The girl with the sulfur sticks (Lachenmann)
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The girl with the sulfur sticks |
Illustration by AJ Bayes (1889) |
|
| Shape: | “Music with Pictures” in two parts |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Helmut Lachenmann |
| Libretto : | Helmut Lachenmann |
| Literary source: |
Hans Christian Andersen : The little girl with the sulfur sticks , Leonardo da Vinci : Codex Arundel , Gudrun Ensslin : Letter from 1975, Ernst Toller : Masse Mensch , Friedrich Nietzsche : So spoke Zarathustra |
| Premiere: | January 26, 1997 |
| Place of premiere: | Hamburg State Opera |
| Playing time: | about 2 hours |
| Place and time of the action: | a cold New Year's Eve on the street, indefinite time; possibly Copenhagen in the 19th or 21st century |
| people | |
The girl with the sulfur sticks is a "music with pictures" (partly comparable to an opera ) in two parts by Helmut Lachenmann with its own text based on the fairy tale The little girl with the sulfur sticks by Hans Christian Andersen and texts by Leonardo da Vinci , Gudrun Ensslin , Ernst Toller and Friedrich Nietzsche . It was premiered on January 26, 1997 with great success in the Hamburg State Opera.
action
The work has just as little a traditional dramatic plot with dialogues and recognizable roles as a well-composed libretto. However, the music is based on the linear story of the fairy tale. It is divided into 24 scenes. Unless otherwise stated, the following explanations of the music are based on Helmut Lachenmann's contribution A musical plot, from which the quotations are also taken.
First part: "On the street"
No. 1. Choral prelude: "Oh you happy"
Fairy tale: It's a terribly cold, snowy New Year's Eve.
Music: "Cold", clanking, noisy sounds dominate.
No. 2. Transition: "In this cold"
Fairy tale: a little poor girl walks barefoot on the street.
Music: The girl is trembling and freezing terribly. His attempts to warm up are portrayed not only by the two actresses, but also by the orchestra and the vocalists. Only the memory of the mother warms it up for a moment.
No. 3. “Frier-Aria”, 1st part
No. 4. Trio and recapitulation: “Frier-Aria”, 2nd part
No. 5. Scherzo, Part 1: "Queen of the Night"
Music: When the cold returns, the girl gathers up all her courage: "pedaled interval sounds, utopian reverberation rooms".
No. 6a. Scherzo, Part 2: "Schnalz Aria"
Music: With a Christmas carol pounded to the siciliano rhythm, the girl tries to suppress the cold.
No. 6b. "Silent Night"
No. 6c. "Schnalz-Aria", end
No. 7. "Two cars"
Fairy tale: The girl wears her mother's slippers, but loses them when she hurries across the street between the cars. A boy steals one slipper, the other is lost.
No. 8. "The Hunt"
Music: the girl follows the boy for a while. “Neo-expressionistic [] tone painting” with brutal “orchestral sound discharges”, in which the inner situation of the girl is turned outwards.
No. 9. "Snowflakes"
Fairy tale: With frozen feet, the girl tries to sell matches, but cannot find any customers. Snowflakes fall on his blond hair.
Music: "scattered triad sequences".
No. 10. "Out of all windows"
Fairy tale: light shines out of the street windows and it smells of roast goose.
Music: A collage of traffic noise, Christmas carols as well as music and speech fragments from the radio. Torn out of context, u. a. Fragments from the final dance of Igor Stravinsky's Sacre du printemps , Ludwig van Beethoven's Coriolan overture , the ending from Arnold Schönberg's orchestral variations , the beginning from Pierre Boulez's Pli selon pli , the A minor final chord from Gustav Mahler's Sixth Symphony and the triple Forte played six sound from Alban Berg's Wozzeck . In between, the girl calls out for the first time: "I".
Second part: "On the house wall"
No. 11. House wall 1: "At an angle"
Fairy tale: The girl crouches down between two houses, freezing, because she doesn't dare to go back home.
Music: Shrill sounds refer to the girl's cold and fear of death.
