Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Die Ägyptische Helena (1928 version)
Helen – Gwyneth Jones (soprano)
Menelaus – Matti Kastu (tenor)
Aithra – Barbara Hendricks (soprano)
Omniscient Seashell – Birgit Finnilä (alto)
Altair – Willard White (bass)
Da-ud – Curtis Rayam (tenor)
The Kenneth Jewell Chorale
Detroit Symphony Orchestra/Antal Dorati
rec. 1979, United Artists Auditorium, Detroit
Reviewed as download in FLAC format
Decca 4786502 [127]

The Egyptian Helen (to use the English version of the title) is Richard Strauss’ tenth opera (assuming that you count the two versions of Ariadne auf Naxos as a single work). Strauss worked on it during the production period of Intermezzo, his most autobiographical work. His regular librettist, Hugo von Hoffmansthal, who had opted out of dealing with Intermezzo, had continually urged Strauss to compose operas based on Greek subjects because he considered them to be more noble works for the theater. Strauss’ original idea was to compose a lighter work (like a serious operetta), in which to showcase the talents of his chosen soprano Maria Jeritza. The premiere of the opera came in Dresden under conductor Fritz Busch, but with Elisabeth Rethberg as Helen, apparently because Jeritza’s fee was too high for the intendant there. What emerged from Strauss and his librettist was a work of a more serious nature than their original idea. However, glimpses of the operetta style can be heard in the music for the Enchantress Aithra, and her pack of Elves. It is the very dichotomy of the serious and the light which has made Die Ägyptische Helena a difficult work to swallow for many music critics. Personally I find much to enjoy about this opera as long as one is willing to take it on its own terms.

This recording from Detroit came about chiefly because of Antal Dorati’s championing of the original 1928 score, rather than Strauss’ 1933 Vienna revision, done at the behest of Busch. Dorati had been Busch’s musical assistant for the Dresden premiere so he intimately knew the details of this score and what the composer wanted to stress in performance. This recording was made after a series of concert performances in both New York and Detroit using the same cast and orchestra. They were brought into the historic Spanish Gothic movie palace that was used for all of Decca’s Detroit recordings because of its legendary acoustics; now alas that theater is torn down. What was recorded by Dorati and his cast has a substantial feeling of authenticity about it that no other recording of this opera that I’ve heard seems to possess.

The cast of this set was pulled from the best singers available at the time. The one absolute success here is an absolutely bewitching Aithra from Barbara Hendricks. This soprano has a ravishing sheen to her tone, and she understands the complicated nature of this capricious, magical being. Listening to her singing is an almost sensual experience as she conveys both the petulance and the overall charm of the sorceress. Ms Hendricks comes out ahead of her competition on every other recording.

Gwyneth Jones’ Helen, it is a bit more difficult to make a clear decision about. She is a very experienced Helen, having sung the role in a couple of stage productions before this recording. Her voice here is inconsistent throughout. There are times when she sings at forte level where her tone will suddenly splay out, rather like the vocal equivalent of paint splatters; however, there are just as many occasions where her fortes emerge true, solid and radiant. One such example is a brilliant, exposed High C which occurs about 4 minutes into in track two of the second disc. Dramatically she is throroughly convincing as the distraught, guilty wife; she is singer who projects a real personality with her voice. While she is not vocally perfect, I find her to be a moving Helen and her flaws bother me less than it seems to for other reviewers.

Matti Kastu’s Menelaus is sung with gleaming firm tenor sound which has the ability to cut right through the dense orchestration. However; his voice is a size too small for this heroic role, which really calls for the vocal heft of a singer such as Jon Vickers. At various times throughout the opera Kastu begins to sound dry but these are usually only momentary occurrences. In the smaller supporting roles Willard White is a virile-sounding King Altair; though the role has a range that seems a bit high for him, he copes with it extremely well. Curtis Rayam sings rather sweetly in the role of the doomed Prince Da-ud. Strauss originally wanted to make this role a trouser role for a mezzo. This shows itself in the awkward range of Da-ud’s music which doesn’t really suit the tenor register.

Antal Dorati’s authority as a Strauss interpreter is confirmed by this recording. He is not one to linger unnecessarily over the more lyric pages and he keeps the dense, stormy passages moving along nicely. His shaping of the Dresden score is fairly consistent with his mentor Fritz Busch. This I confirmed by auditioning the four excepts that Fritz Busch and soprano Rose Pauly recorded from the opera in Dresden, a couple of months after the premiere. These recordings are available in a box set from Profil devoted to Busch’s Dresden Staatskapelle recordings (review). Rose Pauly (aka Rose Pauly Dresen) demonstrates that she possessed all of the ideal vocal qualities for Helen. Hearing Busch and his orchestra only confirms that Dorati maintained the same guiding hand of Busch, and allows one today to hear a performance that essentially resembles the one that Strauss heard in 1928.

After six concert performances, the Detroit Symphony sound quite well-settled into the intricacies of the score. The engineers have provided sound which has a nice bloom and clearly delineates a sound stage across the stereo spectrum. All of the other recordings of this opera derive from live performances, including an RCA release (with Gwyneth Jones in somewhat fresher, younger voice) is of the less desirable 1933 revision of the score for Vienna. All of these other recordings, despite the various merits of their casts, have less than ideal sound for one reason or another. Dorati’s is the only studio recording of this interesting, though flawed opera; it has some claim to being the best of them all.

There is a digital booklet that comes with this download a full libretto with English translation is available to download from the Decca classics website.

Mike Parr 

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Other cast members:
First Servant – Betty Lane
Second Servant – Glenda Kirkland
Hermione/First Elf – Dinah Bryant
Second Elf – Patti Dell
Third Elf – Maria Cimarelli
Fourth Elf – Katherine Grimshaw