Among the announced cast for this summer’s highly anticipated revival at the Aix-en-Provence Festival of Gustave Charpentier’s Louise was the admired American soprano Roberta Alexander in the role of La Balayeuse, Unfortunately, due to illness Alexander had to withdraw from the production in which her deluxe replacement was Annick Massis! Perhaps today’s broadcast from 1983 will make up for her absence.
A few months ago, readers were especially taken with a live recording posted here of Alexander performing Richard Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder, so I wanted to follow it up with an opera starring the American soprano, and this delightful singspiel seemed like an ideal August entertainment amid the Wagner surfeit.
Following the success of Der Freischütz, Weber turned his attention to the comedic Pintos until he received an important commission from Vienna. Fearing that another “light” work might pigeonhole him, he began work instead on the grand Euryanthe.
After its premiere, he briefly returned to it before discarding it once again to write Oberon. The composer’s death in 1826 at 39 prevented him from completing it, so it remained unfinished for decades.
Eventually his widow sent the surviving sketches to Giacomo Meyerbeer in hopes he might complete them, but the materials laid untouched until they were returned to Caroline Weber. Eventually the young Mahler worked his magic on what Weber had completed and composed the missing numbers, the only operatic project Mahler would tackle.
Drei Pintos premiered in Leipzig in 1888. Despite its unique pedigree, it, like most Singspiels, has never gained a foothold in the repertoire despite occasional revivals like this Amsterdam concert performance starring Alexander for Dutch Radio.
Weber/Mahler: Die drei Pintos
Clarissa: Roberta Alexander
Laura / Inez: Elena Vink
Don Gaston: Howard Haskin
Don Gomez de Freiros: Wouter Goedhart
Don Pantaleone: Hubert Waber
Don Pinto de Fonseca: Lieuwe Visser
Waard: Palle Fuhr Jorgensen
Ambrosio: Rudolph Katzboeck
Groot Omroepkoor,
Omroeporkest
Conductor: Kenneth Montgomery
Concertgebouw, Amsterdam
19 February 1983
Broadcast
Die drei Pintos can be downloaded by clicking on the icon of a cloud with an arrow pointing downward on the audio player above and the resulting mp3 file will appear in your download directory.
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