Theirs was a great romance, but the creative cost of marrying composer Robert Schumann was high for his virtuoso pianist wife, Clara, writes EILEEN BATTERSBY
A GIRL IS carefully fashioned from childhood into a world-class pianist by her domineering father, a famous teacher whose disappointing private life, culminating in a messy divorce, has had its own share of agony. Into this domestic hothouse of controlled wish fulfilment strides a relatively dashing and gifted young law student with a passion for literature, whose ultimate genius will be for composition, yet who at this stage still hankers after performance success. He approaches the girl’s father for piano lessons. The newcomer’s difficulties, including an obsessive personality, a diseased hand and an even more sinister undetected illness, far exceed the routine complications of artistic temperament.
Of course, the man decides he wants the girl, still only a child. Her ambitious father objects. The determined suitor is composer Robert Schumann (1810-1856), who was to emerge as one of the giants of German Romanticism. The diffident young piano prodigy, his future wife, is Clara, pre-ordained, as far as her father, Friedrich Wieck (1785-1873), is concerned, for musical greatness, not marriage.
This tension between the roles of artist and wife is the theme of The Schumann Story: Clara and Robert, Opera Theatre Company's new touring production, which opened in Belfast yesterday and will come to Dublin's CHQ tonight, before playing at a number of atmospheric locations, including Rathfarnham Castle, Anaverna House in Dundalk and Castletown House in Celbridge.
“I feel she was strong and courageous,” says actor Ingrid Craigie, whose nervy intelligence, old-world grace, sensitivity and dignity make her inspired casting as Clara Schumann. It is quite a story, the marriage between Schumann and his concert pianist wife, with the composer objecting to Clara’s rehearsing in case it distracted him.
“Clara was a major musician,” says Craigie. “She was a virtuoso and far more famous than Robert. But there is no doubt they loved each other, and Robert really loved her, but God, was he selfish. He wanted her to be a wife and a mother; his muse, but not an artist.”
In The Schumann Story, the tale Craigie tells is based on a narrative drawn from the letters written by the couple, who married, against her father's wishes, on the day before her 21st birthday. There was joy but also hardship as Schumann became increasingly depressive and began to see Clara and her art as the enemy of his own ambition.
Their marriage lasted 16 years and produced eight children, cared for by Clara, who became a stoic through her experience of life with a genius. But it was a great romance, at least in the beginning. Craigie refers to a letter in which Clara notes her almost unbearable happiness.
“It is so unfair that way Clara had to battle to be the artist she was,” she says. “Here was this gifted woman, a genius in her own right, who was expected to drop everything in favour of her husband’s art. It’s so unfair. And she did it. That’s the thing: she accepted it.”
We agree that Robert Schumann was selfish beyond belief and that Clara’s father, old Wieck was, regardless of his personal motivation, right. Clara did need to be protected from Schumann. The first time Schumann saw Clara she was only nine years old and already a formidable talent.
"Of course, her father was opposed to it. Clara went away on tour. She was incredibly celebrated," says Craigie, who is rather incredible herself, with her animated features and compelling voice. She reacts with excitement when asked if she has read Janice Galloway's novel, Clara. "Yes, I'm reading it, it's wonderful . . . It really gives such a sense of the world they lived in."
The show's words come from the letters, as spoken by Craigie, but also from the wonderful lieder, from song cycles such as Frauenliebe und -leben( A Woman's Love and Life, 1840) and Dichterliebe( A Poet's Love, 1840), performed by mezzo-soprano Imelda Drumm and baritone Julian Hubbard. The singers are accompanied by David Bremner, who also plays five of the piano works, including Carnaval, Op 9, and Kinderszenen( Scenes From Childhood), as well as one of Clara's compositions.
Throughout the marriage Clara kept performing – it was vital, and provided the family income – but she had no time to work on her own compositions. Three years before Schumann’s death, in an asylum to which he had asked to be committed, a young Johannes Brahms had entered their lives. Schumann encouraged the younger man by praising him in a music journal. Brahms would become devoted to Clara, 14 years his senior, but his love remained unrequited.
“We haven’t gone into that,” Craigie says. “Our story looks intently at the Schumann marriage and how Clara dealt with what life had given her.”
Craigie’s sympathy for Clara, as a woman and as an artist, is obvious. “I love the music as well – reading the letters and finding out about her life have brought me closer to the music,” she says.
The Schumann Storyis a mood piece, and the music is sublime; expressive and intimate.
Robert Schumann died in 1856, the centenary year of Mozart’s birth. Clara was only 37 when she was widowed, and was exhausted by him and her life as a mother. Her concert career continued, with Clara dressed in plain, plaid and tartan dresses as befitted a widow. By the time she took her leave from the concert platform she had appeared more than 1,300 times. She played, she taught and she devoted herself to the legacy of Schumann.
The Schumann Story: Clara and Robert, Opera Theatre Company, is at CHQ, George's Dock, Dublin, tonight and then on tour until April 11; for details, see opera.ie
