David Stern

A daring wife disguises herself in order to be hired as a prison guard and thus rescue her unjustly detained husband: the story of Leonora, taken from the French novel by Jean-Nicolas Bouilly, is familiar to us through Beethoven’s only opera.

After a long war, Turkish emperor Soliman and Persian sophi Tamasse decide to seal the peace between their two countries and, to this end, exchange hostages. The preliminary treaty stipulates that, in order to make this alliance solid, Tamasse will wed Zanaida, Soliman s daughter. Meanwhile, the sophi falls in love with Osira, a Persian hostage sent by the emperor. This is where the action of this opera begins, the plot skillfully mixing Tamasse s infidelity, Zanaida s magnanimity, and Osira s ambition. It is a particularly appealing opera by the fourth and last of Johann Sebastian s sons, whose life was atypical for a Bach, for he carried out his career not in Germany but in Italy and England.

The short-lived Nicolai is better known for his operatic effort The Merry Wives of Windsor so it is good that MD&G are celebrating the less obvious. Of course neglect is sometimes justified. This turns out not to be the case here. Joyous Beethovenian bravura from same bloodgroup as the Beethoven's Choral Fantasy (much under-rated) and the Third and Fourth piano concertos. There is also restraint and tenderness aplenty amidst all the coruscating notes. The dashing piano part is pressed forward and breasted by MD&G regular Claudius Tanski - a most convincing performance. The work is restless with excitement and rich in detail.

The soprano Ania Vegry, the recipient of many prizes, was nominated by Opernwelt as the Young Artist of the Year in 2009 and has been an ensemble member at the State Opera of Lower Saxony in Hanover since 2007. The Online Musik Magazin certifies that »her soprano voice, most highly fluent in the coloraturas, possesses warmth and substance, expressive power, and flawless intonation« – which makes her the ideal choice for the rich affections of the arias of Florian Leopold Gassmann, an Austrian composer on the cusp between the Baroque and Early Classicism. After two years of study with Giovanni Battista Martini, Gassmann became an organist in Venice. In 1757 he composed his first opera, and through 1762 he composed an opera every year for the Carnival season In Venice.

Otto Nicolai is known to most listeners, at least outside Germany, for his opera Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor (The Merry Wives of Windsor), and among most of those specifically for the opera's sparkling overture. Nicolai, who died at age 39, wrote four other operas and various pieces of orchestral music as well; the latter has been collected in two volumes by the German audiophile label MDG, performed by the little-known and exquisitely confusingly named Southern Westphalian Philharmonic – Orchestra of the Land of North Rhine–Westphalia (entirely capable, for all that). The program doesn't make perfect sense.