Foerster: Eva

Day 199

Foerster: Eva

Soloists

Cracow Philharmonic Orchestra

Wexford Festival Chorus

Jaroslav Kyzlink

Foerster (sometime spelt Förster) is of the generation between Smetana and Janáček. He lived almost to the age of 100 (1859-1951) and must have seemed like a figure from another age by the time that he died.This opera, his first, dates from 1899. From the start we are clearly in the Czech world, with music which could have some from the Slavonic Dances or the Bartered Bride. But I found as he moved away from this world that the music became rather anonymous - Foerster had absorbed the mannerisms  of late 19th century opera without putting his own distinctive stamp on the music. It became rather stogy and four-square and lacked any real sense of rhythmic energy.

The second Act started in the same way but about half way through something happened: the music caught fire and there was half an hour or so of raw and intense drama  - at times it was approaching the level of dramatic inspiration that Janáček was to make his own. The third Act started back in folk idiom with a series of dances and choruses which to my mind went on far too long, even though this recording cut several passages found in the printed score. Eva’s final monologue brought us back to the dramatic intensity of the second Act, though though that it didn’t quite build to the shattering climax I was hoping for, and then the operas ended rather perfunctorily.

So this was certainly a curate’s egg of an opera - some highly dramatic music which showed real operatic flair but also some rather routine sections which were quite hard going. It is interesting to speculate what would have happened had Janâċek not produced his series of extraordinary late operas - would Foerster have taken his place on the world operatic stage? An intriguing thought.