Zemlinsky’s Final Opera Reissued by Capriccio

courtesy of Naxos of America

This month’s second remastered release by Capriccio of an opera by Alexander von Zemlinsky is a two-CD performance of Der König Kandaules (King Kandaules). The recording was made from performances at the Hamburg State Opera that took place on October 18 and 25 in 1996. When the album was released the following year, it marked the world premiere recording of this opera.

Like Zemlinsky’s Es War Einmal, discussed on this site this past Saturday, Der König Kandaules is based on a play of the same title. Le roi Candaule was written by André Gide and translated into German by Franz Blei, and Zemlinsky prepared his own libretto based on Blei’s text. However, the narrative itself can be traced all the way back to Herodotus and even shows up in Plato’s Republic.

The narrative is basically one of pride that results in a significant fall. Kandaules, the king of Lydia, is so taken with the beauty of his wife Nyssia that he wants others to appreciate the qualities of her naked body. His desire is facilitated by a magic ring that makes the wearer invisible, and that ring is given to him by the fisherman Gyges. Gyges thus become the first to wear the ring to behold the naked Nyssia. However, in the darkness, he then spends the night with her, while she believes she is sleeping with Kandaules. When the truth is revealed the next morning, Nyssia orders Gyges to kill Kandaules, after which she crowns him as the new king of Lydia.

Zemlinsky had completed only the short score of this opera before escaping the Nazi occupation of Austria in 1938 by traveling to New York. He had hoped that the Metropolitan Opera would produce the world premiere of this opera, but the plot was too lurid for the management. About half a year after arriving in the United States, Zemlinsky suffered a stroke from which he never recovered. As a result, the full score was left unfinished until Antony Beaumont completed the orchestration. Thus, a performing edition was prepared under an official commission from the Hamburg State Opera granted in 1991.

The unabashed sexuality of the libretto may remind those familiar with Zemlinsky’s work of his Opus 16 one-act opera “Eine florentinische Tragödie” (a Florentine tragedy), which he composed in 1916. Indeed, there is a descending chromatic motif that, in all likelihood, was appropriated from the lurid “punch line” of that earlier opera. In that context it is worth noting that the Wikipedia page for Der König Kandaules describes it as “Zemlinsky's third most performed stage-work, statistically ranking only behind his two one-act operas Eine florentinische Tragödie and Der Zwerg.” That said, both of those one-acts are based on texts by Oscar Wilde; and they benefit significantly from the impact of brevity. Mind you, there is a fair amount of “talk” in “Eine florentinische Tragödie” before the “critical action” erupts; but I fear that the extent of the “talk” in Der König Kandaules tends to blunt the action by deferring it for too long.