Der Rastelbinder (The Tinker) (complete operetta) (Rec 1981)
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FRANZ LEHAR
Der Rastelbinder (The Tinker) (complete operetta) (Rec 1981)
Fritz Muliar / Hans Kraemmer / Helga Papouschek / Elfie Hobarth / Heinz Zednik / ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra / Hans Graf
[ CPO / 2 CD ]
Release Date: Wednesday 15 March 2006
This item is currently out of stock. It may take 6 or more weeks to obtain from when you place your order as this is a specialist product.
"The First is flawed but with its strength concentrated in the first two movements. The Fourth is fascinating and well worth getting to know. The Gudrun overture is a fine addition to the ranks of late-romantic operatic preludes."
(MusicWeb Feb 2006)
"CPO continues to show admirable enthusiasm for issuing the works of Lehár. Der Sterngucker (The Stargazer) was issued in Spring 2003 and now along comes this performance of his first operetta. It is a recording of a large-scale radio broadcast made 25 years ago.
The work was staged as a Christmas piece at Vienna's Carl-Theater in December 1902. Despite poor initial reviews its strong cast managed to achieve a long run for the piece. Incidentally, the conductor of the première was the young composer, Zemlinsky. Der Rastelbinder travelled through Europe and reached America in 1909, but now is largely forgotten.
The plot concerns a Slovak child engagement, with children who find it difficult to get on together when grown up. A Prelude is set 12 years earlier than the main action to provide a vehicle for the audience to be given background information of the childhood betrothal. The Prelude and Acts shift the action from Slovakia to Vienna and then to a Viennese army barracks. The settings allow Lehár plenty of scope to introduce different flavours of music appropriate to the action. In this early operetta, we hear, for the first time, a slow waltz that indicates the distinctive viennese style that was to follow and become a Lehár hallmark, 'Wenn zwei sich lieben' [CD2 tk.4]
Helga Papouschek and Elfie Hobarth sing confidently as Mizzi and Suza and the young tinker boy (uncredited) provides a purity of tone, naïvety and innocence. Both Heinz Zednik (the grown up tinker boy) and Adolph Dallapozza (corporal) are strong tenors, the latter having a particularly high register. But to me this is a performance that needed to be seen to be fully appreciated. The unmusical Pfefferkorn (Fritz Muliar) performs more like a Maurice Chevalier and does not come over well in his numbers on the second CD: it becomes an irritation when one can only focus on an aural picture.
The recording has good acoustics and balance, though chorus diction could be better.
The booklet is provided in German, English and French and contains interesting background notes by Stefan Frey as well as a synopsis for the vocal numbers."
(MusicWeb Nov 2004)
