Dvorak operas

[Alan Howe]

Although I have had Rusalka in my collection for some time, I am only just waking up to Dvorak's other operas. Have forum members any comments/recommendations re. his operas?

[Balapoel]

I have all of his operas on CD (only the earliest, incomplete?, Alfred, 1870 is not available)

I've found Armida (1903), Vanda (1875), and The Devil and Kate (1899) to be very worthwhile, the other comic operas, less so (but if you like fun, boisterous music, then those might be for you). You wouldn't miss with any of them - as with Tchaikovsky, many of Dvorak's most melodious and powerful music can be found expressed in his operas. Of course, I can't speak to the librettos - but that's not why I listen to operas in any event.

for completists:
Tvdre palice (The Stubborn Lovers), comic 1874
Vanda, tragic, 1875
Selma sedlak (The Cunning Peasant), comic, 1877
Kral a uhlir (The King and the Collier), 1887
Dmitrij, 1894
Jakobin, 1897
Cert a Kaca (The Devil and Kate), 1899
Rusalka, 1900
Svata Ludmila, 1901
Armida, 1903

Also, his cantatas are highly recommended:
Heirs of the White Mountain, 1883
The Specter's Bride, 1884
The American Flag, 1885

[Mark Thomas]

I love the drama and sheer excitement of Dmitrij and Jakobin and, of course, Russalka is just beautiful - if a bit static by comparison with their hell for leather action. But to be honest I'll happily sit down and spend a couple of hours with any of Dvorak's operas.

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Alas, poor Dvorak! I can recall reading Dvorak himself many years ago (and I can't remember where - a letter, diaries, some vaguely autobiographical text?) expressing disappointment that he was not taken much more seriously as an opera composer. Opera, apparently, was one of his main ambitions. (Maybe the high esteem in which the orchestral and chamber music is held has eclipsed the reputation of the operas?)

Given that opera is a fusion of music and drama then I'll happily assert (and get shot down for it!) that in so many ways I find the Dvorak operas (together with those of Smetana which are often quite simply glorious) more satisfying and enjoyable than Donizetti and even Verdi (apart of course from the final great ones). Controversial, and I won't take it further for you weren't asking about how Dvorak stands in relation to others.

Maybe one factor that has stood in the way of more frequent performances (and recordings) outside of Czechoslovakia (where I guess Dvorak is a national institution) is that so many of them are comic operas. The exceptions, besides Rusalka (which for me is the eighth wonder of the world) are the early unpublished Alfred (which he called a 'heroic' opera) together with the late Dimitri (a 'grand opera' in 4 Acts) and Armida (4 Acts and after Tasso). All of the others (off the top of my head) are comic operas, and the trouble is that there is a prevalent utter piece of idiocy that tells us that any comic opera (or drama for that matter) however good it is just can't get into the category of The Great.

Which of course is nonsense. Maybe I am hopelessly uncritical, but whilst sometimes aware that the librettos can be clumsy and rather stumble along (true also of Wagner!!) I find all these comic operas bursting with good humour and sheer delight. Maybe start with Kate and the Devil? But on reflection that's just picking out one at random. The Cunning Peasant, The Jacobin, The King and the Charcoal Burner, and The Jacobin are all equally rewarding. The Supraphon recordings of all these operas are each and every one excellent, as is the Orfeo recording of a revised version of The King and the Charcoal Burner (cond. Albrecht).

That leaves the 'serious' operas, Armida and Dimitri. Both have very good recordings conducted by Gerd Albrecht (the former on Orfeo, the latter on Supraphon). It is fairly clear why they haven't fared well on the stage. I don't know whether it is the 'fault' of Dvorak or his librettists but they're not characterised by good stagecraft and can be clumsy and disjointed in terms of plot. Some of the events and actions in Rusalka are sufficient to give an opera producer severe headaches, but in these operas rather than mermaids singing to the moon we get whole armies moving across stage. (Yet that hasn't never constituted an objection to Prokofiev's War and Peace!). However for concert performance (or home listening when one's wife is on a weekend visit to her mother and the neighbours are tolerant) both operas I find glorious - Dimitri perhaps especially.

Apologies, Alan - all this ramble is no help at all. I suppose you're asking 'how does one approach the Dvorak operas?' and I've recommended a grand sweeping broadside, e.g. try all of them, and all the recordings are good. I wouldn't make a discriminating critic!

One final note. I didn't unfortunately get there, but I think there was a concert performance of The Jacobin at the start of February in the Barbican (Czech cast, BBC SO and Jiri Belohlavek) and I'm hugely hoping that was the signal for a new recording. Anyone know of any plans or rumours? I recall a couple of years ago a Czech cast, BBC SO and Belohlavek gave us a very very stunning recording (on DG) of Janacek's Broucek. That again started life (I think) in the Barbican. Wonder if The Jacobin will follow? Fingers crossed.

