The medium
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The medium |
| Original title: | The medium |
| Original language: | English |
| Music: | Gian Carlo Menotti |
| Libretto : | Gian Carlo Menotti |
| Premiere: | May 8, 1946 |
| Place of premiere: | Brander Matthews Theater in New York |
| Playing time: | 75 minutes |
| Place and time of the action: | New York City around 1946 |
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The medium is an opera in two acts by Gian Carlo Menotti , who also wrote the libretto .
action
first act
Madame Flora, an immigrant from Europe , which in New York has found a home, keeping with her daughter Monica and Toby, a mute boy in her house séances from where it deceives the appearance of deceased persons, while earning not bad. The Gobineau couple, regular visitors of the evenings, are guests today with Ms. Nolan. The light is turned off, Toby operates the secret device that moves the table, and Monica uses a glow of light to depict the voices from beyond, this time those of Frau Nolan's daughter, as a “medium”. Madame Flora is suddenly startled: an ice cold one Hand has wrapped around her throat. The guests want to make a new session. Madame Flora declares the session a fraud. Guests think their hostess's mind is foggy and leave. Flora wants Toby to be responsible for the event. When he hides behind a puppet theater, she rushes towards him, but Monica, who has taken the boy to her heart, saves him. Madam Flora feels guilty about the fraud and turns more and more to alcohol.
Second act
A few days later. Madame Flora tries to get Toby to confess. She believes that he put the still inexplicable cold hand on her neck, but struggles with insecurity if it isn't. The Gobineaus come to another meeting with Frau Nolan, Madame Flora asserts again that everything is a lie, but the three stay. She drives everyone out of the house and drinks until she falls asleep. When Toby is looking for Monica, Madame Flora unintentionally wakes up. Toby is hiding behind the curtain. When the curtain moves, Flora becomes terrified. She shoots: Toby is fatally wounded. Monica runs to get help. Flora thinks she has conquered a ghost, but until the end of the opera she is still insecure whether he touched her. With the words "Was it you ?!" the opera ends.
Background and story
Menotti got the idea for the work when he witnessed a séance in St. Wolfgang in the Salzkammergut in 1936 . He drew on this experience when he received a commission for an opera from Columbia University almost 10 years later . The premiere of the first version took place on May 8, 1946 at Brander Matthews Theater instead of the university. Thereafter, the work was taken over by the Ballet Society , which performed the work on February 18, 1947 in the Heckscher Theater , together with the world premiere of the one-act play The Telephone , which Menotti wrote to complement the short opera to a full theater evening. On May 1, 1947, the Broadway premiere took place at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in New York . The audience's success was initially limited until the press reported the benevolent judgment of Arturo Toscanini , who attended three performances in a row. The Medium then ran to a sold-out house for over six months. Menotti himself directed the filming of the opera in 1951 and received a special prize at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival for it .
literature
- Monika Schwarz: The Medium. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater . Vol. 4. Works. Massine - Piccinni. Piper, Munich and Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-492-02414-9 , pp. 55 f.
Web links
- Action by Das Medium bei Opera-Guide target page due to URL conversion currently unavailable