Siegfried Wagner * Der Baerenhaeuter Op.1 Volker Horn (Hans Kraft), Henry Kiichili (Melchior Froelich), Theresa Koon (Gunda), Lars Huebel (Pfarrer Wippenbeck) Elisabeth Johanning (Louise), Kerstin Quandt (Anna), Ksenija Likic (Lene), Alfred Feilhaber (Nicholas Spitz), Nikolai Barowski (Oberst Muffel), Roland Hartmann (Capsar Wild), Andre Wenhold (The Stranger), Adalbert Waller (The Devil) a.o. Chor der Thueringer Landestheater Rudolstadt Thueringer Sinfonien-Orchester Saalfeld-Rudolstadt/Konrad Bach Marco Polo 8.223713-4 [2CD] (DDD) TT: 139:32 Summary for the busy executive: Half Vulture, half Phoenix. Richard Wagner had a composing son; Siegfried (1869-1930) but he is seldom played (although his "Baerenhaeuter" was the most successful opera i his time, measured in number of performences). That should not be strange when his father was so great that hardly anything could grow in his shadow. As all Richards biographies starts with dealing upon whom his father was, for Siegfried, the biographers may as first thing conclude that he knew extremely well whom his father was. With his fathers genes, his legacy, and his teaching, and all other peoples expectations on him, I think he did not just fairly well in finding his own road. And that people turns his music off with "A great mans son is at best an arschloch", does not depend on him. Siegfried takes up tale thems, like his father, he is romantic in language as his father, but Siegfried is the Richard that had been if Engelbert Humperdinck had been his father instead of...yes, whom of them it now was. Where Richard is deadly seriuos, Siegfried kick his claques, just like he laughed at the culture of Bayreuth, where Richard takes up the myth, Siegfried takes up the fairy tale. Still they have important things in common. They had something general-humanic to say, and they showed much interest in German culture, and their operas handeled about themself as a first preference. This opera is a wonderful fairy-tale story, meanwhile engaging in the debate of the German culture. Let me first supply the plot of the opera: The action takes place in the region of Bayreuth during the 30 years War. AKT 1: A Village in Hummelgau; Hell The war is over. The soldier Hans returns home. He has no family and can find no work. No-one wants him. The devil seeks him up and offer him employment. In hell he is to heat and tend the seething cauldron that holds human souls. A mysterious stranger comes and persuades him to gamble. The condition is: If Hans wins, he wins all the souls in the cauldron. If he looses, his soul will be the devils in hell. As one can figure out, Hans looses. The souls in the cauldron are overjoyed, and The Devil is not late to take his revenge. However the devil is not so cruel that he steals Hans soul for all eternity. He puts the spell upon Hans that he must make his way through the world, stinking and dirty, in the skin of a bear. Release, so that he can once again be like all other, can only come from one condition: he must remain unwashed and find a woman to stay true to him for three years. AKT 2: An inn near Kulmbach Hans, with his bear-skin, is, not surprisingly, regarded with suspicion in the village. He is repulsive and filthy; he is a stranger, a foreginer, but he has money, it is rumoured. Finally he helps the major in economical difficulties. The agreement looks perfect: Hans gives money, and he has in exchange one of the three daugthers of the mayor as his wife. Two of them refuse, but the third youngest, Louise, stands by him. She discoveres under the filthy exterior the sensetive soul of an outcast. She defends him against everyone, although he had seemed before the very Devil incarnate. Lets us stop here for reflexions: Hans Kraft is the main role of the opera - a German, at least in Wagners time, would identify him with Hans, as the German Culture, and Kraft for male strength. Hans Kraft also represents the composer (All Wagners seemed to have the odd habit of writing Fliegende Hollaender-Operas which handeled about themselves solely), returning home from the war to find his mother dead, a release from his dependancy on the mother, with the search for a friend and companion, inherent from the story, a reflect of Siegfrieds own search. The second meeting with the stranger is the rousing of the sleepers of Plassenburg coincided with Siegfried Wagners final parting with his friend Clement Harris. The Thirty Years War, the background to the action, serves as a methapher for the horrors of war, and against this back-cloth is set the fairy-tale story of the conflict of good and evil. Siegfried Wagners opera deals with forces which with mighty strength can break into the small humans life, but he paint his story overflowing with humour and a positive attitude. The orchestral Vorspiel of 9 minutes set the mood of the storytelling with its Hansel-und-Gretl style, bombast fanfares and toetapper-marches surrounded by the loveliest sweetcakes of music. Although the music changes to a troubled mood in parts of the opera, the approacheble style is always there, foehning the ears. Siegfried Wagner wrote his texts himself and certainly he had humour; for example when the Devil tells Hans Kraft about his punishment for loosing the bet, Kraft bursts out: "Bist Du toll?". The Devil is an expressive voice, which is expressively sung by Adalbert Waller, almost sounding as locking and fierceful as the ghost in the Schuberts "Erlkoenig". Volker Horn is a very good Kraft, who lives into the role he is singing with love for it. The vocal deklamation serves the needs of a troubled man, as well as a man in the humostitic/angry mood of "rage over the lost penny",a s well as heartfelt in his pray for freedom from the spell and seek for a woman. The bear is a disguisting apperance and Ksenija Likic as the mayors first daughter Lene and Theresa Koon as the second dauther Gunda, soon tell him to go hide. But the third daugther Louise, given by Elisabeth Johanning, is a kind creature who stands his disguisting appearance in three years, and defends him against anyone who challence him. The orchestra playing is spicy and does well for the special fairy-tale stimmung that the music inholds, without being any top-notch orchestra. None of the vocal solosts is actually downright bad, and at many times even very "small" roles are supplied with much love and affinity. The end of the story? AKT 3: Forest: District near Plassenburg. Three years have passed. If Louise remains true to Bear-Hans, then he will be released by the Devil. Thanks to Louises efforts he is also released from his punishment and regains his normal appearance. However, on the way home to his beloved bride, he achieves, with help from a stranger, a deed of war-like heroism. This time his great fame goes before him. The tricky thing is just that it now needs Louise to be able to recognize her beloved and humble Hans in the superhero..... A Happy End? Mats Norrman [log in to unmask]