RICHARD STRAUSS INTERMEZZO Elisabeth Söderström Glyndebourne Festival Opera London Philharmonic Orchestra Sir John Pritchard RICHARD STRAUSS © SZ Photo/Lebrecht Music & Arts Photo Library Richard Strauss (1864 –1949) Intermezzo A bourgeois comedy with symphonic interludes in two acts Libretto by the composer English translation by Andrew Porter Christine Elisabeth Söderström soprano Robert Storch, her husband, a conductor Marco Bakker baritone Anna, their maid Elizabeth Gale soprano Franzl, their eight-year-old son Richard Allfrey spoken Baron Lummer Alexander Oliver tenor The Notary Thomas Lawlor bass-baritone His wife Rae Woodland soprano Stroh, another conductor Anthony Rolfe Johnson tenor A Commercial Counsellor Donald Bell Robert’s Skat baritone partners A Legal Counsellor Brian Donlan baritone { A Singer Dennis Wicks bass Fanny, the Storchs’ cook Barbara Dix spoken Marie, a maid Susan Varley spoken Therese, a maid Angela Whittingham spoken Resi, a young girl Cynthia Buchan soprano Glyndebourne Festival Opera London Philharmonic Orchestra Sir John Pritchard 3 compact disc one Time Page Act I Scene 1 1 ‘Anna, Anna! Where can the silly creature be?’ 5:52 [p.28] The Wife, the Husband, Anna 2 ‘Have you got all the master’s things?’ 6:02 [p.32] The Wife, Anna, the Husband 3 ‘And now I’ll have my hair done!’ 11:16 [p.35] The Wife, Anna, The Son, Housemaid, Cook 4 'Oh! Frau Huß! Good morning' 2:59 [p.39] The Wife, Anna Scene 2 5 ‘You blockhead! Can’t you see, this is a toboggan run?’ 4:08 [p.39] The Wife, Baron Lummer 6 Waltz 1:55 [p.40] Scene 3 7 Ball 2:01 [p.40] 8 ‘I can’t go on!’ 4:16 [p.40] The Wife, Baron Lummer 4 Time Page Scene 4 9 ‘As you know my husband’ 2:51 [p.41] The Wife, Notary’s Wife 10 Orchestral Interlude 1:56 [p.42] Scene 5 11 ‘“He really is a very nice person”’ 5:39 [p.42] The Wife, the Cook, Marie, Baron Lummer 12 ‘Would you mind if just for a moment I read the paper’ 3:15 [p.45] The Wife, Baron Lummer, Marie 13 ‘Ha, Captain Sturz has resigned his commission’ 5:26 [p.46] The Wife, Baron Lummer 14 ‘I’d rather… Gnädige Frau, it is so hard for me’ 4:36 [p.48] Baron Lummer, the Wife 15 ‘A charming boy. Both charming and young’ 6:02 [p.49] The Wife Scene 6 16 ‘Frau Notar!’ 5:41 [p.49] Baron Lummer, Notary’s Wife, Resi TT 74:01 5 compact disc two Time Page Scene 7 1 ‘A thousand marks is he asking!’ 6:09 [p.50] The Wife, Baron Lummer, Anna Scene 8 2 ‘My darling, darling Bubi!’ 8:11 [p.52] The Wife, the Son Act II Scene 1 3 [Prelude] 1:39 [p.53] 4 ‘Ah! You don’t know his wife, Herr Legal Counsellor!’ 1:42 [p.53] Commercial Counsellor, Singer, Legal Counsellor, Stroh 5 ‘Gentlemen I’m here at last’ 7:44 [p.54] Robert, Singer, Stroh, Legal Counsellor, Commercial Counsellor 6 ‘A wretched business!’ 3:34 [p.59] Commercial Counsellor, Singer, Legal Counsellor, Stroh Scene 2 7 ‘Good Day, Herr Notar’ 4:15 [p.60] The Wife, the Notary 8 Orchestral interlude 1:46 [p.62] 6 Time Page Scene 3 9 ‘This whole business is driving me mad!’ 4:25 [p.62] Robert, Stroh 10 Orchestral postlude 3:20 [p.64] Scene 4 11 [Introduction] 1:24 [p.64] 12 ‘Anna! I shouldn’t have sent the Baron off there’ 6:28 [p.64] The Wife, Anna, Therese Scene 5 13 [Introduction] 2:12 [p.68] 14 ‘He’s back. Good lord, I’m so excited’ 5:30 [p.68] The Wife, Therese, Robert Scene 6 15 ‘I'm back now, gnädige Frau!’ 3:07 [p.71] Baron Lummer, the Wife 16 ‘Who on earth was that?’ 4:18 [p.73] Robert, the Wife 17 ‘Yet I’m certain that he’s no criminal’ 10:30 [p.75] The Wife, Robert TT 76:26 7 Elisabeth Söderström brought all her legendary dramatic skills as an actress and singer to her portrayal of the composer’s wife in Intermezzo, Richard Strauss’s bitter-sweet comedy based on true episodes in his marriage to the tempestuous Pauline. Thanks to Söderström’s insistence, one of Strauss’s least-known but wittiest works was sung in English when given its British premiere at Glyndebourne in 1974 . We are indebted to her and to the BBC for this live radio recording, which has enabled us both to capture Söderström’s artistry whilst introducing this most intimate of Strauss’s operas to new audiences on our Archive label. Sir Peter Moores, CBE, DL January 2011 Sir Peter Moores with a portrait of Admiral Lord Nelson by Lemuel Francis Abbott, acquired for Compton Verney © Lyndon Parker 8 9 ELISAbeTH SÖDERSTRÖM (1927–2009) Over twenty-five years, during the period 1956–80, Glyndebourne signed Elisabeth Söderström on for thirteen Festivals. She had to cancel her contracts in 1956 (Pamina) and 1958 (Anne Trulove) due to pregnancy but, with the maternal urge otherwise tamed, she managed to embrace ten different roles at Glyndebourne during this period – quite