Abstract Opera No. 1
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Abstract Opera No. 1 |
| Shape: | Experimental short opera |
| Music: | Boris Blacher |
| Libretto : | Werner Egk |
| Premiere: | 17th October 1953 |
| Place of premiere: | National Theater Mannheim |
| Playing time: | approx. 35 minutes |
| people | |
The Abstract Opera No. 1 , Op. 43 is an experimental opera by the composer Boris Blacher . The libretto and the idea for the opera come from WERNER EGK . The opera is considered to be the starting point for the experimental music theater of the 1960s.
Scenes
The opera consists of one act with seven scenes, in which basic emotional situations are presented musically and gesturally. It has no closed plot and no intelligible text. The libretto is written in an onomatopoeic artificial language that is supposed to convey the emotional content of the scenes. The line-up consists of three soloists, a small mixed choir, piano, double bass, wind instruments and drums. The individual scenes are:
- Anxiety - soprano, tenor, baritone
- I love - soprano, tenor
- Pain - soprano
- Negotiation - tenor, bass
- Panic - soprano, tenor, baritone
- Love II - tenor
In the opening scene, Angst , the three soloists engage in a dialogue that consists of screaming the sounds A and O. The love I scene ends with the soprano shooting a tailor's dummy. In the negotiation scene , a Russian (baritone) and an American (tenor) diplomat lead a childish-looking discussion, which, however, fails due to a lack of communication. At the end of the opera, the feeling of the futility of modern life prevails.
performance
Before the scenic premiere on October 17, 1953 in the Nationaltheater Mannheim , the opera was broadcast on June 28, 1953 as a radio broadcast on Hessischer Rundfunk . The performance in Mannheim was a theatrical scandal and unsuccessful. In 1957 a new version of the opera was published.
literature
- Ben Johnston, Bob Gilmore: "Maximum clarity" and other writings on music . University of Illinois Press, 2006, ISBN 0-252-03098-2 , p. 212 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
- Gerhard Dietel: Music history in data . Bärenreiter-Verlag, Kassel 1994. p. 904.
- Erik Levi: Abstract Opera No. 1 . In: Stanley Sadie, John Tyrrell (Eds.): The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (= Oxford Music Online ). Edition 2. Groves Dictionaries, 2000, ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0 .
Web links
- The cast and plot for Boosey & Hawkes music publisher
- Work data for Abstract Opera No. 1 based on the MGG with discography at Operone
Individual evidence
- ↑ Heike Sauer: Dream, Reality, Utopia: the German music theater 1961-1971 as a mirror of political and social aspects of its time . Waxmann Verlag, 1994. P. 50. ISBN 3-89325-235-5 Preview at Google Books