SCHREKER : CHRISTOPHORUS

SCHREKER'S CHRISTOPHORUS

Radio New Zealand Concert network
Sunday 28th of October 2007 at 3 pm

SCHREKER: Christophorus oder Die Vision einer Oper,
an opera in two acts with prelude and postlude,
by Franz Schreker (1878-1934)

Meister Johann/A voice........... Hans Georg Ahrens
Lisa........................................ Susanne Bernhard
Christoph................................ Jörg Sabrowski
Anselm................................... Robert Chafin
Heinrich/Dr Hartung................ Matthias Klein
Amandus................................ Bernd Gebhardt
Ernst....................................... Hans-Jürgen Schöpflin
Frederik/Silia/Compere........... Simon Pauly
Starkmann.............................. Roland Holz
Rosita..................................... Jennifer Arnold
Kiel Opera Chrous, Kiel Phil/Ulrich Windfuhr (CPO 999 903)

COMPOSER

This one leaves me stumm. I have never studied his work. I will only say that he was Austrian Jewish (you can tell by his 'terrible' name), and he died in his 56th year, before the Nazi holocaust machine could engulf him.

INTRODUCTION
(supplied by RNZ)

How easy it might be to overlook this lesser-known Schreker opera, composed in 1928 and dedicated to Schreker’s good friend Arnold Schoenberg. It has a quite curious libretto, complex and multilayered, and Schreker moves between what are at times quite disparate styles.

The story, set in large part in a sort of composer’s atelier, concerns three principal characters, Anselm, Lisa, and Christoph. Anselm is at work upon an opera about the legend of St. Christopher, in which Anselm himself, Lisa, and Christoph, a fellow composition apprentice, are all to play roles. Despite the curious nature of the narrative, the score is well turned with moments of Berg’s Wozzeck blended with the later Strauss – Ariadne or Arabella . The orchestral writing throughout the work is nothing short of excellent.

Reviewing today’s recording in Opera Today Murray Dineen says on the whole the performance is smooth and competent.

“Hans Georg Ahrens does a most sympathetic Anselm, Susan Bernhard an occasionally uneven Lisa, and Joerg Sabrowski a rather cardboard Christoph. Two voices stand out as very good: Roland Holz, in a speaking role as the critic Starkmann, spoken with a lovely Berliner nasal, gritty and nicely irritating; and Hans Georg Ahrens, bass, as the composition master Johann, with a deep, noble resonance. The live recording is sensitive, with a minimum of boots clumping around on stage and a good set of microphones in the pit.”

This recording stems from a three-part Schrecker cycle at the Kiel Opera from 2001 to 2003, under the artistic director, Kirsten Harms.