a chunk of her career. Her first appearance at Glyndebourne was in the role of the Composer in the Prologue to Ariadne, a role which had up to that point been the exclusive preserve of Sena Jurinac – a singer sans pareille, it was thought, until the arrival of Elisabeth, who took the role by the horns and the audience by storm. In 1959 she performed Oktavian in Der Rosenkavalier, with Régine Crespin as the Marschallin and Anneliese Rothenberger as Sophie – a trio of singers which sent me rushing in search of my old 78s to compare these celestial voices with those on the famous pre-war recording with Lehmann, Schumann and Olczewska. The Glyndebourne trio won the competition – but, then, they perhaps had the advantage of the added dimension of a staging by Carl Ebert in Oliver Messel’s designs, a dimension which these three singers exploited with utter conviction. Elisabeth’s performances in the Strauss comedies (the Composer, Oktavian, the Countess in Capriccio, which she sang in four Glyndebourne Festivals, and Christine in Intermezzo, which she sang in two Festivals) stick indelibly in the memory; but, then, her portrayal of Tatyana in Onegin was in my experience unsurpassed – and her Leonora in Fidelio (not a role she would have contemplated in a larger theatre) brought myriad insights into the quandary and aspirations of this role, insights which can’t be nearly so exposed in larger theatres. I longed for her to take on the role of Elle in Poulenc’s La Voix humaine (a one- acter which Glyndebourne premiered in 1960 with Denise Duval, and Cocteau as director and designer) – a hope sadly unfulfilled… Come to that I longed for her to take on a multitude of roles, such was the huge compass of her versatility. In one particular year (1959) she sang Sophie at the Met, Oktavian at Glyndebourne and the Marschallin in Stockholm – at which point she must, more than any other singer, have had the measure of Ochs. She had a voice of distinctive quality which she used to huge communicative effect. She was a consummate singer/actress – a mistress of bathos and an exquisite comedienne. She was beguilingly beautiful. Audiences fell in love with her as did her team-mates on stage – and off-stage. At Glyndebourne she reigned supreme. There was no lack of rivals, but she had an indefinable quality which made her the unquestioned, unchallenged queen. Sir George Christie CH, President, Glyndebourne Productions This tribute first appeared in Opera magazine, February 2010 ELISABETH SÖDERSTRÖM 12 © Guy Gravett Collection/ArenaPAL © Guy Gravett Collection/ArenaPAL 13 MARCO BAKKER & ELISABETH SÖDERSTRÖM Söderström’s Intermezzo The 1970s saw the adoption of Richard to write the libretto, and Strauss’s wife Strauss, alongside Mozart, as the principal Pauline, whom Strauss designated as the house composer at Glyndebourne. The principal subject and who fought it all decade saw productions of Ariadne the way to the triumphant premiere and auf Naxos, Capriccio, Intermezzo, Die beyond. schweigsame Frau, Der Rosenkavalier and The proposed production was decisive Arabella. I had the good fortune to direct in Söderström’s agreement to return to these operas and the even greater blessing Glyndebourne. First, it gave scope to of Elisabeth Söderström’s participation in her brilliant gift for comedy, an aspect two of them. of her talent not much seen before, at Söderström had been a deeply loved Glyndebourne or anywhere else. Second, artist with the company from 1957 until it was a plum role for a female singer 1963, when the demands of an expanded whose presence in twelve out of fourteen international career and raising a family scenes was accompanied by a sequence broke the continuity for a while. The of spectacular costumes; a ball, the ski Strauss cycle provided just the right slopes, the bedroom and the nursery, opportunity for her return to the Sussex among others. Third, it was a powerful family with a restudied Capriccio set in expression of the feminine character in the 1920s, followed by Intermezzo, an the full emotional gamut from maternal unknown quantity to the artist and just tenderness through wounded outrage to about everybody involved. intense conjugal love, but within a strong Intermezzo is an autobiographical opera moral assertion of female independence. and as such was viewed with distaste by Her emotional changes were as striking many of Strauss’s friends and collaborators, and as rapid as her costume changes, and, including the composer’s usual librettist exhausting as these must have been, taken Hugo von Hofmannsthal, who refused together, it never showed.
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