Heinz Holliger: Schneewittchen

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
This isn't Disney's Snow White. Schneewittchen (a.k.a. "Snow White") is a postmodern dramatic meditation based on the work of Robert Walser (1878-1956), a Swiss poet and playwright. His text is more concerned with examining the psychological states and dreamlike fantasies of the protagonists than with linear plot development leading to a happy ending. No dwarves, either, just perpetual confrontations between Snow White and the wicked Queen, the Queen's huntsman lover, and a fickle Prince who rescues Snow White, declares his love, and then is turned on by the Queen. Walser's characters are all different facets of a single personality.

Heinz Holliger opens the opera by having them sing in unison before taking on their distinctive roles. So it's a cerebral opera, but the music makes sense of it. Holliger writes brilliant declamatory passages, constantly commented upon and elaborated by the orchestra, with silvery upper-register instruments sometimes acting as a halo around the voices; elsewhere, it's percussion that carries the message. His luminous orchestration, like the often radiant vocal lines, tosses fragments of melodies about like so much falling snow, making the listening less forbidding than the telling. The singers are nothing short of magnificent. Banse as Snow White and Kalisch as the Queen are particularly effective in managing their high-flying lines and making the drama a visceral experience. Superb sound and production values match the outstanding performance. --Dan Davis

Tracks:

Prolog - Orch Der Oper Zurich/Heinz Holliger
Scene 1
Zwischenspiel 1-2 (Invention)
Scene 2, 1. Teil
Fughetta (In Nomine Fluminis)
Scene 2, 2. Teil
Zwischenspiel 2-3
Quasi Fuga

Tracks:

Scene 3
Zwischenspiel 3-4
Scene 4
Zwischenspiel 4-5
Scene 5
Epilog (Choral-Vars)

Amazon.com

This isn't Disney's Snow White. Schneewittchen (a.k.a. "Snow White") is a postmodern dramatic meditation based on the work of Robert Walser (1878-1956), a Swiss poet and playwright. His text is more concerned with examining the psychological states and dreamlike fantasies of the protagonists than with linear plot development leading to a happy ending. No dwarves, either, just perpetual confrontations between Snow White and the wicked Queen, the Queen's huntsman lover, and a fickle Prince who rescues Snow White, declares his love, and then is turned on by the Queen. Walser's characters are all different facets of a single personality.

Customer Reviews:

PoMo Snow White.......2002-10-04

A postmodern take on Snow White, "Schneewittchen" is a far cry from Walt Disney. Its opening immediately reveals that you're in for something quite unusual: an eerie, wordless chorus gradually emerges from the distance, like voices rising from a murky, snowbound forest. The prologue ends as the voices fragment into the principal characters, who are speaking to us from beyond the grave -- the opera takes place long after the standard fairy tale, and finds the characters trapped in a Beckett-like existence, endlessly rehearsing different psychological, emotional, and erotic scenarios. Although identities occasionally change, the focus is on a quartet made up of Snow White, the Queen, the Prince and the Huntsman. (The dwarves are absent in this opera -- I suppose they're out on a bender in Nibelheim.) The music itself is generally Expressionist/atonal in the way of Berg, and its offbeat melodies are punctuated by some colorful moments -- shimmering bells, dark brass, accordions, and whirling violins enter the tale like minor characters or shifting states of mind. The singers give exceptional performances, handling the material with ease, which can move rather quickly from states of beauty to harshness to alarm. (Snow White in particular seems to be a rather punishing role.) The opera sounds constantly driven, which is both a strength and perhaps a weakness -- it allows little room for the development of consistent melodies which might somewhat ground the characters. Still, there is a breathless thrill in the pitiless pace, and Holliger provides a few resting points along the way in the form of musical interludes, some of which surprisingly develop into passages rich in counterpoint. Quite a work, and I'm sure a very intense experience to see staged.

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