No. 12. Ritsch 1: "Oven"
Fairy tale: In order to at least warm itself up a little, it lights one of the matches. It feels like an oven fire.
Music: The first “Ritsch” is played very carefully by the violins “collegno saltando”. The “warmed up” sound of the Japanese temple gong rubbed on the edge is released from the ensuing silence. The oven emits “consonances” in a composed crescendo of the orchestra.
No. 13. House wall 2
Fairy tale: Before the girl can warm her feet, the match goes out again.
Music: Styrofoam noise symbolizes the coldness of the wall. However, there is still resistance.
No. 14. Ritsch 2 - "laid table" - house wall 3
Fairy tale: At the light of the second match, the girl can see through the house wall and sees a richly laid table with a goose that suddenly comes to life and runs towards the girl. The match goes out.
Music: This picture is not composed.
No. 15a. "Litany"
Letter from Gudrun Ensslin : Complaint about the "perishing" of the victims of the system: criminals, madmen, suicides.
Music: "Tonlose [s] Fortissimo" with whispered text.
No. 15b. "Writes on our skin" ("Cadenza parlando")
Music: toms and timpani . The timpani part anticipates the word rhythm of the Leonardo text (No. 18).
No. 16a. Ritsch 3
Fairy tale: When the girl lights the next match, she thinks she is sitting under a splendid Christmas tree with countless lights. When the wood goes out, these lights rise and can now be recognized as the stars of heaven.
No. 16b. Shop
Music: The splendor in the shop corresponds to the "most ornamental sound situation in the whole work". The piano, vibraphone , celesta and harp sparkle like a “subversive commentary” on Gudrun Ensslin's criticism of capitalism. The two sopranos have large leaps in intervals. The voice guidance reminds of its "expressive-Belcantist manner" of that of Lachenmann's teacher Luigi Nono .
No. 16c. Transition: "The Christmas lights rose higher"
No. 17. Evening blessing: "When a star falls ..."
Fairy tale: One of the stars falls with a streak of fire. The girl remembers a statement from her grandmother: This means that a soul ascends to God.
Music: The duet of the two sopranos that began in the previous picture continues.
No. 18. "... two feelings ...", music with Leonardo
Leonardo da Vinci : Surrounded by the forces of nature, more violent than the stormy sea "between Scylla and Charybdis " or the volcanic eruptions of Stromboli or Etna , a hiker searches for knowledge. In front of a cave entrance he feels both fear of the dark and a need to know about the contents of the cave.
Music: This number is available in two different versions. In the work version of the world premiere, Lachenmann's composition “… Two feelings…” is integrated, in which this intermezzo, recited by a speaker, is accompanied by an “orchestral sound that simmers and twitches like lava mass”. For the later “Tokyo version”, Lachenmann created an abbreviated and tonally thinned new setting, which is performed by a single speaker over five sound fermatas (see work history ).
No. 19. Wall 4: "Counting bars"
Music: After the end of the "cadenting, toneless string noise", the orchestra waits undirected, while gradually "individual signal splinters [...] gather into loose structures".
No. 20a. Ritsch 4
Fairy tale: At the next match, the girl sees her grandmother shining brightly.
Music: The loudest "Ritsch", a "crack" on the piano strings and the strings with picks behind the bridge played pizzicato - arpeggios .
No. 20b. grandmother
Music: A “hammering wooden stick” sets the phenomenon in motion. A "quasi pedaled unison line" of the orchestra represents the beauty and size of the grandmother.
No. 21. "Take me with you"
Fairy tale: the girl asks the grandmother to take it with her before she disappears again like the stove, the roast or the Christmas tree. In order not to lose them, it quickly sets fire to the remaining pieces of wood.
Music: "Ritsch' Festival with trumpet signals " and five grated tom-toms .
No. 22. Ascension: "In shine and joy"
Fairy tale: by the bright light of the matches, the grandmother takes the girl in her arms and flies up with her.
