Music City Dresden Program # 4 Campaign for a German Opera: Carl Maria von Weber’s Dresden Years Hello, this is Michael Rothe. Once again we set our sights on Dresden, Germany, in this series called “Music City Dresden“ from Deutsche Welle Radio. From the 17th century on, Dresden was renowned throughout Germany and Europe as a leading center of the arts, particularly architecture and music. In the 19th century, Dresden took on a groundbreaking role in a special area of music: German opera. After two centuries in which the Italian taste dominated all things operatic, establishing opera in German did not proceed without great struggles. Much of the credit must go to a man who spent only nine years of his all-too brief career in Dresden, Carl Maria von Weber. Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826) Jubelouvertüre op. 59 (beginning) 3:12 Philharmonia Orchestra London Cond: Neeme Järvi LC 07038 Chandos, Chan 9066 An overture by Carl Maria von Weber written in 1818, one year after he arrived in Dresden to become Court Kapellmeister at the seat of the rulers of Saxony. An overture not to an opera, but written on command for His Majesty, King Frederic Augustus I of Saxony, who wanted to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his accession to the formerly princely and now royal throne with all due pomp and circumstance. Festive music indeed, full of energy, striving and optimism – surely qualities the king would have expected on such an occasion. But also more than made-to-order festiveness; I think we can hear some of the optimistic frenzy with which Weber threw himself into his new job in Dresden. For more proof of that eager impatience, here’s part of a letter he wrote to his fiancé, Caroline Brandt, not long after arriving in Dresden in January, 1817: Quote: May God greet you and bless my move to Dresden. As we came down the last hill and I saw the city lie before me in that broad valley, I had very strange feelings. I was coming to seek a permanent hold within these walls, for my whole life. May God give me his blessings, and as for my own part in my fate, I will try to do everything in my power. My silent friend Mucks will help me overlook all the frustrations and forget all the troubles that one can encounter in this world of art and of business. -2- Maybe a quiet feline friend like that could be just what the doctor ordered for people in the worlds of art and commerce today? Well, one thing is for sure: Weber’s ship had found its harbor. He was a young man, just past thirty, but he would have only nine more years to live. During that time, Weber became known throughout Europe as the founding father and leading composer of German operas. It was also a time of marriage and fatherhood, but were the Dresden years happy ones? Any affirmative answer would surely have to be qualified by the “frustrations and troubles“ he already alluded to in that letter to his future wife. Coming from the sometimes opposing forces of art and business, those troubles seemed to beset him in Dresden almost from the beginning. The court there had lost some of its splendor. In wide parts of Saxony, in fact, the population was going hungry. The bloodletting and devastation were not as great as in the Thirty Year War in the 17th century and the Seven Year war in the 18th, but the Napoleonic wars had their own devastating impact on many parts of Germany. In those circumstances musical standards, too, were in a state of decline compared to the glory days of the Dresden Court Orchestra. Although still going strong as the Dresden State Orchestra now, it was rife with infighting, intrigues, nepotism, and internal squabbles. The chorus had fallen on even harder times and had to be constantly “beefed up“ with young singers from the boys’ choir. And: Italian opera ruled the day, as several generations of Saxon rulers had always favored Italian opera. That was the climate into which a young Carl Maria von Weber stepped. His foremost task would be to create German-language opera. The project was promoted by the opera director, Count Vitzthum, who was Lord Chamberlain at the Saxon Court. Having encountered Weber in Karlsbad, the Count was impressed by his talents and ideas but nonetheless cut Weber’s requested two thousand Taler salary to fifteen hundred. The movement to create something indigenous and original that would slow the march of Italian opera of course went hand-in-hand with the nationalist tendencies of German Romanticism. It was also a reaction to the years of French occupation under Napoleon. Weber entered the campaign like a field marshal without an army. Singers had to be recruited