The Salzburg Festival Part 2
Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt:
Let’s Hear This
Forgotten Masterpiece More Often!
By Irving Spitz
One of the memorable highlights at the recent
Salzburg summer Festival was a performance of Die Tote Stadt
(The Dead City), an opera composed by Eric Wolfgang Korngold.
Pronounced a musical genius at a very early age by no less
than Gustav Mahler, Korngold composed this opera when he
was only 22 years old. It was widely performed in Europe, particularly
in Germany under the baton of leading conductors (Otto Klemperer
and George Szell) with prominent vocalists (Maria Jeritza,
Lotte Lehmann and Richard Tauber) but with the coming to
power of the Nazis, this opera was banned. Meanwhile Korngold had
left Europe and was working in Hollywood where he won several
Oscars for composing film scores for Warner Brothers. Possibly
because of this foray into Hollywood, his reputation as a
serious classical composer suffered and after his death, his work fell
into complete oblivion. Recently there has been a movement
to resurrect his music and the current Salzburg festival
staged not only Korngold’s
Die Tote Stadt but also gave performances of several of
his other works.
Die Tote Stadt is a Freudian
tale set in the Belgian city of Bruges, not the real Bruges,
but a city in the imagination of Paul who is the opera’s chief protagonist. The gloomy
atmosphere of Bruges reminds Paul of death and his beloved
wife Marie. The libretto relates how he tries to escape from
his obsession of his dead wife. Paul lives alone except for
his devoted housekeeper Brigitta. One room in his house is
a temple shrine to his beloved deceased wife. Here he preserves
her mementos including photographs, a lute and her portrait
together with a braid of her golden hair. One day he meets
a young dancer, Marietta, who bears a striking resemblance
to his late wife and he invites her to his house. Paul’s
friend Frank warns him that he is playing a dangerous game
but Paul will not listen. Indeed the worldly and fun loving
Marietta is the opposite of Marie. Marietta then leaves Paul’s
house to meet with her theatrical group. Paul falls asleep
and then his hallucinations and nightmares begin. These continue
until almost the end of the opera. The dead Marie steps out
of her picture to be replaced by Marietta. In Act 2, Paul wanders
about near a canal close to Marietta’s house seeking
her. She soon approaches with her friends and is berated by
Paul but nevertheless she returns with him to his house. In
Act 3, a violent argument ensues and Paul in his hallucination
strangles Marietta with the braid of Marie’s
hair. He then awakens from his dream and his housekeeper
comes in to announce that Marietta has returned. But
now Paul has finally freed himself from his past. Finding
Paul totally disinterested in her, Marietta leaves.
This new production was directed by Willy Decker with
sets by Wolfgang Gussmann. The staging in the Kleines
Festspielhaus was magical and intriguing. The dream sequences
in particularly were most arresting. They began with
the back wall of Paul’s
room disappearing as he fell asleep in an armchair
with the room becoming distorted. Decker brilliantly succeeded
in blending reality and the dream world.
This opera requires a huge orchestra with much percussion
as well as a large choir. It contains two hit numbers,
Marietta’s
lute song and a waltz in Act 2 sung by Frank. The music is
late Romantic and reminiscent of Richard Strauss and Puccini.
It is not surprising that Korngold was dubbed the “Viennese
Puccini.” The Vienna Philharmonic under Donald
Runnicles gave a riveting performance and succeeded
brilliantly in bringing out the melodic harmonies.
Tenor Torsten Kerl took the role of Paul and succeeded
in bringing drama, vocal power and pathos to the arduous
role. Soprano Angela Denoke, as Marietta and Marie displayed
not only vocal prowess but also a flair for acting and
dancing, a trait not many singers possess. The only non-German
in the cast, Danish baritone, Bo Slovhus, was most compelling
in the role of Frank. Mezzo Daniela Denschlag, sang the
role of Paul’s housekeeper
Brigitta with great sensitivity. This performance led
credence to the belief that Die Tote Stadt is one of
the great-unperformed operas of the 20th Century. It
certainly deserves a wide audience and we should hear
it more often.#
