The conquest of Mexico

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Opera dates
Title: The conquest of Mexico
Shape: “Music theater” in four acts
Original language: German
Music: Wolfgang Rihm
Libretto : Wolfgang Rihm
Literary source: Antonin Artaud : La conquète de Mexique u. a.
Premiere: February 9, 1992
Place of premiere: Hamburg State Opera
Playing time: approx. 1 ¾ hours
Place and time of the action: Allegory or Mexico, at the time of the Spanish conquests around 1520
people

on stage

from tape

in the orchestra

  • very high soprano
  • Old
  • two speakers (discreetly amplified with microphones)

The Conquest of Mexico is an opera (original name: "Musiktheater") in four acts by Wolfgang Rihm with its own libretto based on Antonin Artaud's La conquète de Mexique and other sources. It was premiered on February 9, 1992 in the Hamburg State Opera.

action

The work, which Rihm explicitly describes as “music theater” instead of “opera”, has neither a continuous story that can be retold nor a strict separation of the roles of the characters. On the one hand, using the example of the destruction of the Aztec empire by the Spanish conquistadors, it shows the violent clash between two societies. At the same time, the work deals with the gender problem and the contrast between the male and female principle, whereby the Spaniards are predominantly viewed as male and the Aztecs as female. The male section also includes the male choir and the movement choir as well as the two speakers, the female the female choir and the two female solos.

First act: "The omens"

About five minutes before the actual beginning, while the audience takes their seats and the orchestra musicians are tuning their instruments, a "continuum of a very distant, very soft drum sound" can be heard. When the conductor appears, this intensifies into a “melody of a landscape that feels the thunderstorm coming”. Other initially indefinable sounds and the female choir recorded by the tape concentrate on the tone f sharp. The male world intervenes with the hackled noises of the two electronically amplified speakers. Montezuma appears several times at various points on the stage, accompanied by his priests, and then disappears again. After a while, the speakers agree to their slogan, "whispered 'hot' (as if suppressed)": "neutral - female - male". For the vocalises of the singers, Montezuma's first words are formed in the song, which refer to the Aztec relationship to nature: “Shadows of wild horses, distant meteors, lightning over the horizon…” Cortez also appears on stage, but without seeing Montezuma. He first repeats his words in a distorted way and then proclaims: "I want to try a terrible feminine". Montezuma realizes the danger. He explains: "The war I want to wage comes from the war that is being waged against me." Both languages ​​dissolve into stammered sounds. Throughout the scene, Cortez is supported by the speakers and Montezuma by the two female voices and occasionally by the female choir. Montezuma and the two female voices now sing vocalises in high register on the vowel “A”, which is suddenly picked up by the female choir and culminates in a 49-second chord sung in a fourfold forte (“garish, like synthetic, […] with a ribbon loop or something similar) extended").

Raíz del hombre (Octavio Paz, 1937) - 1st stanza

Montezuma ponders the dangers of love:

"Under the naked and light love that dances [...]"

Second act: "Confession"

Montezuma disappears. At first shadowy, then more and more clearly human sacrifices can be seen in a magnificent urban landscape. Suddenly the city is empty. Cortez arrives hesitantly and looks around anxiously ("Cities like light walls"). Male screams can be heard in the distance. Cortez and his companions (movement choir) freeze in fear. Finally, Cortez yells at his soldiers and gives them the marching motto: "male - neutral - female". The soldiers take over the slogan and start moving again. Suddenly heads appear on the walls, and in the distance the figure of Montezuma appears, who is slowly approaching Cortez. The two communicate in silence. Calm returns. Cortez tries several times to hug Montezuma and kiss his hand, but is always prevented by rushing Aztecs. Both show their mutual respect by bowing and politely pointing to their weapons. At the same time they have symbols of their religion brought in: Montezuma a banner and a Quetzalcoatl figure, Cortez a cross and a figure of the Mother of God. Arrows are shot into the air and gunfire is fired. While Cortez explains that he has come as a benefactor and wants to replace the idols with the mother of Jesus, Montezuma tries to worship the statue of Mary seemingly uncomprehending. He bursts out laughing and then, in exchange for the statue, gives Cortez the interpreter Malinche - a silent dancer who “speaks to the body”. Montezuma has Cortez bring gold and magnificent banners made of quetzal feathers . Since these gifts are not enough for him, Montezuma insults him as greedy for gold and compares him to monkeys and pigs. The Spaniards rush at the gold, roaring wildly, until Cortez puts a stop to his people with the marching motto. Now both statues are placed side by side on a common altar. Montezuma and Cortez climb the temple pyramid together. Once at the top, Cortez has Montezuma arrested.

Raíz del hombre (Octavio Paz, 1937) - 2nd stanza

Montezuma tries to understand Cortez's behavior:

"Under this love from hurt loneliness [...]"

