The Christ Elflein

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Work data
Title: The Christ Elflein
Shape: Play opera
Original language: German
Music: Hans Pfitzner
Libretto : Use von Stach
Premiere: December 11, 1906
Place of premiere: Munich
Playing time: about 2 hours
Place and time of the action: In the winter forest. In the castle
people
  • The Elflein - high coloratura soprano
  • The Christ Child - lyric soprano
  • Frieder v. Gumpach - (performance) tenor
  • Jochen, in Gumpach's service - tenor
  • Herr von Gumpach, his father - baritone
  • Franz, in Gumpach's service - bass baritone
  • Knecht Ruprecht - bass
  • The pine tree - deep bass
  • The village doctor - speaking role
  • Trautchen von Gumpach - speaking role
  • Mrs. v. Gumpach - silent role
  • Saint Peter - silent role
  • The village children - children's choir
  • Engel - women's choir
  • Fir squires and virgins - ballet

The Christ-Elflein is a Christmas opera by Hans Pfitzner . The original seal comes from Ilse von Stach .

structure

first act

overture

  1. They all sleep (Elflein, Tannengreis)
  2. Sick, what can that be (Elflein)
  3. I walk through the snow (Knecht Ruprecht)
  4. You lovely doll face (Knecht Ruprecht, Franz, Jochen, Christkindchen, Elflein, Tannengreis)
  5. Now we want to see (pine tree)
  6. Reigen (fir squires and virgins, fir rice, elf, choir of angels)

Second act

introduction

  2. Where is the tree? (Gumpach, Frieder, Franz)
  3. Melodrama (Frieder, Trautchen)
  4. O come to our midst (the village children)
  5. When Christ the Lord was transfigured (Knecht Ruprecht)
  6. Interlude
  7. Who the Christkindchen comes to today (Christkindchen, Frieder, Elflein, Tannengreis)
  8. Christkindchen does the bell (Christkindchen, Knecht Ruprecht, Elflein, Trautchen, Frieder)
  9. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord (choir of angels, pine tree)

The individual musical numbers are linked to one another through dialogues. The performance lasts approximately 2 hours.

action

Act 1, winter forest

The little elf lives freely and happily in the forest. The grumpy pine tree wants to know what Christmas bells and chants mean, but the latter only warns of people. He can only suffer Frieder because he loves nature and is not as “weather-wetter as his human brothers”. But Frieder, coming through the forest, has no time for Elf's questions. He has to get a doctor for his sick sister Trautchen.

Franz and Jochen, the servants of Herr von Gumpach, come into the forest to fetch a Christmas tree. They meet Knecht Ruprecht , whom they initially take for a toy dealer, then a sorcerer, and finally fight him.

The Christ Child appears and announces that it will bring the Christmas tree to the little bride this year. The little elf is fascinated by the appearance of the Christ Child. The warning of the fir man and a dance of fir squires and virgins, which the fir man makes dance especially for the elf, cannot stop it: When angels announce the Christmas Eve, the Christ child goes to the people.

Act 2, Christmas parlor in the Gumpach house

Herr von Gumpach scolds his servants who have returned from the forest without a Christmas tree. He does not want to believe their assurances that they have seen the "real Christ child". Frieder also only scoffs. He hides the pine tree that has come to look for his elf behind the stove. The sick cone is carried in. Knecht Ruprecht comes and brings the children. He also explains how the fir tree became a Christmas tree .

Then the Christ Child appears with the little elf. Not only does it bring the Christmas tree, it also has the task of bringing the sick little cone to heaven. The little elf, however, has pity and offers to go to heaven instead of Trautchen's.

The Christ Child agrees: The little elf gets a little soul and is allowed to descend back to earth as a Christian elf every year at Christmas. Trautchen gets well, Frieder finds his way back to his faith, and the pine tree is also reconciled with the people. The elf moves into the sky with the song of angels.

Orchestral line-up

  • 2 bottles (2nd also picc.), 2 Ob. (2. also EH), 2 clar., 2 Fag.
  • 2 Hr., 1 Trp.
  • 1 Hrf.
  • Pkn., Schl. (large Tr., Bck., small Tr., Trg., tam-tam, tambourine, bells in c2, e2, g2 and e3)
  • Strings (possibly strong)

History of origin and impact

First version - The incidental music of 1906

From around 1901 Hans Pfitzner had been thinking about setting the Christmas fairy tale Ilse von Stachs , which belonged to his Berlin circle of friends, to music. However, this plan was only implemented five years later. The first version, which in the summer of 1906 was finished except for the instrumentation , is conceived as incidental music and consists mainly of melodramas and song-like sections. Its premiere took place on December 11, 1906 at the Munich Court Opera under the direction of Felix Mottl , after the first performance of the overture in Berlin under Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek had already taken place on November 23, 1906 .

