Simplicius Simplicissimus

Although its premiere was delayed by over a decade and it's hardly a repertory staple, Karl Amadeus Hartmann's (1905-1963) opera Simplicius Simplicissimus now enjoys a considerable following in postwar Germany. Hartmann was a socialist who not only despised the Nazis but also refused to allow his works to be performed in Germany so long as the Third Reich remained in power (although composed in 1934-35, this opera wasn't staged until 1949). The text, on which Hartmann collaborated with conductor Hermann Scherchen (another ardent anti-Nazi), is based on a novel by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, telling an episodic tale of a boy who survives the horrific Thirty Years' War (1618-48), in which—as the opera informs us—two-thirds of the German populace died. The titular lad (a soprano trousers role) first sees his parents killed by a brutal mercenary, then is taken in by a kindly hermit, and finally becomes a jester at the governor's court—with the whole shebang ending in a bloody peasant uprising (the piece was clearly intended as a prophecy about the violence Hartmann saw coming under the Nazi regime). The eclectic score carries echoes of other composers—even a brief Bach-like chorale—within a harshly dissonant idiom reminiscent of the Schoenberg school, without ever fully adopting the 12-tone technique. This 2005 production from the Staatsoper Stuttgart is vocally strong (presented in decent PCM stereo sound) and features deft staging. The main drawback is that this version adopts Hartmann's original chamber orchestration rather than his final, expanded version. Regardless, this is a solid reading overall of an important 20th-century opera. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)