… Michael Hendrick threw himself at the demanding tenor role of the Stranger.

During the twenties, Erich Wolfgang Korngold was a big name in European music, with his opera Die tote Stadt a major success. But his music was thrown out of the repertoire in Germany and Austria by the Nazis, and for decades only his reputation as a Hollywood film composer kept his name alive. Now there’s a full-scale Korngold revival, and his vast 1927 mystical opera The Miracle of Heliane received this British premiere performance by the LPO under the persuasive baton of Vladimir Jurowski.

On the negative side, a concert performance can’t give much idea of its dramatic qualities; it’s clearly fairly static anyway. The subject is extremely high-flown, with the arrival of a mysterious Stranger finally redeeming an unhappy kingdom following a dual resurrection from the dead for him and Heliane, wife of the oppressive Ruler.

But much of the score – particularly the climactic third-act – is sumptuous to a degree, with Korngold showing a mastery of late-Romantic harmony and orchestration equal to any of his contemporaries. The performance was superbly played and conducted. The cast, positioned a long way back, made less of an impression, though Patricia Racette engaged with the title role, Michael Hendrick threw himself at the demanding tenor role of the Stranger, and Willard White poured out his authoritative tone as the Porter. Andreas Schmidt sounded less focused as the Ruler. It may be an uneven work, but the best of it merits revival.

Production information

Composer: Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Management: London Philharmonic Orchestra. Cast: Patricia Racette, Michael Hendrick, Andreas Schmidt, Ursula Hesse von den Steinen, Willard White. Run time: 3hrs 30mins

http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/18924/das-wunder-der-heliane

by George Hall

The Stage (U.K.)