Hans Sommer's opera "Rübezahl und der Sackpfeifer von Neiße"

[BerlinExpat]

Being broadcast on Deutschlandradio Kultur on April 9th at 19:05

Oper in deutschen Ländern
Bühnen der Stadt Gera
Produktion vom 01./02.04.2016

Hans Sommer
"Rübezahl und der Sackpfeifer von Neiße"
Phantastisch-romantische Oper in vier Aufzügen
Libretto: Eberhard König

    Musikalische Leitung: Laurent Wagner
    Inszenierung: Kay Kuntze
    Bühne, Kostüme: Duncan Hayler*
    Choreinstudierung: Holger Krause
    Dramaturgie: Felix Eckerle

    Besetzung:
    Rübezahl: Magnus Piontek
    Buko: Johannes Beck
    Gertrud: Anne Preuß
    Wido: Hans-Georg Priese
    Brigitte: Merja Mäkelä
    Bernhard Kraft: Jueun Jeon
    Stäblein/ Ein Diener Bukos: Alexander Voigt
    Totengräber/ Kettner/ Nachtwächter: Kai Wefer
    Joachim: Andreas Veit
    Wachthabender: Xiangnan Yao
    Theobald: N. N.

  * als Gast

I hope someone out there can record it because I can't. I will see it later this month and can report on it afterwards.

[Alan Howe]

The opera dates from 1904, so this is mature Sommer. Very interesting indeed.

[Mark Thomas]

It's in my diary. I'll do my best.

[Alan Howe]

Oh, great. Thanks.

[BerlinExpat]

If through the title of the opera you're expecting a fairy tale opera in Humperdinck vein, you'll be disappointed. It's a through composed drama in a cross between Wagner and Strauss (both Richards). Sommer's music here is very different to the more restrained Sappho lieder and chamber music.
Quite why it has been forgotten for 110 years is suprising. One suggestion in Germany is that Sommer didn't find or even didn't try to find a publisher. IMHO another possible reason is the very Wagnerian (both Wagners) libretto by Eberhard König.
Very briefly, the citizens of Nieße call upon Wido to help them end Buko's (the governor's) draconian rule. In desperation Rübezahl is called upon to assist. Apart from Rübezahl's sporadic appearances I forgot Rübezahl the mountain spirit as the plot is really a three-way drama about Wido, Buko and his foster child Gertrud.
In a way it's a pity we don't have Weber's and/or Mahler's renditions to compare it with. Flowtow's version seems to be more deeply buried than Sommer's has been.
The theatre in Gera have thrown everything into this production and the result is stunning and probably their best opera discovery in recent years. I can hardly get it out of my head. Everything gelled and I can only urge you to listen (and hopefully record, Mark and anyone else) to the broadcast on Saturday 9th April at 19:05 CET.
Acts 1 & 2 are 72 amount to minutes and acts 3 & 4 to 81 minutes, so it should nicely fit two CDs.
   

[FBerwald]

Wiki mentions some orchestral works of this composer as well.. Any idea what these might be?

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks BerlinExpat for a mouth-watering description. I'll do my best to get it recorded.

[BerlinExpat]

Wiki mentions some orchestral works of this composer as well.. Any idea what these might be?

I've delved further into the very extensive programme with libretto, but there's no mention of purely orchestral works. It states that Saint Foix is a conversation opera that pre-dates d'Albert's Die Abreise

There's also a four page extract concerning Rübezahl from his unpublished autobiography!

