Engraving by William Miller to Walter Scott's "Bride of Lammermoor"
in 1819 wrote Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor "and in 1835 composed Gaetano Donizetti's romantic opera "Lucia di Lammermoor" .
Songwriter Salvatore Cammarano based his libretto loosely on Scott's novel:
Lucy of Lammermoor hold dearly Edgardo of Ravenswood. Lucia and Edgardo meet in secret. Lucia's brother Enrico wants Lucia to Lord Arturo Bucklaw enters into a marriage because it is politically convenient. As Enrico hear that Lucia has a relationship with arch-enemy Edgardo, he blackmails her with the possibility that he, her brother, the new rulers could ever be beheaded if they do not Bucklaw married. Moreover, he says to know that Edgardo is unfaithful to her. Lucia signs the marriage contract. During the party Edgardo bursts into the room. He accuses of treason Lucia (the famous sextet) . In d
e wedding night lights a of heartbreak mad Lucia her new husband to death with his own dagger. She is now looking Edgardo, thinks the church festivities consummation of her marriage to Edgardo initiation takes a festive candelabra with burning candles and down the stairs to the hall off (mad scene) . Donizetti interrupts Lucia's scene with the emergence of Enrico, who is full of remorse among the addressed to him complain of Lucia's old tutor Raimondo ( D it interlude is almost never performed, so Lucia's madness scene " Lucia - uninterrupted - "madness aria " is ) . In the last 'scene' Edgardo commits suicide in grave of his father. He has just heard of Raimondo, that Lucia is dead. ( Besides the interlude in the madness scene are other important parts of The opera is often omitted, which does not help the plot easier to follow) . about Lucia and her sopranos
In the three years after 'L'elisir d'amore " (1832) Donizetti produces again a furious pace o
pera, of which "Lucia di Lammermoor" the eleventh (!) is. Donizetti wrote the role of the fragile Lucia coloratura Fanny Persiani - 1812-1867 ( see portrait of Karl Brulloff - 1834) . He finds her voice as cool, but its singing technique virtuosity, he is impressed: The Italian 'bel canto' with his vocal acrobatics and elaborate form requirements is, in Donizetti's time yet always the norm. Latest answers "Lucia di Lammermoor" to that standard, but the darkly romantic content appeals to the desire of the public for blood, sweat and tears. The formula of breathtaking, virtuosic singing amid chilling realism is, therefore, that a 'dramma tragico' as "Lucia di Lammermoor" - against the flow of a word more on the question singing style - are well into the 20th century managed to maintain. All those years, the role of Lucy - desired by Donizetti - domain of the technically perfect coloratura. Until the mid-fifties of the last century the "Callas Revolution breaks. 
Ma ria Callas The dramatis che soprano Maria Callas (1923-1977) captures the dramatic-romantic Donizetti's operatic works (and Bellini) by the rare combination of "physical force, glowing, dramatic presentation " (Kutsch/Riemens-1986) and a beautiful, instantly recognizable voice," both in height and not the low limits " (Alfred A. Goodman -1971) seems to know. When Callas was past the vocal ornamentation for the sake of the decorations themselves: singing and acting to serve as a credible representation of the possible opera central figure. Callas brings to battle the traditional Italian "bel canto ' back to a remnant of the past. For Friedrich Herzfeld ( 'Schallplattenführer Oper für Freunde " -1962) was Callas' Lucia the role model for" all who have an unhappy love affair . When she sings the aria madness, "shoot all attempts to describe the overwhelming impression that that makes deficit. Take a woman leave of the world, which it has held" .
Maria Callas' views on the role of Lucia is still by far - dramatic talent - singers followed. C oloratuur vocalists but searched and found others ways, which one - just as accepted - synthesis of Donizetti's bel canto and Callas' led drama. Even at the time of Maria Callas (1959) was that the famous Australian soprano Joan Sutherland and already in 1956 - three So last year - for the German coloratura soprano Erika Koth .
Erika Koth sings Lucia di Lammermoor
Erika K
Oth (1925-1989) is 31 years, when in a new production of Bayerische Staatsoper under legendary conductor Ferenc Fricsay the role of Lucia sings (or late 1956, this role "the role of Callas' have known?). Josef Metternich (just returned from three years Metropolitan Opera in New York) is emitted and the Hungarian tenor Enrico Josef Simándy as Edgardo. The show is a sensational success. Erika Koth be between late 1956 and 1963, the period when she sang Lucia Munich about 100 times, have managed the public to forget as Maria Callas. And in those years was an extraordinary achievement. A critic who Koth in Munich in the sixties still "polite" has said that it "to old (bel canto) uses numerous decorations and repeats the party added" but "on another way as Callas was very intrusive ". Thomas Voigt in 2000 (I hope he will forgive me, I love to quote him): "If classical coloratura heard Erika Koth not the kind of "nightingale" who unconcerned about any deeper meaning of the music so warble. Her voice had a natural character and soul ... she could translate her own resources, which Callas had demonstrated such a genius. Opera ensemble in the world-record
The fifties were the years in which Electrola producer Fritz Gans (see photo Erika Koth / Photo Horst Maack, Berlin) an excellent ensemble of distinguished and promising opera singers transforms for a 'basic catalog of mainly German sung commercial opera (and opera! -)-recordings: many arias and duets, including a pair of complete operas, but - thanks to the new LP format - 'Querschnitte " (selections) from the German-Austrian, Italian, French and Eastern European MUZ
iektheater repertoire. By far the most important tenor place reserved for him by "shooting star" Rudolf Schock (see photo) , whose lyrical and "symbolic hero" qualities make it suitable for many diverse roles. As regards the sopranos, Fritz Gans maintains a wider choice: Yahoo Erna Berger, Lisa Otto , Anneliese Rothenberger , Erika Koth, Leonie Rysanek and (later) Melitta Muszely . The mezzo-sopraan/alt usually Sieglinde Wagner and bass Gottlob Frick . Josef Metternich the baritones, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Marcel Cordes and Hermann Prey make this world-class opera ensemble complete. To the conductor Wilhelm Schuchter trusts all over the musical direction to take the works. W
ilhelm Tentatively conducts early 1957 will Tentatively highlights out Donizetti's 'dramma tragico' "Lucia di Lammermoor" with natural Erika Koth as Lucia. Electrola recordings will then LP. After digital remaster they appear in 2000 on CD (EMI / Electrola: No. 7 243 8 26433 2 6).
