The castle (opera)
| Opera dates | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The lock |
Scene from Kafka's Castle, New York 2002 |
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| Shape: | Opera in two parts |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Aribert Reimann |
| Libretto : | Aribert Reimann |
| Literary source: | Franz Kafka / Max Brod : The castle |
| Premiere: | 2nd September 1992 |
| Place of premiere: | German Opera Berlin |
| Playing time: | approx. 2 ¾ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | A village, anytime |
| people | |
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The castle is an opera in two parts by Aribert Reimann . The libretto, written by the composer himself, is based on Franz Kafka's novel Das Schloss and its dramatization by Max Brod . The world premiere took place on September 2, 1992 in the Deutsche Oper Berlin .
action
A surveyor named only with the abbreviation "K." arrives in a village belonging to a castle to take up a position there. Despite all his efforts, however, he does not manage to find out more about his tasks or even gain access to the castle. The villagers meet him with hostility. Two alleged assistants, Artur and Jeremias, whom he only meets here, understand nothing about their work and seem to be spying on him. His direct employer is a certain Klamm, from whom he receives two letters, but whom he never gets to know. The castle messenger Barnabas is supposed to maintain contact. K. has great difficulties in even finding a place to stay because as a stranger he has no right of residence. He soon falls in love with the barmaid, Frieda, whom Klamm takes off but loses to one of his assistants towards the end. K. and Frieda temporarily live in the classrooms of a school where he can work as an assistant teacher. His search for the background to his employment and a right to exist runs in circles without result. When Barnabas finally brings the news that K. is to be given an official right of residence, it is too late: he has already died of exhaustion.
first act
Image 1 - In front of and in the tavern "Zur Brücke"
The land surveyor K. arrives in a snow-covered village late in the evening. Since there are no more rooms available in the inn, he receives a straw mattress from the innkeeper and lies down exhausted in a corner of the inn. Shortly afterwards, Schwarzer appears, the son of a sub-castellan of Count Westwest's castle, to whom the village belongs. He wakes K. and points out that it is forbidden to spend the night without the Count's permission and that he must leave the area immediately. K. points out to him that he has been ordered by the count himself and that his assistants will follow in the wagon tomorrow. Schwarzer calls the castle to make sure that K's statement is true. Four farmers fear that his activities could harm them.
Interlude I
Picture 2 - stage similar to picture 1
Artur and Jeremias report to K. The two young men were allegedly hired as his assistants, but they have no measuring equipment and they don't understand anything about land surveying. K. says that he wanted to introduce himself in the castle, but the path repeatedly made unexpected bends without leading to the destination. Because the two assistants look very similar, he decides to call them both Artur. They should both be equally responsible for their work. First you should call the castellan to get permission to visit the castle. However, you receive the answer "Neither tomorrow ... nor another time!" Then K. picks up the phone himself, but only hears "a hum ... singing from the most distant ... the most distant voices". A messenger arrives from the castle: Barnabas hands K. a letter from Mr. Klamm, the “board member of the tenth chancellery”, according to which K. has been “accepted into the service of the manor” and is subordinate to the village mayor. Barnabas will occasionally inquire about his wishes. K. decides to accompany him on his way back to the castle.
Interlude II
Image 3 - Road and edge of the forest, landscape in front of the "Herrenhof" inn
Barnabas did not take K. to the castle because he wants to spend the night in his own house. His sister Olga works in the manor, where the castle officials stay when they are in the village. K. hopes to find space there with your help. The landlord of the Herrenhof advises him that he can only go to the bar and under no circumstances can he spend the night here. Only one gentleman from the castle was present today: Mr Klamm.
Transformation. The inn in the Herrenhof
There are already some servants of Klamm in the inn. His lover Frieda serves at the bar. While K. is flirting with her, Olga is attacked and abused by the servants. Frieda intervenes and locks her in the stable. When the landlord comes in to check that everything is okay, K. hides under the bar. Frieda can hide his presence from the threatening host. After he has left, she slips under the desk with K. The two embrace with tender words until they are interrupted by the two assistants. Frieda leaves the manor house to move to the bridge courtyard with K. and the assistants.