Further Rübezahl operas listed there:
Franz Vincenz Tucek: Rübezahl, der Berggeist am Riesengebürge, ca. 1804
Franz Danzi: Der Berggeist, 1813
Wilhelm Würfel: Rübezahl, 1824
Louis Spohr: Der Berggeist, 1824
Peter von Lindpaintner: Der Bergkönig, 1825
Christian Gottlieb Müller: Rübezahl, 1840
Carl Amand Mangold: Rübezahl, 1848
Friedrich von Flowtow: Rübezahl, 1853
Ignaz Brüll: Rübezahl, 1899 (incomplete)
Alfred Stelzer, Rübezahl, 1902

[Mark Thomas]

A recording of yesterday evening's radio broadcast is now available in the Downloads board here. I haven't listened to the whole work but, as BerlinExpat reported, it appears to be a lushly Straussian work, owing a substantial debt to Wagnerian music drama. It lasts 2 hours 37 minutes but, not having a score, I haven't attempted to track it beyond the four acts, two of which last around 50 minutes apiece. There is no audience noise that I can detect, and no performances were programmed for the recording dates listed by Deutschland Radio Kultur, so I assume that this is the recording which will eventually be released by cpo. So, when it appears I'll remove my recording.

[Alan Howe]

Sincere thanks to Mark for giving us the opportunity to hear this very interesting and frequently lovely work. It's certainly very Wagnerian (rather than Straussian) and magnificently written for the orchestra. The major influences seem to me pretty obvious: Die Meistersinger and The Ring. If there's any Strauss in it, it's his early, equally Wagnerian pieces such as Guntram.

The soloists on the recording cope quite well with the strenuous vocal writing, although one can imagine more glamorous voices in their roles (oh for a Kaufmann in the main tenor part, for example). But as beggars we can't be choosers, of course.

The drawback? Although there's plenty of incident in the music, it's not particularly memorable melodically, but perhaps that'll come with increased familiarity. Sommer is clearly a major talent. We need to hear more of him...

[Alan Howe]

Actually, the more I hear of this impressive opera, the more I admire Sommer's resourceful writing. As an opera it's better than anything I've heard by Humperdinck (except Hänsel und Gretel and possibly Königskinder) and it's far more incident-packed than the operas of Siegfried Wagner.

[adriano]

Oh my: 10 operas he wrote!
But he was a mathematician!
And, together with Richard Strauss the put up the German Composers Right Society. Surely it was Strauss who was more interested of doing this because of the money :-)

A little anecdote's intermezzo (out of theme)
A London musician once told me that he had played under Strauss. After the composer's warning that he wanted to be paid in cash, they told him that he would be paid the next day because it was a Sunday and the banks were closed. It may have been impossible to raise enough money from the tickets. Before mounting his podium, Strauss let them ask the cashier how much they could finally collect and, since in fact it was not enough, he said that in that case he would not conduct a shorter programmed tone poem, but just the other pieces.

And (I got this from Elsa Respighi in person) once Mr and Mrs Strauss were in Rome, they went to see the Respighis in their splendid villa on the Monte Mario. They were flabbergasted. While Elsa was leaving the room to get some cocktails, she just saw Mrs Strauss run her finger over the fireplace marble, saying "Oh, these Italians are very clean people!". Back to Germany, apparently, she was telling around to her friends how shocked she was to see that "those Italians" had no carpets on the floors. That stupid woman did not know that, generally, Italians having stone or marble floors store their carpets in the cellar during the hot summer season, just to protect them.

[Alan Howe]

...and so back to Sommer. The opera's packed full of incident and has some extremely impressive, exciting, even inspired passages.

So can you hear the 'but' coming? It just lacks tunes. I can't really see it catching on, thoroughly grateful though I am for having had the opportunity to hear the opera. I remember thinking something similar after hearing Cornelius' Der Cid - Lohengrin without the tunes. So Rübezahl is Die Meistersinger/The Ring without the tunes.

I did enjoy the experience, though. The opera's best pages are truly awe-inspiring.

[adriano]

Will listen to it this coming week with pleasure 
Hope the libretto is not all too disappointing...

At the end of this page, there are some stage photos, looks interesting:

http://www.tpthueringen.de/stuecke-konzerte/musiktheater.html

[Alan Howe]

...and now comes the commercial recording of this performance:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/hans-sommer-ruebezahl-und-der-sackpfeifer-von-neisse/hnum/5624488