Das Christ-Elflein found little success in this version , which was mainly attributed to the text book Ilse von Stachs. The conductor Bruno Walter , one of Pfitzner's closest friends from the early years, said in a letter to the composer: “There is no such childish child and no such lizard-like man who could take the slightest advantage of this fairy tale. There are delightful, genuine Pfitzner ideas in music, but since you, as a true person and playwright, wrote them for the fairy tale and the musical combinations and developments could not come about, this time the Lernaean snake killed Hercules. "

Second version - The game opera from 1917

The failure of the first version prompted Hans Pfitzner to rework, which he began in the summer of 1917, immediately after the successful premiere of Palestrina . He now chose the form of the game opera , converted the predominantly melodramatic parts into vocal parts and revised the text of the fairy tale, which he shortened considerably and adapted to the needs of the new form. Das Christ-Elflein was successfully premiered in this version on December 11, 1917 at the Dresden Court Opera under the direction of Fritz Reiner and with Grete Merrem-Nikisch in the title role.

Numerous colleagues have now also certified Pfitzner's compositional qualities. The conductor Otto Klemperer , for example, valued the “charming” music and especially the “charming overture” of the opera.

Effect from 1917 to 1945

The success of the second version from 1917 established the work as a regular part of the repertoire of German theaters in the years up to the Second World War . Numerous productions followed; Pfitzner himself conducted the work in 1933 in Berlin and in 1938 at the Vienna Volksoper .

In the Third Reich , the work was thoroughly criticized because of its religious theme. For example, the Saxon governor Martin Mutschmann tried to ban the work because of "religious propaganda" on the occasion of a performance planned for 1941 in Dresden. The governor-general of Poland, Hans Frank , personal friend and admirer of Pfitzner, had it performed in 1944 in the Cracow “State Theater of the Generalgouvernement ” under the direction of Friedrichfranz Stampe in the presence of the composer.

Effect 1945 to 1999

The end of the Second World War interrupted the reception of the work. Pfitzner, who bitterly turned to anti-Semitic remarks, was now regarded as a non-person whose music was seldom dared to perform. Performances such as in 1952/53 at the Theater an der Wien under Rudolf Moralt's direction (Elflein: Wilma Lipp , Tannengreis: Herbert Alsen , Knecht Ruprecht: Ludwig Weber ) remained the exception; An equally top-class record of the Bavarian Radio in 1979 (director: Kurt Eichhorn , Elflein: Helen Donath ) could not win back the work for the repertoire.

Effect from 1999 until today

With the differentiated consideration of Pfitzner's biography that began at the end of the 1990s and the return to his high compositional qualities, the first re-performances of the Christ Elfine were finally accompanied.

First brought the Theater Freiberg 2000 The Christ-Elflein in a successful two seasons staging (directed by Christoph Sandmann, directed by Ingolf chicken ) out. In 2003 Das Christ-Elflein was produced again in Berlin for the first time, as a project by students at the Hanns Eisler University of Music in Berlin (directors: Ulrich Metzger, Shi Yeon Sung, Frank Markowitsch; directors: Matthias Ehm and Franziska Bill). A concert performance with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester under the direction of Claus Peter Flor in December 2004 was followed by a new CD recording by cpo . At Christmas 2006, Das Christ-Elflein was performed in concert as part of several performances by the Staatstheater Darmstadt under Stefan Blunier , in 2008 as a production with students from the University of Music and Theater Hamburg under the direction of Jan Eßinger (direction) and René Gulikers (conductor).

Simultaneously with the return of Christ Elfleins to the repertoire of German theaters, the overture also established itself again as an integral part of numerous Christmas concerts.

Recordings / sound carriers (selection)

literature

  • Hans Pfitzner: The Christ Elflein. Score. 1st version. Ries and Erler, Berlin 1906.
  • Hans Pfitzner: The Christ Elflein. Score. 2nd version. A. Fürstner, London et al. 1917. (today Schott-Verlag Mainz)
  • Hans Pfitzner: Letters. Edited by Bernhard Adamy. Tutzing 1991.
  • Hans Pfitzner: speeches, writings, letters. Edited by Walter Abendroth . Neuwied 1955.
  • Johann Peter Vogel: Pfitzner. Life, works, documents. Atlantis Musikbuch Verlag, Zurich and Mainz 1999.
  • Notifications from the Hans Pfitzner Society e. V.

Web links