Customer Reviews

Braunfels - Die Vogel / Kwon · Wodrich · M. Kraus · Gorne · Holzmaier · Zagrosek

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I don't know what made me seek out this opera a couple years ago -- was it the rosette from the Penguin Guide, or a friend's rave review? In any case I have no regrets. Hearing "Die Vogel" is a little like hearing a great but forgotten Richard Strauss opera. Braunfels was apparently a favorite composer of the conductor Bruno Walter (and others), but is today little known outside of a rather limited priesthood of opera fans. He certainly deserves much better. His idiom is sweet and light, but rich in texture and historical resonance. Listening to this opera is a fascinating experience for the die-hard Strauss fan, who will come to better understand the fuller context of pre-war German opera. It's also an absolutely superb recording, the best I know of in the "Entartete Musik" series. Highly recommended!

I agree with the first reviewer: I've just listened to this opera again, and it's absolutely ravishing. It's a full Wagnerian opera, but with a wonderful, gentle sunniness and humor. Its classical setting is like several of Strauss's operas but it's better realized. This is a terrific performance.

After listening to this and Rutland Boughton's "The Immortal Hour" (which I also warmly recommend) I wonder how many other wonderful operas have been forgotten because their conservative romantic idiom was untimely. Korngold's operas too, of course.

I first heard Die Vogel at the Spoleto festival in Charleston, SC last year. I wanted a recording, but had great difficulty finding one until now. The music is pure and easy on the ears, the themes timeless, and the setting actually very current instead of in the drawing rooms of 18th and 19th century aristocracy. I took a first-time opera go-er with me, and she loved it! Share this hidden beauty! I hope more versions are recorded to allow the public a choice of varied interpretations.

What a marvelous work this is! That Walter Braunfels's Die Vögel should have languished in obscurity for so long is inexplicable, for this is simply a work to put beside, say, any of Richard Strauss's operas, and superior to most of them. The style is delectable, soaringly beautiful late romanticism, more in the tradition after Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg than Tristan und Isolde, but none the worse for that. Based on Aristophanes's allegory - the humans Loyal Friend and Good Hope convince the birds to erect an aerial fortress to intercept the smoke from the altar fires from reaching the gods - this is no mere light comedy, however, although it draws on inspiration from German light opera at its best. The music is as powerful and profound as it is sunnily gorgeous - listen to the wonderful Nightingale's song or the love duet between the Nightingale and Good Hope for some of the most captivating music I've heard in a long time, or to the battle scene for almost unmatched energy and drama. But those are just among the many magical numbers (in particular the set pieces and choruses) in a work which also adds up masterly to an immensely satisfying whole, a work replete with touches of pure genius, imaginative touches and constantly inventive creation, thoroughly memorable, fabulously scored in a manner that often seems to make the music levitate, with soaring lines and showers of colors.

But not only is ithe music superb, it is also - fortunately - stunningly performed. One can have nothing but admiration for Wolfgang Holzmair's Hoopoe (the ruler of the birds). The roles of Good Hope and Loyal Friend are admirably taken by Endrik Wottrich and Michael Kraus, with nicely characterized and warm-voiced singing; and Matthias Görne makes a brief, but impressive appearance as Prometheus. But the price must go to Hellen Kwon as the Nightingale with a coloratura voice to die for; wonderfully sung with power and sweet innocence, but not without strength of character. There is really no weak link among this cast, however, and the Deutsches Symphony Orchestra, Berlin, gives a marvelous performance under Lothar Zagrosek's assured baton. Indeed, I think it is justified to call this opera a masterpiece, and in any case it is so utterly enchantingly moving and enjoyable that no one can afford to miss out on it. Urgently recommended.

This opera was apparently a favourite of Bruno Walter and after its premiere in 1920 enjoyed fifty performances in Munich alone before the Nazis got to their wicked work and in 1933 drove out the half-Jewish Braunfels, when he was fifty years old and at the peak of his career.

There are definite echoes of Wagner in more relaxed mode, such as in "Die Meistersinger." However, comparisons with Richard Strauss are even more inevitable, even though Braunfel's idiom is generally more tender, naïve and light-hearted than Strauss. Both composers were drawn to the Greek classical world and the closest cousins to "Die Vögel" must be Strauss's "Daphne" and "Die Liebe der Danae", both in setting and style. The rôles of Daphne and the Nightingale have a great deal in common with their soaring melismata; there is a lovely moment at the end of Track 2 when Helen Kwon's top D is echoed by the flute and there is scarcely any difference in their timbres, so pure is her sound. I know nothing of the conductor Lothar Zagrosek but he seems to have a firm grasp of proceedings and prevents the music from sounding too uniformly pretty by injecting plenty of pace and drive into the proceedings when required. The choral singing from the Rundfunkchor is full and spirited, the orchestra is exemplary and the sound a model of clarity and balance. My favourite sections of the score are the extended love duet for the Nightingale and the human Hoffegut (Good Hope) that opens Act 2 - tenor Endrik Wottrich copes here with some heroic outbursts far removed from the world of German light opera - and the Chorus of Birds which follows it, when they are praising their citadel.

I was assured by the pleasant gentleman who sold me this on ebay that I would enjoy it, and he was right. So why only four stars, especially when all other reviewers give five? Well, this is a personal preference, but I have an aversion to that throaty, "Kermit" sound affected by so many male German singers and I find that very much in evidence in the baritones of Wolfgang Holzmair and, particularly, Matthias Görne, who quite spoils the rôle of Prometheus for me, despite the adulation this Fischer-Dieskau protégé enjoys - but then, I am not a D-F-D fan, either...hear for yourself and don't hold it against it me if you disagree; taste in voices is rather subjective. Nor do I think that this is an absolute masterpiece; there are conversational longueurs in Act 1 and the music ultimately lacks the variety to sustain complete interest over two and a quarter hours, but I would encourage anyone who likes late Romantic music to become acquainted with this charming opera.

As an opera musician, I can't believe this isn't standard repertoire. If you love Strauss, or coloratura singing, or just opera itself, snuggle up to this outstanding recording and prepare to be mesmerized. And then tell your local big league company (these singers won't be cheap!) to schedule it!

MY GOD. I COULD NOT BELIEVE MY EARS. MUSIC SO BEAUTIFUL THAT IT RAVISHES YOUR SENSES. HELLEN KWAN'S NIGHTINGALE IS PURE INCANDESCENCE. A TRASCENDENT EXPERIENCE. AND TO TOP IT ALL, THE DARKEST MESSAGE FROM ANTIQUITY. HUMAN (0R AVIAN) HAPPINESS OFFENDS THE GODS, WHO NEVER MEANT FOR US (OR BIRDS) TO BE HAPPY. SKIP BRAUNFELS' ORCHESTRAL STUFF, WHICH IS PRETTY BLAND. "THE BIRDS" IS WAY BEYOND AWESOME, AND THE CAST, THE BEST!!!!! BEYOND WAGNER, BEYOND STRAUSS!!!!!