Various - Tobias Michael: Die Rose vom Liebesgarten

Following its rediscoveries of Meyerbeer�s Vasco da Gama and Nicolai�s Il templario, the Chemnitz Opera House has now made yet another valuable contribution to stage history with its revival of Hans Pfitzner�s Die Rose vom Liebesgarten (The Rose from the Garden of Love). At long last we in turn now have the opportunity to fill a significant discographic gap with a new complete recording of this work. Although Palestrina is doubtless Pfitzner�s most highly effective and enduring stage work, the romantic opera Die Rose vom Liebesgarten (1901) also occupies a special place in his oeuvre: as an impressionistic rendering of a text charged with symbolism, it holds a unique place in the annals of German music theater. The work was inspired by pictorial motifs by Hans Thoma, a painter who supported the young composer. The action of the opera is based on romantic topoi and fairy-tale set pieces and was developed from the bucolic and chivalric scenes in Thoma�s cycle of paintings. Extraordinarily, the Rose maintains its distance from the program of the nascent veristic opera of the Franco-Italian repertoire and offers more than mere romantic sumptuousness. The critics of those times had enthusiastic praise for the composer�s naturalistic tone paintings and the rich character of his gripping music.