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About as distant from mature Wagner as you can get ... Anthony Negus conducts Das Liebesverbot.
About as distant from mature Wagner as you can get ... Anthony Negus conducts Das Liebesverbot. Photograph: Joseph Nixon
About as distant from mature Wagner as you can get ... Anthony Negus conducts Das Liebesverbot. Photograph: Joseph Nixon

Das Liebesverbot review – Chelsea Opera Group make the case for Wagner flop

This article is more than 8 years old

Cadogan Hall, London
Wagner’s early opera has rarely been seen since its disastrous premiere. But under conductor Anthony Negus in this concert, its good qualities were apparent

Wagner’s second opera had just a single outing in 1836. A scheduled second performance was cancelled when only three people turned up to see it. Wagner subsequently disowned it, and it has rarely been heard since.

But there’s been increased interest of late in The Ban on Love – as the title translates – and this Chelsea Opera Group concert performance stole a march on a rumoured upcoming staging by the Royal Opera.

Wagner based his own libretto loosely on Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, moving the setting from Vienna to Palermo and turning the stern governor of Sicily who outlaws all pleasures into Friedrich, a German outsider.

Despite its neglect, the piece turns out to have many good qualities, though its style – a mixture of French and Italian influences – is about as distant from mature Wagner as you can get. That said, it is possible to imagine what a great composer of French comic opera he might have become if only he had stuck with it.

COG brought in Wagner specialist Anthony Negus to conduct, which he did with expertise and gusto, energising both chorus and orchestra. Even with cuts, the piece still felt long – but then nobody ever said Wagner’s operas are too short. Its besetting sin, though, is over-scoring, the composer frequently drowning out his singers with complex ensembles.

A large cast tackled some demanding roles with conspicuous success. Helena Dix’s resilient soprano empowered nun-turned-intriguer Isabella, while the forbidding weight of David Soar’s bass made him an ideal Friedrich. Nicholas Folwell explored the comic potential of the governor’s hypocritical henchman Brighella, with sopranos Kirstin Sharpin and Elizabeth Cragg respectively seizing the opportunities granted to Isabella’s friend Mariana and her former maid Dorella.

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