What one would give to have a live recording of an original Schubertiad – a musical evening spent with the great Vienn inese composer. Or how about a salon soiree with Liszt on the piano? Or the premier of Beethoven’s ninth symphony with the composer conducting and not able to hear the audience cheers at the end? Or even Lully conducting for Louis XIV beating time with a stick on the floor, hitting his big toe with it forming an abscess which caused his death? Or perhaps the riot which accompanied the first time Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring was performed?
We are of course, lucky that since the invention of the gramophone towards the end of the nineteen century we are at least able to hear some of the greatest musicians, composers, performers and conductors of our time perform; Ravel, Prokofiev, Nikisch and Elgar among them.
As the twentieth century progressed several performances, particularly of operas, began to be filmed and masterpieces like ‘Der Rosenkavalier’ and ‘The Barber of Seville’ finally reached the silver screen.
Yet even with sound recordings and filming now available there remained major lacunae in the performance repertoire. In some cases this was due to the early death of the protagonists: Dinu Lipatti, Ginette Neveu, Kathleen Ferrier among the most loved ones in this tragic lot. In other cases it was due simply to the carelessness on the part of the producers. It seems astonishing, for example, that, as late as 1964, only the second act of ‘Tosca,’ with Callas ‘La Divina’ as heroine was filmed at Covent Garden. (Callas was more that just a great singer; she was the greatest of dramatic sopranos). Furthermore, despite Zeffirelli’s gorgeous set, Tosca was filmed only in black and white.
Christopher Nupen’s videotaped films of Jacqueline du Pre would have been rather more extensive if several of them had not been wiped by the BBC, as was the custom in those times when videotape was very expensive and when a consumer market had never been imagined.
Today, of course, everything is different. Just streaming on YouTube I can watch umpteen versions of obscure Neapolitan baroque operas or Wagnerian rings or every single Bach cantata. (The Netherlands Bach society is particularly excellent in this field).
One particular opera, or rather ‘divertissement’, I particularly love is Handel’s ‘Acis and Galatea’ describing in brilliantly youthful music the love affair of two classical swains before the dastardly monster Polyphemus dashes the hapless shepherd to his death with a colossal rock. Happily Acis is turned into a stream and made immortal by the gods, although I do feel this transformation is somewhat cold comfort for the grieving Galatea.
Of the various performance on ‘YouTube’ I was utterly entranced by a Czech performance from the Moravian town of Ostrovo. Taking place in a puppet theatre the production featured the soprano Patricia Janeckova, barely out of her teens, as Galatea. Handel’s exquisite gem (composed for George Brydges, duke of Chandos, whose estate – alas, the house has long since gone -we visited at https://wp.me/p8ybdb-4pM) seemed perfectly made for Janeckova. Her voice, transcendental in its quality, her sweetness of interpretations, her playful interaction with puppet birds and butterflies, her magnetic charm were absolutely memorable. I wanted to hear more from the singer. Then I found out the bitter, totally unfair truth about her. Patricia Janeckova died this October of breast cancer. And she only married the previous July!
May she rest in peace and may her lovely voice continue to be heard both by God and mankind for all eternity.
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PS Thank goodness that we can still enjoy Janeckova’s youthful promise as Galatea at: