Photo: Rondeau Production. This Lied der Liebe was a special project in Leipzig. Their job was to rehearse one act each with the soloists of the MuKo. The results would be presented in a concert performance. This is a great innovation to the previous practice of having more conductors do a random potpourri of titles. According to Mr. Which would be a much more interesting challenge for conductors.
On this recording, which was made by radio stations Deutschlandfunk Kultur and MDR and is now issued by Rondeau Production as a single disc with 81 minutes of music, you hear Stefan Klingele conduct. The other three are not mentioned, which I find a bit puzzling. But never mind. Which you might also find a bit irritating since the big hit tunes are definitely by Strauss: and you wonder why they were utilized, e.
Not that Mamma Mia is uninspired, but Lied der Liebe certainly is in terms of plot. As the curtain rises, we see a count called Richard von Auerspach the Tauber role who has lost all of his money gambling with his fellow military friends. He changes his mind once he meets Baroness Paulette originally played by Anny Ahlers in the hotel lobby on his way to his room. Instead of killing himself he goes to visit his aunt in Hungary in act 3.
After many complications, Richard and Paulette come together for a happy end and depart for the Isle of Capri. Which is, sadly, not an actual setting in this operetta, maybe because Strauss never wrote a Caprifischer song, and Korngold only wrote his Naples-based operetta Die stumme Serenade in the s.
Count Richard sings some highly emotional solos along the way โฆ you can practically hear how Richard Tauber must have sung them, because they are tailor made and so typical. And because there are recordings of single numbers.
