Tanzlied des Pierrot from Die tote Stadt - Korngold

http://chrisjonesbaritone.com/
Excerpt from my February E-Newsletter;
We ended the month of January with a fabulous recording session, taking on two pieces that I really love. We recorded Erich Korngold's achingly beautiful "Tanzlied des Pierrot", from his opera Die tote Stadt. While I have sung many arias over the years, and still have countless arias yet to discover and to sing, this is among my top three favorite arias for the baritone voice. The opera, which had its premiere in Germany in 1920, was one of the greatest international hits of the 1920's, and it made Korngold a bona fide superstar. His unprecedented success as an opera composer drew the attention of the major Hollywood film studios - impossible to imagine these days - and in short order, he was scoring Max Reinhardt's film version of A Midsummer Night's Dream and signing lucrative contracts with Warner Bros. and Paramount Studios to write music for their movies.
In "Tanzlied des Pierrot", the speaker - Pierrot, an archetypal stock character of mime - expresses a yearning obsession at his memory of someone so beautiful and entrancing, he is overwhelmed by his conflicting feelings of intoxication, happiness, and misery. In the end, he poignantly articulates the melancholic fate of a clown; "Illusion and happiness: ah, this is a clown's destiny."
I discovered this aria almost a decade ago, and I was shocked that I was largely unfamiliar with it. How could I have missed it? I realized that, compared to more "standard" baritone arias, this hauntingly magical aria is almost never performed. It has the reputation for being very, very difficult; almost a chore to sing. But I fell in love with it immediately, and I knew I had to just dive in. As I began to explore the piece, I found that it was, in fact, very taxing to sing. But at the time, I wasn't sure if that was because it was just a hard aria, or maybe because my technique was not secure enough to handle it. Yes, my technique still needed quite a bit of fine-tuning, to be sure. But after years of study and exploration, I had a thrilling breakthrough. I realized that the aria is not inherently difficult, but rather, it has always, without exception, been sung in the wrong style. Somehow, over the years, a dirge-like, plodding tempo has been adopted, making the soaring vocal lines and high tessitura of Korngold almost impossible to sing. Through the wonders of my favorite archival source, YouTube, I have found a rare recording of Korngold himself playing this aria on the piano over eighty years ago! What a thrilling revelation to see and hear, from Korngold's own fingers, that in this aria he wrote a nostalgically swift and lilting waltz, not a maudlin expression of cheap melodrama! I have always been addicted to unearthing pieces of music history's lost treasures, finding out the back-story of a song's poem, or what was going on in a composer's personal life at the time he or she wrote a particular piece. So this finding is really one of the most exciting things I have ever uncovered.
My pianist and I employed our stylistic revelations to the aria in our rehearsals and in our recording session, and the result was nothing short of magic. Now, as we introduce ourselves to Korngold's own expressive intent, the aria burns with life. It ebbs and flows, unpredictably swelling with intensity and then suddenly disappearing into the softest of whispers, just as a person would actually feel the tugging memories that the arias speaks of. It's far too melodramatic to say that we feel as though we are actually channeling Korngold and his love for music, but that is PRECISELY how we feel!
I hope you enjoy this music as much as we do. As we work to perfect Korngold's style, the changes we're employing are sure to be a bit controversial. Some people will disagree with what we're doing. For years, voice teachers, coaches, and singers have been adamant about this aria's sluggish tempo, which has sucked the life out of an aria that was truly meant to live.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• korngold
• pierrot's
• tanzlied
• mein
• sehnen
• wähnen
• die
• tote
• stadt
• baritone
• chris
• jones
• opera
• divoboy
• romantic
• hollywood

[lovelyTOI]

Excellent! And you look so sharp with the stone wall behind you.

[divoboy]

@lovelyTOI Thank you so much!

[Oaktownrob]

Wow! You were really soaring there, Mr Jones. This is incredibly beautiful to hear.

I am duly haunted my your performance. Thanks for the education.

Rob

[divoboy]

@Oaktownrob My dear Robert! Thank you soo much. Your Comment made my day.

[Toooder]

Thank you Chris for getting me to appreciate a style of music i wouldn't otherwise have listened to. As always, superb.

[divoboy]

TOODER! Much love to you, thank you!

xoxo

[eflaspo]

@operadawg What you mean is he needs more head resonance in his top notes. A beautiful voice, indeed.

[saintsaens21]

Superb.

[leifo5343]

I am a fan of your voice! When you let it resonate in your forehead, it's wonderful! Not that I'm in any position to give advice (I'm a composition major) but try not to swallow your voice when you go lower... Amazing, and I wish I had half your talent.

[operadawg]

You have a beautiful voice, but you're undersinging here. You sound like you're channeling the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz. Loosen up! Let the voice flow out. Trust your support--you're a fine singer!

[divoboy]

Fabulous, my friend! You're the best!