Finally Humperdinck Königskinder Amazon Prime Rental $2.99

[lennygoran]

Finally Humperdinck Königskinder Amazon Prime Rental $2.99

It was an update-have no idea how the Met did way back-it was performed up until 1914 39 times! see below for first Met cast. I must say it was a very

imaginative production and the singing and acting were very exciting at times-so me lovely lush music-almost too much lush music. I've been want ting see

this for the longest time-very rewarding! Regards, Len


Amazon Description:

"Hänsel und Gretel brought Humperdinck worldwide fame but his tragic fairy story Königskinder ('The King's Children') offers a stark contrast to it and has

only begun to be revived in recent years. The doomed love of a goose girl and a prince - as they battle prejudice and are obstructed by magic - ends in their

loving deaths, and with it a rebuke to the villagers who rejected them..."

Direstor Christof Loy

Starring Daniel Behle, Olga Kulchynsk, Josef Wagner

2022 Dutch National Opera & Ballet

Bachrack review:

Marc Albrecht returns to Amsterdam with a Humperdinck rarity

By Nicolas Nguyen, 07 October 2022

One could almost have forgotten that it’s already two years since Marc Albrecht left Amsterdam and his position of Chief Conductor of the Netherlands

Philharmonic Orchestra and Dutch National Opera. His departure during the pandemic was discreet, without public fanfare. Last Thursday, he made a warmly-

received return to his former house with Engelbert Humperdinck’s rarely performed second opera, Königskinder.



Composed 17 years after Hänsel und Gretel, whose instant popularity had earned Humperdinck worldwide fame, Königskinder (The King’s Children) seemed

initially destined to comparable success. Its premiere in 1910 was at the Metropolitan Opera, with no less than star soprano Geraldine Farrar singing the

role of the Goose Girl. She had even trained real life geese for the occasion. It was received enthusiastically. However, fame never materialised and

performances of this work remain a rarity. In the Netherlands, for instance, it had never been performed since its Amsterdam premiere 110 years ago.




Perhaps a reason for its unpopularity can be found in the profound pessimism of its dark tale. Lost in a forest on his quest for knowledge, the King’s Son

meets the Goose Girl, who lives a secluded life with the Witch, away from other people. The two fall instantaneously in love, in spite of their differences

in social standing: they know that nobility is to be found in one’s heart rather than one’s ancestry. The people of Hellastadt think differently however;

when the young couple arrives in the city in their lowly apparel, they are mocked and shouted at, in spite of the Fiddler’s appeal to recognise them as the

King’s Children who, according to the Witch’s prophecy, are meant to rule over the city. They are ruthlessly chased out of the city by the mob and spend

months wandering in the forest before meeting a tragic death. The inhumanity of the mob is tragically prescient of the librettist’s own real life story, as

Elsa Bernstein-Porges would be deported to Theresienstadt during World War 2.



A major flaw in the libretto is a gap of several months in the storyline between Act 2 and 3, during which important events happen which are never mentioned

in the opera. Director Christof Loy ingenuously solves this problem by adding a still black-and-white film which is projected during the orchestral prelude

to Act 3. It is a visually stylish affair, as is, unsurprisingly for this director, the rest of the staging. The set imagined by Johannes Leiacker is

dominated by a giant lime tree that stands just right of centre. It shelters the budding love of the young couple in Act 1 and oversees the town’s activity

in Act 2, before shedding its leaves in the winter of Act 3. It stands in front of an immaculately white background in which a single door opens onto the

passage between the forest and the city or vice-versa. Costumes designed by Barbara Drosihn have a stylised turn-of-last-century feel and come in all

monochromic shades of cream and beige, with only subtle splashes of colour. The crowd scenes are elegantly choreographed. As the people of Hellastadt, the

Chorus of Dutch National Opera, rehearsed for the first time by their new artistic leader Edward Ananian-Cooper and reinforced by the children of the Nieuw

Amsterdams Kinderkoor, gave a strong performance.



