FULL ENOCH ARDEN (Richard Strauss) Brattleboro VT 2024 Aaron Engebreth
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Enoch Arden
- Composer: Strauss Richard
- Libretto: Alfred Lord Tennyson
- Venue & Opera Company: Latchis Theatre, Brattleboro, Vermont, Wagner in Vermont
- Recorded: August 23, 2024
- Type: Concert Live
- Singers: Aaron Engebreth
- Conductor:
- Orchestra: Hugh Keelan, PIANO
- Stage Director:
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: Tundi Productions
- Date Published: 2024
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: nosubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Enoch Arden, Op. 38, TrV. 181, is a melodrama for narrator and piano, written in 1897 by Richard Strauss setting a German translation of the 1864 poem of the same name by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
History
Richard Strauss wrote Enoch Arden for the actor Ernst von Possart, who in 1896 had assisted him in obtaining the post of Chief Conductor at the Bavarian State Opera, at that time still known as the Bavarian Court Opera. He wrote it while engaged in composing Don Quixote and finished it in February 1897. Strauss and Possart toured together widely with the melodrama, in a German translation by Adolf Strodtmann.
It was well received by audiences and Strauss’s reputation was enhanced more by it than by his symphonic poems. The following year Strauss capitalised on its success by writing Das Schloss am Meere (The Castle by the Sea) to words by Ludwig Uhland.
The work has been described as falling within the genre of incidental music. It consists mainly of brief interludes indicative of changes of time and setting, as well as moments of punctuation and commentary. Each of the two parts is introduced by a prelude and concludes with a postlude.[1] Strauss uses leitmotifs to identify each of the characters: Enoch Arden (a chordal sequence in E flat), Annie Lee (a rising figure in G), Philip Ray (a melody in E), the sea (G minor). He does not develop these into melodies as such, but uses them statically. There are long passages where the piano is silent.
Because of the sparse nature of the music, performances of Enoch Arden are largely dependent on the speaker rather than the pianist. Criticisms of the piece as a musical work per se do not do it justice, as it was never intended to be primarily a piece of music but a dramatic presentation with musical accompaniment.
Enoch Arden was popular in its day, but slipped into obscurity when fashions changed and recitations, declamations and melodramas came to be considered passé. In recent years the work has attracted some notable names in both the speaker’s role, including Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Jon Vickers, Michael York, Claude Rains, Benjamin Luxon, Patrick Stewart and Gwyneth Jones, and the pianist’s role, including Glenn Gould, Jörg Demus, Stephen Hough, Emanuel Ax, and Marc-André Hamelin.
Quoted from Wikipedia