Photo by Matt Dine
On April 16, the American Symphony Orchestra under their Music Director Leon Botstein presented what they believed to be the first United States performance of Le Freyschütz, Hector Berlioz’s French language performing edition of Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischütz . Berlioz deeply admired the work and wanted to ensure that the requirements of the Paris Opera (French translation, no spoken dialogue, a ballet ) were satisfied without compromising the integrity of the work. He composed recitatifs in Weber’s style to replace the dialogue and prepared his own orchestration of Invitation to the Dance to use as a ballet in the third act right before the climactic marksmanship contest.
Der Freischütz merited Berlioz’s admiration. Its premiere in Berlin in 1821 was a sensation. The supernatural theme, the romantic, motivic music and imaginative orchestration marked a striking departure from other German works. It remained a mainstay of the operatic repertory for the next century until performances were curtailed in most countries by the world wars. Only smaller companies have done the work in the US recently. In his pre-concert talk, Botstein blamed this on major US companies focusing on “chestnuts” and new operas at the expense of advocating for neglected works.
I find this too reductionist. While it’s true that the Met and other US companies are devoting more of their new productions to more recent operas, the choice to perform a work from outside the canon has mostly been driven by a singer or conductor with clout. I’m sure if Jonas Kaufmann had really wanted to sing Max in Der Freischüz, a consortium of opera companies would have found money from some Kaufmann superfan and put together a production for him, even if they had no intention to schedule it otherwise.
However, when a company revives a rarity for an artist, it often gets positioned as a “favor” to a beloved artist and not a welcome return of a forsaken masterpiece to the repertoire. When the Met presented La Juive for Neil Shicoff, the reviews mostly dismissed the work as a mid-tier curiosity that was only being done because Shicoff was so passionate about it. Not surprisingly, it’s never been revived.
For all his advocacy of these works, Botstein in his work with the ASO and at Bard isn’t trying to restore them to the repertoire either. He presents an obscure opera and moves on without attempting to have his passion for these works ripple out to other companies. Opera junkies like myself flock to his offerings, but most of the time, I think we even admit that they don’t deserve a more secure place in the repertoire.
However, in this case, I do think Der Freischutz deserves as much love from US companies as it gets in Europe. With the right cast and director, it makes for a very compelling night at the opera. Nonetheless, I see no reason to revive the Berlioz edition ever again. The recitatives weigh the opera down, even if the orchestral writing creates tension at big moments. Between the recitatives and the ballet, the run time was around 30 minutes longer than usual. Some of the extended run time may have been due to the ponderous conducting, which deprived the performance of snap, crackle, and pop. This created some challenges for the singers who gave the conductor noticeable, pleading looks. The singers also had to contend with an unforgiving orchestral volume. Most concert performances try to compensate for having the orchestra up on stage, but not in this case. The singers had to push unnecessarily and opportunities for nuance were lost.
Despite those challenges, the compelling ensemble acquitted themselves well. Freddie Ballentine is a young tenor who has sung a wide range of roles including Sportin’ Life in the recent Met Porgy and Bess revival. He has an appealing sound that is powerful when required. His interpretation intermittently conveyed the depth of Max‘s desperation. Nicole Chevalier has recently been singing both Salome and Traviata, and both were plausible based on her rendition of Agathe. It’s a juicy, lyric sound that is starting to fill out promisingly in the lower part of her range. She occasionally sounded pressed. Still, there was some lovely, tender singing in the arias. This was her first professional gig in NYC and I hope she returns soon.
Alfred Walker sang Gaspard (Caspar in the German original). His characterization was powerful and appropriately sinister. Philip Cokorinos was Kouno (Kuno, auf Deutsch) the head gamekeeper and Agathe’s father. He has been singing professionally for more than 40 years. In fact, he sang the same part when the Opera Orchestra of New York performed this opera at Carnegie in 2005! He still sounded remarkably fine and authoritative. The role Annette (Ännchen), Agathe’s BFF, was performed by Cadie Bryan. She gave a lovely charming performance, but it’s not the best role to gauge the full extent of her talent.
The evening had a sad, valedictory quality for me. I have been to so many concert performances of unknown operas at Carnegie, usually to packed, executed houses. Alas the house on Thursday was far from full and I recognized too many of the attendees as holdovers from the glory days of OONY. I’d like to think that New York is still a city where you can fill Carnegie for almost any opera in concert. Those days are unfortunately gone and I don’t foresee their return. There are, sadly, no magic bullets.