It is in its Personenregie that Loy’s direction is at its most impactful, and here he benefits from a complete cast who all act as well as they sing. With

its youthful timbre yet the ability to cut through orchestral outbursts, Daniel Behle’s tenor sounded ideal as the King’s Son and Ukrainian soprano Olga

Kulchynska’s warm and bright lyric instrument made for the most endearing Goose Girl. Their final scene, as they drift to their death, was a beautiful moment

charged with emotion. Doris Soffel’s Witch had more than one side to her character and one understood that by keeping the Goose Girl captive, she also tried

to protect her from the mob. As the Fiddler, baritone Josef Wagner boasted a handsome timbre. The Fiddler is actually clearly the fourth main character in

the story, intervening with the last words after the young couple dies. The music he sings is reminiscent of Lieder, at times only quietly accompanied by

strings.



It is in more intimate moments like these that Humperdinck’s orchestral music also audibly finds its own character and diverts from the influence of his

mentor, Richard Wagner. Back in the pit with his trusted Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Albrecht conducted superbly, highlighting the chamber-like

details of the score and pinpointing the many string solos, some played with great virtuosity on the stage by violinist Camille Joubert, the orchestra’s

second concert master. Discovering this masterpiece in this, albeit flawed, production felt very special.



[Met Performance] CID:49510

World Premiere, New Production, In the presence of the composer

Königskinder
Metropolitan Opera House, Wed, December 28, 1910

Debut : Edna Walter, Lotte Engel




Königskinder (1)
Engelbert Humperdinck | Elsa Berntsein

Goosegirl
Geraldine Farrar


King's Son
Hermann Jadlowker


Witch
Louise Homer


Fiddler
Otto Goritz


Woodcutter
Adamo Didur


Broommaker
Albert Reiss


Broommaker's Child
Edna Walter [Debut]


Broommaker's Child
Lotte Engel [Debut]


Innkeeper
Antonio Pini-Corsi


Innkeeper's Daughter
Florence Wickham


Stable Maid
Marie Mattfeld


Gatekeeper
Herbert Witherspoon


Gatekeeper
William Hinshaw


Councillor
Marcel Reiner


Tailor
Julius Bayer



Conductor
Alfred Hertz



Director
Anton Schertel


Set Designer
Burghart & Co.


Set Designer
James Fox


Costume Designer
Louise Musaeus


Costume Designer
Blaschke & Cie


Composer
Engelbert Humperdinck



Review 1:

Review of Henry Krehbiel in the New York Tribune

A German opera can generally stand severer criticism than one in another language, because there is a more strict application of principles in Germany when

it comes to writing a lyric drama than in any other country, so in the present instance there is no need to conceal the fact that there are outbreaks against

the German language which are none the less flagrant and censurable because they are, to some extent, concealed under the thin veneer of the allegory and

symbolism which every reader must have recognized as running through the play. This is, in a manner, Wagnerian, as so much of the music is Wagnerian-

especially that of the second act, which because it calls up scenes from the "Meistersinger" must also necessarily call up music from the same comedy. But

there is little cause here to quarrel with Professor Humperdinck. He has applied the poetical principle of Wagner to the fairy tale which is so closely

related to the myth, and he has with equal consistency applied Wagner's constructive methods musically and dramatically. It is to his great honor that, of

all of Wagner's successors, he has been the only one to do so successfully. . . Though the composer hews to a theoretical line he does it freely, naturally,

easily and always with the principles of musical beauty as well as that of dramatic truthfulness and propriety in view. His people's voices float on a

symphonic stream, but the voices of the instruments, while they sing in the endless melody, use the idiom which nature gave them. There is an admirable

characterization in the orchestral music, but it is music for all that; it never descends to mere noise, designed to keep up an irritation of the nerves.

With what exquisite charm an artist like Miss Farrar might invest a character like that of the Goose Girl her admirers could easily fancy before they entered

the theatre, but it is doubtful if anyone's imagination quite reached the figure which she bodied forth. It was a vision of tender loveliness which she

presented, and as perfect in conception as in execution.

Note: "At the close of the opera Miss Farrar caused "much amusement" by appearing before the curtain with a live goose under her arm. The composer, who had

viewed the performance from the auditorium, was summoned to the stage and was presented with a silver laurel wreath by Manager Gatti-Casazza on behalf of the

company."

Alfred Hertz, Engelbert Humperdinck, and Giulio Gatti-Casazza around the time of the world premiere of Humperdinck's Königskinder. Photography by Herman

Mishkin.

Geraldine Farrar and Hermann Jadlowker in Königskinder. Photograph by White Studio.