Franz Schreker, Der ferne Klang (1912)

Schreker is largely unknown today, but he was huge in his time. According to wikipedia, at his peak he was the second-most-performed living opera composer in the Weimar Republic, after Richard Strauss. Unfortunately, the rise of naziism was the end of all that; he wasn't directly murdered, but the rise of anti-Semitism and the increased supression of his work undoubtedly led to the stroke that killed him in 1934 at the age of 56. I feel like we don't spend enough time remembering what total worthless shitheads nazis were and are.

Well...be that as it may, let's go back to his breakthrough work. Appreciate the good times. The title means "A distant sound," but I think it's better to translate Klang as "clang," on the basis that it's much funnier-sounding. A distant CLANG! That's really the only comical thing here, though. Fritz and Greta are in love, but he's a composer, and before he marries her he wants to go off to find this mysterious distant CLANG that he senses. Unfortunately, her mother is abusive and her father is abusive and alcoholic, so she runs off and allows herself to be taken to a brothel by a procuress. Skip ahead some years and she's a star courtesan with whom everyone's in love. She's going to marry whoever can sing the most moving song, which several of them do, but then Fritz (not having found the CLANG he was looking for) appears and she agrees to marry him, but he rejects her when he realizes she's a prostitute. More time passes. Fritz's opera is a failure because he just can't find that elusive sound. He and Greta meet again and this time they're really going to marry and he finally hears the sound but dies before he can write it down. Finis.

This stuff with love and music may remind one of Tannhäuser; the music and general aesthetic of the piece will definitely remind one of Lulu(though this is somewhat less grim--a lot of the secondary characters are more sympathetic than expected). I don't think it's ever going to be my all-time favorite sort of music, but I nonetheless like this a lot--more of that good ol' German expressionism. The second act in the brothel is especially effective. Schreker wrote his own libretti; it seems that he had a very distinct artistic vision, and I'd love to see more of his work. This production from the Royal Swedish Opera is I believe the only video recording of any of Schreker's operas. That's a shame, and I hope it's rectified in the future, but at any rate, it's a very good one, one of the best I've seen from Operavision. A handsome traditional production that anyone should like, and Agneta Eichenholz is an excellent Greta,which is a larger role than Fritz--Daniel Johansson is basically fine in that role, even if he doesn't quite have the same stage presence. I am again grateful to Operavision for providing.