Music: "High strings flutter" characterizes the vibrating air. In return, the orchestra “rushes past in two chords into the depths”. From here on, the orchestral sound dissolves.
No. 23. Shô: "You were with God"
Fairy tale: in heaven the girl no longer feels any cold, hunger or fear.
Music: The "silver-enraptured" sound of the Japanese mouth organ Shō acts as a "bleak 'medium of the transcendent in the happily liberated sense".
No. 24. Epilogue: "But in the cold morning hour"
Fairy tale: The next morning the girl sits frozen, but smiling, in a corner. The spent matches lie next to her. The bystanders wonder what beautiful things they saw before their death.
Music: The morning mood is depicted with "ghost melodies of the pianos", breathy trumpet sounds and spacious bow rod wiping movements of the strings. The music almost dissolves into silence.
layout
text
With the two insertions, Lachenmann emphasized some “more cumbersome aspects” of the fairy tale: One concerns violence in its different forms: “Violence of nature in the form of cruel cold, social violence in the form of bourgeois innocent indifference to helplessness and misery”, but also that The girl's decision, born of necessity, to use the matches for herself. He saw Gudrun Ensslin as an "extremely deformed variant" of the girl. You have "not only ignited, but also resorted to violence, and [...] distorted your own humanity". With Leonardo da Vinci's text after the scene with the shooting star and the girl's memory of her grandmother, he wanted to “give the wintry, tragic idyll and those little sulfur sticks a broader perspective [...]”. The hidden aspects thus relate to the “innocent creature helping each other, the guilty rebel, but also the knowledge-obsessed spirit of man staring into the cave because of his ignorance.” Lachenmann extended the plot “ins Political and Philosophical ”.
music
Lachenmann's “Music with Pictures” can only be compared to an opera to a limited extent. A scenic representation of the fairytale story is not required. The two musically connected sopranos represent the freezing girl herself quite clearly, but do not necessarily have to be on stage as an actor. Such a decision is left to the director. According to Rudolf Maschka, the work “can best be described as a scenic, secular passion ”. Similar to the biblical passions, the original text is in the past tense and contains flashbacks. As with the Baroque Passion, commentary insertions complement the main text. The two-part large form as well as some religiously connotated section headings are also reminiscent of passion music. However, the plot is not glorified by this, but is deposited with bitter irony.
Lachenmann uses the vocal parts like instruments. The text is divided into two sopranos and four choral quartets and torn apart down to the syllable and letter level, so that it remains largely incomprehensible to the listener. Martin Kaltenecker described this as follows: "pulled apart syllables, overlapping, interlocking sentences, as if the text itself had slipped a bit and the edge of the words had been blurred". The vocal techniques are extremely expanded and range up to clicks and differentiated breathing sounds. This creates a “musical semantics of freezing”.
The instrumentalists distributed in the hall create a spatial sound that, through the constant rapid change between the instrumental and vocal groups, creates the impression that the music is moving spatially. Lachenmann uses the usual orchestra in addition to tapes and additional instruments, but uses the traditional instruments in an unusual way. The range of sounds is extremely expanded. Soundlessly blown instruments create an "air flow that causes shaking limbs". The piano and the Japanese mouth organ are reminiscent of the falling snowflakes. The scraping on the bow wood of the strings produces an audible chatter of teeth. The triple “Ritsch” has a special meaning, which, in Lachenmann's words, makes the orchestra “a gigantic metaphor of a match”.
orchestra
The orchestral line-up includes the following instruments:
- Woodwinds : four flutes (all also piccolo , 1st and 2nd also bass flute, 2nd and 3rd alto flute), four oboes (first or second also English horn ), four clarinets (1st, 2nd and 3rd also bass clarinet , 2nd and 4th and contrabass clarinet ) four bassoons (2nd, 3rd, 4th and contrabassoon ), Japanese mouth organ ( Shō ); Two palm-sized styrofoam plates each for woodwinds except for sho winds
- Brass : eight horns , four (possibly also six) trumpets , four trombones (2nd possibly also double bass trombone ), two bass tubas (possibly also double bass tuba ); Two palm-sized styrofoam sheets for all brass players except tuba players
- two times four timpani , additional instruments : two bongos each, each attached to a timpani head, three Japanese temple gongs ("rin"), small and medium-sized, which may all have to be placed on a timpani head
- two Xylorimbaphone, additional instruments: a Oktavsatz Cymbales antiques , each a Chinese pool , two bell plates , two rubbing sticks, styrofoam plates
- two vibraphones , additional instruments: three cymbals each, two plate bells each, a Japanese temple gong each (“rin”, slightly larger than that of the vocalists, with cushions and handles to rub on), styrofoam plates.
- Percussion (five players): four wooden blocks each, five temple blocks each, two wooden slotted drums each, three cymbals each (sometimes also used as a sizzle, 1st player has four cymbals), one tam-tam each, two bongos each, one snare drum each , two tom-toms , each one rubbing floor, each a triangle , panpipes , a large drum (1st, 2nd and 3rd player), two metal blocks (1st, 2nd and 3rd player), tubular bells (1st and 5th Player), an octave set of cymbales antiques (4th player), two bell plates each (3rd and 5th player)
- electronic organ or synthesizer with sampler
- Celesta , additional instruments: pan flute, styrofoam plates
- two concert grand pianos with sostenuto pedals (also two flap chisels to raise and lower the grand piano lids), additional instruments: one (hard plastic) hammer each for reverberant blows against the struts, one metal rod each for glissando actions over the tuning pins, each two plastic pots (“kiddycraft”) for glissando actions along the key surface (“guiro”), one plectrum or plastic plate for rubbing actions along the lower strings, two styrofoam plates each
- two electric guitars (also an acoustic guitar ), additional instruments: a sliding steel, panpipes, styrofoam plates
- two harps , plus fairly sturdy paper for wiping on the low strings and styrofoam plates
- System for six sound carriers (playback tapes, six players)
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Strings :
- String octet: four violins , two violas , two cellos , each in scordature
- Tutti: ten violins 1, ten violins 2, eight violas, six cellos, four double basses , some in the hall
- Incidental music : large Japanese temple gong (" Dobachi ") with cushion and handle to rub on the edge, a wooden stick (for striking sequences on wooden edge, 20 to 25 cm long)
The majority of the instrumentalists sit in the orchestra pit, parts of the orchestra and two of the four choir ensembles are in the back of the auditorium to the right and left
Work history
As early as 1975, Helmut Lachenmann mentioned the fairy tale The Little Girl with the Sulfur in his Donaueschingen self-portrait and informed his publisher at the time about his plan to use it as the basis for a stage work. But it will be "anything but touching." He initially used it as the textual basis for the prelude, the interlude and the postlude of his cantata Les consolations , which premiered in 1978 . After initial discussions in 1985, he received an official commission to compose the work from Peter Ruzicka , the new artistic director of the Hamburg State Opera . The date for the world premiere was February 9, 1992. Axel Manthey was supposed to direct . Lachenmann dedicated the score to Peter Ruzicka. The composition dragged on over several years. In 1992 all the sketches were stolen from his car in Genoa. Lachenmann felt this both as a “mockery” and “redemption”. After the material was found drenched in a park, however, he was forced to complete the score. At first he found the composition for the voice in particular, "the most difficult of all instruments", problematic. Therefore he initially thought of a music theater completely without voices.
Lachenmann himself put together the underlying text. It is essentially about Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales in the German translation by Eva-Maria Blühm. For the 15th picture he used a letter from Gudrun Ensslin (whom he knew personally from his childhood) from 1975 in her prison cell in Stammheim . The 18th picture is based on excerpts from Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Arundel in the German translation by Kurt Gerstenberg . When the work on his “Music in Pictures” dragged on, Lachenmann published this section in 1991/92 as a separate composition under the title “… Two feelings…” Music with Leonardo , which he later adopted unchanged in his stage work. He also integrated fragments from Ernst Toller's Mass Mensch and Friedrich Nietzsche's Also sprach Zarathustra . Regarding the connection between the girl and the terrorist Gudrun Ensslin, Lachenmann explained in the world premiere program that he is concerned with the generation "that does not come to terms with social coldness and acts in despair, that pronounces injustice and puts itself in the wrong".
