Otto Nicolai (1810-1849)
Die Heimkehr des Verbannten (Le Retour de l'Exile), opéra en 3 actes

Hans Christoph Begemann, baryton
Bernhard Berchtold, ténor
Julia Bauer, soprano
Kouta Räsänen, basse
Uwe Stickert, ténor
Tiina Penttinen, mezzo-soprano
André Riemer, ténor
Chœur de l'Opéra de Chemnitz
Robert-Schumann Philharmonie
Frank Beermann, direction

La genèse de cet opéra, connu initialement sous le nom d’Il Proscritto, fut mouvementée, Nicolai refusant deux livrets dont le futur Nabucchodonosor. Faute de mieux, Nicolai dut négocier la reprise du livret initial auprès de Verdi qui, lui, avait accepté les deux propositions. Des trois versions existant de l’ouvrage (Milan-1841, Vienne-1843, Berlin-1849), le chef a retenu celle de Vienne pour son air introductif dévolu à la soprano. L’opéra est de style typiquement romantique allemand, comportant de très beaux arias et duos, de grands passages choraux et démontrant un sens de l’orchestration très abouti. Les trois rôles principaux sont parfaitement tenus avec une brillantissime Julia Bauer aussi à l’aise dans les aigus fortissimo que dans les passages mezzo-vocce, un ténor, Bernhard Berchtold, au timbre mozartien convenant parfaitement au rôle et le baryton Hans-Christoph Begemann plein d’assurance et d’émotion. Nicolai ayant réservé à chacun de ses solistes un instrument caractéristique (respectivement le hautbois, la clarinette et le violoncelle), on découvre de superbes passages orchestraux introduisant des airs dirigés avec autorité par Frank Beermann et superbement enregistrés. Une réussite et une rareté ! (Thierry Jacques Collet)

It was not too long ago that Otto Nicolai’s name was known to opera audiences exclusively in association with his comic opera The Merry Wives of Windsor. Then the performance of his opera Il templario changed our view of this composer’s oeuvre. Il templario, a work premiered in Turin in 1840, met with great international acclaim and recognition when it was produced on the stage and as a CD in Chemnitz (cpo 777 434-2; jpc 3865245). Its success has encouraged us to acquaint the music world with yet another Italian opera by Nicolai produced in Chemnitz: Die Heimkehr des Verbannten, which celebrated its premiere as Il proscritto in Milan in 1841. Three years later it was presented as a German opera entitled Die Heimkehr des Verbannten in Vienna in a version revised by Nicolai that went on to be successfully performed about forty times over a period of three years at the Court Opera Theater. While revising the opera Nicolai rewrote half of the music. During subsequent years he continued to work on it and ended up creating a third version that was first performed in Berlin in 1849 a few months after his death. In Chemnitz the decision was made in favor of the Vienna version of 1844. While the overture and the ensembles are very much obliged to the German opera à la Freischütz, the influence of the Italian bel canto clearly continues to manifest itself in the arias of the soloists. A magnificent work revealing that there is more to Otto Nicolai than The Merry Wives of Windsor! The action is set during the Wars of the Roses in the fifteenth century. Many years earlier Lord Artur Norton was forced to leave his country. Since his wife Leonore has to assume that he has died, she has become engaged to marry Count Edmund of Pembroke. However, on their wedding day her missing husband returns. The two men initially insist on the validity of their claims to Leonore, but then Edmund generously concedes that Leonore belongs to Artur and declares that he is ready to renounce his beloved bride. He even secures a pardon for his rival from the king. However, it is precisely this act of kindness that makes it impossible for Leonore to decide between the two men. Instead she takes her own life.