Interlude III
Image 4 - Attic in the inn "Zur Brücke"
K. and Frieda have been living together for four days and have settled down in the poor room. K. is surprised to see that the two assistants are lying on the floor in a corner in old women's skirts. He feels disturbed by them and sends them away, although Frieda defends them. The landlady comes in to talk to K. about his relationship with Frieda. She says that Frieda lost her job because of him and that she now needs backups before she can marry K. K. wants to talk to Klamm about it. The landlady believes, however, that Klamm will not see him because as a stranger he is "redundant and in the way everywhere", has seduced Frieda and is hanging around with Barnabas' ragged family. She herself was Klamm's lover twenty years ago and has kept memories of him: “Whatever you do, it is definitely insubordinate.” K. does not allow himself to be unsettled. He rushes to the community leader to finally begin his service. The assistants follow him.
Interlude IV
Image 5 - Rural room of the community leader
The head of the community, suffering from gout, initially greets K. in a friendly manner. However, when K. shows him the letter he received from Klamm, the chief informs him that no surveyor is needed. The order was only wrongly based on a decree several years old. He asks his wife Mizzi and the two assistants to look for him. Meanwhile he explains to K. that the decree had been answered negatively. However, the answer was sent to the wrong department, whereupon a "large correspondence" developed in order to investigate the error. The chaotic search for the decree remains unsuccessful. The community leader points out to K. that Klamm's letter is not an “official letter” at all, but a “private letter”, as can be clearly seen from the headline “Dear Sir”. Nor is the term land surveyor mentioned anywhere. He does not accept K.'s arguments: “I will not allow you to be accepted as a surveyor!” K., indignant, pulls the door open to leave the room. The scattered files whirl around and "fill the stage like a blizzard".
Second part
Picture 6 - Attic as in the 4th picture
The assistants inspect Frieda's tidy room and the new tablecloth. K. sends her downstairs to clean his boots. He receives a visit from the teacher, who tells him that he has made a record of his rudeness towards him on behalf of the community leader. Nevertheless, he offers him a job as a school servant. This is proof of his goodness, because a school clerk is not really needed and K. does not even understand this work. Just as K. is about to refuse the offer, he learns from Frieda that the landlady has given them notice. Therefore he has no choice but to accept the position. The teacher informs him of his new duties. In return, K. receives the right to live in one of the two classrooms if there is no teaching in it. A salary should be decided after the one-month trial period. K. is determined to speak to Klamm.
Interlude V
Picture 7 - Lonely village street in the snow; total darkness
K. wanders in the direction of the castle, lost in thought. The assistants follow him and after a while catch up with him. Barnabas emerges “out of the darkness between them” and hands K. a letter from Klamm in which Klamm extensively praises his previous surveying work and offers him the prospect of a reward. K. thinks this is a misunderstanding. He chases the assistants away with crude words. Barnabas confesses to him that he has not been back in the castle since his arrival and therefore has not yet been able to deliver K's previous messages. K. begs him to arrange a meeting with Klamm in the castle the next day. Barnabas withdraws with a bow. The assistants reappear, followed by Frieda, who continues to distrust Barnabas. In the meantime, she can no longer bear the presence of the mysterious assistants. She begs K. to emigrate with her. However, K. wants to stay. He imagines “a grave, deep and narrow. There we hug each other like with pincers. "
Interlude VI
Picture 8 - The next day; in the hut of Barnabas
Barnaba's second sister, Amalia, is sitting by the stove, singing, when K. walks in, impatiently waiting for his messenger Barnabas to return. Olga joins them too. She tells K. about her family circumstances: Amalia is the youngest of them, but she bears the greatest responsibility and decides everything. A few years ago, Amalia had "harshly rejected" the application of a castle official, whereupon the entire family was ostracized by the village. Her father collapsed immediately. She herself has since tried to maintain relations with the castle by giving herself to the servants twice a week for money. She also got her brother to work as a messenger. Occasionally he gets to see senior officials in the offices, including Klamm - but his appearance is so changeable that you can never be sure whether it really is him. The messenger work for K. is Barnabas' first assignment and a "sign of grace" for the family. Jeremias informs K. that Artur has quit the service for both of them because of his rudeness. Frieda also left him because of his relationships with the two Barnabas sisters. She is now with him, Jeremias, and is working as before in the manor house, where he has been given a job as a room waiter. Barnabas finally returns from the castle. He arranged an audience for K. with Erlanger, a secretary of Klamm. Jeremias hurries off to forestall K. at Erlanger. K. runs after him.
