Engraving von William Miller für Walter Scott's Bride of Lammermoor "
Im Jahre 1819 verfasst Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) the historical novel "The Bride of Lammermoor" , und composed in 1835
Gaetano Donizetti (see portrait), the romantic opera 'Lucia di Lammermoor' . librettist Salvatore Cammarano based the libretto with a light hand on Scott's novel: Lucy of Lammermoor likes of Edgard Ravenswood with all my heart. Lucia and Edgard meet each other regularly in secret. Lucia's brother Henry (Enrico) wants Lucia to Lord Arthur Bucklaw enters a marriage because it would fit well politically. When Henry learns Lucia had a relationship with nemesis Edgard, he blackmails them with the possibility, he, her brother, could be beheaded by the new rulers probably even if they do not marry Bucklaw. Also, he says, to know Edgard was unfaithful to her. Lucia records the marriage contract. During the festival, Edgard crashes into the room. He accused of treason Lucia (the famous sextet) . In the first wedding night
ticht one mad with grief love Lucia has become the new husband with his own dagger. You will now Edgard, believes hard sounds introduce the church union with Edgard, is a festive candelabra with lit candles and takes to the stairs going down to the ballroom (mad scene ) . Donizetti Lucia breaks scene by the Henry's appearance, the crushed under the allegations Raimondo, the old tutor of Lucia is. This interlude is running but almost never, so that from Lucia's "mad-scene 'is a (continuous)' insanity arie 'has become. In the last image Edgard commits suicide at the grave of his father. He has just learned of Raimondo, that Lucia is dead. Outside the interludes in the Wahnsinsszene often use other parts of the opera are omitted, thus not easy to follow the action is. about Lucy and her sopranos
In the three years following 'L'Elisir d'amore' ( 1832) Donizetti produced again in a rapid pace of operas, of which 'Lucia di Lammermoor' is the eleventh (!). Donizetti wrote the role for the fragile Lucia
the coloratura soprano Persiani Fanny (1812-1867 painting by Karl Brulloff 1834 ) . He finds her voice really cool but her singing is very impressive technical virtuosity: the Italian 'bel canto' with his vocal acrobatics and detailed morphology even in times of Donizetti's still the basic standard. Corresponds to purely external 'Lucia di Lammermoor' that standard, but calls the black-romantic content to the slope of the audience to excitement and sensation. The successful recipe atemberäubend-virtuoso voices midst of a horrifying realism that makes a 'dramma tragico' as 'Lucia di Lammermoor' - against the flow of a more on the meaning of the word-related vocal style - certainly stands up well into the twentieth century white . All these years, the role of Lucia - desired by Donizetti - domain of the coloratura soprano. But then breaks out in the mid-fifties of the last century 'Callas-revolution' ! Maria Callas
The dramatic soprano Maria Callas (1923-1977) captured the dramatic and romantic operas of Donizetti (and Bellini) by a rare combination " physical strength, ardent drama of the presentation" (Kutsch/Riemens-1986) and gorgeous, instantly recognizable voice, the "in height and depth virtually unlimited" (Alfred A. Goodman -1971) seems to be. Callas does with the vocal embellishments - ornaments for the own sake - simply close: singing and playing are intended only as a credible representation of the central operatic form. Maria Callas reduced with a blow to the traditional 'bel canto' a remnant from the past. For Friedrich Herzfeld ( 'records guide for opera fans' -1962), the 'Callas Lucia' to role model for "all who have an unhappy love affair." When she sings the mad scene, fail "all attempts at description. This takes a wife farewell to the world that she loved ". The argument of the Maria Callas of the Lucia-roll is followed today by many, dramatic, talented singers. coloratura singers searched and found but others ways leading to a - just as well accepted -. led synthesis of Donizetti's 'bel canto' and the drama of Callas or the date of Callas (1959) was for the well-known, Australian soprano Joan Sutherland , and by 1956 - three years before then - for the German Koloratürsopran Erika Köth
Erika Köte .
