The Wonder of Korngold

Korngold, Das Wunder der Heliane, A. Tomowa-Sintow, RSO Berlin, J. Mauceri (re-released on April 10, 2007) Decca 475 8271

Erich Korngold's second full-length opera, Das Wunder der Heliane (1927), last came across the Ionarts radar because Renée Fleming recorded some excerpts on her Homage CD, reviewed earlier this year. (La Fleming will sing one selection from the opera, and another from Die Kathrin, at the National Symphony Orchestra's Season Opening Ball Concert on September 16.) One of the best things that you could do to celebrate the Korngold Year -- he died 50 years ago, on November 29, 1957 (the official sponsor is Jessica Duchen) -- is to acquire this excellent recording of Heliane (made in 1992), re-released at almost one-third of its regular price. Someone needs to buy a copy for Edo de Waart and whoever replaces Richard Gaddes (assuming they do not have one already, which is probably unlikely), to increase the chances that Santa Fe Opera will stage Heliane.

The historical background of the opera's creation, outlined capably in the liner notes by Brendan G. Carroll, is significant. Heliane was composed during the first two years of the composer's marriage, to a woman hated by his controlling parents. Korngold's father was a celebrated and ultra-conservative music critic in Vienna, the literal successor of Eduard Hanslick, and he attempted to use his son as a pawn in his critical tirade against atonal modernism. The libretto, Hans Müller's adaptation of a mystery play (Die Heilige) by Hans Kaltneker, could be interpreted as the struggle of Julius Korngold (the Ruler) and Erich Korngold (the Stranger) for the love of Music (Heliane). In the end, the Ruler's power is broken, and the Stranger and Heliane rise to eternal life, exalted in union. The angels that sing in chorus in the third act connect the lovers' salvation to the power of their love, a notable echo of the end of Mahler's Resurrection symphony (and the end of the Symphony of a Thousand, for that matter). Not surprisingly, Korngold dedicated the opera to his young wife.

Jessica Duchen, Erich Wolfgang Korngold (Phaidon Press, 1996)

It is a shame that Heliane was overshadowed by Krenek's brilliant Jonny Spielt Auf, premiered in the same year. Carroll's essay also explains how Julius Korngold's campaign against Jonny, overlapping uncomfortably with the rise of the National Socialist party, actually contributed to the negative reception of Heliane. The weak libretto, based admittedly on a wacky source, was no help either. Regular readers, however, know that I have a weakness for weird operas on dark, fairytale subjects -- Pelléas, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Duke Bluebeard's Castle, Susa's Transformations, Die ersten Menschen, to name just a few. The combination of an odd story and luscious score has moved Heliane quickly into that category, too.

This recording, the only one of the opera, features generally fine solo singing from Anna Tomowa-Sintow (Heliane), Hartmut Welker (Der Herrscher), and John David de Haan (Der Fremde). La Fleming's rendition of the famous Act II aria Ich ging zu ihm -- in which Heliane testifies, during the trial ordered by the jealous Ruler, that she showed the Stranger her hair and feet and then stripped naked in his cell -- is more pleasing than Tomowa-Sintow's (this is what Fleming will sing with the NSO next month). One hopes Fleming will have the chance to sing the role on the stage soon. The score calls for a Glockenklavier (a lower relative of the celesta), only one part of a diverse and clanging battery, all of it used to greatest effect in the transcendent third act, where Korngold flirts the most with outright atonality. John Mauceri holds the large forces, well honed, together impressively. Only the women's voices of the Rundfunk Chor Berlin are occasionally too strident for their angelic role.

Jessica Duchen will surely be covering the opera's much-anticipated U.K. premiere (we already know that she will give a pre-concert lecture), with Ionarts favorite Patricia Racette and the London Philharmonic Orchestra (November 21). Vladimir Jurowski will conduct.