Notre Dame (opera)

Notre Dame is a romantic opera by Franz Schmidt, to a libretto by himself and Leopold Wilk (1876–1944), a professional chemist and amateur poet.^[1] It is based loosely on the 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo.

Composition

The opera was written between 1904 and 1906.^[2] Schmidt approached the opera by writing the orchestral parts of the score first, adding the vocal parts in later.^[1] He incorporated some material from an unfinished fantasia for piano and orchestra.^[1]

Notre Dame was first performed in Vienna on 1 April 1914. The principal female role of Esmeralda was created by Marie Gutheil-Schoder.

The work was popular till the early 1920s, then faded from view. It has been revived in Vienna and Dresden, and has been recorded at least twice.^[1]

The opera is best known for its orchestral Intermezzo, which was first performed, along with the Carnival Music,^[1] on 6 December 1903 in Vienna, as Zwischenspiel aus einer unvollständigen romantischen Oper.^[3] These pieces were not composed with any opera in mind, but were later incorporated into Notre Dame, which he started writing in August 1904.^[1] The composer and violinist Karl Goldmark described the Intermezzo as "the most beautiful of Gypsy music".^[4]

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere: 1 April 1914, Vienna
Esmeralda	soprano	Marie Gutheil-Schoder
Gringoire	tenor
Phoebus	tenor
Quasimodo	bass
Archdeacon	baritone	Joseph Schwarz[5]

Revivals

• post-World War II, Vienna State Opera^[1]
• 1975, Julia Migenes, Walter Berry, Vienna Volksoper^[1][2]
• 2010, Camilla Nylund (Esmeralda), Robert Gambill (Phoebus), Oliver Ringelhahn (Gringoire), Markus Butter (Archdeacon), Jan-Hendrik Rootering (Quasimodo), Dresden Semperoper under Gerd Albrecht^[6]

Recordings

• 1949, Karl Ostertag (tenor), Wilhelm Schlichting (baritone), Hanne Munch (mezzo-soprano), Max Proebstl (bass), Hans Hopf (tenor), Hilde Scheppan (soprano), Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Hans Altmann^[7]
• 1988, Dame Gwyneth Jones (Esmeralda), James King (Phoebus), Kurt Moll (Quasimodo), Horst Laubenthal (Gringoire), Hartmut Welker (Archdeacon); Andreas Juffinger, Hans Helm, Kaja Borris, with Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra under Christof Perick.^[2]