h sings Lucia di Lammermoor Köth Erika (1925-1989) is 31 years old, when in a new production of the Bavarian State Opera under the legendary conductor Ferenc Fricsay the role of Lucia (or the end of 1956 this role was called 'the role of Maria Callas'?) sings. Josef Metternich (just returned from three years of Metropolitan Opera in New York) can be heard as Henry (Enrico), and the Hungarian tenor Josef Simandy as Edgard (o). The show is a huge success. It must Erika Köth between late 1956 and 1963, the period in which they in Munich about a hundred times the 'Lucia' sang, it has managed to let the audience forget Maria Callas for an evening. And that was an extremely high power. A critic who Köth in the Sixties in Munich still "experienced" told, that they "under the old ('bel canto' -) practice the game with many extra embellishments and cadenzas (varied repetitions) endowed" , but "in another way than in the Callas, was also very strongly" . Thomas Voigt in 2000 (I hope he does not take it amiss that I did so gladly quote): 'As a classic coloratura soprano Erika Köth was not for the species' Nightingales' the carefree chirping away about any deeper meaning of music. Her voice had per se character and soul ... she was able to put its resources in what Callas had demonstrated so brilliantly. "
******
Opera Ensemble vol world class are on the record
The fifties d ie years in which Electrola producer F
ritz Ganss (See Photo Erika Köth / Photo Horst Maack, Berlin) (! And operettas -) a select ensemble of acclaimed and promising opera singers for a 'base catalog' mainly German singing, commercial opera recordings formed: many arias and duets, some complete operas, but in particular - with thanks to the new LP Format - opera and operetta cross sections from the German, Austrian, Italian, French, Central and Eastern European music theater repertoire. By far the most important place is given by tenor Fritz Ganss the 'Shooting Star' Rudolf Schock (See Photo) , whose lyrical and heroic 
Qualities make it suitable for all kinds of different roles. As for the sopranos, Ganss wants a larger selection: including Erna Berger, Lisa Otto, Anneliese Rothenberger, Erika Köth, Leonie Rysanek and (later) Melitta Muszely. The mezzo-soprano / alto is usually Sieglinde Wagner and bassist Gottlob Frick . The baritone Josef Metternich , Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Hermann Prey and Marcel Cordes make this opera ensemble of world class complete. The conductor Wilhelm familiar Schüchter Ganss to the musical direction of the new recordings. conducted W
ilhelm Schüchter takes early 1957 Schüchter highlights from Donizetti 'dramma tragico' 'Lucia di Lammermoor' on, of course, with Erika Köth as Lucia. Electrola published the 'Great cross-section' on LP. After 'digital remastering' 2000 recordings released on CD (EMI / Electrola. Nr 7243 8 26433 2 6) .
details' Lucia di Lammermoor "on LP / CD
Lord Henry (Enrico) Ashton: Josef Metternich, baritone
Lucia, his sister Erika Köth, soprano
Edgard (o) of (di) Ravenswood: Rudolf Schock, tenor
Lord Arthur (Arturo) Bucklaw: Manfred Schmidt, tenor
Bidebent Raimondo, Lucia's tutor: Gottlob Frick, bass
Alisa, Lucia's maid: Hertha Topper, Old
Chorus of the Berlin City Opera, conducted by Hermann Lüddecke
Elfriede Hübner: Harp Solo (CD track 1, 4)
Helmut Höwing: Flute Solo (CD-Track 13-16)
Berlin Symphony Orchestra, conductor WILHELM BULLY
Recorded: 30-31. January 1957 in Berlin (Grunewald Church)
Sound engineer: Horst Lindner
Producer: Fritz Ganss
About the recordings
is what
Erika Köth concerned, much has actually been said. So they must have been 22 December 1956 in Munich have shown that Lucia: Your voice, the fragility of the original Lucia from 1835 again makes audible and visible. In the mad scene is poignant: '........ lit the candles
Even the incense
glows It approaches the 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 is mio!
A dona un Dio te Wed .......')
As Erika Köth of 'the candles that light up' sings, she really committed an assault on the heartstrings. This makes Köth with me at the very moment when they 'light up' the volume of the word withdraws suddenly. The rest of the sung words, I can no longer read, but - what luck! - Listen well.
The gu
T 47 minutes, the LP / CD will of course largely devoted Erika Köth in the title role. Alisa ( Hertha Topper, born 1924 - see photo) is short, but strong in the 2nd Scene of the first Act of listening to what Lucia is waiting in the park on Edgard. Lucia's tutor Raimondo 
( Gottlob Frick 1906-1994 -see photo ) sings ominously the intro to the Lucia's mad scene (Act 3), in which he reported the wedding guests the gruesome events in the bridal chamber ( Arie: 'From the room where the bride and groom / Dalle stanze ove Lucia' ). H 
enry ( Josef Metternich 1915-2005 -see Photo ) is terrific, as he Lucia in the scene with duet at the beginning of the 2nd Act is difficult under pressure. Edgard ( Rudolf Schock ) and Lord Arthur Bucklaw ( Manfred Schmidt, born 1928 ) throughout - along with the other soloists - in the monumental sextet ( 'Who's able to inhibit the wrath / Chi Mi Frena in tal 
momento '). Shock and Metternich open this jewel in überrumpelnd Italian style, and the German text is unable to inhibit: sitting at her meet-stage duet proud to once a very upright in his chair. The many forms of music theater specialist, German 'conductor' Wilhelm Schüchter conduct the Berlin orchestra in every dramatic turn with a precise and energetic commitment. Wilhelm Schüchter (1911-1974 - Photo: Private archive Rico Leitner )
It seems in retrospect a necessary finding that the music world for too long, the versatile torture perpetrators of the conductor Wilhelm has missed shy. All that he achieved in the field of opera in the forties, fifties and sixties was not the recognition it deserved. After five very successful Viennese opera performances in the period 1972-1974 gave him the Wiener State Opera for a new contract again forty opera evenings. These evenings, but it should not come: Wilhelm Schüchter died. On 27 May 1974. Today, has turned the tide: his very last decade of published opera CDs are finally recognized, and one marvels at the range and quality of artistic ability. Wilhelm Schüchter could do everything: Wagner and Verdi, Puccini and Massenet, Lehár (yes, even opera!) And Donizetti, Offenbach, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky and Auber, Mascagni, Mozart, Beethoven, and even Richard Tauber 'You are the world to me' , which - by Rudolf Schock gesungen - Tentatively unter Leitung wurde zum Evergreen.
Krijn de Blank, 03/09/2010
(Nächstes Mal: 'SHOCKING Rudolf Dostal Nico singt " . )
