Even
so, there remain gaps that even these pioneers fail to reach — at which
point, enter New Sussex Opera, in the first of what I hope will be a regular
series of visits to the capital.
It is not widely known that Offenbach ever ventured into German grand opera,
though a recording of Die Rheinnixen finally became available in 2005
thanks to the Orchestre de Montpelier (the disc was reviewed on this site).
Though Rhine Fairies are most familiar in operatic terms because of Wagner, an
audience at Offenbach’s opera would be forgiven for not realising there
was any common ground. Offenbach’s Rhine Fairies are a hybrid of a number
of different myths, from the Lorelei of popular legend to the jilted
maiden-spirits of Giselle.
The English rendition of the libretto has its clumsy moments, and although
some (such as switching between ‘thee’ and ‘you’ for
the sake of a rhyme) can be put down to the translator, tenor Neil Jenkins, the
majority of the unintentional humour is pretty inevitable. Cynics might say
that singing in a foreign language covers a multitude of sins — and this
is one of those operas where performance in translation serves to remove the
only layer of disguise from the sheer ludicrousness of the plot. We have an
amnesiac hero (thanks to a war-wound) who is shocked into recovering his senses
on the spot, long-lost family relationships being revealed at every turn, and
supernatural forces which overshadow the lives of the central characters. At
the centre of it all is a saintly heroine so fragile that singing too
strenuously almost kills her — an archetype which Offenbach took one step
further in Hoffmann (and another metaphor for the dangerous power of female
sexuality). That’s not the only thing which almost happens — a
devastating Wagnerian ending is narrowly averted when, as the principal
characters prepare to evade enemy capture by blowing up a strategically-placed
ammunition dump with themselves in it, the Rhine Fairies lure the baddies over
a precipice to their death and the goodies all breathe a sigh of relief and
live happily ever after. The opera predates Gˆtterd‰mmerung by more than a
decade, but it’s difficult not to make the comparison.
A more than decent cast was assembled for the occasion: as the heroine,
Armgard, Kate Valentine struck the balance of youth and maturity with a capable
and sweet-edged lyric soprano and a firm and centred stage presence. As Franz,
David Curry, made an ardent lover, though was occasionally a little pallid and
strained in the top register, with a tendency to oversing. The more memorable
performances were in the older roles, with Anne-Marie Owens supplying a
dramatic centre in the pivotal role of Hedwig, Armgard’s mother whose
past youthful exploits with the now enemy, Conrad von Wenckheim, bring about
almost all of the plot’s developments. Quentin Hayes was a strong and
masculine Conrad, and Daniel Grice was sympathetic in the role of Gottfried
(here, in translation, Godfrey) — the true friend who never quite manages
to get the girl.
The chorus sang idiomatically, and the smaller roles were taken more than
ably by members of the amateur company. Conductor Nicholas Jenkins drew a clean
and poised performance from the orchestra, and the score has plenty to
recommend it. Offenbach inventively evokes a Germanic sound-world —
Franz’s ethereal entrance-aria almost seems to prefigure the way Mahler
used some of the Des Knaben Wunderhorn tunes in his early symphonies.
The imagination in the rest of the score should not be underestimated, and
would no doubt be easier to appreciate if Hoffmann had not remained so
firmly in the repertoire while Die Rheinnixen was as good as lost for
over a century. The composer reused so much of Rheinnixen in his later
work that listening to it can be quite disorientating. It takes an open mind to
think of the ‘Barcarolle’, and its introduction, were originally
intended to depict not the hypnotic stasis of Venetian canals but the waters of
a river which — thanks again to Wagner — most opera-lovers have
come to associate with primeval E flat chords. The Rhine-Fairies themselves
have the most obvious leitmotiv of the piece, a rising and falling
chromatic triplet figure, first introduced in Armgard’s Act 1 aria.
New Sussex Opera has expressed a hope that some of its future productions
— which, if an audience questionnaire included in the programme is
anything to go by, might include Wagner’s Die Feen,
Chabrier’s L’etoile and Gounod’s Mireille
— might bring the company back to London. On this evidence, let’s
hope so.
Ruth Elleson © 2009
image=http://www.operatoday.com/Rheinnixen.png
image_description=Die Rheinnixen [New Sussex Opera]
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product_title=Jacques Offenbach: Die Rheinnixen
product_by=Armgard: Kate Valentine; Hedwig: Anne-Marie Owens; Franz: David Curry; Conrad: Quentin Hayes; Gottfried: Daniel Grice; The Fairy: Birgit Rohowska. New Sussex Opera. Nicholas Jenkins, music director/ conductor.
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