I first heard about Franz Schreker while studying, when a friend mentioned the Chamber Symphony and how wild, passionate and inspiring it was. I remember them describing it as music that took Mahler and Richard Strauss but pushed it just the next step further into this wild, exotic and crystallised world. From then on I researched his music and I become hooked. I wanted to conduct the Chamber Symphony for my masters recital, but I couldn’t find a harmonium to use in the concert and along side needing seperate players for both the harmonium, piano and celesta it all proved to hard and so I opted for the keyboard-less Arnold Schoenberg First Chamber Symphony.

I’m not going to go into to much analysis of the piece or description of the narrative. Alex Ross has an excellent write up on this blog. This opera is a mad love triangle, exploring the role of an artist, beauty and lust. In researching further about the piece, one comment about the third act, which depicts an orgy in a grotto on an island near Genoa, suggested it could have been inspired by the life of German Industrialist Frederick Alfred Krupp. Krupp was caught out for holding gay orgies in a hidden grotto near his personal hotel on Capri. Once the authorities found out, the scandal was so far reaching it made its way to the Kaiser, and is believed to be why Krupp took his own life. This tragic story really drew me in. In my previous opera, Orpheus, I wanted to shine light on a masculine, cis-male character with a fluid sexuality, which encompassed love and lust for cis-women, men but also children. This is a topic I find fascinating, especially when we’re viewing from our historical perspective. Not just lust and desire, but the length people go to to fulfil the dreams. Also the darker edges of passions and taboos that drive people is not only a story I find intriguing, but drives a lot if not most operas. Greek myth is of course foreign and unfamiliar to us now, but the story of Krupp was only 100 years ago. A upstanding contributor to society forced into a wretched corner, with only one horrific way out, because they acted on their desires. Again queer people being persecuted for pleasure. With the added hypocrisy of it happening in Capri, where Roman Emperors created wild playgrounds to fulfil their generally more hetro, masculine desires.

the VIa Krupp leading down to the Grotta di Fra Felice, Capri

This period of Austria art and music is one of my favourite periods, and this piece proved to be a new highlight from that period. The stunning orchestration and bubbling, ever changing harmony melds Strauss, Mahler, Debussy and Dukas together into an amazing sound world. I programmed from Schreker songs in a concert of music written under Nazi oppression. I was especially interested in Schreker, because there are musicological arguments that Schreker really should have been the next big thing in German music. However, due to some Jewish family connections, Schreker was banned. And with his death, just as the Nazi’s took control, sealed his fate of being largely forgotten.

There seems to be a resurgence in his music and we’re seeing a lot more productions of his many and varied operas. I loved watching this 2005 Saltzburg Festival production, and I can’t wait to explore more Schreker operas, and I encourage you to do the same!