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Young singers present two operettas by women composers at the Palais im Grossen Garten | Photo: Stephan Floss

The concert series ‘Wagner Plus’ appears for the first time in the Dresden Festival's 'The Wagner Cycles' in 2024: the intent is to broaden the musical horizons to further discussions of Wagner and his time. Subtitled, ‘Musica Non Grata: Silent Voices in a Noisy World,’ the performances highlight the musical complexity of the time.  

Two operettas by female composers were heard at Dresden’s Palais im Grossen Garten on May 12, 2024, heard in shortened form and with piano reduction effected by Dr Kai Heinrich Müller: Amélie Nikisch's Meine Tante, Deine Tante, and Rachel Danziger van Embden’s Der Dorfkomtesse. Alexander Brietenbach was the fine pianist. All of the singers involved are young, and without doubt this event will boost their careers.  

Amélie Nikisch (1862-1938, née Hausner) was a Brussels-born singer, actress and composer – she married to the conductor Artur Nikisch (who was influenced by Wagner’s conducting) and had previously been engaged to sing at Kassel Court Theatre, with Gustav Mahler. She wrote both music and libretto for operettas, one of which is the 1909 Meine Tante, Deine Tante (first performed in 1911, in Dresden). Of the two operettas, Nikisch’s had the more memorable melodies and the more interesting twists of harmony. To get around the dramatic aspects in a static concert situation, baritone Friedemann Gottschlich narrated (as well as participating as singer); tenor Bálint Németh was a stand-out participant, a great voice and superb diction. One of his songs, a slow waltz, blossomed out into a vibrant duet with soprano Ekaterina Krovateva. Németh was complemented by the strong baritone of Benjamin Hewat-Craw. The two sopranos, Krovateva and Nefeli Spyropoulou, playing cousins, complemented each other nicely both vocally and dramatically in this light yet carefully constructed music.  

Singers present operettas by composers Rachel Danziger van Embden and Amélie Nikisch | Photo: Stephan Floss

Amsterdam-born Rachel Danziger van Embden (born 1870, death possibly 1946?) was subject to Nazi persecution. Details and even names of other pieces are hard to come by. She was a student of the Wagner biographer Jacques Hartog (1837-1913), but her career was curtailed by the Nazis. Her operetta Der Dorfkomtesse (The Village Countess) was premiered in Stockholm in 1909; other works include Ulanansreiche (1916), Weinende Erben (1918) and Als er wiederkam (1920).

We do not know her death date exactly, but she was taken to Terezín/Thereiesenstadt in 1943 after which some researchers suggest she managed to emigrate to Britain. Die Dorfkomtesse is a love story between Princess Florie and Prince Karl in a village un the Tyrol. Again, Németh shone, as did Greek soprano Nefeli Spyropoulou. If the music is less individual than that of Nikisch’s offering, it remains thoroughly entertaining. 

Musical excavations such as this are vitally important in providing context to extant masterpieces; but they also provide an elevating joy all of their own, and such was  certainly the case here, an impression heightened by the youthful talent of the singers. Who would have thought musicology could be so enervating? 

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