SOUNDS AND VIEWS: Premieres to remember (09/29/96)

SOUNDS AND VIEWS

Premieres to remember

PART III

The distinguished opera and concert singer, heroic tenor Modest Menzinsky (1875-1935) did the lion's share of important first performances. For 22 years (1904-1926) he excelled as first tenor of the Stockholm and the Cologne (Köln) opera theaters. His epic successes with Wagnerian roles in Germany brought Menzinsky to the attention of Austrian composer Franz Schreker (1878-1934).

Schreker led the neo-romantic movement in the direction of expressionism, empasizing psychological conflicts in his operas. His harmonic palette expanded the basically Wagnerian sonorities to include many devices associated with impressionism. Schreker exerted a marked influence on German and Austrian (Viennese) music schools of his time. Interested in having his operas mounted successfully, he turned to Menzinsky, who was a solid draw at Cologne.

German premieres

The resulting association led to the world premieres of three operas by Schreker, namely "Die Gezeichneten" (The Stigmatized), produced in Frankfurt am Main on April 25, 1918; "Der Schatzgräber" (The Treasure Digger), also premiered in Frankfurt on January 21, 1920; and "Irrelohe," mounted in Cologne on March 27, 1924, where Menzinsky was on home turf.

Menzinsky's fate seems to have been similar to that of Alchevsky. After initial success, the Schreker operas could not be revived. Some believed to hear their death knell with the passing of Schreker in 1934 and of Menzinsky in 1935. Such fears proved groundless as evidenced by a Schreker retrospective held in 1976 at the annual Styrian Autumn Festival in Graz, Austria. Moreover, since the late 1980s the operas first performed by Menzinsky are being issued on CD in new recordings.

No Menzinsky recording of the Schreker parts survives, but the heroic tenor should be credited with heroism for his other firsts. This singer was ahead of other recording artists in that he was the first to introduce to the West arrangements of Taras Shevchenko's poems by various Ukrainian composers, among them, Mykola Lysenko, via live performances and in recordings for the prestigious Gramophone Company (1910-1911).

Menzinsky is the subject of three books in Ukrainian, the latest one edited by Mykhailo Holovashchenko (Kyiv, 1995). Aside from Roman Sawycky's discography, titled "Tracking Menzinsky Records," which appeared in the journal "Record Collector" (England, October 1978, pp. 216-237), there is no significant material in English.

A word about another tenor. His voice was of the gentle and sweet variety (very much like Ivanov's) and so Alexander Myshuha never performed or recorded the Shevchenko/Lysenko masterpieces and other highly dramatic repertory delivered so convincingly by the big voice of Menzinsky. And for all his fame there seems to be no evidence suggesting Myshuha ever sang a world premier.

Still, his fame includes kudos from Ruggero Leoncavallo. When this noted Italian composer heard and saw Myshuha's portrayal of Canio in his own masterpiece "Pagliacci," Leoncavallo practically sang praises himself to the Ukrainian tenor. His opera was staged September 20, 1892, in Milan at the season's opening, after which the composer presented the star singer with a score of the opera, complete with an inscription noting his "boundless satisfaction with Myshuha's magical singing." (Documentation on this is available from serveral sources.)

We have already noted that Alchevsky was one of Sain-Saëns's favorite tenors. Twenty years before him, Myshuha profoundly moved Leoncavallo. Both tenors became top exponents of the then new operatic music. (While visiting Lviv; western Ukraine, Leoncavallo went on record as praising an early work by composer Stanyslav Liudkevych.)

Georges Bizet returns

He had good looks, as well as many talents and virtues as an artist, educator and as a man: Myroslav Starytsky (1909-1969), with a musical stage name of Miro-Skala, was a recognized opera and concert singer (lyrico-dramatic tenor). His international reputation was established on the continents where he was heard. In the 1950s he was "premier tenor" at the La Monnaie Royal Theater in Brussels, while perennially holding a key to the City of Lights, Paris. Starytsky likewise enjoyed honorary membership at the Ukrainian Music Institute of America, under the auspices of which he appeared in concert.

