Sunday Afternoon at the Opera - Michael Haydn: Die Wahrheit der Natur; Edwards: Requiem for My Mother

Sunday Afternoon at the Opera host Keith Brown writes:

Johann Michael Haydn (1737-1806) was the younger brother of the famous Franz Joseph Haydn. Like "Papa" Haydn, Michael Haydn wrote symphonies (forty or more), much church music, etc. He also wrote a small amount of lyric theater music. From 1763 onwards he resided in Salzburg, where he was well acquainted with young Wolfgang and the rest of the Mozart family. It was for the Benedictine academy in Salzburg that he composed a German language Singspiel, "The Truth of Nature" or Die Wahrheit der Natur (1769). The school customarily gave two staged musical productions at the end of each academic year: one serious work, followed by something comic.

Yes, "The Truth of Nature" is a rather ribald lyric comedy, but it is also didactic in that its libretto handles the question of what makes for truly good, high quality artistic creation, specifically in poetry, music and painting. Haydn even throws some "bad music" into the Singspiel as a sendup and by way of comparison. The goddess of Nature and three of the Graces/Muses weigh in on the subject. Die Wahrheit der Natur was recorded at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg in 2015. Wolfgang Brunner leads the period instrumentalists of the Salzburger Hofmusik, with seven vocal soloists. The German CPO record label released this charming work on a single silver disc in 2018.

This Sunday also happens to be Mother's Day, so keep listening for an additional feature, Requiem for My Mother (2017) by Stephen James Edwards (b. 1972). He's a prolific composer of film scores who has taken on the traditional Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead, his setting scored for full symphony orchestra, chorus and vocal soloists. The premiere performance of Edwards' Missa pro Defunctis was given as part of the Musica Sacra Festival in Vatican City/Rome.

The studio recording of Edwards' requiem was made in Prague in the Czech Republic under contract with the City of Prague Philharmonic, with an American vocal ensemble, the Continuo Arts Symphonic Chorus. The three vocal soloists are American, too, as is the conductor, Candice Wicke. The world premiere recording of Requiem for My Mother was issued on a single compact disc through Sixfeetfive Music.

Edwards dedicated his mass setting to his mother, the late Rosalie Savarino Edwards, who was an accomplished musician. I dedicate my broadcast of Edwards' requiem to the memory of my own mother Olga Dorochin Brown (1920-2015).