Dohnanyi: Tante Simona.

[] Ulbrich, Lory, Kertesi; Toth, Derecskei, Racz; Budapest Symphony Orchestra, Kovacs. Text and translations. Hungaroton HCD 31973 (Qualiton, dist.)

A native of the tri-lingual city of Pozsony (now Bratislava), Budapest-educated Erno Dohnanyi (1877-1960) achieved international fame as a pianist and composer in his early youth. Befriended by such mentors as Brahms and Joseph Joachim, he had his successful early works published in Germany, where he became recognized as "Ernst von Dohnanyi." Tante Simona, the first of his three operas, was first performed in Dresden with a German text in 1912. Three years later, Dohnanyi returned to Budapest to become -- with Bartok and Kodaly -- a significant member of the triumvirate that dominated Hungary's musical life until World War II.

Tante Simona (Aunt Simone) is a subdued kind of comic one-act with Italian characters, but without the unmistakably Italian character of Wolfo-Ferrari's Il Segreto di Susanna (1909). The story is fairly simple. Disappointed in a romance of her youth, Tante Simona brings up her niece, Beatrice, with strict discipline at home, safely guarded against the male sex. Count Ghino, a secret admirer of Beatrice, gains admission to Simona's house in the guise of a deaf-mute gardener. He is discovered by an old friend, Count Florio, who expresses interest in the lady of the house. Tante Simona catches the young lovers Beatrice and Ghino together and threatens to march her niece off to a cloister. Fortunately, Florio turns ...