A rehearsal session for Mozart’s “Don Giovanni.” Conductor Karl Böhm is on the right; next to him Erich Kunz; behind him George London; Sena Jurinac; and at far left Anton Dermota. Vienna, 1955.
An “alpha-plus” according to the eminent Sir Denis Forman, Mozart’s 1787 Don Giovanni, in a landmark 1955 Wiener Staatsoper recording conducted by Karl Böhm, will be broadcast by radio klassik Stephansdom tomorrow, Saturday, January 31, at 2:00 pm Eastern time. The fine cast includes George London as the lecherous Giovanni, Erich Kunz as his hapless servant Leporello, Sena Jurinac as Donna Elvira, and Ludwig Weber as Giovanni’s nemesis, The Commendatore.
Eva Reinold hosts this broadcast, a fitting end to Mozart’s Birthday Week. You can stream it here.
Meagan Miller and Roger Honeywell in Die Liebe der Danae at the Bard SummerScape festival in 2011. Photo: Cory Weaver.
A little opera tip for the weekend: On Saturday at 1:00 pm Eastern time you can hear that old warhorse Carmen from the Metropolitan Opera, but if you wait an hour, until 2:00 pm, tune in to radio klassik Stephansdom’s Opernabend for a true curiosity: Richard Strauss’s Die Liebe der Danae, in a 1999 performance from the Garsington Opera.
Completed in 1940 but denied a public premiere until 1952 at the Salzburg Festival, the opera is vaguely based on the story of Danae, Midas, and Jupiter. In her review of the Garsington Opera production in The Guardian, Fiona Maddocks said, “Despite its dark undertones, [Strauss] dubbed the work a ‘light mythology,’ made Midas his benign hero and entangled him with the delicious story of Danae, whom Jupiter seduced in a shower of gold, making it all a Freudian bubble bath of the psycho-erotic.” She went on to provide this brief synopsis of the plot:
Joseph Gregor’s libretto, based on an outline by Strauss’s great collaborator Hugo von Hofmannsthal, lacks the latter’s wit or elegance, making Strauss’s transformation of the leaden plot through music all the more remarkable. The bankrupt Pollux’s daughter Danae has gone off men but remains partial to gold, about which she fantasises freely. Fortunately, Midas falls for her and she for him. Unfortunately, Jupiter does likewise, in a jealous rage turning Danae into gold and depriving Midas of his gift.
In the powerful third act, Jupiter returns as a humble old man (looking remarkably like the ageing Strauss in this production), with a reflective monologue depicting the impotence of age. Still she rejects him. With her final word, ‘Midas’, the opera ends.
Rarely performed (most recently here in America at the Bard SummerScape festival in 2011), Strauss’s score nonetheless is said to feature some of his finest music. His biographer Michael Kennedy says, “The treatment of the many themes and motifs is amazingly inventive, the orchestral colours glow and shine – with Greek gold and mediterranean sunlight … Die Liebe der Danae does not deserve its neglect. Its third act alone lifts it into the category of first-rank Strauss.” And Leon Botstein, who conducted the SummerScape production, told The New York Times that the opera was newly relevant in an interview with Peter G. Davis: “Not only is the score a marvel of technical ingenuity and lyrical generosity, but the subject is also completely up to date. What could be more modern in these days of financial crises and deficit spending than a morality tale about Midas’s fabulous golden touch and Danae’s obsession with his riches? There’s a valuable lesson in Danae’s eventual rejection of Jupiter’s tempting offer of divinity and her willing embrace of poverty with Midas, when he loses everything and is reduced to the life of a humble donkey driver.”
The focus is on the world of Austrian classical music —created by countless geniuses who worked in Austria and performed by the orchestras and soloists that we bring to your ears every day.
On the day of the fundraiser, there will be interviews in the morning with art historian Sabine Haag [former director of the Kunsthistorisches Museum] and young soprano Amelie Hois. Lawyer and former politician Irmgard Griss [former President of the Austrian Supreme Court] will be asking questions about Austria, the land of music … and in the afternoon the Carinthian Singing Community will be visiting the studio live in Vienna! There will be spoken contributions and music from Eva Stubenvoll, the director of the Musikverein Graz, Dr. Michael Nemeth, and many more.
If you listen at the right time, you might even hear a few words from yours truly.
I’ve written before about radio klassik Stephansdom, but it occurs to me that I should probably let you know a little more about what you’ll be supporting. rkS is a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week over-the-air radio station in Austria at 107.3 FM in Vienna and 94.2 FM in Graz. Thankfully, it’s also streamable over a variety of methods, including via the web. Its weekly programming features a variety of daily magazines and musical programs (including three full operas every week at 8:00 pm Vienna time) and live masses from the Stephansdom itself every Sunday, along with other spiritually-nourishing programming. The fine Sunday Musica Sacra program (at 1:00 pm Eastern time) bridges the religious and musical offerings, and the daily CD des Tages features the best of recent releases. Get to know the delightfully personable and knowledgable on-air talent here. You can download both the weekly and the opera schedules here. You can also request your favorite recordings to be played on Sunday’s Wunschkonzerthere.
Originally supported and funded by the Archdiocese of Vienna (hence the religious programs), the unique radio klassik Stephansdom now depends on the support of its listeners for its continued health. That means you. So brush up your German and make a contribution to radio klassik Stephansdom this Spendentag. Then tune in and enjoy the show.