His commitments had to be scheduled closely since the late 1940s, which introduced a sensation into the world of music. A relatively unknown score (long believed lost), by a major composer, suddenly materialized. The four-act opera "Ivan IV" (also titled "Ivan the Terrible") by Georges Bizet, after some retouching by Henri Busser, was finally ready for the footlights. Not to be outdone by Bizet's universal and temperamental "Carmen," the work offered the modern mass-media public such elements as conspiracy, arson, pillage, rape and the loftiest sentiments.9

And so, Starytsky premiered the role of Prince Igor in what turned out to be an impressive "Ivan IV," based on the poems of F.H. Leroy and H. Trianon. The place was Le Grand Theater de Bordeaux and the exact date - October 12, 1951. Miro-Skala's star was ascending early. Reviews praised the presence and metallic sheen of his voice. The score, promptly published, bore his name prominently. The Bizet grand opera was soon to be heard in Germany, Switzerland and England.

Although Starytsky never did record the part of Prince Igor, he left other fine examples of his vocal prowess, which included brilliance and complete control of the high register. Musicologist and composer Ihor Sonevtysky has to his credit an unpublished monograph on the tenor written in Ukrainian (New York, 1974).

From a dynasty

Oleg de Nyzhankivsky (b. 1924), opera and concert singer (tenor, with baritone hues), is a descendent of composers and conductors. Although he sang in France and Germany since the 1960s, Oleg de (so he prefaces his family name) appears mostly in Switzerland in recital or as soloist of orchestral concerts, as well as on radio or television. Nyzhankivsky has sung successfully in the world premiere of Frank Martin's opera "Monsieur de Pourceaugnac" (based on Molière), staged in Geneva, April 23, 1963, and broadcast live throughout Europe.

This production included some of the top French singers but only this one Ukrainian soloist. Nyzhankivsky's strong and supple voice won an enthusiastic commendation from the composer Martin (1890-1974), a greatly admired Swiss musician, influenced by the modernist Arnold Schönberg, whose approach Martin had adapted to his own needs with, certainly, very fine results.

Song without words

Star vocalists of the "weaker sex" likewise delivered powerful performances in world premieres. One must not forget soprano Antonina Nezhdanova (1873-1950), a top artist of her day. Usually billed as a Russian singer and teacher, she had Ukrainian roots and a sizable repertory of art and folksongs from Ukraine (partially surviving in treasured recordings).

Composer-pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff wrote his hauntingly beautiful song without words, "Vocalise" Op. 34 (1912) for Nezhdanova. Since then the work also could be heard-augmented, orchestral garb.

Ukrainian-Canadian

Opera singer (lyric soprano) Roxolana Roslak (b. 1940) came to Canada at age 8, graduated from the University of Toronto and has been featured on Canadian stage, radio and television.

Early in her career, (in Toronto, on September 23, 1967), she created the role of Marguerite in the world premiere of Harry Somers' (b. 1925) prominent historical opera "Louis Riel," in which the composer brought into play synthetic, electronic sound. (The opera was later performed during the Ameri-can Bicentennial celebrations.)

Roslak also sang in the world premiere recordings of recent works by Harry Somers, Violet Archer, Jean Coulthard and Lothar Klein - all on the Canadian Centrediscs label. The issue was well received by critics, one of which, writing in "Fanfare," a magazine for record collectors, thought Roslak's voice a "grand instrument, with a wide, sure range capable of coloristic variety."

Perhaps her greatest claim to fame is the fact that together with pianist Glenn Gould Roxolana Roslak recorded Paul Hindemith's "Das Marienleben" for Columbia Records (1976).

Saved by a soprano

I would like to close this chapter on a special note, that of a lyrico-dramatic soprano, perhaps the greatest of them all. Besides famous firsts she is also known for a great second.