Third act: "The upheavals"

The whispering choir and the two speakers proclaim a "revolt in all strata of the country", "on all levels of Montezuma's consciousness". Montezuma feels like it has been “poisoned”. Cortez gives him the choice “Neutral? Female? Male? ”And, together with the whispering choir and the speakers, urges him to answer with the repeated phrase“ now ”. The music suggests a rape of Montezuma, who has to choose the female gender. This is followed by a silent Aztec zodiac ritual, which Montezuma attends "as if paralyzed". The Spanish soldiers attack the Aztecs to the sound of a Latin priest chant ("Terra tremuit") and cause a bloodbath among them. Cortez cannot prevent the massacre. His inner conflict is characterized by the fact that a man (“not a double”) breaks out of him who “screams with an extremely hoarse voice”. This “falls into the paralyzed, 'petrified' Montezuma and disappears in it”. Both parties are ready to fight. The movement choir stomps stronger and stronger, and isolated screams can be heard. Cortez uses gestures to persuade Montezuma to speak to his people. His “delirious” speech can only determine defeat. Meanwhile, he is injured by several projectiles and arrows.

Raíz del hombre (Octavio Paz, 1937) - 3rd stanza

"Under this love of cruel agony [...]"

Montezuma freezes into a statue, dying.

Fourth act: "The Abdication"

Symbolized by the appearance of several Cortez figures, chaos arises among the Spanish soldiers. Some of them are massacred by Indians. Cortez himself falls into a dream in front of the Montezuma statue, "whose head is transformed into music". In high register up to falsetto he expresses his lost self-confidence. He is no longer supported by the speakers, but by the two soloists who had previously sung with Montezuma. The statue's head detaches from it and floats. The funeral ceremony of Montezuma and the Spanish war machines are gradually becoming visible. The religious images of both parties are destroyed. Cortez tries in vain to bring the statue to life. In his words he anticipates the fourth stanza of Raíz del hombre . Suddenly a battle breaks out in which the Spaniards are destroyed by the Aztecs. The survivors lament the destruction.

Raíz del hombre (Octavio Paz, 1937) - 4th stanza

Montezuma and Cortez together sing the fourth verse:

"Under this death, love, happy and mute [...]"

layout

orchestra

The orchestra of the opera is divided into three groups with the following instruments:

Group 1 (in the auditorium)

Group 2

Group 3

Loudspeakers are located in the depths of the stage and around the auditorium.

The list of musicians envisaged by the composer is shown graphically in the score. There are also the following notes:

“The orchestra pit is not very deep, you can see the orchestra well, it may be included in the action on the stage. Orchestra group 3 is positioned higher than orchestra group 2, as if "billowing" out of the orchestra pit onto the stage. Important for both: the strings sit highest! With orchestra group 2, the strings can also be positioned more in the middle (above), so the drums and e-instruments would come further to the right. The orchestral group 1 is assigned elevated in the room. "

- Score of the opera

libretto

Rihm used several different sources for his libretto: Antonin Artaud's La conquète de Mexique (1932; German by Brigitte Weidmann , 1975) and Le théâtre de Séraphin (1936; German by Bernd Mattheus , 1986), poem No. 15 from the Octavio Paz cycle Raíz del hombre (1937; German by Maralde and Klaus Meyer-Minnemann, 1987) and an Aztec funeral song (1523 ?; German: Renate Heuer , in Return of the Gods, 1963). Rihm had already dealt with Artaud in his dance poem Tutuguri, which he composed immediately before . The most important basis of his conquest of Mexico is his theater design La conquète de Mexique, a “poetic-theoretical description of the project” ( Klaus Angermann ), which uses the encounter of the conquistador Hernán Cortés with the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II as the background for “the turmoil of feelings in clash two models of life ”. It is not a description of the historical course of this encounter, but rather “a non-conceptual theater of suggestive and enigmatic images that is like music”. The juxtaposition of the principles of "neutral - male - female", which is so central in Rihm's play, is taken from Artaud's theater vision Le théâtre de Séraphin , where it serves as an "ambiguous symbol for the inner-body drama". The stanzas of Octavio Paz's poem appear separately at the end of each act of the opera. In them love is seen as a struggle that leads to injury and ultimately to "lonely death". The Indian lamentation sounds at the end of the fourth act at the great battle.

music

Since the historical background is known and easy to understand, Rihm did not need to explain the connections using a verbose storyline. Instead, the text set to music consists primarily of individual scraps of words, screams, hissing, panting and other sounds. Larger sections are kept instrumental only. Instead of the external ones, they describe the internal plot of the fight scenes.

