Yeah! Another opera to be alphabetized before 'A!' But can anything take the place of 1984 in the number one slot? Well, I suppose if there was an opera called The 10 Commandments? Though in that case, it would probably spell out 'ten,' alas. What I REALLY need is an opera whose title somehow starts with punctuation. The most likely would be an ellipses, like if it were called ...and justice for all or something. No doubt some would argue that you should just ignore the punctuation and alphabetize it according to the first letter, but I can't get behind these new-fangled ideas.
You might ask: how the hell do you even find obscure operas like this, anyway? Well, the general answer is, I'm always poking around. But the specific answer in this case is, I was contemplating how pre-war Germany had an amazing musical cultural that was badly crippled when the nazis, in the name of "purifying" the country, either murdered or drove into exile so many of their most important musicians, like the enormous dumbasses they were and are. So then I thought, what post-war German composers even are there aside from Hans Werner Henze and Gottfried von Einem? So I did a google search and entered all the ones I found into amazon to see if they had any operas on disc, and Bob's yer uncle. Job's a good'un.
It's based on a play by Shalom Aleichem, best known for the short story collection Tevye the Dairyman that was adapted into Fiddler on the Roof, and I must warn you that the original stories are way darker than the musical. No worries, though; this one's pretty cheerful. It's about Jews living in a Ukrainian shtetl round about the beginning of the twentieth century. Soroker is a tailor with two assistants, Motel and Kopel, both of whom are vying for his daughter Bailke's favors. They're a little bit in debt, a little late with the bills, but more or less doing okay. Soroker habitually plays the lottery, and guess what? Today, he has the winning ticket! He's won a sum of...well, the title gives it away. So he moves into a bigger house and is now hobnobbing with rich people, in a kind of awkward way; he also has a plan to start an apartment complex for poor people where they won't be evicted (excellent plan). The rich people are maneuvering to get his money, and now his daughter--obviously--can't marry Motel or Kopel, so Soroker tries to arrange a marriage with a rich guy, which she isn't happy about. She ends up running away with them, but then it turns out that Soroker's ticket didn't win after all, so everyone goes back to their old digs, relieved to be away from all that idiocy. Bailke is going to marry Motel; Kopel is disappointed but accepts it. And that's our story. The characters are very likable; Motel and Kopel are especially so as friendly rivals who remain friendly even when one of them loses; none of the violence you'd get in many operas.
Blacher himself wasn't Jewish, but the story--obviously, given the source--is extremely so, which is interesting: I've never seen such an opera before (somehow, La Juive, although written by a Jewish composer, isn't quite in the same category); the fact that it's German only makes that more compelling. The attitudes and philosophies of the characters definitely feel Jewish: with that kind of rueful, ironic acceptance of fortune and resignation to its vicissitudes. The music here is...well, it's a little bit modernist, a little dissonant in places, but not, I wouldn't say, the kind of thing likely to alienate anyone; it's melodic in its way, but mainly its unobtrusive--it propels the story, but the story feels more central than the music instead of the other way round. The singing is very conversational; there are no arias, but it's really just a fun story. The Mad Magazine "satire" (not sure they really knew what satire is) would call him "Bore-us Blecher," but I would not do that, for I enjoyed his work. This video is of the 1970 premiere; naturally, the video quality isn't quite up to contemporary standards, but basically everything's fine. Günter Reich is particularly notable as Soroker, having a sort of disheveled, hangdog quality that suits the character.
I don't think anyone thinks too much about Blacher nowadays, but I should like to see more of his work. A lot of it is supposed to be very weird and experimental (in contrast to this); either way, I think he's due a renewed wave of interest.
No comments:
Post a Comment