# Does "Palestrina" Have A Future?



## Xavier (Jun 7, 2012)

Does anyone think Pfitzner's _Palestrina_ will ever appeal to international opera audiences, or is it too musically sophisticated and highbrow to travel outside Germany and Austria?

My guess at this point is that it will remain of interest to very serious opera lovers only.

The complaint I hear over and over is that it's "long-winded", "awkwardly constructed", "with rambling, unfocused melodic lines". Others refer to it as "the major operatic yawniac which should R.I.P.".

When it premiered at the Royal Opera House and the Metropolitan Opera in 1997 it received mostly lukewarm reviews, even from Rodney Milnes and Paul Griffiths (two eminent critics) which kind of surprised me.

I personally adore it, it's one of the most beautiful and noblest of all post Wagnerian German operas although it must be said that it does have its less inspired moments (mainly in Act 1)


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

If I was a big opera fan, which I am not, I would make some effort to hear this opera. I have read of it being this composer's _magnum opus_, his finest work. I have not heard this work or any of his other music, within memory. From what I've read, he comes across as being like Reger, in that traditional contrupuntal "Germanic" style, putting that in a modern (early 20th century) context.

But recently one of our members on this forum, stlukesguildohio, did a review of another cd by Pfitzner on
http://www.talkclassical.com/1005-current-listening-1230.html#post311537 thread.


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

Xavier said:


> Does anyone think Pfitzner's _Palestrina_ will ever appeal to international opera audiences, or is it too musically sophisticated and highbrow to travel outside Germany and Austria?


Is there a wonderful recording you can recommend?


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

This opera is on my (admittedly long) list of works with which I want to becone familiar. The recording I plan to purchase is this one:









Yes, it dates to the '60s, but with an absolutely all-star cast, beginning with Wunderlich is the title role.


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## Xavier (Jun 7, 2012)

guythegreg said:


> Is there a wonderful recording you can recommend?


Here you go:










Now of course not everyone will warm to the entire opera but the 3 preludes and the Visitation scene in Act 1 at the very least are worth anyone's time.


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

thanks! I'll have to see if I can find it


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

MAuer said:


> This opera is on my (admittedly long) list of works with which I want to becone familiar. The recording I plan to purchase is this one:
> 
> View attachment 5701
> 
> ...


Berry, Wunderlich, Jurinac, Ludwig... damn! That is one series cast. Is the recording live? There are two versions by Rafael Kubrick... one available on DG and the other on Brilliant. The DG cast includes Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Hermann Prey, Brigitte Faessbaender, Bernd Weikl, and Albert Gassner. The Brilliant recording features Fischer-Dieskau and Bernd Weikl as well, with Niccolai Gedda.

Well... let's correct that... the DG and Brilliant versions are one and the same... which means this recording has one great line-up of soloists... and is available for just over $8 US (my order is going in now!)

I haven't heard much of Pfitzner's _Palestrina_... but I know it by reputation. Pfitzner was seen as the greatest German operatic composer of the time... after Richard Strauss and Erich Korngold. His music has been described as lush, Post-Romanticism in the manner of Strauss, Korngold, Zemlinsky, Schreker, etc... I recently listened to a collection of his orchestral songs, which I reviewed here:

http://www.talkclassical.com/1005-current-listening-1230.html

Seriously, I don't think that _Palestrina_ has any less of a reputation than many operas by Korngold, Schreker, Zemlinsky... or even some by Strauss. It may remain a favorite known only to hard-core opera lovers or those who specialize in music of the period... but ultimately little music outside the core repertoire (Beethoven's 5th, Don Giovanni) becomes part of the everyday discussions


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Here is what Dr. Mosco Carner wrote about Pfitzner in _The Dictionary of Composers _(ed. C. Osborne, 1981) -

_In Germanic countries Pfitzner is regarded as a figure ranking in importance not far below Richard Strauss. People who have seen his opera Palestrina speak of it with genuine enthusiasm. But outside Germany and Austria Pfitzner remains an almost unknown quantity...You may say, being too narrowly German in spirit, his music is not for export. Even in his own country he now appears, for all his great name and reputation, a somewhat neglected composer. It may be that in marked contrast to the extroversion and hedonism of his rival Strauss, the Nordic austerity and reticence, the introversion and ultimately the pessimism of much of Pfitzner's music militate against its wider acceptance. Yet musicians who have seriously studied his work agree that within his limitations Pfitzner is an inspired and to some extent an original creator endowed with a sovereign technical command...
...

Pfitzner strongly believed in the primacy of the Einfall, the inspired musical idea from which the whole work has to grow, be it a short song or a whole operatic act. Hence his emphasis on pure melody which, he felt, tends to be destroyed or at any rate suffer though the application of Wagner's leitmotive technique...his often dense contrapuntal thinking - the 'Gothic' element in Pfitzner's style - somehow impairs the effect of his melody..._


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

I suppose Palestrina will never be frequently performed , but it's an unquestionable masterpiece, 
and a profound work of art . It's long, dense , difficult to perform and requires a very large cast .
I have a Berlin Classics live performance from the Berlin State Opera in the 1980s, conducted by the late Otmar Suitner, a fine and highoy respected ocnductor who never achieved the international renown he deserved, and Peter Schreier in the title role ,and Siegfried Lorenz as Cardinal Borromeo .
Palestrina is comparable to other long and difficult operas such as Hindemith's Mathis Der Maler, and mor erecently Messiaen's St. Francois D'Assise , great but problematical works which will never be as popular as Verdi,Puccini, Bizet or Rossini .


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