristan and his betrothed Princess Isolde of Ireland are the story's Lancelot and Guinevere. The opera begins with the meeting of Tristan and Isolde, when the former is discovered gravely wounded in a battle. He is nursed back to health by Isolde, who manages to fall in love with him even after recognizing him as the killer of her husband. Tristan is bounded by duty to escort Isolde back to Cornwall to be the bride of his lord/uncle King Marke, and his resolution in doing his duty so angers Isolde that she orders her maid, Bragäne, to brew them a poison. Instead, Bragäne gives them a love potion so strong that they carry on an affair even after Isolde's marriage to King Marke... which led to their betrayal by Melot. A fight breaks out and the mortally wounded Tristan flees to Breton, where he just manages to see Isolde one last time before expiring.
Refusing to live without her lover, Isolde wills herself to die of love and is transfigured to reunite with her lover in death instead (the clip above). It's hard to explain in words, but the music is pretty descriptive, ay? The story doesn't indicate exactly how she dies, but to me, musically, she walks into the North Sea with the waves crashing about her, and becomes a part of the enveloping ocean. This clip features Waltraud Meier, the great German dramatic mezzo-soprano whose voice seems capable of taming even death itself. I must confess that not a lot of the other nearly 5 hrs worth of the opera is as melodic as this final scene, but when there's a great Isolde in the house, the wait is well rewarded in the end.
4. R WAGNER's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Clip: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuKy1DIktYw (Act III quintet Selig wie die Sonne starts at around 3:55 min)
This period opera by Wagner about a group of mastersingers in Nuremberg is one of his most melodic. Pogner promises to award the hand of his daughter, Eva, to the mastersinger who composes the most beautiful song for her. With a little help from the benevolent Hans Sach and his helper, the knight Walther takes a crash course of the mastersingers' compositional rules and comes up with the winning melody despite of Beckmesser's attempts to foil him. It is a politically loaded opera that shows how rules and regulations can be manipulated and many not serve their constituents well in some circumstances. The length is rather forbidding for me, but Wagner was quite good at throwing in gorgeous melodies to keep you listening just when the whole thing is getting tiresome.
5. Richard STRAUSS's Der Rosenkavalier
Clip: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eZt_JlEyb8 (Nina Stemme, Vesselina Kasarova, & Malin Hartelius sing The Trio)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLiWWrSFRko (Carlos Kleiber conducting the overture)
Perhaps Richard Strauss' most popular opera, this fun romantic comedy is full intricately woven melodies. The Rosenkavalier is basically the bearer of the engagement ring (in this case, a silver rose) from the groom to his future wife (a fake tradition made up by Strauss' librettist). In this case, it is the young Count Oktavian's designation by the Marschallin (whom he is having an affair with while her husband is out of town). He is supposed to mediate the marriage of Baron Ochs to the young Sophie Fanninal, but upon laying eyes on each other the Oktavian and Sophie fall instantly in love. After much farcical ados in trying to get Ochs out of the way, the young couple is saved by the wise Marschallin, who graciously gives her consent for her young lover to run off with the girl instead (how undiva-like of her ). And to emphasize to you how important it is to pay attention to the orchestra when listening to a German opera, guess what that little overture music (clip 2) describes? (hint: this orchestral piece takes place during the night and the curtain opens to see the Marschallin and Oktavian rolling around together on her bed. Strauss couldn't possibly have his singing actresses act out the scene on stage since the Austrian Empress would be attending the opera's premiere, so he put it into the overture music instead )
FRENCH OPERA
When we talk about 'French opera' we think of the grand opera that Meyerbeer started and Berlioz, Gounod, and Massenet perfected.... Big cast, larger than life story, elaborate stage setting, romantic and sweeping music, and LOTS of ballet. The French opera also tend to be wordy and require clear diction.... so the great singers of this repertoire tend to be, well, French and has a lyrical style of singing. Some great singers of the French opera: Regine Crespin, Mirielle Delunsch, Natalie Dessay, Laurent Naouri, Veronique Gens, Annick Massis, Frederica Von Stade, Susan Graham.
1. MEYERBEER's L'Africaine
Clip: www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJAVCwR3abU (Alfredo Kraus sings O Paradiso)
This is a tragic love story where Selika, an African queen appearing incognito, saves the life of Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese explorer, twice in one opera and still doesn't get what she wants.... even after having introduced him to her beloved India, the land of his dream (and upon setting eyes on this Asian paradise, he breaks into this gorgeous aria). Vasco da Gama of this opera is not a very sympathetic dude, but when he is sung by such a heroic voice as Alfredo Kraus'.... well, he doesn't need our sympathy anyhow!
