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Ljuba Welitsch
Lily Pons
Martha Lipton
Richard Tucker
Charles Kullman
John Brownlee
Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra
conducted by Eugene Ormandy
Recorded December 24 and 29, 1950 and January 7, 1951 at the Columbia 30th Street Studios, New York City
First issued on Columbia SL-108
Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn
Optional Ambient Stereo processing by Andrew Rose
N.B. This recording has not received XR remastering treatment.
Total duration: 89:47
Download ID: 558911-6
Download 1: Act 1 (34:05)
Download 2: Acts
2/3 (55:41)
Play excerpt (end of Act 2)
Johann Strauss II (1825 – 1899)
Die Fledermaus
Original Libretto by Haffner and Genée after Le Reveillon by Meilhac and Halévy
English Lyrics by Howard Dietz
Libretto by Garson Kanin
Alfred …………………………………………………….………………. Richard Tucker (tenor)
Gabriel von Eisenstein ………………………………..……………… Charles Kullman (tenor)
Prince Orlofsky ……………………………………...……….. Martha Lipton (mezzo-soprano)
Dr. Falke ……………………………………..……………………….. John Brownlee (baritone)
Frank ………………………………………………………...………. Clifford Harvuot (baritone)
Dr. Blind ……………………….……………...……………………….……. Paul Franke (tenor)
Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra
Eugene Ormandy, conductor
Notes on the recording:
One of the new productions planned by Rudolf Bing for his first season as general manager of the Metropolitan Opera (1949-50) was an all-star, Broadway-style revival, in English, of Die Fledermaus. Garson Kanin (the playwright of Born Yesterday and screenwriter of Adam’s Rib) was asked to provide a new book and direct, while Howard Dietz (whose musical theater collaborations with composer Arthur Schwartz included Dancing in the Dark and You and the Night and the Music) would furnish the lyrics. Veteran French coloratura Lily Pons was initially discussed for the part of Adele, and Fritz Reiner was engaged to conduct. The whole production was to be recorded by Columbia Records as part of their ongoing series of complete operas featuring Met personnel.
From early on, however, the original plans began to unravel. Reiner feuded with Kanin over some of the latter’s staging ideas, such as having the conductor face the audience during the overture, and having the chorus lying supine during the “Duidu” portion toward the end of the second act where they would be out of the conductor’s sightline. More significantly, and unbeknownst to the Met management, Reiner had recently switched allegiance from Columbia to its rival RCA Victor, which was planning its own Fledermaus highlights album using Met stars under contract to them, to be conducted by Reiner (forthcoming from Pristine Audio).
After learning of this, Bing maneuvered to replace Reiner with Eugene Ormandy, the Philadelphia Orchestra music director who was a Columbia artist, but who had had limited experience as an opera conductor. (His continuing symphonic commitments would cause one Saturday afternoon Fledermaus broadcast to be completed by another conductor, as Ormandy had to leave early in order to lead a concert that evening in Philadelphia!) Reiner, furious when he heard he had been replaced, happened upon Ormandy in the office of the Met’s musical administrator, and said with his typical dryness, “I hear that you are going to conduct Fledermaus. Do you know the piece?”
Meanwhile, the rest of the cast took shape. Ljuba Welistch, the “Bulgarian bombshell” who had made such a striking impression as Salome under Reiner during the Met’s previous season, would sing Rosalinda. Wagnerian tenor Set Svanholm was an unexpected choice as her husband, Eisenstein. Although Pons had learned the role of Adele, she would sing it only on the Columbia recording. Patrice Munsel was the Adele for the première, and would go on to record the role for RCA, as would the Orlofsky, Rïse Stevens. John Brownlee, famed for his Mozart interpretations at Glyndebourne in the 1930s, would sing Falke; and the increasingly busy Met “house tenor,” Richard Tucker, would display a hitherto unknown gift for comedy as Alfred. The production opened on December 20, 1950, and the recording was begun four days later.
For his part, Dietz intended his new lyrics not to be a mere translation of the original version. In addition to the slangy Americanisms he added (“If you wangle/Every angle/You can get yourself a spangle,” sings Adele in her opening aria), he used the music as a springboard for sentiments that were sometimes quite different from the original intentions of Haffner and Genée. In the opening of the second act, the chorus addresses would-be librettists in the audience, advising them not to write a ball scene into their plays; and later on, “Herr Chevalier” becomes a drunken speculation on the afterlife (“When we are gone, where do we go? … Below, below, below.”)
The common criticism of this recording has been that it was not echt Wienerisch enough. (As Alan Blyth wrote in Opera on Record, “the cast, Welitsch apart, are oceans away from the idiom of the piece.”) But that rather misses the point. It was never intended to be simply a production of Strauss’ beloved operetta in translation, but rather an opportunity to hear some wonderful singers having a great time. And through this recording, which has not been available since the LP era, we can share it with them.
Notes by Mark Obert-Thorn
Ljuba Welitsch
biographical notes
Ljuba Welitsch (Bulgarian: Люба Величкова) (born Borissovo, Bulgaria July 10, 1913 - died Vienna, Austria September 1, 1996) was a celebrated Bulgarian, later Austrian, operatic soprano.
She studied singing at Sofia Conservatory with professor Georgi Zlatev-Cherkin. After specializing in Vienna, she first appeared in Sofia in 1936. Engagements followed in Graz, Hamburg, Munich and finally at the Vienna State Opera.
Known for her red hair and exuberant vivacity, her most famous role was that of Salome, which she performed under the composer, Richard Strauss, himself in 1944 on his 80th birthday. She sang the same role for her London debut in 1947 and her first performance at the Metropolitan Opera, New York on 4 February 1949. She also sang the title roles of Tosca and Aida, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Minnie in La fanciulla del West and Musetta in La bohème.
