# Genoveva



## tahnak (Jan 19, 2009)

Robert Schumann 's only opera. It was performed in June 1850 at Leipzig. The story is based on Genevieve of Brabant , the wife of the Count Siegfried who goes on the Crusades against the saracens in Europe in the eighth century. The plot has some similarities with Wagner's Lohengrin days. 
The story opens with Hidulfus, the Bishop of Trier, who summons the Christian knights to Martel's crusade against the saracens in Europe. Count Siegfried answers the call and leaves behind Genevieve, his wife, who faces many travails during his absence and is helped by a deaf and mute boy until Siegfried returns.
This performance by Harnoncourt and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Arnold Schoenberg Choir is the definitive one.


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## dionisio (Jul 30, 2012)

Speaking of Genoveva, once i read some article somewhere that Schumann showed this libretto to Wagner and Wagner dissuaded Schumann from continue writing in opera's sphere and should write in other genres.

I never knew if this was true or not. I know that they have met each other.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

I've heard the opera from two recordings, first on LP long ago with Kurt Masur, the Gewandhaus orchestra, 
Fischer-Dieskau ,Edda Moser and Peter Schreier, and more recently on CD with harnoncourt conducting and a cast I can't recall.
Genoveva has been called a failure by more than a few critics, but it contains some prime Schumann and is definitely worth hearing . It's had periodic revivals over the years but has never become part of the standard repertoire. Most recently, the ever enterprising Leon Botstein did a production with the American symphony orchestra at Bard college not too long ago .
It might even be worth doing at the Met .


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## Novelette (Dec 12, 2012)

superhorn said:


> I've heard the opera from two recordings, first on LP long ago with Kurt Masur, the Gewandhaus orchestra,
> Fischer-Dieskau ,Edda Moser and Peter Schreier, and more recently on CD with harnoncourt conducting and a cast I can't recall.
> Genoveva has been called a failure by more than a few critics, but it contains some prime Schumann and is definitely worth hearing . It's had periodic revivals over the years but has never become part of the standard repertoire. Most recently, the ever enterprising Leon Botstein did a production with the American symphony orchestra at Bard college not too long ago .
> It might even be worth doing at the Met .


Very much agreed that this opera is not at all lacking in compelling drama, crafty orchestration [quite skillful, in fact, and free of the heavy density characteristic of his symphonies], and the like.

Wikipedia states that Schumann attempted to abolish recitative through this opera. I have read this claim nowhere else, but the score itself contradicts the claim as it presently stands. There are numerous sections that are characteristic of recitative and are, in fact, explicitly marked as such [admittedly, they are quite short]. Given that those sections are usually fairly orchestrated, perhaps he rather intended to integrate short recitative among the arias, choruses, and orchestral sections in such a way as to harmonize the musical flow of the work.

As it stands, I'm greatly attached to the Kurt Masur: Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra recording!

As an aside, the overture alone in this recording is so beautifully interpreted that I cannot listen with patience to other recordings of it [a personal thing].


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