Carl Reinecke: Konig Manfred (1867)

Grand Opera in Five Acts. Running Time: 26 minutes (orchestral excerpts only)

Carl Reinecke was a Danish-born German composer (his hometown of Altona was located on the Danish side of the Elbe river until he was 40). He is best known for his flute sonata “Undine” although he composed several symphonic pieces which are popular with a local radio station in the Washington-Baltimore area. When driving to work yesterday I heard the overture, and wanted to look up what exists of the opera. He also wrote four operas, this one being the largest scale, none of which are performed today. In fact, I don’t even have any vocal excerpts this time, it is all orchestral. What has been recorded, and released by Naxos Records, are the overture, the preludes to acts four and five, and the second half of the ballet music, consisting of some 26 minutes, which is admittedly pathetic as the opera consists of an overture and 36 numbers, so don’t expect a full review here, although I will make a request at the end of this one. An English-language review at the time of the first performance especially mentioned that the fifth act prelude was encored because of its beauty. Reinecke himself considered the prelude, and the overture, to be among his finest work.

SETTING: Naples and Benevento, 1266. Manfred (tenor) is the illegitimate son of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and king of Sicily. He died at the age of 34 in battle against King Charles I of Anjou, and was opposed by much of Western Europe, but was known for his physical beauty and intelligence. Some of the other characters include his wife Helen (soprano), the Cardinal Octavianus (bass), a nun named Ghismonda (soprano), and “Eckart” (baritone) who might be an anachronistic Meister Eckhart who was around six years old when Manfred died. The plot seems to revolve around Manfred banishing five Apulian and Sicilian barons who then conspire to have him die in a war with Charles of Anjou.

LINKS TO PETRUCCI MUSIC LIBRARY VOCAL SCORE:

https://imslp.org/wiki/König_Manfred,Op.93(Reinecke,_Carl)

LOOK OUT FOR:

The Overture *** is a full symphonic piece. It starts off slow, before becoming much more energetic and agitated. Eventually it takes on a tune that is almost like a waltz. If it is Wagnerian, it knowns nothing beyond Lohengrin and seems similar to Smetana or Schumann. It ends somewhat like a Tchaikovsky finish. The piece as a whole seems to be a character sketch of the title character.

This video places all three of the highlights from the opera proper into a single video. The first is the fourth act prelude **, which is forlorn and dominated by a solo violin. 3:40 in starts the fifth act prelude *** which is an excellent composition and seems somewhat closer to the Wagner of Tristan. It is dominated by a melody which seems similar to that of the overture to Gounod’s Faust or the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. The final part (a bit over eight minutes into the video) is the second half of the act three ballet ** and falls in rather well with the typical French opera-ballet music of the 1860s (heaven knows I’ve reviewed rather a lot of those!). This one seems influenced by Offenbach, even a bit of the Gounod Faust ballet (and a Spanish-ish bit as well) and has a rousing finish which isn’t far from Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty.

COMMENT:

Dear Someone with Power,

Please record the entirety of this opera! I need to hear ALL of it! I am sure that the orchestral highlights here are not the only treasures this score contains. I wish I could make a more complete review of this work. Please, if you can be that Someone, make this possible!

Thank you,

Phil of the Opera World.