Jaromir Weinberger: Wallenstein

[LukasPayne]

Jaromir Weinberger (1896 - 1967)

Valdštejn (Wallenstein) - Musikalische Tragödie in sechs Szenen (1937)

Roman Trekel - Wallenstein, Herzog zu Friedland
Martina Welschenbach - Thekla, seine Tochter
Ralf Lukas Octavio - Piccolomini, Generalleutnant / Dragoner
Daniel Kirch - Max Piccolomini, sein Sohn
Roman Sadnik - Graf Terzky
Dagmar Schellenberger - Gräfin Terzky
Edwing Tenias - Illo, Wallensteins Vertrauter / Kapuziner
Georg Lehner - Buttler
Benno Schollum - Wrangel, schwedischer Obert / Wachtmeister
Oliver Ringelhahn - Gordon / Kürassier / Soldat / Erster Kürassier
Dietmar Kerschbaum - Graf Questenberg / Hauptmann
Nina Berten - Marketenderin
Claudia Goebl - Mädchen
Johannes Schwendinger - Jäger / Bedienter

ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien
Wiener Singakademie
Cornelius Meister

ORF | 15.06.2012 | 7:30 pm

http://rsokalender.orf.at/index.php/show,81.html

[M. Yaskovsky]

Will be released on cpo records november/december 2017.
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/art/jaromir-weinberger-wallenstein/hnum/7136596

[Alan Howe]

What's the idiom, please. This dates from 1937!

[minacciosa]

Idiom? It's Weinberger! You guys just kill me with this idiom stuff.

[der79sebas]

I have been in the performance and the idiom is simply "boring" (except the first tableau). But still - it's *very* romantic.

[Alan Howe]

You guys just kill me with this idiom stuff

The rules are clear and we've repeated them ad nauseam, ad infinitum, per ardua ad astra  . If we don't ask, other guys kill us with stuff we're just not interested in - which can easily be discussed elsewhere on the web.

[eschiss1]

Too bad though about the boring part. One harbours at least small, miniature hopes.

[Double-A]

I wonder about the libretto.  Schiller's play is actually a trilogy, lasting two long evenings uncut (I have seen a massively cut performance in one evening--it was still long and yet too much had to be sacrificed).

All of Schiller's important characters are on the list of characters for the opera.  Maybe the introductory--and very short--"Wallensteins Lager" (Wallenstein's camp) was dropped but none of the major storylines.  Which means the libretto has to be a masterpiece in concentration / contraction.

Schiller was a rather theoretical mind and I always think his work is harder to deal with in opera than other playwrights.  But this task has to be even harder than say Don Carlos (which is successful IMO).

[BerlinExpat]

I was lucky enough to see Wallenstein in Gera in 2009. If my memory serves me correctly the producer altered the sequence of the scenes for a reason I cannot remember. There is no hint of it in the programme. I have a vague recollection the opera was shortened, which at just over two hours is similar to Cornelius Meister's recording of 2012. Boosey and Hawkes list three hours, but publishers often overestimate timings. A comparison with the score would yield clariification.

I've just re-listened to my broadcast recording of Meister's concert performance and can say the music is definitely late romantic verging on modernism, but not so much as perhaps Braunfels or Gál.

As in 2009, it was enlightening to listen to some different Weinberger without the folk music elements of Schwanda. Boosey and Hawkes describe the opera as tragic-dramatic, but IMHO the dramatic is rather limited, providing the necessary changes of mood though without elevating the opera into a more memorable class.

[Mark Thomas]

A fascinating summary, Colin. Thanks.