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Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Richard Strauss: Salomé

... elle commence la lubrique danse qui doit réveiller les sens assoupis du vieil Hérode....



A biblical story has several levels of meaning. It belongs to the sacred space, while the story as it is told comes from a historical context far away from ours: different values, different mentalities (Dante in his La Vita Nuova was enumerating four levels of meaning: literal/historical, allegorical, tropological, and anagogical; see also Hugh of St. Victor, De scripturis et scriptoribus sacris).

No wonder the text telling the story of St. John the Baptist's beheading appears today as having a clear doze of male chauvinism (probably the normality two thousand years ago: the good side was populated exclusively by men, the bad side by women - even Herod ultimately being the victim of an inner conflict between the wish to spare the Baptist's life and the duty to keep his word).

Then, were we to judge that text strictly for itself, giving up all other levels of meaning, we should note the obvious: there is a lack of motivation in the actions of Salomé! Was she obedient to her mother up to the threshold of murder? Maybe, however someone cannot be just obedient. While all other personages appear strongly motivated in their intentions and decisions, Salomé remains a mystery.

By the way, even her name is arguable, as the text is a bit ambiguous, the daughter of the said Herodias: for some, the correct translation of the phrase from the Gospel would have been the daughter said (or named) Herodias, thus daughter and mother sharing the same name. And we can find either name, Herodias or Salomé, in the literature devoted to her throughout the centuries. However the scholars seem to agree today that the name of the daughter was Salomé.

I think the Salomé's painted by Titian and by Cranach the Elder deserve a separate discussion, as great approaches to the mystery, but the preoccupation for this personage was much earlier than Renaissance.  Her image entered the European fairy tales, where it was mixed with other folkloric personages. Here is a fragment from Jacob Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie (I am taking a large chunk from his text, as I think it shows a gradual evolution in the way of judging Salomé's deed):

The story of (Salomé), whose dancing brought about the beheading of John the Baptist, must have produced a peculiarly deep impression in the early part of the Middle Ages, and in more than one way got mixed up with fables. Religious poets treat the subject in full, and with relish... It was imagined, that on account of her thoughtless rather than malicious act (for the proposal came from her revengeful mother), the daughter was condemned to roam about in company with evil and devilish spirits. She is placed at the head of the furious host or of witches' nightly expeditions, together with Diana, with Holda and Perchta, or in their stead. ... She was inflamed by love for John, which he did not return; when his head is brought in on a charger, she would fain have covered it with tears and kisses, but it draws back, and begins to blow hard at her; the hapless maid is whirled into empty space, and there she hangs for ever...

Heine was within this universe of German mythology when writing:
...
She who craved the Baptist's head.
For this crimson crime was she
Banned and cursed. Now in this chase
Must she ride, a wandering spook
Till the dawn of Judgment Day.
Still within her hands she bears
Of the Prophet, still she kisses--
Kisses it with fiery lips.
For she loved the Prophet once,
Though the Bible naught reveals,
...

I would say that Heine, following the German folkloric tradition, offered for Salomé an epilog (damned for eternity), without being preoccupied too much about what had happened in the day of beheading (however mentioning a motivation for the fact, as odd as it could be: the girl had been fascinated by John's beauty, and the only way to keep him close was to have his head!).

An opposite approach was taken by Flaubert (Trois Contes): not particularly interested in depicting the personality of  Salomé, he was rather attracted by the rich setting of the royal court of Hérode. He made a reenactment, populating the scene with a rich texture of people of the palace, military in the suite of the Roman Prefect, Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Nazarenes, occasion to put together conflicting political interests and religious views, and to capture this way a formula for the times of Christianity birth.

By leaving the personality of Salomé somehow in the shadows, Flaubert was different not only from the German poet; also from the other French language authors of the second half of 19th century who dealt with this story. They all had the focus on Salomé. It was the epoch of Parnassians and Decadents, and meditations on the concept of femme fatale belonged to their realm.

