Gottfried von Einem, Dantons Tod (1947)

Here'san obscure one. It's based on an 1835 play by Georg Büchner (also the writer of Woyzeck, upon which Herzog's film and Berg's opera are based). According to wikipedia, this opera was instrumental in a post-war artistic rebirth, written by a young composer who wasn't implicated in any way in the nazi regime. Is it still performed? Seems so, though I doubt it's ever been done outside Austria or Germany.

As one might guess, it's about events leading up to the execution of Georges Danton, one of the early leaders of revolutionary France, along with his friend and ally Camille Desmoulins, because of...well, hard to say. Reasons, I suppose. Putatively having to do with some corruption or other, but probably really more just for perceived lack of appropriate revolutionary zeal. I feel like I may have mentioned this elsewhere but just TRY to find a figure of any significance in the really revolutionary days who survived 1794--it's not easy. It's grim but also blackly comical--how long do you have to keep executing your leaders before it occurs to you that there might be more fundamental problems here?

So a few caveats with this particular recording: it's from 1963, and the video quality is not fantastic. The sound is better, but there IS a persistent hissing in the background. Furthermore, the subtitles are in fact fansubs; it's cool that anyone would care enough about this to make them, but they could have used some revision: the fact that these revolutionary figures are all speaking in this high-minded, elevated language, along with the fact that most of us may not be aware of the ins and outs of revolutionary politics, ALONG ALSO WITH the fact that it seems to have been translated in an excessively literal and often unidiomatic way...well, it can be difficult to follow. Still, this is almost certainly the only time it's been translated in any way, so what are you going to do?

Well, I suppose you could just not watch it. But it's actually pretty good. I needed something short-ish to watch, and this filled the bill nicely. The Modern-ish music and singing get VERY dramatic, especially during the trial and execution scenes. I have no idea what Danton was actually like, but it's a sympathetic role, and Eberhard Wachter is commanding in it. I mean, I think so. I could probably judge better if the quality were better. I would love to have had the opportunity to see the above-linked Austrian production, but I'm still glad to have seen it period.