Franck - Hulda (Freiburg Oper)

[adriano]

I still cannot understand how the German Regietheater still carries on like this. And, if Naxos are going to issue this on DVD, it's their problem; they may have sponsors paying for this crap staging.
Still, now we have a good audio version for us :-)
Years ago many stagings included Nazi concentration camp and madhouses à la bonheur, now we have terroroist thematics.
Of course, for many directors it is easier to squeeze a crazy concept of his own into an opera, rather than to study the score and its historical background.
Anyway, most German Regiethater directors cannot read music. During my Zurich Opera years, we had some famous specimens using a CD booklet instead of a vocal score as a reference. And there was a lot of "working progress"; they just sticked to their crazy (pardon: original!) conception and during 5 weeks of rehearsals they tried out and improvised constantly (pardon: experimented) - and changed everything again the following day...

[jdperdrix]

Please, help me! What is this theme in act 2, at 29 minutes (danse des Epées)!

[adriano]

It's Franck's "Sabre Dance" :-)

[Gareth Vaughan]

And there was a lot of "working progress"; they just sticked to their crazy (pardon: original!) conception and during 5 weeks of rehearsals they tried out and improvised constantly (pardon: experimented) - and changed everything again the following day...

I have come across this too (though, mercifully, rarely in my singing experience). Regieoper is just another word for lazy, ignorant, self-indulgent, disrespectful (to composer and audience), garbage! There - I've nailed my colours to the mast.

[Mark Thomas]

It's just downright insulting both to the composer and librettist (which need not concern the director as they're both long dead) but also to the audience (who mostly aren't), assuming as it does that we won't "get" the piece unless it's made "relevant" to the modern day, often in the most unsubtle and egregious way. I'm amazed that the Germans have put up with it for so long.

I remember a storm of protest, probably 25-30 years ago, at a Welsh National Opera production of Nabucco, which replaced the Hebrews with Palestinian refugees - reading the reviews, that seems a pretty mild case of revisionism when compared with the horrors inflicted on Hulda.

[Kevin]

I'm getting very confused here. Why would they take the trouble to recast Hulda in the radio broadcast but then release the same production as last year with a totally different Hulda on DVD? What am I missing here? The booklet even states "studio production"

[adriano]

According to the reviews there was a lot of shooting and screaming on stage. Murders and rapes etc. occurred - all this makes a lot of noise. Perhaps the SWR did not agree with that... Which would mean that they still have some intelligent people over there...

[Kevin]

I hope you are right hadrianus. I'm getting too old now for all these shock announcements.

[ewk]

According to the reviews there was a lot of shooting and screaming on stage. Murders and rapes etc. occurred - all this makes a lot of noise

I can confirm that, Adriano, from having seen it live: lots of machine guns including their loud noise in that staging. I hope none of that has made it into the audio version? I yet have to listen to it.

As I stated earlier, I found the staging self-consistent -- however, I think the drama wouldn't have been less dramatic if they had set it like Franck had intended it. I wonder when HIP discovers staging questions for themselves.

Best wishes, ewk

[Alan Howe]

Perhaps we could make money selling an audio-only version?

Only joking...

[adriano]

no, ewk & Kevin S
As already told, the new audio was made in a studio. I haven't listened to it yet completely, but I bet we purists will be fully satisfied :-)
Some reviewers did indeed mention that they found the music itself rather boring...

[Alan Howe]

Let's hope, then, that this will be a CD-only release.

[Kevin]

Yes I hope it will be CD only, that's why I was getting confused by a mention of a DVD release.

[eschiss1]

how's the 1960 recording ?...

[adriano]

The 1960 version is sung in Italian. The translation is by its conducor, Vittorio Gui.
I had this LP box in my collection because I am a fan of Giacinto Prandelli. Then I sold my collection and though that this item is not worthy to be digitzed - as I had done with many other of which I supposed they wouldn't perhaps be reissued on CD.

** Internet Radio: You may have noticed that on radio hubs for DAB/FM and Internet Radio, the latter is at the moment no more available due to silly a server change - thus causing a lot ot confusion. Among other, one has to re-set the affected devices - but it seems that this is still not working properly on all of them.