Episode 357. Faust auf Deutsch
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Today I offer three different recordings of excerpts, sung in German, from Charles Gounod’s opera Faust, which was known in the day in Germany as Margarethe. The Germans have always regarded this work with more than a little scorn because it has so little to do with Goethe’s towering masterpiece upon which it is based. The earliest of today’s excerpts is from a complete 1908 recording on the Berlin branch of the Grammophon label (when such a thing as a complete operatic recording was virtually unheard of), featuring Emmy Destinn, Karl Jörn and Paul Knüpfer under the baton of Bruno Seidler-Winkler. Much later came two recordings of excerpts in German: the first released on Deutsche Grammophon in 1958 with stalwart recording artist Maria Stader; nonpareil Kavalierbariton Eberhard Wächter; fierce Finnish bass Kim Borg; and the late German lyric tenor Heinz Hoppe under Ferdinand Leitner. The latter was released on Philips in 1963 with Ernst Kozub (recently featured on a “rehabilitational” Countermelody episode; the extraordinary German bass Franz Crass, and Swiss mega-soprano Colette Lorand (soon to be featured in her own Countermelody episode) under Marcel Couraud. As a bonus, I also feature a very young Sylvia Sass in one of her very first recordings from 1975 singing Marguerite’s Jewel Song in Hungarian.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
All selections are from Charles Gounod’s Faust, known in Germany as Margarethe. The original libretto is by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, loosely based on the first part of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s towering tragedy Faust; the German translation is by Julia Behr.
Welch tiefer Jammer drückt mich wieder [Final Scene]. Emmy Destinn, Karl Jörn, Paul Knüpfer, Bruno Seidler-Winkler, Grammophon Orchester Berlin [1908]
The remaining performances are from the two different recordings as noted below, unless otherwise indicated:
Maria Stader (Margarethe); Heinz Hoppe (Faust); Kim Borg (Mephisto); Eberhard Wächter (Valentin), Dagmar Naaff (Siebel); Ferdinand Leitner conducting the Münchener Philharmoniker and the Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks [recorded 1957]
Colette Lorand (Margarethe); Ernst Kozub (Faust); Franz Crass, (Mephisto); Marcel Couraud conducting the Badische Staatskapelle and the Chor des Badischen Staatstheaters [recorded 1963]
O Tag, dir gilt mein letzter Gruß… Da bin ich! [Duet Mephisto-Faust]. Ernst Kozub, Franz Crass
Da ich nun verlassen soll [Valentin’s Prayer]. Eberhard Wächter
Ja, das Gold regiert die Welt [Rondo of the Golden Calf]. Kim Borg
Gegrüßt sei mir, o heil’ge Stätte [Faust’s Cavatina]. Heinz Hoppe
Nur große Herrn… Ha! Welch Glück, mich zu seh’n [Jewel Song]. Maria Stader
Es ist schon spät… Er liebt mich [Garden Scene]. Heinz Hoppe, Maria Stader; Franz Crass, Ernst Kozub, Colette Lorand
Scheinst zu schlafen [Mephisto’s Serenade]. Kim Borg [verse 1]; Franz Crass [verse 2]
Schnell hierher [The Death of Valentin]. Maria Stader, Dagmar Naaff, Eberhard Wächter
Welch tiefer Jammer [Prison Scene, Final Trio]. Heinz Hoppe, Maria Stader, Kim Borg
Il était un roi de Thulé… Ah! je ris de me voir si belle [sung in Hungarian]. Sylvia Sass, Ervin Lukács, Orchestra of the Hungarian State Opera [1975]
