Tiefland

[Brünnhilde forever]

Eugen d'Albert's Tiefland

A great hit in operatic history has finally returned to the present: Tiefland! Oehms Classics published a CD with Linda Gasteen as Marta, Falk Struckman the lowland bad guy Sebastiano, and rounding out the cast is the tenor Johan Botha, the highland shepherd Pedro. Very impressive Wagnerian cast for an opera barely known.

Advertisements for this EMI Classics DVD had been appearing on all kinds of audio sites and of course I ordered it. As a teenager I had seen performances of Tiefland more than once in my native Germany and looked forward to adding it to my collection. Alas, whenever I ordered it from an on-line seller, the order was accepted and then after weeks of waiting, I was told the DVD is unavailable. This happened to me more than once and I had almost given up when H&B Direct came through.

Again an impressive cast, almost Wagnerian with Peter Seiffert, the shepherd Pedro, Matthias Goerne Sebastiano and Petra Maria Schnitzer, an outstanding Marta. This soprano was the great surprise because I don't remember having seen or heard her before. In 2007 she sang Elisabeth in San Francisco's Tannhäuser with Peter Seiffert, but no commercial release available. She is a very powerful singer and actress presenting the tragic past of Marta with rivetting acting. Tenor Seiffert's Pedro is the powerful heroic counterpart to bass-baritone Goerne's despicable Sebastiano. Goerne is the performer I met and admired as the loving son Al Kasim in Hans Werner Henze's L'Upupa, in Tiefland a completely different personality and again convincing and gripping actor. In the death scene he almost aroused my sympathy, and Seiffert's brutality made me have doubts about the shepherd's innocent nature. Superb acting indeed!

I am definitely recommending this opera DVD. The singing is tops and acting can't be improved on. And, most important, it is time Eugen d'Albert's music becomes part of any opera lover's collection.

[Brünnhilde forever]

Front page of DVD:

[T-C]

I had the same problem with this set. It took more than a month for MDT to find a copy of the Tiefland DVD for me... It was sent to me, but I haven't received it yet. 

But this evening I am going to the NIO for a production of an opera which I really love but have never heard it live: Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen.