Although I have had Rusalka in my collection for some time, I am only just waking up to Dvorak's other operas. Have forum members any comments/recommendations re. his operas?
I have all of his operas on CD (only the earliest, incomplete?, Alfred, 1870 is not available)
I've found Armida (1903), Vanda (1875), and The Devil and Kate (1899) to be very worthwhile, the other comic operas, less so (but if you like fun, boisterous music, then those might be for you). You wouldn't miss with any of them - as with Tchaikovsky, many of Dvorak's most melodious and powerful music can be found expressed in his operas. Of course, I can't speak to the librettos - but that's not why I listen to operas in any event.
for completists:
Tvdre palice (The Stubborn Lovers), comic 1874
Vanda, tragic, 1875
Selma sedlak (The Cunning Peasant), comic, 1877
Kral a uhlir (The King and the Collier), 1887
Dmitrij, 1894
Jakobin, 1897
Cert a Kaca (The Devil and Kate), 1899
Rusalka, 1900
Svata Ludmila, 1901
Armida, 1903
Also, his cantatas are highly recommended:
Heirs of the White Mountain, 1883
The Specter's Bride, 1884
The American Flag, 1885
I love the drama and sheer excitement of Dmitrij and Jakobin and, of course, Russalka is just beautiful - if a bit static by comparison with their hell for leather action. But to be honest I'll happily sit down and spend a couple of hours with any of Dvorak's operas.
Alas, poor Dvorak! I can recall reading Dvorak himself many years ago (and I can't remember where - a letter, diaries, some vaguely autobiographical text?) expressing disappointment that he was not taken much more seriously as an opera composer. Opera, apparently, was one of his main ambitions. (Maybe the high esteem in which the orchestral and chamber music is held has eclipsed the reputation of the operas?)
Given that opera is a fusion of music and drama then I'll happily assert (and get shot down for it!) that in so many ways I find the Dvorak operas (together with those of Smetana which are often quite simply glorious) more satisfying and enjoyable than Donizetti and even Verdi (apart of course from the final great ones). Controversial, and I won't take it further for you weren't asking about how Dvorak stands in relation to others.
Maybe one factor that has stood in the way of more frequent performances (and recordings) outside of Czechoslovakia (where I guess Dvorak is a national institution) is that so many of them are comic operas. The exceptions, besides Rusalka (which for me is the eighth wonder of the world) are the early unpublished Alfred (which he called a 'heroic' opera) together with the late Dimitri (a 'grand opera' in 4 Acts) and Armida (4 Acts and after Tasso). All of the others (off the top of my head) are comic operas, and the trouble is that there is a prevalent utter piece of idiocy that tells us that any comic opera (or drama for that matter) however good it is just can't get into the category of The Great.
Which of course is nonsense. Maybe I am hopelessly uncritical, but whilst sometimes aware that the librettos can be clumsy and rather stumble along (true also of Wagner!!) I find all these comic operas bursting with good humour and sheer delight. Maybe start with Kate and the Devil? But on reflection that's just picking out one at random. The Cunning Peasant, The Jacobin, The King and the Charcoal Burner, and The Jacobin are all equally rewarding. The Supraphon recordings of all these operas are each and every one excellent, as is the Orfeo recording of a revised version of The King and the Charcoal Burner (cond. Albrecht).
That leaves the 'serious' operas, Armida and Dimitri. Both have very good recordings conducted by Gerd Albrecht (the former on Orfeo, the latter on Supraphon). It is fairly clear why they haven't fared well on the stage. I don't know whether it is the 'fault' of Dvorak or his librettists but they're not characterised by good stagecraft and can be clumsy and disjointed in terms of plot. Some of the events and actions in Rusalka are sufficient to give an opera producer severe headaches, but in these operas rather than mermaids singing to the moon we get whole armies moving across stage. (Yet that hasn't never constituted an objection to Prokofiev's War and Peace!). However for concert performance (or home listening when one's wife is on a weekend visit to her mother and the neighbours are tolerant) both operas I find glorious - Dimitri perhaps especially.
Apologies, Alan - all this ramble is no help at all. I suppose you're asking 'how does one approach the Dvorak operas?' and I've recommended a grand sweeping broadside, e.g. try all of them, and all the recordings are good. I wouldn't make a discriminating critic!
One final note. I didn't unfortunately get there, but I think there was a concert performance of The Jacobin at the start of February in the Barbican (Czech cast, BBC SO and Jiri Belohlavek) and I'm hugely hoping that was the signal for a new recording. Anyone know of any plans or rumours? I recall a couple of years ago a Czech cast, BBC SO and Belohlavek gave us a very very stunning recording (on DG) of Janacek's Broucek. That again started life (I think) in the Barbican. Wonder if The Jacobin will follow? Fingers crossed.
That's an excellent guide, Peter. Thanks! And Balapoel too!
FWIW, I was mistaking Jakobin for Armida.
It's actually either The Jacobin or Dmitri that has this absolutely marvelous tune that keeps showing up throughout the opera...alas I forget which. Both are very enjoyable listens, but then again I'm a Dvorak 'completist'
If you like Dvorak's operas, then you'll just LURVE those by Smetana!
Quote from: Balapoel on Saturday 11 February 2012, 20:40for completists: [...] Svata Ludmila, 1901
Saint Ludmila is Dvorak's sole
oratorio, written for the 1886 Leeds Festival (where it was first performed alongside Sullivan's
The Golden Legend, Mackenzie's
The Story of Sayid and Stanford's
The Revenge).
It's an uneven work, but
well worth getting to know - there are three recordings
(http://www.mdt.co.uk/public/pictures/products/standard/UP0078.jpg) (http://www.mdt.co.uk/public/pictures/products/standard/1121412.jpg) (http://www.mdt.co.uk/public/pictures/products/standard/C513992H.jpg)
:)
Quote from: Albion on Sunday 12 February 2012, 11:06
Quote from: Balapoel on Saturday 11 February 2012, 20:40for completists: [...] Svata Ludmila, 1901
Saint Ludmila is Dvorak's sole oratorio, written for the 1886 Leeds Festival (where it was first performed alongside Sullivan's The Golden Legend, Mackenzie's The Story of Sayid and Stanford's The Revenge).
Actually, it is both.
Svata Ludmila, B. 144, Oratorio (1886)
Svata Ludmila, B. 205, Opera (1901), adapted from oratorio B. 144
I don't know which versions were on those CDs, since both versions appear to be listed as Op. 71
Also for completists:
Kral a uhlir, B. 151 (3 versions)
Dmitrij, B. 186 (2 versions)
Jakobin, B. 200, revision of B. 159
also pieces I can't find recorded anywhere:
Josef Kajetan Tyl, B. 125 (1881), incidental music
Hymn of the Czech Peasants, B. 143 (1885), Cantata
Ballad of King Matthias, B. 115 (1881), from second version of Kral a uhlir, B. 42, ballad
Thanks for the recommendation. I have duly ordered Svata Ludmila (Albrecht on Orfeo - I gather the Arco Diva is cut).
I need to undertake some research! My sole recording is the one conducted by Belohlavek on Arco Diva. I've always been entirely happy with that - it is certainly very well performed and recorded, and it also strikes me as thoroughly idiomatic (it is a live recording of a performance at the Prague Spring Festival in 2004).
But cut? Now that is a question that has never occurred to me. Mere impressions don't really count, but this performance doesn't have anything at all that smacks of the 'cut'.
But Alan's belief, and the remarks of Balapoel (which at first completely confused me with his distinction between oratorio / opera versions), resulted in my digging out the recording and looking again at the booklet. And I come across this passage:
"In this way Dvorak invested the oratorio with diverse life, which he was able to pull together into a unified form. The dramatic quality of both the libretto and the music induced Dvorak to make a stage adaptation, for which he had to cut out a great deal, to the detriment of the overall structure of the oratorio and, primarily, the music itself: a number of beautiful parts fell victim to this editing. St Ludmilla thus eventually reached the stage of the National Theatre, Prague, in 1895, then again with additional retouching by V J Novotny in 1901, and, ultimately and most reverentially under Otakar Ostrcil and the director Ferdinand Pujman in 1934. But this stage debut did not do justice to the work. Although the dramatic version was always received with respect, the oratorio form was considered the better of the two. In the concert version the work returned to its original place, where it will clearly remain."
Not, I suspect, the happiest of translations. But as I quickly typed it I became more and more puzzled. A Dvorak scholar is required. Do I take it that this (excellent) Arco Diva recording is a recording of the original oratorio version? In which case it is misleading to refer to it as 'cut', because presumably the things that are allegedly 'cut' are in fact additions to that original to transform it into a stage work? And what are the "number of beautiful parts" which "fell victim to this editing"? Do they belong to the second (stage) version?
Completely lost! And can a Dvorak scholar tell me whether this business matters? I've always been quite complacent in my belief that the Arco Diva recording is a complete recording of a single work called 'Svata Ludmila'. Or are things rather more complicated than this?
Hum, this is the trouble with reading (with huge enjoyment) contributions on this site. Life gets more and more complicated.....and of course a chap's debts steadily increase!!
From what I gather, the Svata Ludmila opera simply adds recitatives to the oratorio.
And though (unfortunetly) Josef Kajetan Tyl hasn't been recorded, its overture is quite well known as My Home, Op. 62
The My Home Overture is one of my favorite Dvorak overtures.
Whatever Dvořák wrote, he could usually be relied on for some very good tunes. I don't think I've seen any of his operas live but maybe one by Smetana in London. It was about these two women – now, what were they? Not sisters (thinking of Bob Hope), or brides, maybe widows ... but I can remember some colourful dances and an interval for a meal that was served so slow we had to come back afterwards for the last course. Lucky really, for had it been Meistersinger the restaurant might have been closed.
My apologies for replying to such an old thread but I'm curious if you've got around to discovering more operas by Dvorak Alan? If you don't mind what are your thoughts of them if you have.
I can't say I have. It's ages since I listened to one by him. Apologies.
No problem. I'd recommend, if you haven't heard them already, the Jacobin and the Devil and Kate for future listening for you. Both are comedies and are of high inspiration especially Jacobin which is his greatest comedy and most performed opera after Rusalka in his homeland.
I am currently listening to Act 3 of The Jacobin - and it rather confirms my general impression that Dvořák's best music isn't to be found in his operas (with the exception of Rusalka). It's beautifully written for the orchestra, of course, but it just seems to me that it just 'jogs along' rather than really grabbing the listener. And then a beautiful tune arrives (typical of this great composer, of course)...
Perhaps it's me - or maybe I just need to try harder...
Yes, Act 3 of Jacobin is the weakest act of that work, it concerns the father and son reconciliation. The best music is to be found in Act 1 and 2. It shows superb control dramatically and musically IMO - worthy of Smetana, in fact experts have suggested it could rival the Bartered bride.
I've found the Gerd Albrecht Orfeo series of his operas the most convincing.
Yes, Albrecht is a very gifted opera conductor, I agree.
Interestingly, I have recently come to enjoy The Bartered Bride through Kempe's classic recording, which is in German! Something to do with a cast including Lorengar, Wunderlich and Frick, I think. And so we come back to the question of casting: on the whole I simply want better singing in many of the Dvorak opera recordings. Too many squally sopranos, bleating tenors and fuzzy baritones, I fear. But I suppose there's not much of a pool of Czech-speaking singers to choose from. If only all the singing in Albrecht's Jacobin were as good as Michal Lehotsky's Jiří, for example.
Quite right, the Kempe recording is my favourite as well, I always had doubts before...
I'm not too fussy about singing to be honest, as long as the whole carries the work off convincingly I'm happy. I'm strange in that way.
It's often the quality of the singing that puts me off - so I'm rather the opposite. I've always believed that opera should be properly sung, i.e. by artists with firm, well-produced voices. After all, we wouldn't accept recordings of, say, violin concertos involving soloists playing scrawny violins.
If only we had had modern recording technology earlier in the century - I believe we would have had a whole slew of better sung performances - and not only in Czech opera!
The Spectre's Bride's more of an oratorio, since you mention it, but no reason not to include those works here too. I like Albrecht's recording, haven't heard or heard of Kempe's.
Kert (Kate and the Devil) which I've heard on YouTube in a fun amateur translated (Dutch, not a language I know) performance sounds rather good too.
Quotehaven't heard or heard of Kempe's
Apologies, Eric, that was a reference to his famous recording of the Smetana.
"Vanda" gets my recommendation, largely for its melodic power and large-scale scenes that brim with dramatic tension. One reason, perhaps, for its unsung status is the historical setting: a Czech opera on a Polish subject. I can imagine challenges translating the story beyond the eastern European sphere.
Once again, the definitive version is that conducted by Gerd Albrecht; as far as I know it's the only complete version available.
I heartily agree with the statement that if you're drawn to Dvorak, you'll have a lot to discover, and enjoy, with Smetana. Given a random piece of music, I admit there are times when I might have a hard time deciding whether Smetana or Dvorak was the actual composer. especially in the comic operas. But that truly doesn't matter given music as infectious and pleasing as this.
"The Brandenburgers in Bohemia" is my favorite of Smetana's, largely for the similar qualities I find in "Vanda." And it gets just about as much attention, which is almost nil.
QuoteI heartily agree with the statement that if you're drawn to Dvorak, you'll have a lot to discover, and enjoy, with Smetana. Given a random piece of music, I admit there are times when I might have a hard time deciding whether Smetana or Dvorak was the actual composer. especially in the comic operas. But that truly doesn't matter given music as infectious and pleasing as this.
Excellently said.
I will say that the general agreement about Dvorak operas is that Dmitrji is considered to be his finest opera after Rusalka by scholars/ experts. I didn't want to mention it because it belongs to the now so called ''out moded'' form of grand opera which is frowned upon just about everywhere nowadays. Which is a shame because I love Meyerbeer! Again Albrecht comes to the rescue with a just about complete recording on Supraphon which is long out of print sadly.
EDIT: I see youtube has the complete album to listen to. Now nobodies got an excuse not to listen to a great work!
Ok, but could Smetana operas/other dramatic choral works get a separate thread rather than seeming to be brought up in one out of every three posts in this one :D
Be our guest, Eric! See new thread: http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,7355.0.html (http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,7355.0.html)
I have been trying to get hold of a full score (miniature/study/PDF etc.) of The Spectre's Bride, but it appears to be impossible in the UK. I'd be grateful for any leads.
Have you tried : https://imslp.org/ ?
IMSLP (https://imslp.org/wiki/The_Spectre%27s_Bride,_Op.69_(Dvo%C5%99%C3%A1k,_Anton%C3%ADn)) has only the first-edition 1885 vocal score at this time (and perhaps some interesting links :) ). He did say -full- score. Since it was first published in the UK, I wonder if that makes it more or less likely that the full score is available for free (or given things nowdays, at a reasonable price, though if it was published in 1885 too, I would have assumed it would be out of copyright there as here, if that matters)..
Thanks. I have a physical copy of the Novello edition of 1885 and considering this version was performed in the UK I am surprised that there seems to be no performing materials or full scores available to borrow - or buy! IMSLP have long used confusing terminology like 'full score' for complete vocal score and 'complete score' for god knows what! - it is always best to have a quick browse. Full score, vocal score and choral score should all be self-explanatory to musicians!
I don't know if this is available in the UK, unfortunately, but MPH (https://repertoire-explorer.musikmph.de/en/product/dvorak-antonin-3/) does it seems? have a full score available (72 Euros)? As to IMSLP, full score (=vertical) should mean orchestral score (possibly incomplete), complete score (=horizontal) should mean from page 1 to etc. even if only vocal score- this is sometimes applied inconsistently throughout the site because, surprise, there is no one or small group of people uploading things and writing in "full" or "complete" etc and possibly getting it wholly wrong, and the small group of admins who do check that sort of thing from time to time, including me, are a bit teensy bit overwhelmed, we do try to verify that things like that are correct but sometimes we can be years late in fixing things and even then people- lots of people- do get on our case for being prissish about it, ok?...
OK, just my 'vocal score' contributions were re-labelled 'complete score' by admins, and not 'complete vocal score' (eg. see Parry: Lotos Eaters).
Thanks for the link, very useful.
That's because the header "Vocal Score" should convey the information, while "Complete Score" contains only the information that it's not lacking any pages, hence Complete Score in the Vocal Scores heading -is- a complete vocal score. This may be a term of art on the site, but it's explained on the site and people using the site are asked to check pages where it's explained before starting, iirc.
There is a score of Spectre's Bride listed on ebay (under books) for £44 + £9 postage
I decided to buy Albrecht's recording of Wanda/Vanda. It's a very enjoyable listen, brim full of Czech-inflected Dvořákian melody, all superbly done under this fine conductor. Not a masterpiece, I think - it's too diffuse for that - but worthy of any opera lover's attention and offering hours of pleasure.
I'm glad you enjoyed it Alan - it's a good score like you said. Composed at the same time as his first true masterpiece the 5th symphony.
Have you tried Dmitji? an even finer work than Vanda if you can believe it.
I have Dimitrij, yes. Must go back and give it a listen.
Here's a fascinating article on his operas. It focuses on Jakobin and Rusalka.
https://yorkspace.library.yorku.ca/xmlui/handle/10315/34990
Incidentally and with apologies for a too subjective post: have still only heard the first two acts of Rusalka- concentration issues have not gotten better recently, can't imagine- but will listen to the final soon and basically stunned? by the first two acts.
(It's been a spring/summer for revelations. Another being that I might give Italian opera a try finally- and I liked it. Better late than never!!)
I don't quite follow you.. stunned because you thought Rusalka was good? or bad?
I was expecting it to be good, had remembered the part of it I'd heard awhile back was good, but a bit stunned just how very good it was.
I understand now. Thanks!
Seems an apt time to mention that the Bard Music Festival's production of Dimitrij is now available for streaming at
https://americansymphony.org/concerts/online/dimitrij/
Elsewhere on the site is an in-depth discussion with Dvorak scholar Michael Beckerman and conductor Leon Botstein on Dimitrij in particular and Dvorak's operas in general.
p.s. Just noticed that the performance also exists in the "Downloads" section. i was fortunate enough to see it live; curious what others think!