The prohibition of love
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The prohibition of love |
| Shape: | Great comic opera in two acts |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Richard Wagner |
| Libretto : | Richard Wagner |
| Premiere: | March 29, 1836 |
| Place of premiere: | Magdeburg |
| Playing time: | approx. 2 ½ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Sicily, Palermo in the 16th century |
| people | |
|
|
The Ban on Love or The Novice of Palermo is a "Great comic opera " in two acts by Richard Wagner after the comedy Measure for Measure ( Measure for Measure ) by William Shakespeare .
History of origin
The idea for his second completed opera was Wagner in 1834 during a trip to the Bohemian Teplitz when he known at the time Roman Ardinghello and the Fortunate Islands by Wilhelm Heinse read. Heinse processed his trip to Italy from 1780 to 1783 in his letter novel and glorified free lust and the emancipation of women. When Wagner dealt with the subject, he was not only friends with Heinrich Laube , the author of Young Europe and Young Germany , but had just fallen in love with the older, attractive actress Minna Planer , whom he later married. He probably wanted to impress her with this revealing piece, because it is about free love, the commitment to love beyond all social rules and prohibitions - a frivolous subject at the time . From an early age, the young artist took particular pleasure in poking against existing forms, against the “normal”. In complete contrast to his first work, Die Feen , this time it was supposed to be an anti-romantic work, a folk opera with large choral scenes, as loved in less provincial Paris, in the elegant French opera.
The premiere of the youth work, which is hardly played today, took place on March 29, 1836 at the Magdeburg Theater by Heinrich Eduard Bethmann under catastrophic circumstances. Wagner, who held the post of music director there, only had ten trial days to rehearse. The singer could their games more than rote at the premiere in half, and on the scene a "musical shadow play" took place after Wagner's own words, "to which the orchestra , often with exaggerated noise his unexplained bruises were the best." The second performance had to be canceled because there were only three visitors.
The autograph of the score has been lost since the Second World War .
content
The action takes place in Palermo in the 16th century. The governor Friedrich has issued a ban that makes all carnival activities punishable. Claudio is the first victim of this law because his lover Julia is pregnant by him. Although he is ready to marry her, he is sentenced to death. His sister, the young novice Isabella, tries to save her brother. The prize is the love union with the governor Friedrich. At the right moment, Isabella realizes that Friedrich has not signed Claudio's pardon and reveals this deception to the people. But instead of judging Frederick by his own standards, the people demand the lifting of the ban on carnival: the ban on love turns into a love revolution.
Burn the laws to ashes!
Come, come, you masks all,
cheer with all your heart,
we hold a triple carnival
and his lust never ends!
Claudio, who was captured and sentenced to death by Friedrich, is freed from the people, the puritan Frederick deposed and the approaching king is exuberantly celebrated.
At first glance, Wagner had "bent" the most with this "pleasing piece" and later distanced himself from his "youthful sin" with the well-known quatrain that he wrote to King Ludwig II at Christmas 1866:
I was wrong once and would now like to serve it;
How do I free myself from the sin of youth?
I humbly lay your work at
your feet, That your grace may be redeemer for him.
At second glance, however, his early work has character. Wagner rebels again against structures and against laws, this time against the restrictions of love. In the role of Isabella one recognizes seduction and redemption, the later main motifs in Wagner's works:
Nature gave woman beauty,
man strength to enjoy it,
one gate alone, only a hypocrite
tries to close himself off to love!
Well, I would like to save your life,
I will die for your freedom;
happiness and joy await me
for this manly beautiful pursuit
!
reception
The later disregard for the work by Wagner himself is more likely to be explained by the fact that the comedy, which stylistically is still very much attached to traditional opera, especially musically no longer suited the theories of Wagner's total work of art and his “work of art of the future”. Influences of the French opéra-comique by Auber and Adam are unmistakable, especially in the rhythm of the overture and the dashing ensemble scenes; there is still no trace of the "infinite melody" that was later propagated.
On the other hand, "the great erotic music theater " ( Ulrich Schreiber ) can already be recognized, who takes the ban on love of the bigoted German governor Friedrich quoted in the title as an occasion, his characters on the corso, in the cloister courtyard, courtroom, prison garden and finally again on the To drive Corso (as the individual pictures are called) into a lively dance of senses, at the end of which even Friedrich has to drop the carnival mask.
Web links
- Plot and libretto of Das Liebesverbot in German at Opera-Guide
- Text book
- Notes on IMSLP
The wedding (1832, unfinished) | The prohibition of love (1836) | List of men greater than list of women (1838, unfinished) | Rienzi (1842) | The Flying Dutchman (1843) | Tannhauser (1845) | Lohengrin (1850) | Tristan and Isolde (1865) | The Mastersingers of Nuremberg (1868) | The Ring of the Nibelung : ( Das Rheingold (1869) | Die Walküre (1870) | Siegfried (1876) | Götterdämmerung (1876)) | Parsifal (1882) | The fairies (1888, posthumous)