The world premiere took place after several postponements on January 26, 1997 under the musical direction of Lothar Zagrosek in the Hamburg State Opera. Due to Manthey's illness, Achim Freyer took over the production. He also designed the set, which consisted of an inclined plane rising from the proscenium over the orchestra pit to the rear. The stage musicians, dressed in gray suits, sat in them with snow-covered hats in holes like in a snow field. The production was a huge success with audiences and critics. All subsequent performances were sold out. In the critics' poll of the Opernwelt magazine, it was voted “World Premiere of the Year” as well as the most important “Performance of the Year” by a large majority. In addition to 39 nominations in these categories, there were nine votes for the conductor Zagrosek and seven for the director Freyer.
In a later revision of Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern , Lachenmann deleted the composition "... Two feelings ..." , inserted as No. 18 , because he increasingly felt it to be a "foreign body". He replaced it with a new setting of the same text by Leonardo da Vinci, in which the words over five sound fermatas are chopped up into phonetic fragments by a single speaker in a presentation style reminiscent of Ernst Jandl . This new version of the work, the duration of which is around 10 minutes shorter than the premiere version, is known as the "Tokyo version" after the location of its first performance (2000). Since then, the role of speaker has been taken on by the composer himself in several productions, for example in the 2002 recording under Sylvain Cambreling or in the Frankfurt production in 2015.
Despite the unfamiliar brittle soundscape, which makes the work unsuitable for the repertoire, there have already been a number of new productions:
- 2000: Suntory Hall Tokyo (concert version, with video sequences, first performance of the new setting of No. 18). Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, conductor: Kazuyoshi Akiyama .
- 2001: Stuttgart State Opera , coproduction with the Paris Festival d'Automne (shown there in the Palais Garnier ). Director: Peter Mussbach , conductor: Lothar Zagrosek , soprano: Elizabeth Keusch and Sarah Leonard. With a "scenic duplication of Lachenmann's musical ciphers".
- 2002: Salzburg Festival , coproduction with the Berliner Festwochen and the Alte Oper Frankfurt . Conductor: Sylvain Cambreling . The staging consisted of "associative video sequences".
- 2003: Neue Oper Wien / Wiener Festwochen in the Gasometer Wien-Simmering. Production: Alfred Kirchner , equipment: Karl Kneidl , lighting director: Norbert Chmel, conductor: Walter Kobéra , soprano: Elizabeth Keusch and Sarah Leonard, speaker: Walter Raffeiner . The instrumentalists were located behind the audience, who were positioned in circles, and enveloped them in their sounds. The person of Gudrun Ensslin was given greater weight in this production.
- 2008: Teatro Monumental Madrid, coproduction with Operadhoy, the Sinfónica de RTVE and the Goethe-Institut (concert version ). Conductor: Matthias Hermann , soprano: Elizabeth Keusch and Sarah Leonard, speaker: Helmut Lachenmann.
- 2012: Deutsche Oper Berlin . Staging: David Hermann , equipment: Christof Hetzer , choreography: Sommer Ulrickson , video: Martin Eidenberger, conductor: Lothar Zagrosek , soprano: Hulkar Sabirova and Yuko Kakuta.
- 2013: Jahrhunderthalle Bochum as part of the Ruhrtriennale . Production, stage and lighting: Robert Wilson , costumes: Eva Dessecker , Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra , Chorwerk Ruhr , conductor: Emilio Pomàrico , actors: Angela Winkler and Robert Wilson, sopranos: Hulkar Sabirova and Yuko Kakuta. Staging as a performance with the girl, who also takes on other characters such as the terrorist, and a dark opponent in different roles.