For a Parnassian like Théodore de Banville (Les baisers de pierre, in the volume Les Cariatides) the dancer was reason for Hedonistic awe - any moral teaching was left totally aside (svelte en ses riches habits, / portant sur un plat d'or constellé de rubis / la tête de saint Jean-Baptiste qui ruisselle, / nous résume très bien l'histoire universelle ; / car le sage est toujours celui qui ... admire ses yeux noirs et les fleurs de l' étoffe).



As for the Decadents, the concept of femme fatale was, beyond beauty celebration, a basis to meditate on those dangerous desires deeply hidden in the inner of human soul, working to destroy everything around and ultimately working on self-destruction: the tragedy in the day of Baptist's beheading, seen as the tragedy of all those present, including Salomé; the image of a universe in decadence, a universe wishing its own dissipation, while celebrating the end to come with some kind of aesthetic frenzy. Huysmans is the best known example for capturing such an atmosphere, with his À Rebours. This novel also deserves a special place here in the blog: it is a great piece of art. Let's mention now only the rich description within the novel of a painting of Salomé, created by Gustave Moreau. I recommend you the fifth chapter  from the novel (http://www.mediterranees.net/mythes/salome/divers/huysmans.html).

And here Oscar Wilde comes into picture, with his play Salomé, created in 1891. It was written in French, by the way. Wilde gave an explanation, one year later, I have one instrument that I know I can command, and that is the English language; there was another instrument to which I had listened all my life, and I wanted once to touch this new instrument to see whether I could make any beautiful thing out of it.

The play of Wilde is perhaps the most important moment in the long history of literature devoted to Salomé, because it is a synthesis: the setting and the actors populating the scene remind Flaubert; the motivation comes from Heine (but with the clear Decadent flavor calling in mind Huysmans  - and also  the Princesse Maleine of Maeterlinck). Add to this echoes from Mallarmé (Hérodiade) and Heywood! That's something, to put together such different approaches, and to make them fit! So, Salomé falls for John the Baptist, he rejects her (did you expect other?), there is only one way to make the dream come true: to have his head for ever! Call her a pervert, if you wish, or a psycho-maniac, whatever; or see here a universe working for self-destruction (she is actually killed in the end of the play).

And finally, Richard Strauss: his Salomé used the play of Wilde as libretto and encountered the same difficulties as Wilde did at the first performances: never is easy to go so far away from a biblical story! But, as always, every work of art finds eventually its public.

The role of Salomé is extremely challenging for any singer. It demands the force and stamina of a Wagnerian Soprano, while in the scene of the Dance of Seven Veils the qualities of a Prima Ballerina Assoluta are needed. The great Romanian soprano Maria Cebotari was among the most memorable interprets of this role.



--------------------------------------

And now, after all this long history, you will ask: what happened with Salomé after Richard Strauss?

Well, she followed the moods and tastes of the 20th and 21st centuries: I found a modern poem, by Carol Anne Duffy, who made from the antique personage a serial head remover, no more no less. Here you go:



A discussion about the poet and the poem (as well as the verses) at:



(Richard Strauss)

(Heinrich Heine)

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posted by Pierre Radulescu at 11:15 AM | 0 comments

Monday, April 16, 2012

Richard Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie - and Nietzsche again


The video below contains a recording that Philips released in 1986. It had been made one year earlier, in 1985: Richard Strauss' Alpine Symphony Op. 64, performed by Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest (RCO: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra), conducted by Bernard Haitink: one of the finest Alpine Symphonies, with its stupendous mix of dainty touches, ferocious dynamism, and lyrical tenderness (as IONARTS blog enthusiastically noted).

Despite its title, the Alpine Symphony is a tone poem, of 22 parts (in terms of formal analysis, attempts have been made to group these sections together to form a gigantic Lisztian symphonic form, with elements of an introduction, opening allegro, scherzo, slow movement, finale, and epilogue... however, it is believed that comparisons to any kind of traditional symphonic form are secondary to the strong sense of structure created by the piece's musical pictorialism and detailed narrative - wiki).

It was the last tone poem created by Richard Strauss: his great operas would follow.

