Cardillac

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Work data
Title: Cardillac
Shape: Opera in three acts (new version: four acts)
Original language: German
Music: Paul Hindemith
Libretto : First version:
Ferdinand Lion ,
new version:
Paul Hindemith after Ferdinand Lion
Literary source: The Fräulein von Scuderi from ETA Hoffmann
Premiere: First version:
November 9, 1926.
New version:
June 20, 1952
Place of premiere: First version: Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden,
new version:
Stadttheater Zürich
Playing time: First version: approx. 1 ¾ hours,
new version: approx. 2 ½ hours
Place and time of the action: Paris 1680
people
  • Cardillac, goldsmith ( baritone )
  • Cardillac's daughter ( soprano )
  • The officer ( tenor )
  • The gold dealer ( bass )
  • The cavalier (tenor)
  • The lady - in the new version a singer (soprano)
  • The leader of the Prévôté (bass)
  • The King (silent role)
  • Cavaliers and ladies of the court, the prévôté (silent roles)
  • People ( chorus )

Additional figures in the new version

  • Cardillac's journeyman (tenor)
  • The rich marquis (silent role)

In Lully's opera Phaëton in the third act

  • Theo, daughter of the King of Lydia (soprano)
  • Clymene, a nymph ( old )
  • Phaeton, their son (tenor)
  • Apollo, the sun god (bass)
Set design by Ewald Dülberg in the Kroll Opera House (1928)

Cardillac is an opera in three acts (four pictures) by Paul Hindemith (music) and Ferdinand Lion ( libretto ). The plot is based on the novella Das Fräulein von Scuderi (1819/21) by ETA Hoffmann . The work was premiered on November 9, 1926 in the Dresden State Opera (Semperoper) . After the Second World War , Hindemith created a new four-act version, which was shown for the first time on June 20, 1952 in the Zurich City Theater .

Action of the first version

The opera takes place in Paris in the early 1880s.

first act

First picture: Free space in front of Cardillac's house

A series of strange murders has roused the people of Paris. All crimes have in common that each of the victims had bought a piece of jewelry a short time before from the respected goldsmith Cardillac and this has now disappeared. A gentleman discovers a young lady in the crowd, for whom his heart immediately burns. In order to attract her attention, he tells her about the famous goldsmith, whose work is most admired even at court. The lady promises him a night of love if he should succeed in getting her Cardillacs most beautiful piece of jewelry.

Second picture: bedroom

The cavalier granted the lady's wish. In the greatest excitement at the promised adventure, he follows her into the bedroom and takes the beloved tenderly in his arms. Cardillac manages to get in with her in the dark of night. Before the cavalier can receive his wages, he is murdered from behind by the goldsmith. Cardillac escapes through the window unrecognized.

Second act

Third picture: Cardillac's shop and workshop

A gold dealer enters the shop and admires the pieces of jewelry displayed. Although he would be willing to put a large sum on the table for one of them, Cardillac refuses to buy him.

The goldsmith's daughter slept with an officer last night to whom she is hopelessly addicted. She wants to leave her father because of him, but is afraid to tell him. She is all the more surprised when her lover asks Cardillac for her hand and Cardillac has no objections. Apparently she is less valuable to him than his beloved jewelry. But when the officer prepares to buy a valuable necklace from Cardillac, he is not at all pleased. He finally gives up his initial hesitation and leaves the officer with the desired piece of jewelry. As soon as the soldier has left the shop, Cardillac can no longer concentrate on his work. He thinks incessantly about the chain. A secret power forces him to put on a mask and look for the officer.

Third act

Fourth picture: street with adjoining inn

Cardillac lunges at the officer, dagger in hand. But the latter can fend him off. Despite the masking, the officer cannot hide who the attacker really is.

The gold dealer has observed what is happening and is calling the police. When Cardillac wants to arrest, the soldier points to the gold dealer and describes him as the real culprit. Now the gold dealer is arrested and taken away. The people cheer Cardillac and ask him to go to the tavern.

The officer reveals to Cardillac's daughter her father's secret. The girl is so horrified that she renounces her father. She doesn't want to live under the same roof with him for an hour longer.

Cardillac soon gets tired of drinking. Driven by madness, he returns to the street and yells that the wrong person has been arrested. Urged by the people to reveal the real perpetrator, Cardillac has no choice but to accuse himself of the wrongdoing. In his apology, he claims that the works of art he has created are the property of their creator and should be returned to him. The angry crowd kills him.

Action of the new version

first act

First picture: Free space in front of Cardillac's house

A series of strange murders has roused the people of Paris. All crimes have in common that each of the victims had bought a piece of jewelry a short time before from the respected goldsmith Cardillac and this has now disappeared. The prima donna of the Paris Opera passes the current crime scene. She has already celebrated countless successes and is now tired of the many tributes. A young admirer approaches her and tells her enthusiastically about Cardillac's great art. She then expresses the wish to own a diadem from the goldsmith's inventory for a role at the theater.

