ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, NY – “Ha! A Silent Woman?,” sings the basso buffo Morosus in “Die Schweigsame Frau” by Richard Strauss. “You’ll only find her in the churchyard under a stone cross.”
The casual fall of Strauss’ single operatic accompaniment – a work that unfolds like a love letter to Mozart, Rossini and Donizetti – was hardly a point of controversy when it premiered in Dresden in 1935. But there was controversy: The opera’s libretto was written by Stefan Zweig, a Jew, who submitted it two weeks before Adolf Hitler became German chancellor in 1933.
On Friday night, Bard SummerScape revealed a rare staging of “Silent womanAt the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College that went some way to reconciling the feather theme and its bad historical background. The witty staging, engaging cast, and effective evocative designs make a good opera feel like a great one.
Much has been written about Strauss’ miscalculation regarding the Nazi regime, his efforts to stay out of politics while gaining favor and protecting his Jewish daughter-in-law and grandson. me.
He accepted the post of president of the Reich Chamber of Music, a position he later described as “a tiring honorary office” in a letter that brought him to a boil. In his notebooks, he called Nazi anti-Semitism “a disgrace to the honor of Germany”. Ultimately, he downplayed the National Socialist dictatorship as a kind of politics, a nuisance that affected his work with Zweig, who was forced to flee the country.
Strauss, who thought his creative abilities would not survive the sudden death of his beloved bop artist, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, wrote to Zweig: “If you also abandon me, I will have to take the lead from now on the life of a sick, unemployed retiree. “
According to a letter from Strauss, Joseph Goebbels and Hitler, perhaps finding nothing subversive in “Frau,” approved it. After Strauss insisted that Zweig’s name appear on the show’s book, the propagandist and his boss ignored the premiere. It was only after Strauss expressed his dubious views on Nazism in a letter intercepted by the Gestapo that the opera was banned.
In 1942, Zweig, suffering from exile in Brazil, took his own life. Strauss, was defeated by the bombing of German opera houses and the collapse of its culture, but the music remained with him, including Horn Concerto No. 2 and “The Last Four Songs” .
In this context, we have “Die Schweigsame Frau,” the opera about retired admiral Morosus, whose tinnitus makes him a world-class sassy who can’t stand fame church bells or the idea of a nagging spouse. Zweig delivered an Italianate comedy without a psychological background, and Strauss was fun.
When Morosus’ grandson Henry appeared with his troupe, Morosus, appalled at Henry’s chosen profession, deposed him and humiliated his wife, Aminta. The troupe teaches him a recognizable lesson from Donizetti’s “Don Pasquale”: Aminta, disguised as a demon, marries Morosus in a mock ceremony and proceeds to throw rage and turn his life upside down. his life until he begged for mercy.
For Bard’s interesting work, director and designer Christian Räth made “Frau” an opera about putting into an opera. Stagehands performs the scene changes in full view of the audience, and Morosus’ one-word spell, “Ruhe” (quiet), glows like an exit sign above the door of his orderly house. ta.
Morosus’ deception becomes a performance itself. The troupe rummaged through shelves of clothing from other Strauss productions to find their costumes. Morosus auditioned for the part of his three future brides on a mini-replica of the stage where “Frau” had its premiere in 1935, awarding the winner a silver rose in “Der Rosenkavalier” (and “ The Bachelor”) by Strauss.
The troupe – and the cast – are fully committed to their roles. Harold Wilson commands a soaring bass as the proud, likable Morosus. Jana McIntyre (Aminta) and David Portillo (Henry) sing in bright lyrical voices, earnestly hinting at the dryness demanded by Strauss. Edward Nelson, handsome and slick, has turned the Barber into an unusually attractive factor. Matthew Anchel, a rioter as the impresario Vanuzzi, reveals an appealing compact bass with deep tonal depth. Ariana Lucas (Housekeeper), Chrystal E. Williams (Carlotta) and Anya Matanovic (Isotta) immerse themselves in their characters passionately.
Mattie Ullrich’s fun, vibrant outfits transformed the cast, including a legion of male ballet dancers who never missed a chance to rock their record.
Strauss emphasizes voice dialogue with surround instrument commentary, but the orchestra, sometimes rocked by his opulent style and parlando vocals, shifts its weight like an elephant in a pair ballet shoes. At the Bard, conductor Leon Botstein, who despised the grandeur of timbre, showed the opera to be light on its feet. Overture’s quirky scribbles emerge quickly and cleanly, and the magical duet trio concludes Act II with pungent Straussian woody waves.
Räth, injecting protest into an already politicized production in spite of itself, turned the chaotic wedding scene into a string of nightmares: Dancers and dancers flooded the stage with large masks. of real-life characters (including Mozart, Bach, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Maria Cebotari, the first Aminta). Ominously, Hitler and Goebbels’ masks were next to Strauss’s and pushed him away with his elbows.
The opera ends with a reflection far from the prevailing mayhem, no different from the glorious final monologue from Strauss’ last opera, “Capriccio.”
As the strings swell, Wilson’s Morosus steps forward, offering a glimpse of peace, sung with moving restraint, from an ailing retiree, unemployed at the end of his life. In his hands, he holds the mask of Strauss and Zweig, forced apart by murderous bigotry, reunited at last.
Silent woman
Through Sunday at Bard College; fishcenter.bard.edu.
