Rare Raff: Die Eifersüchtigen (The Jealous Ones)
We are indeed lucky to have this recording
Only his week, we had the World premiere recording of Humpedinck's Das Mirakel; today, it is Raff's late opera, Die Eifersüchigen (The Jealous Ones, WoO 54, 1881/2) that receives its premiere incarnation on disc. In this opera Raff bases his melodies on German speech prosody, so the spoken shapes of spoken language help sculpt the melodies, and the words are set with the utmost naturalness.
To be honest, the plot is paper-thin and the piece lasts around two hours. That in itself doesn't bode well, but neither does it factor in Raff's wonderful music (what an underrated composer: longome readers of Classical Explorer may remember this post around Raff's First and Fifth String Quartets). Heee's the (perhaps a touch amusing) summary of the "plot" from the Naxos notes:
The plot, which reminds one of a woodcut, can accordingly be summarised in a few sentences. At the heart of the conflict is Don Geronimo’s desire to marry the ‘wrong people’, the servant Beppino’s plot to counter this, and the sudden outburst of jealousy to which the opera owes its title – which is laid to rest as quickly as it arose. The opera ends on a conciliatory note with the announcement of a triple wedding
As in Mozart's Figaro, there is a real Upstairs Downstairs aspect here: two aristocratic couples, Don Giulio and Donna Rosa, and Don Claudio and Donna Bianca, "Downstairs" we have the two servants, Ninetta and Beppino. It is Don Geronimo who sits outside of the couples, plotting to join his son with his niece; he has a somewhat moralistic function too, As in Mozart's Così fan tutte, it is the servant world (Despina there, Ninetta and Beppino here) that help drive the plot.
It is Beppino who opens the opera (think Figaro); his "Alles, alles liegt auf mir" strikes me in its Germanic folksong aspect as a clear parallel to the Weber of Freischütz. Mathias Bein is strong and lusty:
It is in the dialogue between Don Giulio (Balduin Schneeberger) and Beppino that introduces Raff's variant on "recitative" which morphs easily into aria. And how delightful is Raff's melody. Does it matter the close to nothing is happening? Not a jot.
In accordance with the plot, Raff's music is very charming. The flute-dominated Entr'acte is delicious, for example:
For this to succeed, you need a good group of singers - and that is certainly the case here. Ninetta's soliloquy from scene 2 (Mirjan Fässler) is excellent, especially the melismas.
Rosa's solo works well, "Claudio muß wohl," charming, with beautiful clarinet solos:
Act one takes nearly 80 minutes; acts two and three combined take less than an hour. The second act 2 opens with an air that is both beautiful and beautifully sung by Claudio, here Benjamin Popson ("Nur wenige Stunden");
That aria sits at the centrepoint of the opera, and holds a vital structural function in the piece; the music returns in the final act as a sot of "remembrance motif". And it is in that final act we find Claudio, in a prison cell (Beppino has asked two sbirri - city watchmen - to hold Claudio). It's not quite Don Carlo, then, but the resiuation provides sufficient excuse to create contrast in Raff's music, And is there anything more of the Romantic era than the horn solo that opens Don Claudio's "Es is umsonst"?:
.. and there are, surely, hints of Don Florestan's act 2 recitative in Fidelio as the music continues before the lovely melody unravels (with oboe obbligato). It is worth pointing out, though. that Beethoven's woodwind would never have been as cheerful as Raff's though. Arguably, this is Popson and Raff's finest moment.
The turn to joy in the final section perhaps also has parallels with Fidelio:
We are indeed lucky to have this recording. The cast is strong: the Ninetta is a fine mezzo (her first entrance in act one makes it sound like Ortrud from Lohngrin has joined the party!). Only the Donna Bianca of Raìsa Ierone sounds a bit tired in the opera's final stages.
It would be good to have a DVD/Bluay of this opera, but in the interim, this twofer remains cherishable, and is available at Amazon here.
Libretto: Joseph Joachim Raff