On Presenting a Master's Repertoire

...governing the diversity of approaches to the later man's output There is no evidence of this, worse, Hartmann does not even treat his own close association with Strauss in depth His formula for a chapter runs thus Start with a little background about an opera, summarize the plot at length, then wrap up with a few cursory remarks on important performances or productions Much of the explication, such as it is, is done by the illustrations We are told in an Epilogue that these photographs represent no more than a "fraction" of those sent in response to the author's requests formatenal, and flipping through the book casually, one indeed has the impression of tremendous pictorial abundance Yet studied at greater leisure, the art is less impressive—neither copious enough to demonstrate the bewildering range of stage realizations producers have come up with in mounting Strauss, nor selective enough to establish much of a thesis Hartmann's comments on trends in design are largely confined to the picture captions Rarely running over 50 words (including credits), thev are hardly suitable vehicles for intellectual inquiry Moreover, these read like the notes of a preoccupied professor this design is an "impressivesolution," that one "a little awkward " Redundancies are common, in at least one instance the body of the text is flatly contradicted, and frequently the captions identify performers who are not shown while scanting those who are True, about Strauss' first two operas, Guntram (1894) and Feuersnot (1901) there are no trends to note, for thev more or less totally disappeared soon after their premieres (Munich periodically re\wes Feuersnot lo no avail) His third and fourth, Salome (1905) and Elektra {1909), are still very much with us, however, and on them Hartmann onlv manages to marshal a bit ot banal-ltv At the close of his Salome chapter he writes "The illustrations are presented here in chronological order where possible and show a clear development from settings truthtul to time and space-to free imaginative ones that compel our attention to the timeless dramatic fate of the main characters, which thereby comes within the range of our own experience This development has not been entirely consistent, but its main characteristic has been liberation from the particular, oriental milieu into a setting of universal significance " Fair enough, but bringing up the obvious does not tell us much about the works themselves Particularly given Hartmann's professing to see a drift toward "universal relevance" even for the autobiographical domestic farce Intermezzo (1924), it is bizarre that he fails to note the broader cultural determinants of changing decor Asanopera—or a play or ballet or any other work for the stage—takes its place in the standard repertoire, it becomes subject to general currents in design and is constantly remade in contemporary images Seeming exceptions like Mozart's Lenozzedi Figaro or Strauss' own Rosenkavalier (1911) and exquisite Capnccio, despite their demanding and invariably receiving an 18th-century look, also change with the passing years as historic styles in coiffure, couture, furniture and interior design are reconsidered It is therefore no marvel if Salome's recognizable Palestine and Elektra's archaic Mycenae were transformed into unrealized landscapes of the mind The shift had as much to do with a widespread rejection of the picturesque verisimilitude that characterized the mainstream of visual arts in the late 19th century as they did with any advancing comprehension of the essence of these two operas in particular Similarly, the relinquishing of solid architectural elements is a fact of theater history generally, having much more to do with costs and ease of handling than with revisionist ideas about the works in question Hartmann's pronouncement on the particular and the universal begs all the real issues to what extent the essence of a poetic conception resides precisely in its particulars, how features that have grown stale and conventional lose their expressive force, and why stripping away details that have become meaningless may temporarily clear the clouded view of the theatrical poem, making it more "universal " The nebulous productions that upon unveiling transported the first-night audience to a "timeless" realm where a "a drama of the human soul" is played out, have as often as not looked peculiarly dated after a mere handful of seasons on the stage Over the centuries, the chief work of the theater has on the whole remained constant to manifest in real time actions that are symbolic But the means for doing this must forever be reinvented Although failure on a major issue need not have prevented Hartmann from scoring significant points on details along the way, that is not the case in this book A true child of theater, he does not stand on literary or musical ceremony so long as the results "work " On the other hand, he tells us that "all stagings which deviate from the original intention, no matter how charming they may be, dimmish its artistic value " (The stage director has not been born who cannot justify the most grotesque distortions by reference to a supposed "original intention") Hartmann rarely blames a producer He is likelier to fault a piece and rewrite it The diagnosis does not often justify the suggested remedy