HANS WERNER HENZE (b.1926): Der junge Lord.

Description: To produce, in the middle of the modernism-conscious 1960s, a comic opera which paraphrases, pastiches and parodies the conventions of the genre from Mozart to Richard Strauss, in a musical vocabulary that borrows liberally from that convention while gleefully subverting it, seems as bold and revolutionary a gesture as any radical polemic could have been. The absurd story, of a circus ape passed off as the nephew of a nobleman to the initial delight of the foolish bourgeoiserie of a provincial German town, who see only what they want to see, is a rich vein of satirical inspiration, and Ingeborg Bachmann's libretto, a tapestry of clichés and deliberate banalities, takes full advantage of this. Henze's music matches the farcical premise and its execution, as does the gloriously naïve hyper-realistic excessively detailed children's book illutsration style of the Deutsche Oper Berlin staging. Ultimately, serious themes of the outsider at odds with society, and the necessity of recognizing even unpalatable truths, lend the colorful confection geniune weight and substance. Edith Mathis (soprano), Loren Driscoll, Donald Grobe (tenors), Barry McDaniel (baritone), Schöneberger Sängeknaben, Chorus and Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin; Christoph von Dohnányi. 4:3 picture format. NTSC. Region 0. PCM Stereo. 136 min.