The genesis of Eine Alpensinfonie was long and gathered together very different events that had impressed Richard Strauss throughout the years.

As a 14-year boy, he had been in a group of climbers who lost their way in the Alps and were caught by a severe storm. This would provide the basis for the narrative of the poem: Eine Alpensinfonie is first of all a reenactment of that adventure from long time ago.

However, another event triggered the beginning of the poem's creation. A friend, Swiss artist Karl Stauffer-Bern died in 1891, due to an overdose of sleeping pills. It was the outcome of a passionate love: he had been enamored to the wife of his wealthy patron. The affair was discovered and the artist was prevented to see his love any more. He had a nervous breakdown, tried unsuccessfully to shoot himself, and eventually it was the overdose that proved fatal. His love, Lydia Welti-Escher, committed suicide several months later.



Richard Strauss began in 1899 to work on a composition in memory of this tragic story. It was entitled Künstlertragödie (Tragedy of an Artist), but Strauss gave up the project and decided to use the musical material in a new project, a four-movement symphony (entitled Die Alpen), later abandoned as well. It is interesting the link that was set in Strauss' soul between the two events: the best way to express his feelings about the tragic story of love was by writing music about mountains - telling some truths about eternity, and fate, and sublime.

It was the death of another friend that made Richard Strauss resume the work, this time on a much larger musical structure that finally became Eine Alpensinfonie. Gustav Mahler passed away in 1911, and here is what Strauss noted in his journal: the death of this aspiring, idealistic, energetic artist is a grave loss.

It was again the impetus to express what he felt at the loss of his friend, by a transfer of his musical discourse towards the mountains, and this time he explained this in his journal. He needed a construction of religious kind in such a moment, and religion was for him fatally linked to a tired civilization. Here Richard Strauss was following Nietzsche: it is clear to me that the German nation will achieve new creative energy only by liberating itself from Christianity! I will come back to that, and I intend to bring the authority of Tillich in this matter.

Anyway, for Richard Strauss his Alpine Symphony meant moral purification through one's own strength, liberation through work, worship of eternal, magnificent nature (quoting again from his journal).

In February 1915 Eine Alpensinfonie was ready. The premiere was in October the same year, in Dresden.




(Richard Strauss)

(Nietzsche)

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posted by Pierre Radulescu at 9:41 AM | 0 comments

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos

Titian - Bacchus and Ariadne, 1523
oil on canvas
London National Gallery
no copyright infringement intended
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Titian_Bacchus_and_Ariadne.jpg)

The tragic legend of Ariadne rendered in an opera within an opera: a dramatic opera in the great German tradition, interrupted every now and then by a commedia dell'arte troupe- the sorrows of Ariadne commented in a burlesque way; actually a superbly crafted interweaving of opera seria and opera buffa.

The creation of this opera was convoluted: it started as a divertimento that was to follow the representation of a comedy by Molière (Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, for which Strauss had provided incidental music). It was definitely too long. So it was replaced by a second version in which a small prologue took the place of the comedy of Molière. This prologue was just suggesting an explanation for the change: as two consecutive performing artworks were far too long, they were mixed one another: opera buffa within opera seria. As simple as that!

Here is a representation at Metropolitan in 1988, with James Levine as conductor.












































----------------------------------

and now a surprise, the lyrics for Zerbinetta's recitative and aria:

Großmächtige Prinzessin, wer verstünde nicht, daß
so erlauchter und erhabener Personen Traurigkeit
mit einem anderen Maas gemessen werden muß, als
der gemeinen Sterblichen.

Jedoch, sind wir nicht Frauen unter uns, und schlägt
denn nicht in jeder Brust ein unbegreiflich Herz?
Von unserer Schwachheit sprechen, sie uns selber
eingestehn, ist es nicht schmerzlich süß? Und zuckt
uns nicht der Sinn danach?

Sie wollen mich nicht hören, schön und stolz und
regungslos, als wären Sie die Statue auf Ihrer eignen
Gruft. Sie wollen keine andere Vertraute als diesen
Fels und diese Wellen haben.

