Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek: Ritter Blaubart

Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek: Ritter Blaubart

Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek: Ritter Blaubart
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CD Details

Performer: David Pittman-Jennings
Composer: Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek
Conductor: Michail Jurowski
Orchestra: Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
Performer: Andion Fernandez
Performer: Celina Lindsley
Performer: Peter Maus
Performer: Robert Worle
Performer: Victor Sawaley
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2003-05-20
Music Label: Cpo Records
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
  1. Ritter Blaubart, opera: Act 1. Introduction
  2. Ritter Blaubart, opera: Act 1. Was willst du?
  3. Ritter Blaubart, opera: Act 1. Eine seltsame Gesellschaft
  4. Ritter Blaubart, opera: Act 1. Interludium
  5. Ritter Blaubart, opera: Act 1. Halt, Josua!
  6. Ritter Blaubart, opera: Act 1. Interludium
  7. Ritter Blaubart, opera: Act 1. Darf ich euch bitten, verehrte Gäste
  8. Ritter Blaubart, opera: Act 1. DaÃ? ich diesen Tag erleben muÃ?te
  9. Ritter Blaubart, opera: Act 1. Werner? Bist du allein?
  10. Ritter Blaubart, opera: Act 1. Ich habe dich beleidigt
  11. Ritter Blaubart, opera: Act 1. Hast du den Vater nicht gesehen, Agnes?
Music CD 2
  1. Ritter Blaubart, opera: Act 2. Welch ein goldener Tag!
  2. Ritter Blaubart, opera: Act 2. Rate, wer ist das!
  3. Ritter Blaubart, opera: Act 2. Was bedeutet dies alles!
  4. Ritter Blaubart, opera: Act 2. Hab' ich denn niemanden und nichts
  5. Ritter Blaubart, opera: Act 2. Das ist ja Wahnsinn
  6. Ritter Blaubart, opera: Act 2. Zu Hilfe! Was war das!
  7. Ritter Blaubart, opera: Act 2. Still! Still! Herz!
  8. Ritter Blaubart, opera: Act 2. Interludium
  9. Ritter Blaubart, opera: Act 3. Gott gebe dir Frieden, toter Mensch
  10. Ritter Blaubart, opera: Act 3. Halt' ein!
  11. Ritter Blaubart, opera: Act 3. Komm', Hinz!
  12. Ritter Blaubart, opera: Act 3. Interludium
  13. Ritter Blaubart, opera: Act 3. Wie wird das enden, Rainer?
  14. Ritter Blaubart, opera: Act 3. So hetzt ihre Seele den andern nach

Music reviews of Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek: Ritter Blaubart

Music Review: Blockbuster score enlivens a "just okay" libretto...
Rating: 4 Stars

Reznicek's score for his 1920 opera "Ritter Blaubart" is a blockbuster! Wow!! I can't say a single negative thing about it. It was a refreshing change of pace after alot of listening to Mahler, Zemlinsky, early Schoenberg, etc. Not because I don't love those guys, because I really do! But they all come from the Mahlerian strain of German music--lots of
yearning, angst, and introspection.

But Reznicek's music rings with the noble horns and heroic air of Richard Wagner. Reznicek aligned himself with Strauss and Pfitzner, and I heard some Strauss in "Ritter Blaubart" as well. But the overriding impression, which grew and grew as I listened, was that of a die-hard Wagnerian. It's really a very old-fashioned score for 1920, though it's none-the-worse for that. It has ensemble scenes, and a wonderful, almost "Forging Song" like aria for Bluebeard's servant Joshua just before the denoument--a wonderful dramatic stroke.

For the libretto, though, my enthusiasm isn't as unmixed.

The story is a variant of the same Bluebeard story set by composers such as Bartok, Offenbach, and Dukas. In this telling, Bluebeard is set to marry Judith (having killed and beheaded his first 5 wives), and gives her a key to a door which she must promise not to open. Of course, when Bluebeard goes travelling, she can't resist. The key becomes irreversably stained with blood, and when Bluebeard discovers this, he murders her as well. After the funeral, Bluebeard starts to woo Judith's sister Agnes, but Bluebeard's guilt-ridden servant Joshua burns down the Castle with Bluebeard inside, while Agnes leaps to her death.

The language itself is very skillful. But the plot seems unfocussed. Who are we supposed to identify with? Judith, Agnes, or Bluebeard? Hard to say. And Bluebeard, unlike in Bartok's tale, is clearly insane. He babbles incoherantly. In fact, at a wedding dinner, he rudely insults Judith's family, then apologizes to her profusely trying to salvage the wedding. He hardly seems so smooth as to have been able to win 6 wives. Doesn't it seem like someone might have been suspicious about why Judith died--specially since he apparently had hung onto her head?...And the issue of the key to the forbidden door--it seems a minor detail in the plot, and he tries to do in Agnes later despite the fact that he never offered her the key--so why bother with it? There are many plot holes.

Yet the ending is set so persuasively that I was nearly won over! Or maybe I was won over--but not without reservation. It seemed the story was too single minded about getting from one plot point to the next to be a great work of art.

The wonderful music, though, makes me eager to hear other works by Reznicek--especially his operas, which number fourteen, as well as his symphonic poems. I'm especially interested in the two operas which follow "Ritter Blaubart"--the one act "Holofernes", based on the Apocrypha, and "Satuala", a 75 minute three-act tragedy set in Hawaii that includes a Hula dance! Please, opera companies--let's hear them...
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