Customer Reviews

Zemlinsky: A Florentine Tragedy

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4 star:		(1)
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"Eine Florentinische Tragodie" is one of Zemlinsky's greatest masterpieces, and one of his most frequently performed operas, usually paired with his 1922 opera, "Der Zwerg" (They've entered the repertory in Europe--American companies don't seem to have discovered them yet). From it's opening bars, the score seeths with visceral energy, at times ecstatic, at others, sinister. The orchestration is an endless feast of opulent orchestral timbres. At only 55 minutes, it swoops towards it's "end with a twist" with terrible efficiency. In that short hour, it explores the themes of betrayal, cruelty, and love reclaimed. The closing is especially amazing in it's originality. Most famously, as Simone strangles the begging Guido Bardi, a solo violin glissando slides into the depths, as if representing his departing spirit. Suddenly, the darkness of the score dissolves into beautiful light, as Simone's act of strength inspires new love and adiration in Bianca, his unfaithful wife. As with most of the Conlon's Zemlinsky recordings, both performance and sound are great.

Having worked on this piece under the direction of maestro Conlon with the Aspen Festival Orchestra, I truly came to realize how much depth there is to this work. The orchestration, textures, harmonic and melodic structuring, and libretto are all equally amazing. Zemlinsky really is one of the underestimated geniuses of recent times, and James Conlon is an absolute master of this music. No doubt in my mind that this recording ought to belong in all serious classical collections!

I WAS LUCKY ENOUGH TO ATTEND A CONCERT PERFORMANCE OF THIS OPERA AND "THE DWARF" IN NY A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO, MY INTRODUCTION TO ZEMLINSKY'S OPERATIC GENIUS. THIS RECORDING MORE THAN DOES HIM JUSTICE. JAMES CONLON HAS RECORDED BOTH OPERAS; A PITY THAT EMI HAS NOT CHOSEN TO PACKAGE THEM TOGETHER. DONNI RAY ALBERT SHINES IN THE CENTRAL ROLE OF SIMONE. VOIGHT AND KUEBLER SOAR AS THE LOVERS. A WARNING: THERE ARE NO LINER NOTES OR LIBRETTO.

I would hesitate to follow previous reviewers and accord this work the status of masterpiece although I do believe that James Conlon's direction and a splendid trio of singers makes as string an advocacy for it as possible. It teems with passion and striking orchestral effects without ever deigning to offer us much approaching a tune and as such is less enticing than works to which it is clearly indebted such as "Salome" or perhaps even Zandonai's "Francesca da Rimini" (the latter being similarly febrile, orchestrally hyper-active and melodically sparse). The chaos of the Great War seemed to usher in a revival in the taste for lurid medieval melodrama built on psychologically cutting-edge premises; this opera makes ironic reference to the Viennese waltzes and undercuts Romantic gestures and textures with a harmonically adventurous and disturbing jaggedness reminiscent of Strauss in his more provocative mode. The playing by the Cologne orchestra strikes me as superlative in its bite and variety of colour.

Even more surprising is the quality of the singing. No surprise that Deborah Voigt in the smallest role is so brilliant, vibrant and voluminous of voice but I was not previously familiar with David Kuebler's flexible tenor, so similar in timbre at times to Richard Tucker without being so large a sound, and I was really taken with Donnie Ray Albert's big, handsome baritone, ideal to suggest the barely concealed strength and violence of the merchant. He often reminds me of Sergei Leiferkus. A full libretto in three languages with notes, photos, biographies and all are provided by EMI. The recording seems to have been put together from live concert performances in 1997; it is in excellent, full, well-balanced sound.

This is of real interest to curious collectors of operas of the early 20C Viennese school.