Prinzessin, hören Sie mich an, nicht Sie allein, wir
alle ach, wir alle was ihr Herz erstarrt - wer ist die
Frau, die es nicht durchgelitten hätte?
Verlassen! in Verzweiflung! ausgesetzt!

Ach, solcher wüsten Inseln sind unzählige auch
mitten unter Menschen, ich, ich selber, ich habe ihrer
mehrere bewohnt - und habe nicht gelernt, die
Männer zu verfluchen.

Treulos sie sinds! ungeheuer, ohne Grenzen!
Eine kurze Nacht, ein hastiger Tag, ein Wehen der
Luft, ein fließender Blickverwandelt ihr Herz! Aber
sind wir denn gefeit gegen die grausamen,

entzückenden, die unbegreiflichen Verwandlungen?
noch mein ich mir selber so sicher zu sein, da mischt
sich im Herzen leise betörend schon einer nie
gekosteten Freiheit, schon einer neuen verstohlenen
Liebe schweifendes, freches Gefühle sich ein.

Noch bin ich wahr und doch ist es gelogen, ich halte
mich treu und bin schon schlecht, mit falschen
Gewichten wird alles gewogen und halb mich
wissend und halb im Taumel betrüg ich ihn endlich,
und lieb ihn noch recht.

So war es mit Pagliazzo und Mezzetin! dann war es
Cavicchio, dann Burattin, dann Pasquariello! Ach
und zuweilen will es mir scheinen, waren es zwei!
Doch niemals Launen, immer ein Müssen, immer ein
neues beklommenes Staunen: daß ein Herz sogar
sich selber nicht versteht.

Als ein Gott kam Jeder gegangen
und sein Schritt schon machte mich stumm,
küßte er mir Stirn und Wangen,
war ich von dem Gott gefangen
und gewandelt um und um.
Kam der neue Gott gegangen,
hingegeben war ich stumm, stumm...



one of the unique things about thihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifs opera is the use of harmonium
(which is similar to a small organ)
no copyright infringement intended
(http://www.seattleoperablog.com/2010_03_01_archive.html)


(Richard Strauss)

(Titian)

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posted by Pierre Radulescu at 7:49 AM | 0 comments

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

An Engraved Portrait of Richard Strauss



Richard Strauss, along with Gustav Mahler, represents the late flowering of German Romanticism after Richard Wagner, in which pioneering subtleties of orchestration are combined with an advanced harmonic style.
(wiki)



(Old Masters)

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posted by Pierre Radulescu at 5:22 AM | 0 comments

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Late Spring - The Authority of Nietzsche



When Zarathustra was thirty years old, he left his home and the lake of his home...


Let's discuss one of the scenes from Ozu's Banshun (Late Spring): the last night in Kyoto. Father (Chishu Ryu) and daughter (Setsuko Hara) are preparing their baggage as the following day they would leave for Tokyo.

They had taken for the trip a lot of books and now they are packaging them. So sometimes they hand books one another, as his books should go into his baggage and her into hers.

And suddenly the daughter said one of the most touching sentences ever, father, even if you get married I'd like to remain with you; I want to be always on your side.

This is too much for him: how could he possibly say no? He is just a father, just a poor being, and he knows very well that he would actually not get re-married, that he would remain alone for the rest of his life.

However he must say no.

It happens that exactly in that moment he has the book of Nietzsche in his hands, Also Sprach Zarathustra. And what follows is like the father takes his forces from that book. He speaks much longer than he did for all the rest of the movie; and he speaks with authority. It is about her duty to build together with her future husband their happiness; it will not be easy, it never was; it will take long, long years, and it will be hard; that is her duty in the world.

How can he speak with such determination?

It is not his will, it is the will of Nietzsche! Unconsciously, he places himself under the moral authority of the great philosopher and he finds there the courage to say what needs to be said.




(Yasujiro Ozu and Setsuko Hara)

(Nietzsche)

(Richard Strauss)

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posted by Pierre Radulescu at 11:34 AM | 0 comments