Franz Schubert: Ein Opernkomponist? Am Beispiel des Fierrabras by Liane Speidel (review)

Abstract

Franz Schubert: Fin Opernkomponist? Am Beispiel des Fierrabras. By Liane Speidel. (Wiener Schriften zur Stilkunde und Auffuhrungspraxis, vol. 6.) Vienna: Bohlau Verlag, 2012. [371 p. ISBN 9783205786962. [euro]39.] Bibliography, discography, index. Aside from three theatrical works, Franz Schubert never witnessed a full production of his dramatic music. Occasionally, modern opera companies revive one of operas in hopes that it will assert itself into the repertoire. This is the case with Fierrabras: completed in 1823, Fierrabras never made it to the operatic stage during the composer's lifetime. In 1897, as a part of the Schubert centennial celebrations, a performance of the work took place under Felix Mottl's direction. The second full staging of the opera occurred in 1988 under Claudio Abbado's direction at the Theater an der Wien and then in 1990 at the Staatsoper. In Franz Schubert: Ein Opernkomponist? Am Beispiel des Liane Speidel directs her inquiry into operas through an examination of their reception history in scholarly publications and concert reviews. In doing so, her approach differs from recent writings by such authors as Thomas Denny (in Schubert's Operas: 'The judgment of History', in The Cambridge Companion. to Schubert, ed. Christopher Gibbs [Cambridge University Press, 19971,224-38) and Brian Locke (in 'Ever More Fearful Grows the Confusion': Genre and the Problem of Musical Narrative in Fierrabras, in The Unknown Schubert, ed. Barbara Reul and Lorraine Byrne Bodley [Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2008], 99-117), who have analyzed the dramaturgical and compositional aspects of fierrabras in order to demonstrate growing mastery of the operatic form. In her monograph, Speidel attempts to move the discussion away from a musical analysis of Fierrabras toward an examination of the musicological discourse surrounding this opera in which scholars and performers try to resuscitate one of dramatic works for the operatic canon. White her approach toward operas is nuanced, the structure of the argument and presentation of her ideas hinder the reader from grasping some of the author's unique observations about his dramatic music. In general, the book reads as a string of small, disparate sections, some of which can be independently interesting, but they never coalesce into a grand narrative that helps the reader understand the evolving reception history of theatrical works. The first seven chapters appear to be a literature review of past research into operas in which the author offers few unique observations or new materials. Sections of chapter 4 (Opernstromungen zu Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts) offer interesting examinations of the patriotic and nationalistic movements that occurred in earl). nineteenth-century Austria and which had an effect on theatrical works. Often within these opening chapters, however, die reader must wade through pages of expositional material before arriving at the author's main points about Fierrabras. At the end of chapter 5 (Das Libretto), for example, Speidel reviews the importance of Fidelio, Der Freischutz, and Euryanthe in the history of German opera but reveals very little as to how these operas affected operatic output, or how they were related to the reception history of Foerrabras. Interspersed throughout other chapters, she points out that Schubert experienced Fidelio and Der Freischutz in performance, and that he likely knew of Euryanthe, which Weber composed for Vienna's Karntnertortheater around the same time that Schubert was working on Fierrabras. (Euryanthe's failure prevented the performance of Fierrabras.) Yet it is not until chapter 7 (Kompositorische Aspekte) that she makes it clear how these works relate to her main thesis about the modern reception of operatic music. That is, modern scholars have drawn parallels between Fierrabras and these three operas in order to contextualize Fierrabras within a historical framework of early nineteenth-century Viennese operatic culture. …