Interlude VII
Image 9 - A corridor in the Herrenhof inn; night
K., confused, looks for the room in which he should meet Erlanger. He meets Frieda, who blames him for the end of their relationship. Jeremias is waiting for her in her room, cold and feverish. He asks K. in, but Frieda forbids him to enter. K. continues to look for the right door. In one of the rooms he meets the civil servant Bürgel, who describes the bureaucratic conditions in the castle with chilling words - everyone is overburdened and has to conduct nightly interrogations in the village as "voluntary work". As a result, the officials are also occasionally ready to break the rules and abuse their office. Exhausted K. fell asleep during Burgel's long speech. He is missing the right moment to raise his concern. Bürgel wakes him up and sends him away. In the corridor, K. lies down on the floor to sleep: "Put your coat, dream, around the child." (He does not notice that two servants are distributing files in the rooms. After the work is done, there is only one piece of paper left over The servant looks angry at the sleeping K. and tears up the piece of paper.)
Metamorphosis - A cemetery; in the middle an open grave; in the distance you can see the castle
Frieda, the landlady, the two assistants, the teacher, the community leader and the two sisters have gathered for K.'s funeral at his grave. Barnabas arrives with a message from the castle: K. has been granted a right of residence "by grace" because his application was so lengthy. Amalia realizes that it is "the right to live in the grave". Olga wants to avoid this topic in the future: "Do we want to make ourselves unpopular again?"
layout
orchestra
The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:
- Woodwinds : flute piccolo , flute , alto flute, oboe , english horn , heckelphone , E-flat clarinet , clarinet , bass clarinet , two bassoons (2nd also contrabassoon )
- Brass : four horns , four trumpets , three trombones , tuba
- Timpani , percussion (four players): glockenspiel , xylophone , vibraphone , tubular bells , five tom toms , military drum , stirring drum , snare drum , bass drum
- two harps
- piano
- Strings : twelve violins 1, ten violins 2, eight violas , six cellos , five double basses
music
Reimann extracted nine clearly delimited images from the text, each of which he assigned a different timbre and instrumentation. In this method he saw "the only way to get away from the novel and to get through the music to a new piece." To characterize the people and their surroundings in the individual pictures, Reimann used not only the instrumental configuration, but also different musical styles that range from chorale reminiscences and chamber music effects to free jazz . The conductor János Kulka mentioned other compositional techniques such as “microstructures, that is, tiny motifs or parts of motifs, sometimes just two or three tones, which the composer consistently repeats and varies through rhythmic shifts” as well as “numerous long expressive passages that go back to Mahler ”. The “Kafkaesque sound” typical of this opera is said to be “dark, eerie, mystical, foggy” with very deep sounds. Moreover Reimann harmonies used in Fourth Eltonen in the strings and horns, clusters and mixed sounds of woodwinds and strings flageolets . The orchestra is often divided into the four instrument blocks of strings, woodwinds, brass and harps / piano / drums. With the triple woodwinds, each player has a different instrument. Only the second bassoon occasionally plays the contrabassoon. There is a lyrical sextet for the cellists. The total number of 41 strings is fixed because they are also used as soloists. Burgel's spoken monologue in the ninth scene is accompanied by a string canon that begins with the solo viola and extends to 41 voices, with each player playing either the theme itself or an inversion. The music critic Heinz Josef Herbort counted a total of 26 “positive” and 15 “negative” reflective forms of the thematic inserts.
