James Tobin <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>A much-cut stage version was put on for the centenary of Schubert's
>birth, in 1897 in Karlsruhe.The program book says there was no further
>interest for another eighty years.  Not sure what happened then, but
>another (concert?) performance by Claudio Abbado, the Chamber Orchestra
>of Europe and the Arnold Schoenberg Chorus is scheduled for a festival
>in Vienna May 12-June 18 this spring.

The Oxford University Opera Club staged Fierrebras in the Oxford
Playhouse in about 1985.  Several friends of mine were involved so
I went.  It was definitely low-budget (I recall spinning-wheels made
from upended bicycles with all except the front wheel covered in a sheet)
and in English translation.  I was told that this translation had been
rewritten to make it less hammy, but even so it was unintentionally
hilarious and probably nothing could have been done to redeem it.  My
recollection of the music was that there were some nice moments - like
stray songs which got away - but much of the linking music was distinctly
uninspired and the whole was disjointed and episodic, something which
was perhaps only partly the fault of the libretto.

Virginia Knight
Personal homepage: http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/~ggvhk/virginia.html
Blog (mostly about singing): http://devbox.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/~cmvhk/blog/