- 2014: Teatro Colón , Buenos Aires. Conductor Baldur Brönnimann , soprano: Hulkar Sabirova and Yuko Kakuta, speaker: Helmut Lachenmann. The feature film La vendedora de fósforos by Alejo Moguillansky presented at the Viennale 2017 is a. a. from the samples to this production.
- 2015: Frankfurt Opera . Staging: Benedikt von Peter , stage: Natascha von Steiger, costumes: Cinzia Fossati and Natascha von Steiger, conductor: Erik Nielsen, actors: Michael Mendl , soprano: Christine Graham and Yuko Kakuta, speaker: Helmut Lachenmann.
- 2016: Memminger Auditorium Charleston as part of the Spoleto Festival USA . Staging: Mark Down and Phelim McDermott , puppets: Fiona Clift, Mark Down and Ruth Paton, stage: Matt Saunders, costumes: Kate Fry, conductor: John Kennedy, soprano: Heather Buck and Yuko Kakuta, speaker: Adam Klein. North American premiere as a "brilliant puppet shadow theater".
- 2019: Zurich Opera House . Choreography and staging: Christian Spuck , stage: Rufus Didwiszus, costumes: Emma Ryott , lighting: Martin Gebhardt, video: Tieni Burkhalter, conductor: Matthias Hermann , soprano: Alina Adamski and Yuko Kakuta, speaker: Helmut Lachenmann. "'Choreographic premiere' entirely according to the composer's intentions".
Recordings
- 29./30. January 1997 - Lothar Zagrosek (conductor), Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg , choir of the Hamburg State Opera .
Anna Karger (girl 1), Andrea K. Schlehwein (girl 2).
Live from Hamburg. - 5th-8th July 2001 - Lothar Zagrosek (conductor), Württemberg State Orchestra Stuttgart , Choir of the Württemberg State Opera Stuttgart .
Elizabeth Keusch (soprano 1), Sarah Leonard (soprano 2), Salome Kammer (speaker), Yukiko Sugawara and Tomoko Hemmi (piano), Mayumi Miyata (Shō).
Studio shot.
Kairos S 0012282KAI (2 CDs). - July 2002 - Sylvain Cambreling (conductor), instrumental ensemble, SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart , experimental studio of the Heinrich Knobel Foundation of the SWR, sound direction: André Richard.
Eiko Morikawa (soprano 1), Nicole Tibbels (soprano 2), Helmut Lachenmann (speaker), Yukiko Sugawara and Tomoko Hemmi (piano), Mayumi Miyata (Shō).
Studio recording from the Freiburg Concert Hall ; Tokyo version from 2000.
ECM 4761283 (2 CDs); ECM New Series 1858-59; Universal 476 128-3.
literature
- Frank Hilberg: The first opera of the 21st century? Helmut Lachenmann's opera “The girl with the sulfur sticks”. In: Neue Zeitschrift für Musik , April 1997, pp. 14-23 ( JSTOR 23986531 ).
- Daniel Ender: Lachenmann: "The girl with the sulfur sticks". A sound-image installation, Salzburg Festival (ÖE 30. 8.) In: Österreichische Musikzeitschrift , Volume 57, Issue 8–9 (2002), doi: 10.7767 / omz.2002.57.89.49 , pp. 49–52
- Barbara Zuber: The double aesthetic difference and once again the question: What does “music with images” mean? On Helmut Lachenmann's "Girls with the sulfur sticks." In: Matteo Nanni, Matthias Schmidt (ed.): Helmut Lachenmann: Music with Pictures! Eikones, National Research Focus on Image Criticism at the University of Basel, Munich 2013 ( online at academia.edu).
Remarks
- ↑ Distribution according to the CD insert. In the Harenberg opera guide , the image that was not composed was left out and the following numbering was adjusted accordingly.
- ↑ In the Harenberg opera guide assigned as Ritsch 3 of No. 19.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Matthias Heilmann: The girl with the sulfur sticks. In: András Batta: Opera. Composers, works, performers. hfullmann, Königswinter 2009, ISBN 978-3-8331-2048-0 , 276-277.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Fridemann Leipold: The girl with the sulfur sticks . In: Attila Csampai , Dietmar Holland : Opera guide. E-book. Rombach, Freiburg im Breisgau 2015, ISBN 978-3-7930-6025-3 , pp. 1444-1450.
