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View all ItemsA compelling tale of tragic, invincible love
If ever a romance should have had a happy ending, it was this one. Robert Schumann met Clara Wieck in 1828 when he was a piano student with her father. He was 18 and she – only nine – was a highly gifted pianist with a talent for composing. By the time she was 15, her father, who had big artistic and financial ambitions for her, was taking her on concert tours and didn’t want her near Schumann. Yet, despite his opposition, they became unofficialy engaged when she was 18. On the day before her 21st birthday they were married. The same year, 1840, Robert produced some of his greatest love songs.
It was one of the great artistic love affairs but it came at a cost to Clara. Ultimately, she sacrified her own talents for the man she loved so devotedly. Not only did she have eight children, she also had the ordeal of providing support and encouragement for Robert, who was often suicidal. In 1854, he threw himself into the Rhine, was dragged out by some fishermen, commited himself to an asylum and died there 18 months later.
In Opera Theatre Company’s latest production, the tortured love story is narrated by the inimitable Ingrid Craigie, who also provides the voice of Clara. The presentation does a wonderful job of setting the songs in the context of their lives. The account of Robert’s death and the reading of his passionate love letter followed by Wiegenlied, the cradle song, was intensely moving. It was typical of director Annilese Miskimmon’s gentle choreography that turned a lieder recital into a compelling tale of invincible and tragic love.
The music follows the lovers emotionally, starting with the effusive love songs from Frauenliebe und Leben, restful moods in the Liederkreis and the playful duet Unterm Fenster (Under The Window). From there the mood fluctuates between moments of depression and optimism, but it always retains the sense of people living for each other.
Imelda Drumm and Julian Hubbard, singing solo and in duets, caught the full range of emotion in the songs, and David Bremner’s sympathic piano accompaniment also provided apt musical links through some of the better-known piano pieces.
Michael Moffatt
The Schumann Story: Clara & Robert
The Irish Mail on Sunday
April 4, 2010.
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