Her voice was neither creamy nor shrill, possessing a small beat, to which the microphone is kind. This voice was very capable of riding the Straussian orchestra. Welitsch is a unique singer and her uniqueness is quickly established. Where others linger and milk the moment, she presses ahead, testing the ability of conductors to follow her. It is usually at the moment a doubt has formed that Welitsch confounds the listener by some sudden conversational intimacy that breaks through convention utterly. Even more astonishing is the way she achieves these moments without breaking the line for dramatic effect.*
A great artist, she was also capable of extraordinary over-the-top exhibitions and her exploits at the Metropolitan in New York were legendary, including a raunchy Musetta that struck fear into her colleagues, and a Tosca performance when she repeatedly kicked the supposedly dead body of the Scarpia, Lawrence Tibbett, to whom she had taken a personal dislike.
Her international career, already interrupted by the war, did not last long, although she actually continued singing until 1981. Appearances included those at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in the 1950s. However when her voice deteriorated she started a second career in films (in America and Austria) and on Austrian television.
She was married twice and divorced twice, with no children. She is buried in Vienna's Zentralfriedhof.
Die Fledermaus (The Bat; in French: La chauve-souris) is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Carl Haffner and Richard Genée.
Literary sources
The original source for Die Fledermaus is a farce by German playwright Julius Roderich Benedix (1811–1873), Das Gefängnis (The Prison). Another source is a French vaudeville play, Le réveillon, by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. This was first translated by Carl Haffner into a non-musical play to be produced in Vienna. However, the peculiarly French custom of the réveillon (a midnight supper party) caused problems, which were solved by the decision to adapt the play as a libretto for Johann Strauss, with the réveillon replaced by a Viennese ball. At this point Haffner's translation was handed over for adaptation to Richard Genée, who subsequently claimed not only that he had made a fresh translation from scratch but that he had never even met Haffner.
Synopsis
Act 1
Eisenstein's apartment
Baron von Eisenstein has been sentenced to eight days in prison for insulting an official, partially due to the incompetence of his attorney, Dr. Blind. Adèle, Eisenstein's maid, receives a letter from her sister, who is in the company of the ballet, inviting her to Prince Orlofsky's ball. She pretends the letter says that her aunt is very sick, and asks for a leave of absence ("My sister Ida writes to me"). Falke, the Baron's friend, arrives to invite him to the ball (Duet: "Come with me to the souper"). Eisenstein bids farewell to Adèle and his wife Rosalinde, pretending he is going to prison (Terzett: "Oh dear, oh dear, how sorry I am") but really intending to postpone jail for one day and have fun at the ball.
After Eisenstein leaves, Rosalinde is visited by a former admirer, the singing teacher Alfred, who serenades her ("Dove that has escaped"). (Why she lets a man not her husband into her boudoir is never explained.) Frank, the governor of the prison, arrives to take Eisenstein to jail, and finds Alfred instead. In order not to compromise Rosalinde, Alfred agrees to pretend to be Eisenstein and to accompany Frank. (Finale, drinking song: "Happy is he who forgets" followed by Rosalinde’s defence when Frank arrives: "In tête-à-tête with me so late," and Frank’s invitation: "My beautiful, large bird-cage.")
Act 2
A summer house in the Villa Orlovsky
It turns out that Falke, with Prince Orlofsky's permission, is orchestrating the ball as a way of getting revenge on Eisenstein. The previous winter, Eisenstein had abandoned a drunken Falke dressed as a bat (and thus explaining the opera's title) in the center of town, exposing him to ridicule the next day. As part of his scheme, Falke has invited Frank, Adèle, and Rosalinde to the ball as well. Rosalinde pretends to be a Hungarian countess, Eisenstein goes by the name "Marquis Renard," Frank is "Chevalier Chagrin," and Adèle pretends she is an actress.
The ball is in progress (Chorus: "A souper is before us") and the Prince welcomes his guests ("I love to invite my friends"). Eisenstein is introduced to Adèle, but is confused as to who she really is because of her striking resemblance to his maid. ("My lord marquis," sometimes referred to as "Adèle's Laughing Song").
Then Falke introduces the disguised Rosalinde to Eisenstein (Czardas: "Sounds from home"). During an amorous tête-à-tête, she succeeds in extracting a valuable watch from her husband's pocket, something which she can use in the future as evidence of his impropriety. (Watch duet: "My eyes will soon be dim"). In a rousing finale, the company celebrates (The Drinking song: "In the fire stream of the grape"; followed by the canon: "Brothers, brothers and sisters"; and the ballet and waltz finale, "Ha, what joy, what a night of delight.")
Act 3
In the prison offices of Governor Frank
The next morning they all find themselves at the prison where the confusion increases and is compounded by the jailer, Frosch, who has profited by the absence of the prison director to become gloriously drunk.
Adèle arrives to obtain the assistance of the Chevalier Chagrin (Melodrama; Couplet of Adèle: "If I play the innocent peasant maid") while Alfred wants nothing more than to get out of jail. Knowing of Eisenstein's trickery, Rosalinde wants to begin an action for divorce, and Frank is still intoxicated.
Frosch locks up Adèle and her sister Ida, and the height of the tumult arrives when Falke appears with all the guests of the ball and declares the whole thing is an act of vengeance for the "Fledermaus". (Terzett between Rosalinde, Eisenstein, Alfred: "A strange adventure"). Everything is amicably arranged (with Eisenstein blaming the intoxicating effects of champagne for his act of infidelity and Orlofsky volunteering to support Adèle's artistic career), but Eisenstein is compelled to serve his full term in jail (Finale, "Oh bat, oh bat, at last let thy victim escape").
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