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This release is only for hard-core collectors of recordings by the great Czech conductor Václav Talich. Its background is more interesting than the performance itself. In October 1938 Nazi Germany performed its notorious annexation of the predominantly German-language Sudetenland portions of Czechoslovakia, followed by outright invasion and occupation of the entire nation in March 1939. Libuše, considered by the Czechs to be their great patriotic opera (think of it as their counterpart to Verdi’s Nabucco), was already scheduled for performance in May 1939. Perhaps not recognizing its character, the Nazi authorities allowed the production to proceed, although the tumultuous demonstrations of nationalist fervor that greeted the performances led them to quash it immediately thereafter. (Curiously, the Nazis did permit performances of the equally patriotic Má vlast during the war years; perhaps some high-ranking officials simply liked that work as music.)
Beginning in 1935 the Czechs were making recordings for Czech Radio using a machine called the Blattnerphone, an early magnetic sound recording device invented by Louis Blattner in 1925 (the short-lived Selenophone, invented in 1936, was another such apparatus), that could record up to 30 minutes at a time in superior fidelity to shellac discs. (The booklet provides a photo of the machine, a monstrous affair with reels about three feet in diameter.) Recordings made with the device, such as the first complete version in 1933 of The Bartered Bride by the Gramophone Company (issued on HMV), were transferred to wax masters, and the tapes were then erased and reused. Recordings were also made on Decelith sound foils (with a varnish coating over a metal base), invented by the German firm ECW in 1934; these were less suited to music than to speech due to problems with a background rustling sound plus a short shelf life of five years. The entire opera performance was recorded on Blattnerphone tape and broadcast, but in July 1941 the tape was erased for reuse, probably due to pressure from Nazi authorities. Before this was done, the entire act III was transferred to 13 superior-quality wax foils (coatings over a glass base) for storage, while metal foils were run off for the star soprano of the production, Maria Podvalová. While most of the wax foils did not survive, and those that did surfaced only in poor condition, the metal ones fared better, ultimately being passed on to a distant relative of Podvalová, Miloš Guth.
Unfortunately, what survives is not an intact act III, but only extended fragments, focusing on Podvalová and her love interest, Přemysl, sung by baritone Stanislav Muž. The opera itself has a ridiculously mawkish plot. Two brothers, Chrudoš and Stáhlav, are disputing an inheritance; the former claims the entirety due to primogeniture, the latter requests an equal share. The princess Libuše is asked to arbitrate and rules in favor of Stáhlav, enraging Chrudoš, who refuses to recognize a verdict by a woman. Libuše thereupon resolves to marry and surrender her powers to a male consort, and her choice falls on the country squire Přemysl. The young maiden Krasava, daughter of Lutobor, is in love with Chrudoš, but when he initially does not reciprocate her affections she excites his jealousy by pretending to be attracted to Stáhlav. Krasava and Chrudoš reconcile, but Lutobor extracts a promise from Chrudoš that he will seek Libuše’s pardon as a condition for their marriage. Chrudoš and Stáhlav reconcile, Chrudoš is forgiven by Libuše and Přemysl, and Libuše has a vision that causes her to utter a grand prophecy of the glorious future of the Czechs, concluding: “My dear Czech nation will survive, survive, and gloriously, gloriously overcome the horrors of hell!”
I have never heard any of the opera’s music before now, and at the risk of offending any passionate Czech patriots reading this I must say that the music is as uninspired and soporific as the libretto. It is a pity that this is the only surviving recording of the great Václav Talich conducting an opera. Podvalová (handpicked by Talich to sing her role over another, more famous soprano) is dramatically committed but has an edgy upper register; as Přemysl, Muž is very poor, having a dry, harsh voice and a distinct wobble. The sound quality varies from mediocre to very poor. The already short timing is further compromised by the fact that the last seven minutes consists of vociferous applause, with the audience singing the Czech national anthem (about one minute long) halfway through. The opera’s Overture, a studio recording made for Electrola on April 30, 1940, is of course in much better shape; but subtracting its 8:41 plus the seven minutes at the end leaves only about 39 minutes of act III as novel material. The booklet provides copious notes on the historical background and recording equipment, plus bios for all the singers in the performance (many of whom are heard only in brief ensembles).
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