Nielsen: Maskarade

The premiere production was a decided audience success and a more or less unanimous press acknowledged the music as original. “The first act works excellently. After this one would swear that Carl Nielsen was born to write opéra comique. So smooth, so dexterous, such a quick turn of phrase, such aptness in the dialogue, with fine phrases and droll ideas; equally felicitous in the treatment of the text, the singing roles, the instruments of the orchestra. In the craft of music, it is a fully-fledged master who holds the pen; one’s thoughts can only resort to Verdi in ‘Falstaff’ to find a parallel.” Nationaltidende (1906)

“This film of a performance of Nielsen’s comic opera from the Bregenz Festival is of startling brilliance…This is the same production that appeared at the Royal Opera House last September, but I enjoyed it a good deal more on DVD, because I could read subtitles and anyway it is sung in German. The cast is of an extremely high calibre and Ulf Schirmer’s conducting of them and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra is full of conviction. Everything on stage is gorgeous to look at…and the same can be said of the production. This is David Pountney at his absolute peak…with such resourcefulness and verve, this production certainly merits watching.” Michael Tanner, International Record Review