Wolfgang Brunner - M. Haydn: Der Traum (2002)

"A queen is sentenced to death and beheaded by the executioner. After her head is cut off, a little princess emerges, who is angry with the executioner at first, but soon falls in love with him and sings an Italian aria What sounds here like an excerpt from one of Eugène Ionesco's surreal plays was written in Salzburg in 1776 by a priest. In the University Theatre, according to an old tradition, Latin tragedies with comic interludes were performed by pupils and students during carnival and at the end of the school year. No wonder that these interludes quickly became more popular than the main plots. So did the pantomime "The Dream" by Father Florian Reichssiegel, who was praised by his contemporaries as "very skilled in writing jokes and delicacies". Reichssiegel probably became acquainted with pantomime and commedia dell'arte through the travelling theatres in Salzburg. The music for these truly "wacky" folk dances was often written by Michael Haydn, the Salzburg court musician and concertmaster. In "Traum", too, his music is quite equal to the craziness of the libretto. Look forward to the first recording by the Salzburger Hofmusik under Wolfgang Brunner with none other than Robert Holl in the role of Vitzle Putzle.