# Schubert's Operas



## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Hi there!

I love Schubert's music, but haven't ventured anywhere near the operas. I've heard it said that Schubert just wasn't comfortable with theatre, and his song cycles became his dramatic contribution because they were in a setting he could handle.

What do people here think of the operas? 

Thanks! :tiphat:


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## Stargazer (Nov 9, 2011)

I actually really liked Fierrabras, there is (or was) a really great version on youtube. Far from the worst opera I've ever seen! I haven't seen his others yet.


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

_Fierrabras _is also the one Schubert opera with which I'm familiar. My reaction is rather mixed, but that may due in part to the video recording I have.








The cast from the Zürich Opera is first-rate, and if anyone could be able to make a case for this opera, they would be the ones. Unfortunately, they are hampered by Claus Guth's staging. As non-traditional productions go, this one is fairly inoffensive. But Guth has had the bright idea of planting an actor portraying Schubert right in the midst of the goings-on, interacting with the various characters. And then there is the oversized set, with singers dwarfed by pieces of furniture (the chair shown on the DVD cover is one of the few pieces of normal-sized furnishings). To me, it's hard to make a case for an opera when you treat the whole thing as a great, big joke -- which Guth seems to do. I often think I would have been better off with an audio recording featuring this cast, because the music itself is appealing.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

I recently borrowed the Fierrabras DVD on library interloan and enjoyed it very much despite the rather 
gimmicky production . I've also heard the DG CD conducted by Claudio Abbado live from Vienna in the late 80s. 
I don't think it's still available, but it's worth looking for and is excellent. 
It's a very enjoyable opera . If you can find the EMI recording of Alfonso &Estrella with a dream cast of Edda Moser, Peter Schreier, the late great Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Hermann Prey and Theo Adam (what a cast !) conducted by the late and very underrated Otmar Suitner, grab it. 
The opera is rather naive dramatically, but the music is gorgeous. There is also a recent live recording on the Dynamic label, but I haven't heard it .
Check arkivmusic.com for these recordings; it's by far the best place on the internet to get hard-to-find classical CDs , and their overall selection is fantastic .


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Thanks for that, my friends, I think I'll look into Fierrabras. Was Schubert a victim of poor librettos, then? Insubstantial tales to get his teeth into?


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Kieran said:


> Thanks for that, my friends, I think I'll look into Fierrabras. Was Schubert a victim of poor librettos, then? Insubstantial tales to get his teeth into?


From what I gather it was a combination of lack of experience, originality and flair for the dramatic as much as anything - had he been given longer then I'm sure he (and his librettist) would have cracked it but most of his stage work was written between the ages of 15 and 25 when his talents at that time obviously (and sadly less lucratively) lay elsewhere. Factor in that he shoehorned 9 complete and 6 incomplete operas or singspiels into this 10-year span which has a whiff of impatience about it - the impression is he perhaps thought in vain that he could compose for the stage as easily and spontaneously as he could compose for the Schubertiad.


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## AlanPalgut (Apr 11, 2012)

Don't even bother with the operas. Leonard Pince-Garnell would agree that the King of Lieder was more horrible at the genre than Beethoven and Debussy were. His only fully-sung opera, _Alfonso und Estrella_, is extremely bad indeed.


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

MAuer said:


> As non-traditional productions go, this one is fairly inoffensive. But Guth has had the bright idea of planting an actor portraying Schubert right in the midst of the goings-on, interacting with the various characters. And then there is the oversized set, with singers dwarfed by pieces of furniture (the chair shown on the DVD cover is one of the few pieces of normal-sized furnishings).


I actually thought all that was fairly appealing, although I didn't quite get it - but when the soprano drooled on herself in the middle of an aria - that I will not forget.


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