It is easy to see why Konigskinder, for all its many beauties, has never begun to match Humperdinck’s masterpiece, Hansel und Gretel, in popularity. One appreciated the work’s problems all the more when English National Opera boldly staged it five years ago. Not only is the story of the Prince and the Goose-girl less involving, more disorganized than that of Hansel, but Humperdinck runs the risk of seeming long-winded, when the outer acts in this recorded performance are each over an hour long, with the central act a full 40 minutes, and with minor characters and incidents holding up the plot. The score is as lyrical as you could wish, but time and time again what in Hansel would have developed into a big tune peters out far too soon.
That said, it is good to have a new recording of a rich score, well sung and warmly conducted by Fabio Luisi, previously heard on disc in Bellini’s I puritani (Nightingale Classics, 12/94) and Donizetti’s La favorita (Nuova Era, 10/91). Luisi captures the buoyancy of much of the writing as well as the lyrical flow. Curiously, this new version uses the same choir and orchestra as the existing EMI set recorded in 1976. The venue this time is the Herkulessaal in Munich instead of the radio studio used by EMI, with sound that is rather more spacious but not so immediate. The glow of Humperdinck’s scoring is more ripely caught this time, but the focus is less sharp.
An incidental shortcoming in both sets is that the libretto comes in German only, but where the EMI version prints stage directions, and helpfully indicates cueing points in the excellent synopsis, the Calig libretto has a less clear synopsis, and omits stage directions from the text. That is particularly confusing when in Act 3 the Fiddler (Spielmann) goes off singing his simple song; you get no help from the libretto, and in the recording there is no idea of distancing: he simply stops singing, and you hear a rushing of wind. It sounds as though he has been swallowed up.
None the less, a digital recording of this score is most welcome, and though the voices are not specially characterful, there is no serious weakness. The tenor of Thomas Moser, taking the central role of the Prince, is more heroic than that of his EMI rival, Adolf Dallapozza, and the recording captures it more cleanly than I have known before, with the voice often shaded down beautifully. Though Dagmar Schellenberger as the Goose-girl cannot match Helen Donath in sweetness of tone, with the voice getting a little raw above the stave, hers is a feeling, well-characterized performance, and she finds a delicate mezza voce for the prayer to her parents, which the Goose-girl sings at the end of Act 1.
If Schellenberger sounds on the mature side for the Goose-girl, Marilyn Schmiege with her warm, firm mezzo makes rather a young Witch, a more equivocal character, not nearly so clearly defined as the Witch in Hansel. There is no danger in this performance of caricature, when Hanne Weber, singing well as the Innkeeper’s daughter who in Act 2 tries to seduce the Prince, makes it sound rather like Eva’s approach to Sachs in Act 3 of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger. Most important among the others are the Fiddler and the Woodcutter, with both Dietrich Henschel and Andreas Kohn singing freshly and clearly in their key roles. All told, this is a performance marked by good teamwork, with the chorus bringing energetic echoes of Smetana’s The bartered bride in their all-too-brief contributions in Act 2.'