The Peculiar Pleasures of Grief

The song cycles of Schubert, sad as they are, can leave us feeling emotionally drained and spiritually transformed in much the same way as Wagner’s Ring Cycle--but only when they are performed with great artistry, as they were this week by baritone Jesse Blumberg and piano partner Martin Katz. We leave behind our 21st c. irony when relationships are ended on Facebook and we enter the passionate romantic world of the 19th c. when a broken love affair could leave us with dozens of different shades of despair.

The hero of “Die Schöne Müllerin” starts out on a joyful journey of self-discovery--finding useful work that is appreciated and finding a girl to love (the boss’ daughter). Things do not go well for him because the girl is fickle and rejects him in favor of a hunter. He winds up drowning himself in a stream. Nowadays, we are more likely to hear about suicides in the young caused by academic failure or electronic humiliation.

Wilhelm Muller’s poetry scans and rhymes, a quality of great advantage to the composer, one which we have lost in our time. Schubert’s music artistically reflects the emotions of joy, determination, pride, hopefulness, elation, jealousy, and despair.

The hero of “Die Winterreise” endures a darker journey through the wintry European landscape. This cycle comprises mostly shades of mourning and loss that dig even deeper into the soul than Elizabeth Kubler-Ross could imagine. This young hero has already lost his love and any minor joys he experiences are in his dreams, from which he wakes up in anguish. If the Eskimo language has dozens of words for snow, the German language has dozens of words for grief.

It is the duty of the singer and the pianist to convey to us these subtle differences and Messieurs Blumberg and Katz accomplished this with consummate artistry; every word was caressed and colored. Mr. B. himself seemed inhabited by the hero; indeed, during the final song of “Die Winterreise”, such was the alteration of his voice, body and spirit, it was as if he channeled Herr Muller and Herr Schubert. It is worth noting that the voice is one of beautiful tone but it is the storytelling that counts in this case.

Much has been written about how mature a singer must be to take on these difficult cycles but Mr. B., while young, definitely had the maturity to take us on a very emotional journey with him.

© meche kroop for The Opera Insider