On that memorable May 28, 1904 Glacomo Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" received its second, adjusted performance, having been rejected at the world premiere three months earlier by the hostile public of the Theatro alla Scala in Milan. Musicologist Eduardo Arnosi later recalled that the revised version was triumphant; the place was Brescia's Teatro Grande and the star, already a bright one on the Italian firmament, was Solomiya Krushelnytska (1873-1952).10

She had assumed the mission of resurrecting the opera on the pleas of Puccini, who for the rest of his life was grateful to Krushelnytska for having assured the immortality of "Butterfly." The thankful composer, therefore, presented the soprano with his photograph, inscribed: "To the most beautiful and charming Madama Butterfly, from Giacomo Puccini, Torre del Lago, 1904."

Subsequently Krushelnytska appeared in the world premieres of T. Montfiore's opera "Caecilia" (Ravenna, the Alighieri Theater, May 15, 1905) and Vittorio Gnecchi's (1876-1954) "Cassandra" (Bologna, December 5, 1905).

Although the soprano did not lend her dramatic voice to the world premieres of the Richard Strauss operas, namely "Salome" and "Elektra," she created these roles for their first Italian performances at La Scala in Milan (1906 and 1909, respectively).

All in all, Krushelnytska's successes at La Scala were legion. She inspired superlatives from Strauss, who thought her "perfect both as Salome and as Elektra,"11 while her peer, Enrico Caruso, described the singer/actress as "divine." And it was this "divine creature," "divinity" who subsquently sang with emphatic success the title role in Francesco Cilea's last opera, "Gloria" (La Scala, April 15, 1907).

Her final bow took place at La Scala in a world premiere on March 20, 1915. At that time, still another important Italian composer, Ildelbrando Pizzetti (1880-1968), who created the modern counterpart to traditional music drama, gave Krushelnytska the title role in his tragic opera, "Fedra." The work premiered with much success and promise, but according to Krushelnytska herself, the complicated opera was too big to mount properly and too difficult to perform accurately; therefore, it could not be part of the regular repertory.12 using average singers.

But, course, Krushelnytska was well above average. Writing in the July 26, 1964, issue of The New York Times, Raymond Ericson, evaluating just the recordings, concluded that she was "... obviously a superb singer, considering the beauty of voice, secure technique and dramatic phrasing. The vocal timbre was clear and silvery, with a touch of wiriness to suggest its effectiveness in cutting through the heavy Strauss and Wagner orchestrations."

Shortly before his death in 1957, the legendary Toscanini recalled Italy's original "Salome" in a way that, in turn, made her a legend: "She was an unsurpassable singer, a charming woman... how kind and beautiful she was..." According to the conductor, Krushelnytska was the only woman with whom he was madly in love who refused him."13

The literature on legends, even elusive ones, tends to be numerous. Since 1956 several books in Ukrainian have been issued on our Salome. No serious bibliography has ever been attempted, but there have been studies on her recordings (Stefan Maksymiuk's 1964 effort was the first and is still the best); articles and concert reviews number in the thousands and music encyclopedias in several countries continue their praises. Even a docu-drama film, produced in Ukraine, was premiered in Lviv sometime ago with much appreciation from the spectators.

Those premieres keep coming...

9 See "Bizet" by Winton Dean (Westport, Conn., 1979), pp. 144-150.

10 This is the correct spelling although other lettering had been used in Italy (Salomea Krusceniski), Poland (Kruszelnicka) or Russia (Kruszelnickaya).

11 See William Mann's "Richard Strauss; A Critical Study of the Operas" (New York, 1966), p. 73. R. Strauss' enthusiastic letter to his librettist, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, dated April 21, 1909, has also been published with his other correspondence (New York: A.A. Knopf, 1927), p. 32.

12 See Valeria Vrublevska's biography on Krushelnytska, p. 315, as well as G.M. Gatti's "Ilderbrando Pizzetti" (London, 1951), an analysis of "Fedra," and other sources on Pizzetti.

13 Toscanini's amorous overtures are mentioned by Filippo Sacchi in his book, "The Magic Baton" (New York, 1957), p. 209; published previously in Italian.

PART III

Premieres to remember: an addendum