Schumann: Genoveva

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For most listeners Schumann's only opera is still a relatively unknown quantity, but lovers of his music will celebrate a work that's intimate, thought-provoking and melodious.
The libretto (by... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Catalogue No: 0630131442
Label: Teldec
Length: 2 hours 7 minutes

Schumann: Genoveva

Work length2:07:56

Album only

Marjana Lipovsek (mezzo-soprano), Deon van der Walt (tenor), Oliver Widmer (baritone), Rod Gilfry (baritone), Ruth Ziesak (soprano), Hiroyuki Ijichi (bass), Josef Krenmair (baritone), Thomas Quasthoff (baritone)
Arnold Schoenberg Chor, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Orchestra of Europe Orchestra
Nikolaus Harnoncourt

Overture

Track length8:10

$1.30

$1.70

Act 1 "Erhebet Herz und Hände" [Chorus] "Zu einem gottgefäll'gen Kampfe rüstetihr euch!" [Hidulfus, Chorus]

Track length5:55

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Act 1 "Könnt' ich mit ihnen...Frieden, zieh' in meine Brust" [Golo]

Track length6:36

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Act 1 "So wenig Monden erst, daß ich dich fand" [Siegfried, Genoveva]

Track length2:24

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$1.70

Act 1 "Dies gilt uns!" [Siegfried, Drago, Genoveva, Golo]

Track length3:12

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Act 1 "Auf, auf, in das Feld" [Chorus]

Track length2:39

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Act 1 "Der rauhe Kriegsmann!" [Golo, Genoveva]

Track length3:31

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Act 1 "Sieh da, welch feiner Rittersmann" [Margaretha, Golo]

Track length8:10

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Act 2 "O weh des Scheidens, das er tat!... Füllt die Becher bis zum Rande... Ihr seid es, Golo?" [Genoveva, Golo, Chorus]

Track length8:20

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Act 2 "Wenn ich ein Vöglein wär" [Genoveva, Golo]

Track length6:19

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Act 2 "Dem Himmel Dank,daß ich Euch finde" [Drago, Golo, Margaretha, Genoveva]

Track length4:39

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Act 2 "O Du, der über alle wacht" [Genoveva]

Track length3:22

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Act 2 "Sacht, sacht, aufgemacht !" [Balthasar, Genoveva, Golo, Drago, Margaretha, Chorus]

Track length6:19

$1.30

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Act 3 "Nichts hält mich mehr" [Siegfried, Margaretha]

Track length2:57

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Act 3 "Ja, wart du bis zum jüngsten Tag auf mich" [Siegfried, Golo]

Track length9:51

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Act 3 "Ich sah ein Kind im Traum" [Margaretha, Siegfried, Golo]

Track length6:10

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Act 3 "Erscheint! Abendlüfte kühlend weh'n" [Margaretha, Siegfried, Golo, Dragos Geist, Chorus]

Track length8:54

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$1.70

Act 4 "Steil und steiler ragen die Felsen" [Genoveva, Balthasar, Caspar, Chorus]

Track length11:07

Album only

Act 4 "Kennt Ihr den Ring?" [Golo, Genoveva, Balthasar, Caspar]

Track length5:34

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Act 4 "Weib, heuchelt nicht im letzten Augenblick!" [Genoveva, Balthasar, Caspar, Margaretha, Siegfried, Chorus]

Track length4:12

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Act 4 "O laß es ruh'n, dein Aug, auf mir!" [Siegfried, Genoveva]

Track length2:16

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Act 4 "Bestreut den Weg mit grünen Mai'n" [Chorus]

Track length3:23

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Act 4 "Seid mir gegrüßt nach schwerer Prüfung Tagen" [Hidulfus, Siegfried, Genoveva, Chorus]

Track length3:56

$1.30

$1.70

Reviews
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Reviews

2010

For most listeners Schumann's only opera is still a relatively unknown quantity, but lovers of his music will celebrate a work that's intimate, thought-provoking and melodious.
The libretto (by Schumann himself, after Tieck and Hebbel) deals with secret passion and suspected adultery, while the music mirrors emotional turmoil with great subtlety, and sometimes with astonishing imagination. Copious foretastes are provided in the familiar overture, and thereafter, discoveries abound. Sample, for example, the jagged counter- motif that shudders as Genoveva's husband Siegfried entreats Golo (his own alter ego) to guard his wife while he's away at war; or the offstage forces representing drunken servants; or the almost expressionist writing at 4'00" into track-10, where Golo responds with seething hatred to Genoveva's vengeance. The entreaties of Drago's ghost (track-4, 6'10") aren't too far removed from Siegmund's 'Nothung!' in Act-1 of Die Walküre, and Genoveva's singing from 'a desolate, rocky place' (track-5, first minute or so), sounds prophetic of Isolde (who was as yet unborn, so to speak). Harnoncourt suspects that Genoveva was a 'counterblast' to Wagner, and though Wagner apparently thought the opera 'bizarre', there remains a vague suspicion of sneaking regard, even a smidgen of influence.
Teldec's balancing is mostly judicious, and the musical direction suggestive of burning conviction.
The worthy though relatively conventional Gerd Albrecht (in Orfeo's mellow 1992 recording) only serves to underline the leaner, more inflected and more urgently voiced profile of Harnoncourt's interpretation. As to the two sets of singers, most preferences rest with the latter's line-up. Stage effects are well handled; the sum effect is of a top-drawer Schumann set within an unexpected structural context.

Schumann: Genoveva

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