[Alan Howe]

That's an excellent guide, Peter. Thanks! And Balapoel too!

[Mark Thomas]

FWIW, I was mistaking Jakobin for Armida.

[TerraEpon]

It's actually either The Jacobin or Dmitri that has this absolutely marvelous tune that keeps showing up throughout the opera...alas I forget which. Both are very enjoyable listens, but then again I'm a Dvorak 'completist'

[mikehopf]

If you like Dvorak's operas, then you'll just LURVE those by Smetana!

[albion]

for completists: [...] Svata Ludmila, 1901

Saint Ludmila is Dvorak's sole oratorio, written for the 1886 Leeds Festival (where it was first performed alongside Sullivan's The Golden Legend, Mackenzie's The Story of Sayid and Stanford's The Revenge).

It's an uneven work, but well worth getting to know - there are three recordings

   

[Balapoel]

for completists: [...] Svata Ludmila, 1901

Saint Ludmila is Dvorak's sole oratorio, written for the 1886 Leeds Festival (where it was first performed alongside Sullivan's The Golden Legend, Mackenzie's The Story of Sayid and Stanford's The Revenge).

Actually, it is both.

Svata Ludmila, B. 144, Oratorio (1886)
Svata Ludmila, B. 205, Opera (1901), adapted from oratorio B. 144

I don't know which versions were on those CDs, since both versions appear to be listed as Op. 71

Also for completists:
Kral a uhlir, B. 151 (3 versions)
Dmitrij, B. 186 (2 versions)
Jakobin, B. 200, revision of B. 159

also pieces I can't find recorded anywhere:
Josef Kajetan Tyl, B. 125 (1881), incidental music
Hymn of the Czech Peasants, B. 143 (1885), Cantata
Ballad of King Matthias, B. 115 (1881), from second version of Kral a uhlir, B. 42, ballad

[Alan Howe]

Thanks for the recommendation. I have duly ordered Svata Ludmila (Albrecht on Orfeo - I gather the Arco Diva is cut).

[petershott@btinternet.com]

I need to undertake some research! My sole recording is the one conducted by Belohlavek on Arco Diva. I've always been entirely happy with that - it is certainly very well performed and recorded, and it also strikes me as thoroughly idiomatic (it is a live recording of a performance at the Prague Spring Festival in 2004).

But cut? Now that is a question that has never occurred to me. Mere impressions don't really count, but this performance doesn't have anything at all that smacks of the 'cut'.

But Alan's belief, and the remarks of Balapoel (which at first completely confused me with his distinction between oratorio / opera versions), resulted in my digging out the recording and looking again at the booklet. And I come across this passage:

"In this way Dvorak invested the oratorio with diverse life, which he was able to pull together into a unified form. The dramatic quality of both the libretto and the music induced Dvorak to make a stage adaptation, for which he had to cut out a great deal, to the detriment of the overall structure of the oratorio and, primarily, the music itself: a number of beautiful parts fell victim to this editing. St Ludmilla thus eventually reached the stage of the National Theatre, Prague, in 1895, then again with additional retouching by V J Novotny in 1901, and, ultimately and most reverentially under Otakar Ostrcil and the director Ferdinand Pujman in 1934. But this stage debut did not do justice to the work. Although the dramatic version was always received with respect, the oratorio form was considered the better of the two. In the concert version the work returned to its original place, where it will clearly remain."

Not, I suspect, the happiest of translations. But as I quickly typed it I became more and more puzzled. A Dvorak scholar is required. Do I take it that this (excellent) Arco Diva recording is a recording of the original oratorio version? In which case it is misleading to refer to it as 'cut', because presumably the things that are allegedly 'cut' are in fact additions to that original to transform it into a stage work? And what are the "number of beautiful parts" which "fell victim to this editing"? Do they belong to the second (stage) version?

Completely lost! And can a Dvorak scholar tell me whether this business matters? I've always been quite complacent in my belief that the Arco Diva recording is a complete recording of a single work called 'Svata Ludmila'. Or are things rather more complicated than this?

Hum, this is the trouble with reading (with huge enjoyment) contributions on this site. Life gets more and more complicated.....and of course a chap's debts steadily increase!!

[TerraEpon]

From what I gather, the Svata Ludmila opera simply adds recitatives to the oratorio.

And though (unfortunetly) Josef Kajetan Tyl hasn't been recorded, its overture is quite well known as My Home, Op. 62

[JimL]

The My Home Overture is one of my favorite Dvorak overtures.

[Paul Barasi]

Whatever Dvořák wrote, he could usually be relied on for some very good tunes. I don't think I've seen any of his operas live but maybe one by Smetana in London. It was about these two women – now, what were they? Not sisters (thinking of Bob Hope), or brides, maybe widows ... but I can remember some colourful dances and an interval for a meal that was served so slow we had to come back afterwards for the last course. Lucky really, for had it been Meistersinger the restaurant might have been closed.