Customer Reviews

Johann Strauss II: A Night in Venice

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SOURCE: Studio recording made on May 25-28 and September 25, 1954 (presumably for the spoken dialogue), at Kingsway Hall in London, with Walter Legge as the producer. It was first issued in 1955 as a two-disk Lp set.

SOUND: The original recording was in what was then first-rate mono, but at a time when stereo was becoming the industry norm. To the best of my knowledge, this CD edition is the first digital version. It was issued at a time when EMI engineering was, to say the least, not earning cheers for its successes. (A later EMI edition has been issued which combines a remastered version of this recording with Strauss' "Wiener Blut" with much the same cast, has drawn some critical approval for its sound.)

CAST: Guido, an 18th Century Duke of Urbino - Nicolai Gedda (tenor); Caramello, barber and general factotum to the Duke - Erich Kunz (baritone); Delaqua, a Venetian Senator - Karl Dönch (bass-baritone); Agricola / Barbara, Senator Delaqua's young wife - Hanna Ludwig (contralto); Pappacoda, a master macaroni-maker - Peter Klein (tenor); Ciboletta, Barbara's maid, loved by Pappacoda - Emmy Loose (soprano); Annina, a fisher-girl - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (soprano); Barbaruccio, a Venetian Senator - Karel Stepanik (speaking part); Barbara - Hanna Norbert (speaking part); Enrico, nephew of Senator Dalaqua - Anton Diffring (speaking part); Agricola - Lea Seidl (speaking part).

CONDUCTOR: Otto Ackermann with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus.

TEXT: "Eine Nacht in Venedig" is an operetta that has been through the meat grinder: vivisected, reconstructed, modified and cut. The story began as a French play, "Cháteau Trompette," by Eugène Cormon and the ubiquitous Michel Carré. It was freely adapted (stolen) into a German language libretto by F. Zell and Strauss' usual librettist, Richard Genée. The operetta opened in Berlin on October 3, 1883, nine years after "Die Fledermaus." The Berlin critics loathed both the words and music. On October 10, the show opened in Vienna, after substantial re-writing of both words and music. It lasted a mere 44 performances in Austria and must have been regarded sadly by the younger Strauss as one of his failures.

In 1923, the piece was revived in Berlin. The highly skillful Erich Wolfgang Korngold of later Hollywood fame ("Too much corn, not enough gold") and a writer named Ernst Marischka radically recast the music and dialogue, not hesitating to bring in a couple of numbers from another Strauss piece. The great tenor Richard Tauber took the lead and the show was a hit. The operetta pokes some mild fun at the expense of the Italians, a thing that always pleases the Germans and Austrians and it has achieved a long-term popularity in Europe. At least five films have been shot, each paying greater or lesser respect to the operetta.

The revised 1923 version of "Eine Nacht in Venedig" has been further reduced for this recording by drastically pruning the spoken dialogue down to about ten minutes and assigning some dialogue parts to non-singing actors. It is a workmanlike piece but it lacks the unique sparkle and wit of Strauss' earlier "Fledermaus." Much the same can be said of the music. Presented with a brilliant libretto, Strauss soared with "Fledermaus." Presented with a much more ordinary libretto, he was skilled but relatively uninspired, earning failure in his lifetime. Even with major play-doctoring and an assist from Korngold, "Eine Nacht in Venedig" is a good enough Viennese operetta but forever second-tier Strauss.

This cast is for all intents and purposes the Walter Legge Operetta Repertory Company. It may be found on a whole series of German language operettas issued by EMI in the 1950s up to about 1960. It is unlikely that any actual opera company or theater outside a major national festival would ever have been able to assemble a cast of such experience or stellar magnitude and it would be impossible today.

The conductor, Otto Ackerman, was the operetta go-to man in the 1950s and 60s. He knew his business and he even manages to get a distinct lilt out of the excellent but manifestly non-Austrian Philharmonia Orchestra.

Excellent cast, early digital remastering, not quite top-of-the-line Strauss operetta--four stars waltzing on the Venetian canals.

Like many other listeners, I wanted to be as delighted with other Strauss operettas as I was with Fledermaus, only to find that the Gypsy Baron delivers about half the inspiration and A Night in Venice about a quarter. The story and characterization are inane, and Strauss's desperation to please ends up being cutesy -- the music tries to be lilting and sparkling but without much basis.

There's nothing that Schwarzkopf and company can do to resuce the banalaity they'e stuck with, but they try their best, which is saying a lot. I've never bothered to seek out a better version. This one, in decent 1954, has held the field for ove fifty years and is likely to keep on doing so.