Recording of Raff's Die Eifersüchtigen

[eschiss1]

I'd add that the brief CD notes available from Naxos' website are very interesting, and I am glad this work, about which I've been curious for a fair amount of time, has been typeset, performed, recorded and will now be available so soon.

[John Boyer]

Well, it's here. The notes, as Eric has pointed out, are indeed interesting.  They look at the opera more from a theoretical/structural point of view, as if one were discussing a symphony.

The voices range from satisfactory to good, but there are no real standouts, either wonderful or terrible. I will take it.  If it could be better, I know from other recordings that it could be far worse.

The recording is very clear, with lots of detail in the orchestral playing.  The smallish string section (7-6-5-4-1) acquits itself quite well, helped by the fact that Raff scored it for modest wind (2-2-2-2) and brass (2-2) forces.  Given the realities of the concessions that one must make for a pit orchestra, I think it works just fine.  I heard details in the overture that I never noticed before.

If the libretto is weak it's not that much weaker than your typical Italian buffo opera. In the end, I think it's a very welcome addition to the recorded repertory, even if it does show Raff's limitations as a dramatic composer.

Downloadable libretto in German only, but there is a detailed synopsis by a certain Mark Thomas.

[Alan Howe]

Thanks, John, for this review. Wonder who that certain 'Mark Thomas' is? 

[Mark Thomas]

If it's the MT I'm thinking of, he's currently on a cruise, so speculate away... 

[Alan Howe]

So, not stuck on board in Belfast, then?

[Mark Thomas]

No, unstuck in Trieste!

[Justin]

This may be an unpopular opinion but I find much of the work to be dull. It rarely goes beyond being merely pleasant and the only part that stood out to me was the conclusion of Act I. It felt like the work was rushed at the end with an abrupt finish as well.

I felt that Benedetto Marcello worked much better as a comic work.

[Mark Thomas]

I don't think it's in the same league as the three other Raff operas I know but I wouldn't call it a dull work. However, I do agree that for the most part it's not an exciting one. It showcases Raff the tunesmith but is largely without incident, so he gave himself no opportunity in it to write dramatic music. He seems to have composed it initially as relaxation from his work as director of the Hoch Conservatory, with no realistic prospect of it ever being performed, and latterly whilst suffering from the heart disease which was to kill him, so perhaps all that comes across in the music too.

Benedetto Marcello, by the way, isn't a comedy. Raff called it a lyric opera and its libretto is based on a, probably fictitious, incident in the lives of Marcello himself and the German composer Johann Adolf Hasse, after which they each married pupils of the former. Dame Kobold and Die Parole (a work I'd very much like to hear) are the other operatic comedies Raff wrote.

[Justin]

Yes sorry I meant comic as in a light or lyric opera, not comedic.

[Alan Howe]

My copy's arrived - loved the Overture, more to come...

[Alan Howe]

Raff's opera, written towards the end of his life, is magnificent music. I can't think of anything like it - I'm certain that Raff was just writing for himself at this point in his life. I wonder what path his music would have taken if he had lived longer. Perhaps further along this neo-classical direction, crowning his achievements with something along the lines of Verdi's Falstaff...?

By the way, there's one stand-out performance: US-born tenor Benjamin Popson. A fine, young singer with a strikingly secure upper range.