Otto Nicolai

[JSK]

I play violin in most of my college's pit orchestras. Today we started rehearsals for Otto Nicolai's Merry Wives of Windsor. It does not seem particularly musically profound or thrilling, but is nevertheless a lot of fun, even if not as much enjoyable as Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte was two years ago. Any thoughts on Merry Wives or Nicolai? I do not know much about the composer.

[Pengelli]

And is he just a one work composer?

[Jamie]

The Merry Wives of Windsor (aka Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor) is one of my very favorite operas. It's one of the most joyful works I know and is chock full of one gorgeous melody after another. The best recording is from 1978 and features the inimitable Kurt Moll as Sir John Falstaff. I have never heard more beautiful and mellifluous bass singing than on this recording, especially in the drinking song "Als Büblein klein an der Mutter Brust" where Moll displays a 2-octave range extending from low E to the E above middle C. You can obtain it here: http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?comp_id=32950&bcorder=8&opera=Y&name_id=56938&name_role=3.

[thalbergmad]

Amazingly, i have not heard The Merry Wives of Windsor, but i have heard and attempted to play his piano sonata and Fantasy on themes from Norma.

The first of which is delightful and the second immense fun and both approachable for the well conditioned amateur. Nothing profound, but thoroughly enjoyable works.

Perhaps he is worthy of further investigation.

Thal

[Alan Howe]

The Kubelik recording (Decca) is also superb, and superbly sung.

Why not try the very Beethovenian Symphony in D on MDG?

[Pengelli]

My own  favourite 'Falstaff' has to be V-W's 'Sir John in Love'. Full
of marvellous music. The old emi recording is very good.

[edurban]

Like Meyerbeer, Nicolai had a go at the Italian style.  His 'Il Templario' (after Scott's Ivanhoe) was quite a success.  There is a new recording from Dynamic which I was unable to find on their website.  It's available from Amazon, CD Universe and others.  Here's a link:

http://www.amazon.com/Otto-Nicolai-Templario-Opera-Acts/dp/B002H4I3WY/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_i

David

[John H White]

For many years, part of the Merry Wives of Windsor Overture formed the signature tune of Woman's Hour, a weekly magazine programme what is now known as BBC Radio 4. This item is still running minus its introductory music.
   Otto Nicholai's only Symphony came second to Franz Lachner's 5th in the competition organised by the Vienna Friends of Music in 1835, beating around 55 other similar works in the process including Ferdinand Ries's fine 7th Symphony, which apparently came "nowhere".
    Cheers,
        John.

[JSK]

Opening night tonight!

I'm very excited. I love playing in opera pits, but fear that I will never have another opportunity after graduating.

After having lived with the music for a while, I like Merry Wives more. However, it seems to me that Nicolai had too many musical ideas when writing this opera. He has lots of wonderful melodies and motives, but pretty consistently fails to develop them. I just find it disappointing how some of these great 8 bar melodies get sung once or twice and then disappear. Some of the best of these melodies could have been made into full arias.

[Pengelli]

Off topic,I know,but mention of Nicolai reminds me of another less well known German opera composer I rather like,namely, Lortzing.

[Pengelli]

His music is often more like operetta,than opera. I'm thinking here of Zeller & Millocker here,not Johann or Lehar.Also,if you enjoy operetta,I think Carl Zeller's Der Vogelhandler is pretty unsung and one of the best of it's genre.

[Jonathan]

His Sacred Festival Overture on "Eine feste Burg" was transcribed by Liszt for organ - if this version is anything to go by, the orchestral version should be a lot of fun!

[thalbergmad]

I have almost completed the first movement of his piano sonata and will post my own recording over Christmas.

That should give everyone a good laugh.

The Norma variations are beyond my powers at the moment.

Thal

[JSK]

I'm sad that the production has finished. It was so much fun! I even feel like I'd be happy playing in opera pits for a career if I wasn't going into musicology, but anyway I'm not good enough to be a professional violinist. It was for me a much greater experience than playing in a symphony usually is, and I am sad that I know of no future opportunities for a non-professional like me to be in opera pits. I guess I can play vocal scores on the piano, but that's not the same.

About the music, Merry Wives really grew on me. It is not a work of genius musically or dramatically, but a very good and clearly enjoyable opera. Is anyone here familiar with Nicolai's "Il Templario"? I heard some short excerpts on youtube and was quite impressed, but 10 minutes of excerpts does not give an impression of an opera as a whole.

[JSK]

Just listened to my new copy of "Il Templario". Despite some dramatic weakness, in my opinion, towards the end I recommend it as a very good unknown opera in the bel canto style. The liner notes included in the CPO set are also fortunately very informative and long, having been written by the musicologist who recently brought out a performable edition of this opera.