Sunday Afternoon at the Opera - Dvorak: Der Jakobiner

Sunday Afternoon at the Opera host Keith Brown writes:

Antonin Dvorak wanted to write a truly popular Czech national opera. He succeeded brilliantly in this romantic comedy about life in a little town in Bohemia during the French revolutionary period (The Jacobin, 1888/rev. 1897). To the conservative folk of Bohemia any Frenchman is a "Jacobin" who is not to be trusted. The townspeople even think the reprobate son of the local nobleman is a Jacobin, too. The hero of the story is Benda, the canny schoolmaster and music teacher, a townsman of humble birth who, because he is an educated person, acts as an intermediary in the tangled relations between the Count and his son and the townsfolk. That name Benda is a famous one in the musical history of Bohemia. Dvorak and his librettist chose the name precisely for that reason. Moreover, the music teacher was an honored figure in every village throughout this very musically inclined inclined Slavic nation.

Supraphon, the old Czechoslovak state record label, issued a recording of The Jacobin on stereo LP's in 1978. The Pro Arte label picked up this recording for issue in the US in 1981. Jiri Pinkas directed the Brno State Philharmonic Orchestra, the Kuehn Mixed Chorus and Kantilena Children's Chorus, with a cast of native Czech speaking vocal soloists. I first broadcast this recording way back on Sunday, June 30, 1985 and broadcast it a second time on Sunday, May 15, 2011. There is a 1994 Supraphon CD reissue of it which I understood was the only recording of the opera ever made. It turns out it was the only recording sung in the original Czech language libretto.

There exists an even older recording of it in German translation. The opera is titled Der Jakobiner in German. It was recorded in 1952 in monaural sound live in performance from the studios of ORF Austrian Radio in Vienna. German language spoken commentary links the musical numbers. Kurt Tenner conducted the Large Vienna Radio Orchestra. The native Viennese basso Walter Berry portrayed Graf Wilhelm von Harasov. The old aircheck recording has been digitally reprocessed for issue on two compact discs in 2013 courtesy of the Archipel label. The sound quality of the original recording admittedly isn't awfully good, but the wonderful singing to be heard compensates for any faults.