- ↑ a b c d e Helmut Lachenmann : A musical act. In: Supplement to CD Kairos S 0012282KAI, pp. 4–6.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rudolf Maschka: The girl with the sulfur sticks. In: Rudolf Kloiber , Wulf Konold , Robert Maschka: Handbuch der Oper. 14th, fundamentally revised edition. Bärenreiter, Kassel and Metzler, Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-3-7618-2323-1 , pp. 362–366.
- ↑ a b Sounds are natural phenomena. Excerpts from a conversation the composer had with Klaus Zehelein and Hans Thomalla . In: Supplement to CD Kairos S 0012282KAI, pp. 11–13.
- ↑ a b c d e The girl with the sulfur sticks. In: Harenberg opera guide. 4th edition. Meyers Lexikonverlag, 2003, ISBN 3-411-76107-5 , pp. 450–451.
- ↑ Les Consolations. Work information from Breitkopf und Härtel, accessed on December 19, 2019.
- ↑ a b Ulrich Schreiber : Opera guide for advanced learners. 20th Century II. German and Italian Opera after 1945, France, Great Britain. Bärenreiter, Kassel 2005, ISBN 3-7618-1437-2 , pp. 235-237.
- ^ Frank Hilberg: The first opera of the 21st century? Helmut Lachenmann's opera “The girl with the sulfur sticks”. In: Neue Zeitschrift für Musik , April 1997, pp. 14-23 ( JSTOR 23986531 ).
- ↑ Klaus Umbach: Smoke from the tormentor . In: Der Spiegel . No. 5 , 1997, pp. 180-181 ( online ).
- ^ Stephan Mösch : balance sheet - performances, artists, pieces and media of the year. In: Opernwelt Jahrbuch 1997, p. 6 & ff.
- ^ A b Arnold Whittall: Contemporary German Music. LACHENMANN, The girl with the sulfur sticks [CD Reviews]. In: Tempo 59 (2005), p. 67, JSTOR 3878783 .
- ↑ a b Hans-Klaus Jungheinrich : Chiffren des unavailable. Review of the performance in Frankfurt 2015. In: Opernwelt , November 2015, p. 20.
- ↑ Dominik Troger: "On ignition and burning". Review of the production in Vienna 2003 on operinwien.at, accessed on December 19, 2019.
- ↑ Álvaro Guibert: Lachenmann sube al Monumental "La cerillera". Information on the performance in Madrid 2008 on elcultural.com, June 12, 2008, accessed on December 19, 2019.
- ^ Wiebke Roloff: sound space. Review of the performance in Berlin 2012. In: Opernwelt , November 2012, p. 6.
- ↑ Uwe Schweikert : In the balance. Review of the performance in Bochum 2013. In: Opernwelt , November 2013, p. 6.
- ↑ Susanne Franz: A contemporary fairy tale. Review of the performance in Buenos Aires 2014 on kunstinargentinien.com, March 21, 2014, accessed December 19, 2019.
- ↑ 2014 Season of the Teatro Colón (PDF, English). P. 58.
- ↑ Information on the film La vendedora de fósforos on viennale at, accessed on December 20, 2019.
- ↑ Heidi Waleson: A taste of West Africa. Review of the performance in Charleston 2016. In: Opernwelt , July 2016, p. 20.
- ↑ Hartmut Regitz: Death in the Snow. Review of the performance in Zurich 2019. In: Opernwelt , December 2019, p. 10.
- ↑ a b c Helmut Lachenmann. In: Andreas Ommer: Directory of all complete opera recordings (= Zeno.org . Volume 20). Directmedia, Berlin 2005.
- ↑ Supplement to CD Kairos S 0012282KAI.
- ↑ The girl with the sulfur sticks. Work information from Breitkopf und Härtel, accessed on December 19, 2019.