Genoveva: Schumann's Little Known Minor Masterpiece

(Originally printed January 1998)

Last week I picked up the new Teldec set of Schumann's Genoveva. I'd not heard this opera since I was a kid. I remember liking it then. I love it now. The only review I've seen so far of this has been David McKee's in the recent Opera News (which, ironically just arrived as I'm writing this) and I couldn't disagree with it more. Of course, we all have different ears and interests which allow us to hear and experience things differently.  Here's what mine heard.

Harnoncourt shapes The Chamber Orchestra of Europe's performance throughout its entirety in a vivacious, nearly always thrilling reading. Numerous shadings and nuances exquisitely show us what Schumann's intent must have been. From overture to final curtain this is a powerful musical work. And why shouldn't it be?  It follows that the creator of some of the world's most exquisite songs should have crafted an opera that is just so musically . . . juicy. It only makes me sad that he, like Beethoven, didn't return to this genre again. If this was a first effort - goodness gracious what possibly could he have done had he kept writing operas?

Ruth Ziesak is the possessor of the type of voice I'm not always a fan of, "light and chirpy" (more appropriate for roles like Sœur Constance in Poulenc's Carmelites). Nonetheless, she does sing with remarkable artistry, and impeccable detail to the text and even though the voice sounds so small she ably convinces Genoveva's confusion, despair and honor.

I don't understand McKee's (in Opera News) description of Rodney Gilfry as "parched, decrepit-sounding" as his very first utterances are so commandingly sung . . . offering a deep resonance, powerful and assured.

Deon van der Walt has one of those ultra-light tenors best suited to recital work in small halls, but, like Ms. Ziesak, he is impassioned throughout, and it is a lovely sound.  He manages to sound beautiful even when warring in his duet with Margaretha, here an enormous sounding Marjana Lipovsek.  van der Walt actually sounds as if he'll explode - and Livposvsek sounds ... well just damned glorious, is all. 

Schumann has given Margaretha has one of those Grand Lady Entrance scenes and Lipovsek's giant voice and slavic vibrato provide one of those thrilling will she/won't she? make it qualities. Of course there is never any real doubt as to whether she will or not, but that's half the fun, isn't it?  Building on from there, Lipovsek's Act 3 ending scene with Thomas Quasthoff is positively hair raising. This was the first time I had heard the voice of Quasthoff , and I remember actually yelling "WOW!!!" (How lucky I wasn't in an opera house!)  It was a perfect introduction into this man's never less than thrilling voice with its rich, warm buttery quality but also possessing a lively buzz that cuts right to the heart.

 The recitatives for this opera have been damned by various critics, with the aforementioned one stating he found then "dying on their feet."  Again, we're at odds, as I found them vibrantly sung, the acting being all there in every character's voice. In fact, as in the best performances there are instances where the recits become as exciting as the proper musical numbers themselves. 

Schumann has written a score of beauty that, to my ears, doesn't seem to have a weak link within it. This extends to the choruses, which are about as exciting as any you'll hear in German romantic opera.  The finale of the first scene offers a marvelous concertato: soldiers going off to war, towns people cheering them on and the central characters in observation. The offstage chorus of women in the magic scene (with Margaretha waving a magic wand!) - Abendlufte kuhlend weh'n is pulled off with stunning effect. Schumann infuses his writing with appropriately gauzy music that somehow (for this listener) goes beyond just being aural taking on an almost visual (visual?) quality that in its way reminds me of a softer version of Parsifal's Flower Maidens.  

Mr. McKee called the voices (sans Quasthoff & Lipovsek) "too small" but this isn't Tristan und Isolde, or Die Walküre and not every opera needs gigantic voices to make its point or tell its story.  There is always more than one way to approach an opera, especially one neglected as Schumann's minor masterpiece here.

I can't imagine anyone not thoroughly enjoying this recording. I even enjoyed Ms. Ziesak, who, especially in her Act IV opening aria, singing with an exquisite purity.  She, Harnoncourt, the offstage chorus and orchestra, all seem to be exactly on the same wave length.  They are truly making drama in music here and it is just lovely. 

I know I'm a Schumann nut, and inspired by revisiting this work for the first time in decades, I'll say that , note for note, it beats the heck out of some of the standard rep. 

I do remember a critic who did not listen to the recording and doesn't know the work describe his apprehension stating "an opera of eternal lied singing would be unbearable."  I had to laugh, as I'd actually likely enjoy that.  But the fact is, nothing could be further from the truth regarding that fear:  This is not (so-called) lieder writing, it is genuinely, authentically operatic, and damned good, too. 

I love you, Genoveva! .