Capriccio Reissues Zemlinsky Opera Recordings

courtesy of Naxos of America

This coming October will mark the 150th birthday of Alexander von Zemlinsky. Capriccio is honoring this occasion by issuing remastered releases of past recordings of Zemlinsky’s music, with particular attention to his operas. Two of them were released at the beginning of this month; and, because they are operas, it seems fair that I address these recordings in separate articles.

Today’s report will account for Es War Einmal (once upon a time), described as a “fairy-tale opera” in three acts preceded by a prologue, which, in turn, is preceded by an instrumental prelude. Recording originally took place at Denmarks Radio in June of 1987. The libretto is based on a play by the Danish author Holger Drachmann, and it was prepared for Zemlinsky by Maximillian Singer. The play was popular enough to be made into a film twice, the first time in 1922 under the direction of Carl Theodor Dreyer.

The IMDb Web page for Dreyer’s film describes the plot as follows:

A beautiful but imperious princess refuses all offers of marriage, often condemning her suitors to death. The prince of Denmark comes seeking her hand and, aided by magic objects given to him by a mysterious spirit, seeks to win her love.

My guess is that any opera lovers reading that synopsis will be immediately reminded of the Turandot narrative. However, Es War Einmal predates the operas composed by both Ferruccio Busoni and Giacomo Puccini. On the other hand it is worth noting that the Busoni version is another one of the operas that Capriccio has reissued.

Zemlinsky’s opera, on the other hand, has its own impressive association with another composer. After Gustav Mahler became the Director of the Vienna State Opera, he helped Zemlinsky to prepare his opera for performance. This included not only recommending changes in the music but also alterations to the libretto. Mahler then conducted the opera’s first performance on January 22, 1900.

The good news is that Mahler let Zemlinsky be Zemlinsky. If one did not know that Mahler had a guiding hand in the score, one would not associate Mahler with that score. In the following decades Zemlinsky would continue to work on operas, turning to other sources for narrative content. The most interesting of his sources was Oscar Wilde, whose texts were adapted for two one-act operas “Eine florentinische Tragödie” (a Florentine tragedy) and “Der Zwerg” (the dwarf). By the time he started work on these operas (over a decade after Es War Einmal was first performed), Zemlinsky’s musical interests had progressed from Mahler to Arnold Schoenberg. Thus, from today’s perspective, Es War Einmal may best be approached as an “origins” account of Zemlinsky’s ventures into opera.