“Ich ging zu ihm” from Das Wunder der Heliane Op.20 (1927)

Since it was written more than ten years before Die Kathrin, Korngold’s epic last-but-one opera Das Wunder der Heliane, met comparatively few political problems and was performed in Hamburg and Vienna in 1927 and in Berlin in 1928. In spite of two post-war productions, however, it has not established itself in the repertoire, not least because of its lavish requirements in terms of staging and instrumentation. Korngold’s highly ambitious answer to Salome, it contains a particularly magnificent aria, “Ich ging zu ihm,” which was made famous by way of a recording by the first Vienna Heliane, Lotte Lehmann. For its erotic intensity, its soaring vocal line, and its brilliant orchestration, it can stand comparison with anything in Strauss’s very much more famous opera.