Classical Music | Soprano

Recorded on 09/24/2011, uploaded on 09/24/2011

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Richard Strauss was a master of vocal composition, and he had a particular reverence for the soprano voice, in part inspired by his happy marriage to the operatic soprano Pauline de Ahna. On one occasion, he commented, “I thank my Almighty Creator for the gift and inspiration of the female voice.” Strauss began composing lieder in his early years as a composer, and continued to do so right up until his death in 1949. Some of Strauss’s songs, such as the famous “Allerseelen,” have entered the standard repertoire. Yet, despite his superb writing for the voice, and his ability to masterfully handle the dramatic as well as the sentimental, many of his songs are often overlooked.

One such work is the Drei Lieder der Ophelia, the first three songs of his opus 67 collection. Appearing in 1918, the songs are based on texts taken from Shakespeare’s Hamlet and translated into German. Specifically, they come from Act IV, Scene 5. Ophelia, the ill-fated character who ultimately drowns after being rejected by Hamlet, enters the castle singing strange songs, while Gertrude and Horatio blame the death of her father for her odd behavior. The musical language of Strauss’s three settings is certainly removed from the lush Romanticism of his most well-known songs. The harmonies are highly chromatic, stretching any sense of tonality to the breaking point. Yet, the music Strauss provides effectively captures the psychological state of Shakespeare’s character, and provides a dramatic and chilling landscape against which the bard’s lyrics become even more haunting and disturbing.       Joseph DuBose

The Steans Music Institute is the Ravinia Festival's professional studies program for young musicians.