Second picture: bedroom in the singer's house

The cavalier fulfilled the prima donna's wish and purchased the desired headdress from Cardillac. After he has given it to his beloved, she invites him to her bedroom. Cardillac succeeds in penetrating her undetected in the dark of night and stabbing the cavalier. The singer stands in awe of the corpse. She finds that her gift is missing.

Second act

Third picture: Cardillac's shop and workshop

The journeyman asks Cardillac for his daughter's hand, but the master brusquely refuses. Shortly afterwards the police officer enters the shop. He suspects Cardillac's journeymen to have committed the mysterious murders. So he declares him arrested and takes him away.

The prima donna absolutely wants to wear a real diadem for the evening performance. She has found a new admirer in the rich marquis who accompanies her to Cardillac's shop. As she looks around there, she discovers the piece of jewelry the cavalier had given her yesterday. Because she's so obsessed with it, she has it bought a second time.

Third act

Fourth picture: theater stage, seen from the side

Jean-Baptiste Lully's opera Phaëton is given at the Académie Royale . Cardillac's journeyman managed to escape from custody. He learned from Cardillac's daughter that the singer has meanwhile become the owner of the valuable crown. Because he has been suspecting his master for weeks of being involved in the mysterious murders, it is important to him to warn the artist. He walks up to the stage and signals her to be on guard.

After the last curtain has fallen, stagehands tidy up the scenery. Cardillac appears behind a set piece. When the prima donna takes off the piece of jewelry, her eyes fall on the goldsmith. Both stare spellbound into each other's eyes. Suddenly the police officer scurries onto the stage. He had watched the whole incident from a safe hiding place. He grabs the crown and hurries away. Cardillac can't believe that the diadem has changed hands again. Driven by madness, he goes in search of the thief.

Fourth act

Fifth picture: Square in front of the theater

With the dagger in hand, Cardillac wants to pounce on the police officer. His journeyman daringly throws himself in between, steals the murder tool and the officer the tiara. The rushing people want to lynch the journeyman because he has the Corpus Delicti in his hands. Cardillac gets angry and comes out as a perpetrator. He is then killed by the angry crowd.

Orchestral line-up

Version 1925/26

New version 1952/61

  • Woodwinds: two flutes (2nd also piccolo), oboe, English horn, clarinet in Eb, bass clarinet, tenor saxophone, two bassoons, contrabassoon
  • Brass: horn, two trumpets, two trombones, tuba
  • Timpani, percussion (four players): triangle, small gong, hanging cymbal, pair of cymbals, tam-tam, tambourine, stirring drum, snare drum, bass drum, glockenspiel
  • piano
  • Strings: six violins, four violas, four cellos, four double basses
  • On stage: flute, oboe, bassoon, harp , harpsichord , violin, viola, violoncello, double bass

Work history

The first performance of the first version on November 9, 1926 in the Dresden State Opera was conducted by Fritz Busch . The direction was from Isaac Dobrowen. It sang Robert Castle (Cardillac), Claire Born (Cardillac's daughter), Max Hirzel (officer), Adolph Schoepfin (gold traders), Ludwig Max Eybisch (Cavalier), Grete Merrem-Nikisch (Lady) and Paul Schöffler (leader of Prévôté).

  • First performance in the Dresden State Opera in 1926.

  • Second act. Robert Burg as Cardillac and Claire Born as his daughter

  • Third act. Robert Burg as Cardillac and Max Hirzel as an officer

  • Third act. Max Hirzel as an officer and Claire Born as Cardillac's daughter

Hindemith was "torn apart" by the press the day after the premiere: "A cacophonic general attitude" - "The music has almost nothing to do with the romanticism of the subject, with the warmth of feeling and so on." The Dresdner Nachrichten wrote: “The Dresden State Opera has taken on the work with all the dedication that it always devotes to its innovations. […] Dobrowen's direction tried to cover up the break that exists between the Hoffmanesque text and the sober, unromantic music. "

Nevertheless, the premiere of the first version in Dresden was a success. The success of the second performance of this version in Wiesbaden under Otto Klemperer , who later also conducted the work at the Kroll Opera in Berlin, was even greater . In the 1926/27 season alone there were 13 other productions by Cardillac .

Even after the Second World War there were a number of performances of the first version, until Hindemith replaced it with a revision in the sense of its changed, “more classic” aesthetic. He intervened in his composition as well as in Lion's text and expanded the plot to four acts (five images). The new version was performed for the first time on June 20, 1952 at the Stadttheater Zurich (conductor: Victor Reinshagen , director: Hans Zimmermann, set design: Max Röthlisberger ).

Today, numerous musicologists advocate a return to the original version from 1926.

literature

The information comes from the archive of the Dresden Semperoper as well as Knaur's opera guide by Westerman / Schumann (1969) and the pocket dictionary for opera - operetta - ballet by Dr. Hertha Bauer, Humboldt Paperback No. 27 (1954).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ November 9, 1926: "Cardillac". In: L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia ..