The present album is the first release of Franz Schmidt's rarely performed opera Fredigundis, the role of Fredigundis ideally cast with the Croatian mezzo-soprano Dunja Vejzovic.
In 1914, Franz Schmidt staged his opera Notre Dame at the Vienna State Opera to great acclaim. Immediately afterwards, he was looking for new material for another project and came across the novel Fredigundis by Felix Dahn, which is loosely based on historical events from the 6th century. From 1916 to 1921, Schmidt worked on his project, which was premiered in Berlin in December 1922. Franz Schmidt's music for Fredigundis marks the end of a development that runs through the so-called “classic Romantic” period. The work is characterized by numerous chromaticisms and an expansion of the major-minor system in the music that pushes the boundaries of tonality, as well as dense counterpoint and perfect compositional artistry in the vocal parts.
The dramatic mezzo-soprano Dunja Vejzovic, who got famous for her Wagner roles in Bayreuth and Salzburg, performed on all major opera and concert stages of the world. The excellent set of singers in this performance is supported by the Austrian conductor Ernst Märzendorfer, who mastered several instruments and also composed piano concertos, incidental music and a ballet. On this recording, he conducts the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, which has established itself as an opera orchestra through its continuously successful collaboration with the MusikTheater an der Wien.
