Nederlandse Reisopera’s latest production of Korngold’s Das Wunder der Heliane will be the first staged production of this opera in The Netherlands despite the work receiving its premiere nearly 100 years ago.
Why is this Korngold opera performed so rarely when other operas have found success?
I was curious, so after attending a rehearsal early in the production phase, I spent a very sunny, late-summer afternoon chatting to Fergus McAlpine, the young British arranger and conductor, to find out more.
The history of Korngold’s Das Wunder der Heliane
Korngold was a prolific Czech American composer and pianist, latterly known in America for his pioneering work in the world of film music, winning two Oscars for his efforts.
Today though, Korngold is perhaps more known for his classical music. Premiered nearly a hundred years ago in 1927 in Hamburg, Das Wunder der Heliane, is Korngold’s fourth opera and one with a somewhat chequered history. Written for an orchestra of over 110 musicians, most opera houses in Europe simply do not have a pit big enough! The opera is therefore rarely staged.
For many years, the music of Korngold lay dormant, but gradually at the end of the twentieth century, his work started to gain prominence all around the world. Performances of Das Wunder der Heliane were still few and far between. Indeed, the three performances at the Volksoper, Vienna in 2017 with Annemarie Kremer in the title role conducted by Jac van Steen, were concert performances and not staged.
However, ideas were brewing in the corridors of Nederlandse Reisopera based in East Netherlands. After their successful stage production of another Korngold opera Die Tote Stadt in 2019 directed by Jakob Peters-Messer, Nederlandse Reisopera actively started to explore the possibility of bringing this lesser known opera, Das Wunder der Heliane to the stage.
The birth of a new score
How to overcome the hurdle of the immense forces needed to produce Das Wunder der Heliane?
As with many stories in recent years, the 2020 lockdown played it’s part, and gave birth to this new score created by Fergus McAlpine. The result is a score for a reduced numbers of players, with exactly the same music, lasting exactly the same time and leaving the vocal lines untouched – and most definitely not an arrangement!
Many students from all over the world come to The Netherlands to study conducting on the National Masters in Orchestral Conducting at the Amsterdam Conservatory and the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague. In 2020, when the world closed its doors to orchestral music, Jac van Steen, a teacher on the course gave his students the task of producing a version of Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony for reduced forces to replace the original large orchestration.
Task complete! What next for the young conductors? A request from Nederlandse Reisopera to produce a reduced score for Korngold’s opera, Das Wunder der Heliane. One student was given the task.
And so after a number of twists and turns, requesting and receiving the necessary permission from the Korngold family and collaboration with the publisher – Schott, we arrive at the premiere in Enschede on Saturday 30th September 2023, of an opera produced by Nederlandse Reisopera, directed by Jakob Peters-Messer, with singers from Consensus Vocalis, and scored for just 70 orchestral musicians from the North Netherlands Orchestra.
The Original score V the New score
How does the new score differ from the original?
Is this new score an arrangement, or is the score faithful to Korngold’s original intentions?
McAlpine is very clear on this point. The opera we will hear on stage is not an arrangement of the work. It is instead a reworking of the score for a smaller orchestra. The work will still have the same power and majesty as the original format, just written for a slightly smaller orchestra.
Where the original score indicated four flutes, three oboes and four clarinets, McAlpine reduces these numbers. Percussion is halved from seven or eight players to just three or four, with players doubling up on instruments. The original four keyboard parts are likewise halved to two by doubling the piano part with the celeste, and the organ with the harmonium. Brass numbers are similarly reduced. The score also allows flexibility for the six, (yes six!) additional off-stage fanfare trumpets and three off-stage trombones to be incorporated into the orchestral parts.
The vocal parts remain the same.
The new score
Interestingly, McAlpine’s work was not just to reduce the number of players. The original score had over 1,000 errors – hopefully they are now all correct! Even the date on the title page was incorrect, originally indicating 1923 – 1296 as the date of composition!!
Will other opera house across Europe now stage this opera using the new version? Only time will tell!
So, why should we go and listen to Nederlandse Reisopera’s latest production of Das Wunder der Heliane?
What is so special about this Korngold opera?
After my visit to the rehearsal, I am starting to understand the appeal of Korngold and why so many musicians hold his work in such high esteem. The opera sounds almost symphonic such is the scale, technical difficultly and long musical lines. This is not a fast moving opera. Much like Wagner, singers languish over small amounts of text and movements in the plot.
Korngold presents us with a tonal palate that we are familiar with, but adds that extra musical twist to distort the sound without us being immediately aware of what he is doing. In this modern world where we are constantly searching for something which goes beyond our expectations, perhaps we can look to a work written nearly 100 years ago to satisfy our needs.
Fergus McAlpine
The North Netherlands Orchestra is the ideal partner, creating a big orchestral sound. They were certainly not holding back when I heard them in rehearsal with Jac van Steen at the helm.
The cast
Dutch soprano, Annemarie Kremer was a natural choice for the role of Heliane, a role she knew well after her performances in Vienna in 2017 and subsequent recording in 2018. She is known to audiences in The Netherlands after joining the 2015 Nederlandse Reisopera production of Puccini’s Madam Butterfly and was keen to join this production.
The set
The plot
The chorus
So, on Saturday, I will join the audience for the premiere of this latest production from Nederlandse Reisopera and dive deep into a 1920s world where nothing is certain, where we question the reality of all we see before us, and where we can wallow in the rich orchestral sound of a composer who later became one of the most influential film composers of his generation.
A little listening…
Tickets
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