Flotow: Martha [1986 Digital Remaster]

Undisputed musical merits notwithstanding, the two German genres Singspiel and Spieloper always had a hard time of it outside their native environment. In that respect they shared a common fate with the French opéra comique: with only a couple of exceptions, these were genres that remained on the periphery of the international repertoire. The reason wasn’t the language – hundreds of libretti were translated in the course of the 19th century. Nor can it have been different mentalities or a different sense of humour: the plots and standard dramatic situations are both timeless and international – upper-class couple (serious), lower-class couple (comic), amorous ups and downs, confusion and misunderstandings, happy ending.

No, the reason Spieloper and opéra comique failed to really take root abroad was simply the spoken dialogue: in an operatic culture dominated by the Italian melodrama, audiences increasingly found it embarassing and out of place. And the elimination of this shortcoming was what brought Friedrich von Flotow his success: he replaced the Spieloper’s spoken dialogues with fluid recitatives and musical numbers, mainly ensembles, that carried the story. The outcome was a more unified whole, without any loss in the lightness typical of the genre. The character of the ‘numbers opera’ was also preserved, with its clearly-structured forms.