2. BERLIOZ's La damnation de Faust
Clip: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oqtNw1bC0Q (Vesselina Kasarova sings Marguerite's D'Amour, l'ardente flamme)
This 'musical legend' is based on Goethe's Faust. The way it is formulated (it is more of an orchestral suite with singing numbers, really) makes it pretty hard to stage coherently, as the whole long opera supposedly takes place during a solar eclipse lasting only a few minutes. Berlioz was more of an orchestral composer, and the music of this opera exemplifies the French style. Richly full of colors and full of subtly splashing of dissonance that oozes mythical romanticism.
This clip shows Vesselina Kasarova as Marguerite in distress, believing herself stood up by Faust and pouring out her wish to once again feel his presence. Not as 'innocent' a Marguerite, but very life-like and one of the most sensual around. Her French diction is rather iffy, but with all that she expresses in her voice, does one really need to know French to understand what this Marguerite is feeling?
3. GOUNOD's Romeo et Juliette
Clip: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzELZsSrxiA (Kathleen Battle sings Juliette's Je Veux Vivre dan le rêve (Juliet's Waltz))
Based on the Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet, this 1867 opera is Gounod's most celebrated work. The story should be familiar to all by now.... Romeo and Juliet are caught in a forbidden love. The girl plays dead in order to escape her family to be with the boy, but failed to let the boy know of the plan before he is confronted with her 'corpse', and so he poisons himself... only to realize his mistake when it is too late. Not to be outdone, the girl follows suit, and ends the opera with her own suicide.
The clip is from Act I. Juliet's dad is throwing a splendid masked ball in honor of his daughter's entrance to the society, but despite of other guests' talk about marriage, our romantic leading lady would like nothing more than to live in her dream where spring reigns eternal... That is until she is jolted back to the real world with the appearance of Romeo after the number is over. None of the troubles to come is sensed by her yet in this charming little song, though.
4. MASSENET's Werther
Clip: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfnAgDqc8qM (Vesselina Kasarova & Rolando Villazon sing Act III Werther/Charlotte duet)
Another opera based on a Goethe story. This one is from The Sorrows of Young Werther, which is a rather unhappy story of yet another pair of unconsummated lovers. The poet Werther loves Charlotte, who had made a death bed promise to her mother to marry Albert. She chooses duty over love, which drives her beloved Werther to suicide by the gun that he had borrowed from her husband. The clip is a concert performance of the Act III scene when Charlotte tries in vain to convince Werther (and herself) that she really doesn't want to see him ever again. But their mutual attraction is obviously stronger than her sense of duty can handle. The orchestration is so premonitive... and so French!
5. BIZET's Carmen
Clip: www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0wMSoJKbuQ (Vesselina Kasarova sings Carmen's Habanera)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-G4CCmaD6Q (Marina Domashenko sings Carmen's Séguedille... with Rolando Villazon as Don José)
Carmen.... that irresistible Gypsy, that eternal free-spirit, that ultimate embodiment of 'live and live now!' This not so typical a 'French' opera is set in the Spanish town of Seville, and contains a lot of Spanish-sounding music. Don Jose, the young soldier, sees his career washed down the drain when he allows the irresistibly seductive Carmen to escape prison after starting a fight with a fellow cigarette factory worker. He follows her to the Basque mountains to live a life of smugglers, but she soon tires of his possessiveness and ditches him for the flashy matador, Escamillo. Driven out of his senses by her refusal to return to him, Don Jose puts an end to Carmen's unruly life with a Spanish knife.
The Habanera (L'amour est un oiseau rebelle) is Carmen's entrance aria, singing of the unpredictable flighty bird that 'love' is. A most frustrating song for any suitor to hear, I imagine... The girl is there, but not for the taking. The Séguedille (Prés de ramparts de Seville) is the devilishly opportunistically seductive song that Carmen sings after being taken into custody for having gotten into a cat fight with another girl at the cigarette factory. She knows that the naive young Don Jose is watching, and so hints at him in not so subtle way that she wants to be released for someone to take her to her friend's inn. What Don Jose wouldn't want to be that escort when he hears this?
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With the help of these Youtube clips, I hope this essay has given you a good glimpse of the German and French opera. If the music catches your imagination, why not explore each opus more by renting a DVD or buying a CD or going to see a live performance? Maybe you're an opera lover after all!
More about the opera:
A Few Words To Opera Newbies,
Dance Thru Opera History with Munkus, Commandments for the Opera Fans, 10 Beginners-Friendly Opera, Some Friendly Diva Opera Arias (the ladies), Some Friendly Divo Opera Arias (the gents), Some Friendly Operatic Duets, Some Friendly Operatic Ensembles, Tips In Opera Reviewing, 15 Favorite Opera Youtube Clips (2007), Newbies' Guide to Operetta
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