Well, it was an idea.
After presenting Erich Wolfgang Korngold's lushly romantic Die tote Stadt four years ago, the Dallas Opera decided to program the composer's effervescent first opera, the one-act Ring of Polykrates, this season.
The logical pairing would have been Violanta, another one-act opera composed right after Polykrates, and by all accounts a much stronger work. But, for whatever reasons – money doubtless a major one – Polykrates is being prefaced by Korngold's Violin Concerto, with the Dallas Opera Orchestra onstage, and French violinist Augustin Dumay as soloist. The four-performance run at the Winspear Opera House opened Friday night.
Korngold (1897-1957), a prodigy in the Mozart and Mendelssohn league, was a mere teenager when he penned both of his first operas. Through a subsequent career as a major Hollywood film composer and a late return to concert music, he never departed from a late romantic musical language.
Polykrates is the ultimate in easy listening, a mix of Strauss at his frothiest and Viennese operetta. Korngold already was a master of brightly colorful orchestration, and he wrote naturally for voices.
We meet Wilhelm Arndt, a newly enriched court composer, and his loving wife Laura. They're paralleled by Florian Doblinger, Wilhelm's music copyist and timpanist, and Florian's romantic interest (and Laura's servant) Lieschen.
All is sweetness and light until a hapless old friend of Wilhelm's, Peter Vogel, shows up. Seeing the happiness of the Arndt household, he cites an old legend that real happiness requires some sacrifice – in this case Laura's love. In the process we learn that Peter and Laura had a brief fling before she met Wilhelm, and there are some tense moments. But Peter is ultimately banished and happiness restored.
Although the opera is nominally set in the 1790s, set designer Donald Eastman and costumer Tommy Bourgeois handsomely update it to the time of the opera's composition, the teens of the 20th century. Stage director Peter Kazaras aptly blocks and animates the dramatis personae.
Tenor Paul Groves sings ardently as Wilhelm – too unrelievedly so; one wants a bit more poetry here and there. Laura Wilde's soprano blooms beautifully in upper range, but thins out below. Craig Colclough certainly personifies the rough-around-the-edges Peter, his baritone with just the right amount of texture.
Brenton Ryan's wiry tenor and fussbudget manner are perfect for Florian. Even Susannah Biller's rather keen soprano works for Lieschen. Music director Emmanuel Villaume got sprightly playing from the orchestra. The opera's 70 minutes still seemed long.
The luscious Violin Concerto, on the other hand, is justly Korngold's most-performed work. But this time it got a tentative and lifeless performance. Dumay, playing from music on a stand, seemed to be mastering the piece as he went. Both he and Villaume rarely looked up from their scores. Extravagant flailings engendered no energy from the orchestra.
Well, it was an idea.
Formerly classical music critic of The Dallas Morning News, Scott Cantrell continues covering the beat as a freelance writer. Classical music coverage at The News is supported in part by a grant from the Rubin Institute for Music Criticism, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation. The News makes all editorial decisions.
Plan your life
Repeats at 2 p.m. Sunday and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Feb. 17 at Winspear Opera House, 2403 Flora. $19 to $400. 214-443-1000, dallasopera.org.