Details "Lucia di Lammermoor" on LP / CD
Lord Henry (Enrico) Ashton: Josef Metternich, baritone
Lucia, his sister: Erika Koth, soprano
Edgard (o) von (Tue) Ravenswood: Rudolf Schock, tenor
Lord Arthur (Arturo) Bucklaw: Manfred Schmidt, tenor
Raimondo Bidebent, Lucia's tutor: Gottlob Frick, bass
Alisa, Lucia's maid: Hertha Topper, alt
Choir of the "Städtische Oper Berlin 'conducted by Hermann Lüddecke
Elfriede Hübner harp solo (CD track 1 and 4)
Helmut Höwing: flute solo (CD track 13 to 16)
Berliner Symphoniker conducted by Wilhelm Schuchter.
Recordings: 30/31 January 1957 in Berlin (Grunewald Church)
Rec Leader: Horst Lindner
Producer: Fritz Gans.
About the recordings
i
Erika Koth what's actually much respect as Lucia said. Thus, its interpretation of Lucia from December 22, 1956 in Munich have sounded: Her voice makes the fragility of the original Lucia in 1834 and again hearing visible. The madness scene she is poignant: '........ That Kerzen Leuchten,
glimmt Schon der Weihrauch
Es of SEAMS Priest
Give me the rights! O day of joy!
At last I am yours, you are the mine!
We are always united .......'
*****
('......... Ardon gl'incensi
le sacre faci Splendon, splendon intorno!
Ecco il ministro! Porgimi la destra.
lieto giorno Oh, oh lieto!
Alfin son tua, Alfin sei mio!
mi dona un Dio A. .......')
If Erika Koth about "the candles that shine" sings, she commits a flagrant violation the lacrimal glands. Koth does to me at the exact moment that she spoke "Leuchten" sudden volume remain. The rest of the words sung, I can not read, but - thank God - or hear.
More than 4
7 minutes from LP and CD are of course mainly devoted to Erika Koth in the title role. Alisa ( Hertha Topper at. 1924 - see photo) is short but powerfully told in the second scene of the first act, in which Lucy in the park waiting for Edgardo. Lucia's tutor Raimondo 
( Go ttlob Frick 1906-1994 - see photo ) sings ominous intro to Lucia's mad scene (third act), which he wedding guests reports on the horrific events in the bridal chamber (aria: "Aus dem Zimmer, wohin das Brautpaar / Dalle stanze ove Lucia" ). Enrico 
( Josef Metternich (1915-2005 - see photo ) is very impressive when he Lucia under heavy pressure on the scene with duet at the start of the second act. Edgardo ( Rudolf Schock ) and Arturo Bucklaw ( Manfred Schmidt at. 1928 - see photo ) sing - along with the other soloists - in the monumental sextet ( 'Wer can do's, den Zorn zu Hemme 
n / Chi mi frena in many momento "). Schock and Metternich open this showpiece in overwhelming Italian style, with the German text shows no obstacle: Their theatrical proud your singing is suddenly completely straight in your chair. The many forms of music specialist German 'Kapellmeister' Wilhelm Schuchter conducts the Berliner Symphoniker at every dramatic turn with precise and energetic commitment. *****
W
ilhelm Schuchter (1911-1974 - private photo archive Rico Leitner ) It seems in retrospect a necessary finding that the music too long on the versatile qualities of the conductor Wilhelm Schuchter has passed. Everything in Opera Tentatively area in the forties, fifties and sixties in Germany, Austria and Japan performed, had limited value. After five successful opera performances in Vienna between 1972 and 1974 the Vienna State Opera offered him a contract for another 40 opera evenings. Until that evening came the no longer Wilhelm Schuchter died on May 27, 1974.
Anno 2010 the situation is different: Its especially in the last decade votes opera CDs now getting recognition and it is amazed by the high bandwidth and quality of his artistry. Wilhelm Tentatively could do everything: Wagner and Verdi, Puccini and Massenet, Lehár (yes, opera!) And Donizetti, Offenbach, Mussorgsky, Tschaikowski and Auber, Mascagni, Mozart, Beethoven and Richard Tauber's "Du bist die Welt für mich" , that - sung by Rudolf Schock - under Tentatively pipeline was an evergreen.
Krijn de Blank, March 9, 2010
(next time: 'Rudolf Schock sings Nico Dostal' )
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