Germania : Harms, Palumbo / Deutschen Oper Berlin, Linstrom, Ventre, etc (2006 Stereo)

ALBERTO FRANCHETTI (1860 - 1942)
GERMANIA - Lyrical drama Text by Luigi Illica

Carlo Ventre
Lise Lindstrom
Markus Bruck
Bruno Caproni
Ante Jerkunica, etc
Chor und Orchester der DEUTSCHEN OPER BERLIN
Renato Palumbo, conductor
production by Kirstein Harms

Live aus der Deutschen Oper Berlin, 2006

NTSC
Region Code: 0 (worldwide)
Sound: 5.1
Subtitles: I / D / E / F

THE STARS THEY CAST THEIR LIGHT - upon the battlefields

It is somewhat remarkable, and a fact only few people are aware of nowadays, that there was an Italian composer in the early years of the 20th century who chose a chapter of German history from the early 19th century as the setting for his opera.

When GIUSEPPE VERDI was asked to write a Columbus opera on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America, he referred the request to ALBERTO FRANCHETTI. And thus, Cristoforo Colombo (first performed in 1892) eventually turned out to be the only work for the stage that so far brought any fame for the Italian composer, born in Turin in 1860. He had, however, written other operas - among them Giove a Pompei (a co-operation with, Fior d’Alpe (1894) and Il Signor di Pourceaugnac (1897) by the time no lesser than ARTURO TOSCANINI helped to bring GERMANIA to its triumphant premiere performance on March 1, 1902.

“Germania” is the story of a deeply moving personal tragedy against the backdrop of the German insurrections against Napoleon’s occupational army. The beginning and the prologue of the opera are historically accurate: on August 14, 1806, bookseller Johann Philipp Palm from Nuremberg was arrested by French and local police officers. Just eight days previously, Franz II., last emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, had abdicated. On August 12, sixteen realms of the “Reich” in the west and south declared their independence from an empire that was already falling apart due to the abdication. They united in the Rhinebund confederation, basically a Napoleonic protectorate.

Such events offered plenty of fuel for an exciting plot, namely, the fight for liberation fought by the intellectuals against foreign occupation which eventually culminated in the famous Battle of Nations at Leipzig in 1813.

This present DVD live recording presents the re-discovery and first performance of this opera in Germany since 1908. In 2006, the Deutsche Oper Berlin undertook to bring this work back onstage in a sensational new production by KIRSTEN HARMS. ( Phoenix Edition )