Karnavicius: Radvila

[mikehopf]

Here's one for Christopher.

Written in 1937 by Jurgis Karnavicius.

Broadcast on Lithuanian Radio LRT on Saturday night.


Operos vakaras: J. Karnavičiaus ,,Radvila Perkūnas" iš Kauno valstybinio muzikinio teatro. Dalyvauja R. Vaicekauskaitė, T. Ladiga, G. Prunskus, M. Zimkus, R. Zaikauskaitė, R. Urbietis, dirigentas J. Janulevičius. (3 hrs., 50 min.)

[Alan Howe]

Sorry: we're locking this for want of info about a work well outside our time-frame.

[Mark Thomas]

Having now heard a couple of excerpts from the opera, which is clearly written in late-romantic style, this topic is now unlocked.

[Christopher]

It's currently being streamed here - http://www.lrt.lt/mediateka/irasas/1013698077/operos-vakaras-2018-07-07-18-10 and that link will be available until 6th August, according to Linas.  It starts at 8minutes-40seconds, and finishes at 2hours-6minutes-10seconds.  I am trying to work out if there is an mp3 available....

[Alan Howe]

There's some terrible singing in this performance, which completely spoils it for me - the full range of screechers and wobblers, as far as I can judge. The orchestral playing is also pretty approximate at times. Oh dear - what a shame. Not a good advert for an intermittently attractive, but ultimately mediocre work. It needs much better advocacy than this, I'm afraid.

[Mark Thomas]

Unlike Alan, I'm "lucky" enough to have a tin ear when listening to recordings of obscure operas, so the singers' deficiencies and the orchestra's shortcomings (neither of which I deny in this case btw) don't usually spoil things for me, at least at first hearing. Unfortunately, this particular example probably won't get a second chance with me. Radvila Perkūnas, to give it its full title, is a run-of-the-mill effort at producing a Lithuanian national opera. Set against some sort of national uprising in the 16th century, it's a Romeo and Juliet love story with a happy ending. The idiom is similar to Puccini's in Turandot, but without any of the Italian's genius. The vocal writing is laboured, the melodies either trite or dull, and the orchestration lacks subtlety. Some passages are attractive, but Karnavičius almost always goes on too long (this is a cut down version, compacting the original four acts to two) and there's a certain remorselessness to the work - it's a piece which has few moments of repose. "Mediocre" is indeed the word.

[eschiss1]

Taking a closer look at the first two of his four quartets (not counting, acc. to Wikipedia, an early quartet in F major) they seem interesting, especially the 2nd.