Customer Reviews

Smetana: Die verkaufte Braut

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

 

 

For music lovers who are unfamiliar with the history of this work, a couple preliminary remarks are in order. First on the fact that the Bride made its way into the world via its German libretto. Smetana's first language (as with many well-educated Czechs, e.g. Kafka) was German. It explains why the opera is sung in German on this album and why it is nonsense to claim greater authenticity for the Czech version. Second, a good half of the Bamberg Orchestra (greatly underestimated outside of Germany, but on the inside considered to be one of its finest) was staffed by musicians who were refugees from Bohemia during the War. It helps to know these things to put certain often debated issues into context. Finally that Smetana affiliated himself with the Neo-German School of Liszt & Co. That school had always bemoaned the lack of a really good comic opera from its adherent, and although Peter Cornelius wrote one, it was hardly the kind of masterpiece they were hoping for. Smetana on his part felt that he was destined to write the great tragic opera for his country; the last thing he expected to make a great name for him was a comic opera! But that's how matters turned out.

As for the recording under scrutiny, no praise can be too high for it. It is astonishingly well recorded for its era, and still sounds very good and clear. Rudolf Kempe's direction is spirited, mixing the brash with the sentimental, the comic banalities and the romantic love elements in a inimitable brew. No other conductor since then has even come close to giving such a brilliant portrayal of this masterpiece. Even if you don't understand the text fully (and there is a lot of colloquialism), the music carries you forward on its heady pulse.

The singing is mostly of a quality to match. Fritz Wunderlich, who died so tragically young, is a perfect lover, singing with great feeling and a smooth, mellifluous tenor voice. If you are familiar with his Tamino (Magic Flute, conducted by Böhm) expect something of the same superlative quality here. Gottlob Frick, although better known for his "black bass" and Wagnerian roles, brings a genuine comic basso feel to his role. The pity is that Pilar Lorengar's voice is a little stretched on occasion; she is the weak link in the trio of principals. On the other hand, all of the subsidiary cast are excellent, fully alive to the Bohemian "country fair" atmosphere.

As far as opera recordings are concerned, it is difficult to conceive how this could ever be bettered.

A little while ago I wrote a review on the Supraphon recoding of the same opera. There are the full-length and the highlights versions of the same recoding. Since I only own the highlights version thus it was only appropriate for me to place my review there. In which I praised one of the reviews that appeared in the box-set CD. In comparing CDs, I also made some kind of a big thing out about this EMI CD. Therefore it would be more appropriate for me to add some comment on this CD here.

Overall, this is a very good CD in any aspect. There is no negative of any kind that I can mention here. If you don't know who is Lorengar or Wunderlich (unfortunately both were dead) I think you should listen to this. If you already familiar with Lorengar but have not yet been exposed to this recording, then I think you really missed a lot. By the account of many music critics this is her best; and I totally agree.

Si bien le puse 4 estrellas, ello es debido a ciertos personajes que me parecen no muy logrados, o cuya voz no es lo suficientemente buena para ranquearla con 5 estrellas. De todos modos, los duetos cantados por Pilar Lorengar y Wunderlich, son de antología. Están en los tracks 6 del CD 1, y 19 del CD 2. Relamente, la voz de ambos es de una belleza que eriza la piel. Muy, muy buena.