Program Notes: May 29, 2010
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Beethoven's Fidelio Overture was written for the successful revision of his opera in 1814, but was completed only after the opening night. Unlike his earlier three overtures for Fidelio (written in 1805, 1806, and 1807, and now known as Leonore Overtures 1-3), his final version does not use music from the opera itself, relying instead on newly conceived material, more concisely rendered, to set the stage for his melodramatic tale of political repression and dramatic rescue. Ironically, the successful revival of the opera, which celebrates the devotion of a faithful wife, came while he was himself still recovering from the period of devastating loneliness that followed the conclusion of the "Immortal Beloved" episode in 1812.
Brahms's First Symphony (1876) has managed to surround itself with quotables, mostly connecting it to Beethoven, whose Ninth Symphony had proven to later symphonists both impossible to ignore and an intractable model. In the long period between completing the first movement and releasing the work in full, Brahms rebuked an impatient friend, "You have no idea what it's like to hear the tread of such a giant behind you!" As a greeting to Clara Schumann, he sent an early version of the glorious horn theme that dispels the brooding minor mode that opens the finale, with the explanatory citation "Thus blew the Alphorn today." And, after the symphony was finally performed, he had to endure the mocking sobriquet given to it by Hans von Bülow, who dubbed it "The Tenth" in part because the main theme of the finale (heard just after the "Alphorn" theme) closely resembles the "Ode to Joy" of Beethoven's Ninth. But Brahms had the last word, in two senses. To someone who pointed out the "remarkable" resemblance to the Ninth, he replied, "Yes. And even more remarkable is the fact that every ass notices as much." But the "last word" that really matters is the continued great success of the symphony, based in part on the ways its allusions to Beethoven (among others) help ground its grand design, "from darkness to light," within the symphonic tradition that had seemingly ended with Beethoven. The "Tenth," as it happened, was also a new beginning.
The Swiss-born Frank Martin, protégé of Ernst Ansermet, was largely self-taught as a composer, and his long-evolving style reflected a series of important influences, among whom Berg, Debussy, and Ravel emerged as the strongest. The texts for his Six Monologues from "Jedermann" ["Everyman"] come from Hugo von Hofmannsthal's morality play about a rich man facing death (figuratively and literally). Martin's song cycle was first performed with piano accompaniment during the Second World War (1943) and orchestrated in 1949 in the hopes of developing the piece into an opera. In an alternative "from darkness to light" scenario, parallel to that of Mahler's "Resurrection" Symphony, Martin's "everyman" achieves salvation through divinely forgiving love.
-- Raymond Knapp
Dean Elzinga, bass-baritone
A superb singer and actor, bass-baritone DEAN ELZINGA is regularly welcomed on concert and opera stages, often in contemporary works requiring his unique dramatic conviction, presence and assured musicianship. He enjoyed international acclaim for Peter Maxwell Davies' fiendishly difficult Eight Songs for a Mad King, performing it in New York and Cleveland, with Jonathan Sheffer conducting the Eos and Red Orchestras, respectively. He sang the title role in Harold Farberman's A Song of Eddie and Schoenberg's Die glückliche Hand at New York's Bard Festival, and Eliot Carter's What next? at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw (also recorded).
Summer 2006 returned Mr. Elzinga to Des Moines Metro Opera for Nick Shadow in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, following last summer's Four Villains in the company's Les contes d'Hoffmann of Offenbach. Reinvitations in 2006-2007 season includes the Edmonton Opera (where he sang Nilakantha in The Pearl Fishers and Nick Shadow) for Leporello in Mozart's Don Giovanni; the Reading Symphony (for an evening of opera arias and duets), and the National Philharmonic (for Mozart's Figaro, coming after last season's Don Giovanni title role with the orchestra). In addition he makes his Pittsburgh Opera debut as the Speaker in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, a role he recently sang at Michigan Opera Theatre. Mr. Elzinga's opera credentials include the Los Angeles and Metropolitan Operas, the San Diego Opera (the King in Aida), Seattle Opera (Hoffmann Villains), Arizona Opera (Leporello and Figaro), Hawaii Opera Theatre (Almaviva in Figaro), Sacramento Opera (Leporello, Méphistophélès in Gounod's Faust), Glimmerglass and New York City Operas (Polyphemus in Handel's Acis and Galatea), Opera Omaha (Raimondo in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor), Opera San Jose (title role of Il Turco in Italia) and Vancouver Opera (Ramfis in Aida). Of note last season was his participation as Hagen in the Long Beach Opera's reduction of Wagner's Ring cycle.
Equally adept at concert literature, Mr. Elzinga has been repeatedly invited by Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra, including a unique double-bill of Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg and Florentine Tragedy in Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center. He is one of the country's most sought-after Beethoven #9 basses, having performed this work with the Reading, Vancouver, Long Beach, New West, Phoenix, Pasadena, San Diego Symphonies, Minnesota Orchestra, and Rochester and Naples Philharmonics. He is equally acclaimed and in demand for Messiah (Toronto, Pacific, Baltimore and Ann Arbor Symphonies and Florida Philharmonic), Haydn's Creation (Florida Orchestra and Amarillo Symphony), Britten's War Requiem (Nashville Symphony), Brahms' Requiem (Memphis Symphony), Berlioz' Roméo et Juliette (Portland Symphony). At the Vienna Volksoper he sang Mozart's Figaro, Escamillo in Carmen, Leporello and Méphistophélès. Conductors with whom he has worked to date include Bramwell Tovey, James Levine, Christopher Seaman, David Lockington, Bertrand de Billy, Asher Fisch, Jorge Mester, Boris Brott, Emmanuel Villaume, Yves Abel and Maximiano Valdes.