The division of the performers into a male-aggressive sphere of the Spaniards and a female-preserving sphere of the Aztecs permeates the entire work on all levels and also affects the orchestra. Klaus Angermann described it as a "fractal structure" that continues into "the finest ramifications". The division also takes place in the protagonists themselves, who have to endure an internal one as well as the external one. This can also be seen from the fact that both main characters have a “court” assigned to them in the orchestra pit: the two singers are mostly assigned to Montezuma, the two speakers to Cortez. The result is a spatial sound, which Rihm described as "a sculpture in which the sound events coincide with the events on the stage" and called "polyphonic monody " or "virtually unanimous music". The division of the orchestra into three groups (or four if you include the tape recordings) has a similar function. The music not only depicts the action, but becomes its setting itself. While the words of Montezuma sung by a soprano and the music of this sphere are lyrical and melodic, the singing of Cortez seems like a distorted version of them.

Communication between the two areas is hardly possible. At the personal meeting of Cortez and Montezuma in the second act, the attempt is represented by an empty perfect fifth (according to Rihm a "harmonious state on the brink"), which symbolizes both unity and division and, as it were, should be filled in as empty space. However, it remains with ceremonial acts and threatening gestures, which Rihm symbolizes with allusions to the music of the Renaissance. The translator Malinche, who does not sing, but rather speaks “with the body” as a dancer, should act as mediator. It also symbolizes the erotic aspect of the encounter, which always plays a subliminal role in the opera, but has to step back before it is violated.

The two brutal climaxes of the plot are treated by Rihm in an unusual way. In the “Bloodbath” in the third act, he uses orchestral sounds recorded from the tape, which are deliberately out of sync with the identical music played live. The great battle at the end of the fourth act, on the other hand, is a quiet Nahuatl battle song, which is sung in German a cappella like a madrigal by the choir. The destruction of a strange world always implies the destruction of one's own.

The first three stanzas of the Paz poem at the end of the act are assigned to Montezuma. In the fourth, the end of the opera, he unites with Cortez, with Rihm doing without an orchestral accompaniment.

Work history

Wolfgang Rihm received the commission for this work from the Hamburg State Opera , which premiered his opera Jakob Len in 1979 . Rihm put together the libretto himself.

The world premiere took place on February 9, 1992 under the direction of Ingo Metzmacher . Peter Mussbach was responsible for the production and the stage . Joachim Herzog was the costume designer. The main actors were Renate Behle (Montezuma), Richard Salter (Cortez), Peter Kollek (Screaming Man) and Miriam Goldschmidt (Malinche). The performance was very well received by critics and audiences.

Since then there have been several other productions that have made it Rihm's most famous work for the stage and "one of the most important works of contemporary music theater at all".

Recordings

literature

  • Alastair Williams: Voices of the Other: Wolfgang Rihm's music drama "The Conquest of Mexico". In: Journal of the Royal Musical Association. Vol. 129, No. 2 (2004), pp. 240-271 ( JSTOR 3557506 ).

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Later he put this into perspective and also allowed the use of the term “opera”. See the interview on the Universal Edition website

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Robert Maschka: The conquest of Mexico. In: Rudolf Kloiber , Wulf Konold , Robert Maschka: Handbuch der Oper. 9th, expanded, revised edition 2002. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag / Bärenreiter, ISBN 3-423-32526-7 , pp. 609–613.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Michael Klügl : The conquest of Mexico. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater . Volume 5: Works. Piccinni - Spontini. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1994, ISBN 3-492-02415-7 , pp. 252-253.
  3. ↑ a b c Klaus Angermann : Wolfgang Rihm. In: Udo Bermbach (Ed.): Opera in the 20th century. Development tendencies and composers. Metzler, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-476-01733-8 , pp. 614-617.
  4. ^ A b Matthias Heilmann: The conquest of Mexico. In: András Batta: Opera. Composers, works, performers. hfullmann, Königswinter 2009, ISBN 978-3-8331-2048-0 , pp. 514-515.
  5. ↑ a b The Conquest of Mexico. In: Harenberg opera guide. 4th edition. Meyers Lexikonverlag, 2003, ISBN 3-411-76107-5 , pp. 747-748.
  6. ↑ a b c Ulrich Schreiber : Opera guide for advanced learners. 20th Century II. German and Italian Opera after 1945, France, Great Britain. Bärenreiter, Kassel 2005, ISBN 3-7618-1437-2 , pp. 277-281.
  7. ↑ Uwe Schweikert : Beautiful, colorful children's world. In: Opernwelt , July 2005, p. 46.
  8. ↑ Dieter Lintz : Deconstruction of the deconstruction. In: Opernwelt , June 2012, p. 10.
  9. ↑ Hans-Klaus Jungheinrich : Curse of History. In: Opernwelt , December 2013, p. 8.
  10. ↑ Stephan Mösch : Joke, madness, truth. In: Opernwelt , September / October 2015, p. 4.
  11. ↑ Stefan Schmöe: Communication breakdown . Review of the performance in Cologne 2016. In: Online Musik Magazin, accessed on August 18, 2019.
  12. ↑ Wolfgang Rihm. In: Andreas Ommer: Directory of all complete opera recordings (= Zeno.org . Volume 20). Directmedia, Berlin 2005, p. 15146.