An attempt to clear up the "confusion" of the fish in the frying pan and the unborn children in the first act of DieFrau ohm Schatten (1919), for example, flies in the face of the text and creates greater confusion than exists in the opera The point is not as obscure as Hartmann supposes There are some instructive moments in the book The discussion of the lighting in the late Daphne(1938), albeit prosaically presented, does get down to the specifics of translating an idea into a concrete theatrical reality The remarks on costumes for Jupiter and Midas, who swap appearances in Danae (finally produced in 1952, after being withdrawn following a single dress rehearsal in 1944 when Goebbels closed the theaters throughout the Reich) are based on premises a reader need not share to appreciate the elegance of Hartmann's proposed solution But such insights come seldom Chapters on A riadne auf Naxos (original version 1912, revised version with new Prologue, 1916), Die a gyptische Helena (1928), Arabella (1933), and Die schweig same Frau (1935) pass without a single one, and the good stuff on Josephslegende (1914) is quoted verbatim from the distinguished Austrian poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Strauss' most frequent librettist It should be noted as well that the bibliography is a shambles As for Davies' translation, besides being stiff and Teutonic, an impression of carelessness is fostered by an abundance of seeming faux amis ("sovereign" apparently for souveran, which means "outstanding", "grandiose" for grandios, which means "magnificent") Incorporated snippets from the librettos are misconstrued or broken off just before the phrase that would make the point, or both The Marschallin's opening line in the great Rosenkavalier trio is given as "I prided myself that I held him dear " when what she actually says is "I promised myself to love him in the right way" (that is, unselfishly) And then there are a handful of passages where grammar takes a break "Such cuts having the same effect as though blocks of stone had been arbitrarily torn from a [sic] edifice, they are senseless' Amen Hartmann probably deserves a better translator, Strauss definitely deserves a better Hartmann...

...On Presenting a Master's Repertoire Richard Strauss: The Staging of His Operas and Ballets By Rudolf Hartmann Translated by Graham Davies Oxford 280 pp $39.95 Reviewed by M Anatole Gurewitsch Business manager, Opera Theater of Saint Louis THIS BOOK is much thinner than it looks The title and the table of contents—with its chapter headings on forgotten froufrou like Schlagobeis ("Whipped Cream"), a balletic piece d'occasion for the composer's 60th birthday celebration in 1924—seem to promise a comprehensive theatrical survey Even more so the author involved, since Rudolf Hartmann was for years a close associate of the maestro He was the original director of three of Strauss' last four operas, as the longtime head of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich he superintended the world's most flourishing Strauss cult, and he has been the metteut en iiene ot countless Strauss revivals all over lhe map He would appear to be the ideal commentator on this vast and uch topic In fact, he had something very like a mandate from the master hnnsc It A letter Iroin Strauss to Haitinaim, dated June 17, 1948, little more than a year before the composer's death, reads in part "What you say in your lectures must be taken down word for word by a parliamentary stenographer as scholarly material to be used later in creating Rudolf Hartmann's great textbook on opera production (particularly in regard to Gluck, Mozart, Wagner, and my own works) Lessing, Goethe, Tieck, even Hebbel have certainly provided the most valuable materials for producers and others concerned with the theater But the book about directing and staging opera still remains to be written and that must be done by Rudolf Hartmann, the Stanislavsky and the Reinhardt of opera " (I quote, with misgivings, from the English translation by Graham Davies A facsimile of the actual letter in German is reproduced on the facing page, unfortunately, Strauss's octogenarian handwriting defeats me ) Strauss gave his collaborator rather more than his due when he named him in the same breath with Max Reinhardt and Constantin Stanislavsky, for Hartmann is no genius Nevertheless, his long experience, dedication and reliable judgment have been reflected in innumerable operatic productions in Munich and elsewhere If the work Strauss envisioned would clearly have been broader in scope, it is hard to suppose he would not have trusted Hartmann with this one Yet had he lived to read it, Strauss would have been disappointed Except in a very few scattered, brief sentences, Hartmann has next to nothing to say about the practical stagecraft wherebv a composition is transposed from its creators' inventions to a blueprint on paper and thence to thestage His qualifications have not made him articulate on the technical matters he surelv knows so much about Nordoeshedelve bevond superficialities when he broaches the subject ot the historv ot operas on the siage Because the Strauss repertoire has not experienced the powertul lidesot lashion that have swept through productions ot Wagner, it would take a subtle and highly synthesizing intellect to discern the large patterns, if any...