from German theaters, which did boast a hybrid German- language genre called Singspiel, but that was decidedly less demanding than opera. It seems almost miraculous that Weber was able to present a German version of the opera Joseph by a leading French composer of the time, Méhul, only a few weeks after his arrival. But it was a clear success and an auspicious start for the “new man“ in town. The speed of that undertaking is indicative of Weber’s hectic pace of work, especially during his first Dresden years. His efforts as a composer soon bore fruit, partly through collaboration with the librettist Friedrich Kind. In the shadow of his other duties, a work was taking shape that would eventually give Weber an illustrious place in music history: Der Freischütz (“The Freeshooter,“ in German Freischütz is a term for “poacher”). Here’s the conclusion of the famous “Scene at the Wolf Glen:“ Carl Maria von Weber Der Freischütz, No. 10: Finale: Wolf Glen (conclusion) 3:18 -3- Solisten Leipzig Radio Chorus Staatskapelle Dresden Cond: Carlos Kleiber LC 00173 Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft, 415 432-2 A forest setting, a nocturnal atmosphere, supernatural forces: those ingredients in Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischütz are also hallmarks of the German Romantic style. Weber’s masterpiece premiered not at the site of the composer’s main activity, but in Berlin in 1821, though it was later staged, and with success, in Dresden. The same was true of the other two great works of his final years: Euryanthe was first seen and heard in Vienna, Oberon in London. So nothing came of Weber’s efforts to contribute a new German-language work from his pen to the repertory of the Dresden opera. A commission to write a musical stage work for the wedding of a Saxon prince was withdrawn, and a comic opera for Dresden called “The Three Pintos“ was never finished. His Majesty’s complete lack of interest caused the project to be quietly abandoned in 1824. Thanks to the efforts of Gustav Mahler decades later – Mahler orchestrated sketches and filled in missing parts in Weber’s style – we have a performing version of that opera. This excerpt is entirely in Weber’s own hand however. This closing scene of act one can leave you regretting we don’t have more such amusing scenes from Weber’s own pen. Carl Maria von Weber Die drei Pintos: No. 7: Finale: Auf das Wohlergehn der Gäste (conclusion) 2:30 Werner Hollweg (tenor) Nederlands Vocaal Ensemble Munich Philharmonic Cond: Gary Bertini LC 00316 RCA 74321 32246 2 (CD 1, Take 13) As I mentioned, even though Weber held the post of opera Kapellmeister at Dresden’s own theater, he never actually composed an opera expressly for it. Even Weber’s champion, Count Vitzthum, had underestimated the enduring hold of Italian opera in court circles. Another reason is that right after Weber’s arrival, a power struggle ensued when he realized that his Italian colleague Francesco Morlacchi held the title of “Royal Saxon Kapellmeister, making him his de facto boss. Weber threatened to leave immediately. He was then given co-ranking with the Italian. But henceforth the Italian camp considered him a rival. Weber’s autocratic style as a conductor, his insistence on rigorous rehearsals and his revamping of the orchestra’s seating order didn’t make him many friends either. An anecdote from his first production in Dresden, of the aforementioned Joseph, illustrates the point: -4- Quote: At one point the singer Eduard Genast took the liberty of adding an Italianate ornament to one of his phrases. But an angry look that shot up to the stage from the conductor struck such a terror in him that at the end of the performance he made a hasty retreat to his dressing room to retrieve his coat and hurry home, hoping to avoid the imminent outburst. But Weber, hard on his heels, threw open the door to his dressing room and yelled: “What kind of dumb stuff are you doing there? Don’t you think if Monsieur Méhul had wanted to engage in such shenanigans, he would have done it far better than you? I forbid any such extravaganzas once and for all! Good night, and sleep off your Italian inebriation! Weber chalked up an impressive list of achievements in his Dresden years. He had a reputation for cleverly planning repertory, for applying great care to all productions, and for directing performances of high quality. German opera in Dresden was on the rise, and not only in sheer numbers, from forty-six performances in his first year there to eighty-four in his last. Incidentally, as Court Kapellmeister Weber was also charged with providing sacred music for the court church.