Customer Reviews

Nielsen - Maskarade / Ulf Schirmer

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Carl Nielsen - the renown Danish composer - is perhaps best know for his outstanding 6 symphonies, where in particular the 3rd 4th 5th and 6th are some of the best 2000th century symphonies. Carl Nielsen - however - is also the composer of the modern Danish Songbook. He composed two large scale operas. First the grand, bombastic & somewhat sombre "Saul & David", composed in 1902, which no doubt shall find its followers in the 2100th century. But his 2nd Opera Maskarade composed in 1905 quickly became the Danish people's favourite. This is a modern Mozart opera at its best, great tunes, great music, fine singing. The only drawback is perhaps libretto in Danish, but still the 1996 recording preceeded a succesful European tour of many famous opera houses, which established Nielsen not only as s symphonist, but also as an outstanding composer of Opera. Lovers of Mozart, Donnizetti, Rossini will love Nielsen and his Italian/Danish influenced Maskarde. It includes music of strength and beauty and leads the way to many of Nielsen later and more modernistic works. Maskarade is no doubt the best Opera ever to come out of Scandinavia a country know for its cool climate and up front reserved people, but this opera shows their hidden charm and warmth.

Note: For the literary minded the Danish "Moilere" - Ludwig Holberg - was the inspiration for Maskarade. This 2CD sets come with an attractive package including 241 pages liner notes and the libretto translated to German, English and French. Great for people who wishes to learn Danish.

This recording of Maskerade, a Mozartean opera buffo by Nielsen, is simply splendid. Based on a play by Holberg, it has a standard comedic plot twist of mistaken identities. The music is highly approachable and very, very well recorded. The singers are excellent and had me laughing through both disks! This is indeed a 20th century operatic masterpiece (and, I believe, THE Danish national opera). A must for all lovers of opera. If you like Nielsen's "Inextinguishable" Symphony, you are going to love this!

If you enjoyed the Chandos recording of Saul and David, you're going to love this Decca recording of Nielsen's Maskarade! If you're an opera lover, or a Nielsen lover, don't pass this up! The performance is wonderful, the music joyful and catchy (I was singing along the first time I heard it it was so catchy!), and the recording magnificent.

Like some other reviewers, I discovered this work by accident. Presumably because the libretto was written in Danish, it is very rarely performed and appears to be almost unknown outside of Denmark. The music is just delightful, written in a spritely neoclassical style. This is an excellent recording with excellent singing and orchestral performances.

What a masterpiece! Every aspect of Nielsen's style is in this opera. You can hear elements of each symphony, the concertos, even his solo music. The story itself, and the history of the opera and its incorporation to Denemark's identity is amazing.

So here you are...Great solos, great ensemble sining, great orchestral interludes, and if you can visualize it, great ballet.
You do not need my recommendation. Buy this happy recording before it is unavailable. You will be thankful!

I ran across a copy of this 2-CD set when I was looking for something else. Being a lover of Nielsen and other Danish composers, I picked it up and thought I'd give it a try. The sound on the recording is quite marvelous. The Danish National Radio Symphony and Choir sound fantastic. It's a inspired performance. The soloists in general sound marvelous and it's just a fun opera all around. Highly recommended.

It is very hard to fault this production from any point of view, and in that case it is probably not worth trying to. The recording (originally 1998) is excellent, the casting is excellent with the characters clearly differentiated (although the composer has helped with this considerably), the performance and direction are excellent, the booklet gives the full Danish libretto with English translation and a summary of the plot, and there is even a very good and not overly long liner note. What would make this liner note worth having even if it had said nothing else is that it points out a crucial difference between this plot, as adapted by the literary historian Vilhelm Andersen from an original story by Holberg, and Holberg's own version. In that the romance and the tale of unrecognised identities are what it is all about, with the masquerade itself just background. In this the Masquerade is much more important. Indeed I would go further and say that the Masquerade is the most important character in the story and in the music. It is what is put up in opposition to Jeronimus, the old-style and repressive father of the hero Leander, and in the third act Jeronimus upbraids it directly as he might an erring member of his family. As this third and last act progresses, the characters also become less and less significant, and the opera ends in a series of ballets, songs and dances, the procession and final triumph of the Masquerade.

Mistaken identities are a common operatic theme, and having people wear masks is a great help. This is of course a comedy and not a melodrama like Verdi's Ballo in Maschera, but the story is not just vulgar and conventional as it is in Cosi Fan Tutte. There is a theme of liberation here, partly political I suppose but more importantly emotional. The political bit consists in the equality conferred by anonymity, but the escape from the inhibition personified by Jeronimus is what all this is really about. It does not get out of hand, and respectability is finally established as the various couples eventually recognise each other, but the point has been made, and once it is made music takes over and leaves the human interest behind.

This must be a marvellous opera to perform. It does not seem to have `travelled' much, so for those who don't know it (a class including myself until last week) it is a most melodious and distinguished effort. Nielsen's career took in a variety of quite sharply differentiated styles, but the harmonist you will find here is the comparatively `standard' harmonist of, say, the Helios Overture and not the modernising harmonist of, say, the clarinet concerto. The style is lyrical throughout, and although naturally not everything can be aria the recitative-equivalents are not crabbed in the way recitatives tend to be. The bulk of the arias go to Leander, but there is melodic inspiration to spare here, enough to go around not just the kitchen skivvy Arv but even (very strikingly) a night-watchman. Nielsen's vocal writing is considerate and reasonable, not an endurance-test like Verdi's, and I detect little or no influence from Wagner. Leander is beautifully sung by Gert-Henning Jensen, but in fact there is not a weak link in the cast. There is not a lot of choral work, but the students, officers, maidens and the rest of them are just fine in what little they have to do.

The orchestral contribution is vital, and it gets more dominant as the last act proceeds. I thought that the Danish Radio Orchestra really distinguished itself, understandably as they must know and love the work in a way that other ensembles can't. Ulf Schirmer's acquaintance I am making here for the first time but I hope and feel certain it will not be the last, as he handles the score as to the manner born, which he very likely is.

I would not have wanted to go on missing this beautiful opera through sheer ignorance of what I was missing. As I said to start with, Vilhelm Andersen has made the plot into more than just a standard piece of mistaken identities and ritual unmasking. He has let the repressed soul out, and once it has been let out it has only so long to enjoy its freedom, supposing of course it can even handle liberation at all, which is not necessarily any given. Post jucundam juventutem...nos habebit humus, and Andersen rightly pays an early tribute to Corporal Mors, who awaits the liberated and the repressed alike. I like this touch of real poetry, like a piece of black edging adorning the festive picture. I like this opera, I like this performance of this opera, and I commend both wholeheartedly.