Thomas Chatterton (Drama)
Thomas Chatterton is the name of a tragedy by Hans Henny Jahnn that premiered in 1956 . Her subject is the fate of the talented young English poet Thomas Chatterton , who died by suicide in 1770 in London. In 1998 Matthias Pintscher composed a two-part opera based on Jahnn's drama.
The drama
content
The young Chatterton leads a joyless life in Bristol, misunderstood by his surroundings, as a clerk's apprentice to a lawyer by whom he feels humiliated. Then Aburiel appears to him, a mysterious figure, possibly an angel, and opens up the world of poetry to him. He encourages him to write poetry. These are published under the name of Thomas Rowley, a - never lived - monk from the 15th century, in whose role he magically empathized. Aburiel helps with the forgery of the old manuscripts, the finds of which are causing a stir. When Chatterton reveals himself to be the author of the scriptures, nobody believes him; his poetic talent is not recognized. So he went to the capital, London, and hoped to find publishers there who would print his works. That doesn't work, he gets lonely, writes pamphlets against society, destroys his health and in the end commits suicide in desperation.
History of origin
Jahnn wrote the drama in the summer of 1954 on the Danish island of Bornholm . He was inspired by a few lines from the “Tragic History of Literature”; they prompted him to search for historical sources of the suicide of the young poet Chatterton and to read literary adaptations of his life. He was fascinated by the problems of the historical artistic genius. After Suhrkamp Verlag had printed the piece in 1955, Jahnn looked for a way to perform it and initially thought of the GDR. The magazine Sinn und Form published an excerpt there as early as 1954 . Jahnn sent the text to Brecht , who found the piece "beautiful" but canceled it because he didn't have such a young actor in his Berlin ensemble who could portray the Chatterton. When Gustaf Gründgens , who had already promoted Jahnn, took over the management of the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg in September 1955 , he was ready to direct Thomas Chatterton . The premiere took place on April 26, 1956, with Heinz Reincke playing the leading role . The respectable success of the piece probably contributed to the fact that Jahnn was the first person from Hamburg to receive the Lessing Prize of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg in the same year .
Performances
After the Hamburg premiere, a workshop production followed in Stralsund. In 1958 the Schlossparktheater in Berlin, in 1970 the Kammerspiele in the Lübeck Theater and in 1977 the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus performed the play. The North German Broadcasting Corporation brought a radio play version in 1985.
Reception and effects
The Hamburg performance received a lot of media coverage. Jochen Meyer lists 37 articles about this in newspapers and magazines in his Jahnn bibliography. The Düsseldorf performance of the piece in 1977 was rated particularly differently. According to Freeman, Chatterton is probably the most playable piece by Jahnn. It has retained its charm up to the present day, even if, as with all Jahnn pieces, there are performance difficulties , “not least because of its fragmentary, nonetheless multi-layered character, which does not make the piece appear like a drama, rather like the chronicle of a suicide with delay " .
Opera
The Saxon State Opera Dresden commissioned the young composer Matthias Pintscher to edit Jahnn's drama for the opera stage. The composer Matthias Pintscher composed an opera in two parts. He also wrote the libretto in collaboration with Claus H. Henneberg . The work was premiered on May 25, 1998 under the musical direction of Marc Albrecht in a production by Marco Arturo Marelli . The title role was interpreted by the baritone Urban Malmberg , assisted by the actor Dieter Mann and the tenor Matthias Klink . The FAZ called the musical arrangement a brilliant achievement and particularly emphasized the "timbres and instrumental effects" .
On May 20, 2000, the Vienna Volksoper brought out a new version of the opera reduced by the composer.
literature
Text output
- Thomas Chatterton. A tragedy . Suhrkamp, Berlin and Frankfurt a. M. 1955
- Thomas Chatterton. In: Spectaculum 11. Suhrkamp, Berlin and Frankfurt a. M. 1959
- Thomas Chatterton . In: Dramen II (the complete edition). European Publishing House, Frankfurt a. M. 1965
- Thomas Chatterton . In: Dramas . (Volume 5 of the complete edition of Hans Henny: Works and Diaries ). Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1974, ISBN 978-3-455-03661-9
- Text excerpts
- 1st act and parts of the 3rd act. In: Sense and Form . Contributions to the literature . Issue 5/6, Berlin 1954, ISSN 0037-5756
- Scenes from the 3rd act. In: Akzente . Journal of Poetry. Issue 2, Munich 1955, ISSN 0947-1073
Secondary literature
- Thomas Freeman: Hans Henny Jahnn. A biography . Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1986, ISBN 3-455-08608-X
- Willy Haas : Last night at the Schauspielhaus: A spoiler and a genius . In: Die Welt of April 27, 1956
- Georg Hensel : The poet and his dream draft . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of September 20, 1977
- Siegfried Kienzle: Thomas Chatterton . In: Lexicon of World Literature. Art L-Z . DTV, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-423-59050-5
- Hans Erich Nossack : Foreword to “Thomas Chatterton” . In: Akzente , issue 2/1955. Munich
- Wolfgang Sandner: Collapsing memories. Young geniuses among themselves: In Dresden, “Thomas Chatterton” by Hans Henny Jahnn becomes an opera . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of May 27, 1998
Individual evidence
- ^ Walter Muschg : Tragic literary history . Francke, Bern 1953
- ^ According to Freeman: Alfred de Vigny : Chatterton and The poor Chatterton , a novel by Ernst Penzoldt
- ↑ Bertolt Brecht in a letter from Berlin on June 3, 1955
- ↑ Jochen Meyer: directory of the writings by and about hans henny jahnn . The Mainz series, Luchterhand, Neuwied and Berlin 1967
- ↑ text + kritik , issue 2/3 Hans Henny Jahnn, Munich 1980, page 157, ISBN 3-921402-78-6
- ^ Thomas Freeman: Hans Henny Jahnn. A biography . Hamburg 1986, page 609
- ↑ Wolfgang Sandner: Collapsing memories . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of May 27, 1998
- ↑ https://www.matthiaspintscher.com/compositions/#opera