The history of twentieth-century opera.#13. Today, the highlights of 1912. We can easily call this a somewhat unusual year. Many productions, many operettas, no real eye-catchers, except maybe one.
The movement Schoenberg had started, didn’t really lend itself for a broad renewal. Opera people are still people and traditions are hard to change. Richard Strauss writes ‘Ariadne auf Naxos’, and with it, confirms his status as one of the greatest opera composers of his time. The piece itself was also an experiment. The idea was, to combine spoken lyrics with vocals. The first half is a spoken drama piece, and the second is sung in its entirety. The whole piece is 6 hours long and was unplayable. The first part was turned into a spoken prologue. but the two parts still weren’t a whole. This may not be Strauss’ best opera, but we can console ourselves with the fact that the two pieces contain some of Strauss’ most beautiful music. The piece was reworked af the premiere and in was 1916 performed again.
In this episode, parts of:
• Franz Schreker- Die ferne Klang
• Jules Massenet- Roma
• Walter Kollo/Willy Bredschneider- Filmzauber
• Emmerich Kálmán- Der Zigeunerprimas
• Jean Gilbert- Das Autoliebchen
• Jean Gilbert- Puppchen, du bist mein Augenstern
• Ruggero Leoncavallo- Zingari
• Richard Strauss- Ariadne auf Naxos
Other opera and operetta productions from 1912 are:
• Erkki Melartin- Aino
• Armen-Tigranian- Anoush
• Ferruccio Busoni- Die Brautwahl
• Rudolf Friml- The Firefly
• Leo Asscher- Hoheit tanzt Walzer
• Charles Cuvillier- Der lila Domino
• Horatio Parker- Mona
• Guy Ropartz- Le pays
• Uzeyir Hajibeyov- Shah Abbas and Khurshid Banu (Azerbaijani: Şaһ Abbas vә Xurşid Banu operası)
• Giacomo Orefice- Radda
• Camille Erlanger- la sorcière
• Franz Léhar- Rosenstock und Edelweis
• Siegfried Wagner- Sonnenflammen
• Victor Herbert- The Lady of the Slipper
• Riccardo Zandonai- Melenis
• Walter Damrosch- The Dove of Peace
• Emmerich Kálmán- The Blue House
• Emmerich Kálmán- Der kleine König
• José Maria Usandizaga- Costa Brava
• Eugen d’Albert- Die verschenkte Frau
• Eugen d’Albert- Liebesketten
• Charles Wakefield Cadman- The Land of the Misty Waters
• Walter Goetze- Nur nicht drängeln