The pictures are linked by interludes in which the musical material of the previous pictures is processed. According to Reimann, "they carry on states of tension or anticipate the future". The opera's only ensemble piece is the final sextet, in which K.'s opponents and friends gather at the cemetery as if to warn any successors. Kulka referred to it as a “vocal requiem” in which all the solos come together to form a “great final chorale”. Its music already sounds in the sixth and “varied to the echo” in the seventh interlude, where it stands “as a sign of K's hopeless efforts”.
Reimann uses spoken texts in some places. Two parts - Schwarzer in the first picture and Bürgel in the ninth picture - are pure speaking roles. He used the spoken word "whenever information, such as the letters to K., eluded a setting". Reimann explained:
"Apart from the fact that both must stand out from the others as belonging to the castle, in the 9th picture when K. meets Bürgel, initially word and music seem to separate with the onset of the mirror canon, which develops from the beginning of the opera's tone sequence. gradually leads K. to sleep. In the course of Buergel's story, however, one senses that this music not only emerges from K's head, but also seems to come out of the castle as the essence of the previous music. Every word here is important for understanding and cannot be composed until Ks comes in when he leaves Bürgel. "
A recurring musical element is an ascending line of up to 15 tones in the strings. The opera begins and ends with this line. It establishes a twelve-tone row . Kulka described it as the “basic motif” of the opera, which runs “in an unlikely number of variations through the whole piece”. He compared it with the beginning of the prelude to Wagner's Parsifal , the theme of which leads upwards in a similarly syncopated manner. Another common feature of these two works are the inherent "religious-philosophical aspects".
Herbort described the first use of the motif in his premiere review in the period as follows:
“From the double-bowed E, violins screw up another two octaves, climbing in steps of one, two or three semitones. When, of course, the line has reached its fourth level, it splits: In a lower voice, a downward countermovement sets in, which in turn splits up again on its second level, the third line leads upwards again. Something similar occurs on the seventh level of the purposefully upwardly directed line of origin: a counter-movement that initially descends, then revokes itself upwards, splits once more into two strands. The result was a musical labyrinth, a formal counterpart to Kafka's design of the events and conditions that were already negating at the time they were created. "
Reimann himself also commented on the importance of this motif:
“When K. arrives at the 'Herrenhof' in the last picture, the music stops on the F - the line started with E – F - and everything that was rising at the beginning now goes down. […] K.'s longing for the intangible, which is alluded to again and again with this material, also in the vertical, goes into the abyss here. "
Work history
The castle is Aribert Reimann's sixth opera. It was created between 1989 and 1992 on behalf of the Deutsche Oper Berlin . Reimann put together the libretto himself. His models were Franz Kafka's novel Das Schloss and Max Brod's dramatized version of the same, which he had already seen in 1953 during his school days in the Schlossparktheater Berlin. After receiving the invitation to the assignment, he initially thought of two other substances, both of which he rejected. Then he remembered Das Schloss again and read the novel again. He used Brod's theatrical version as "a kind of scene grid", where he deleted two thirds of the text. Since the main character K. does not have a text of his own in the novel, Reimann used Kafka's diary notes and the story Wedding Preparations in the Country .
The world premiere took place on September 2, 1992 as part of the Berliner Festwochen in the Deutsche Oper Berlin under the musical direction of Michael Boder . The production was done by Willy Decker , set design and costumes by Wolfgang Gussmann . The singers were Wolfgang Schöne (K.), Friedrich Molsberger (landlord), Isoldé Elchlepp (landlady), Rolf Kühne (Schwarzer), Bengt-Ola Morgny (Artur), Ralf Lukas (Jeremias), Warren Mok (Barnabas), Ute Walther (Olga), Michal Shamir (Amalia), Gerd Feldhoff (Herrenhofwirt), Adrianne Pieczonka (Frieda), Frieder Meyer-Wolff (community leader), Johanna Karl-Lory (Mizzi), Peter Maus (teacher) and Peter Matić (Bürgel).
Since then the work has been played several times:
- 1992/1993: Deutsche Oper am Rhein Duisburg / Düsseldorf; with a guest performance in June 1993 at the Wuppertal Opera House as part of the Days of New Music Theater in North Rhine-Westphalia. Conductor: János Kulka , Director: Kurt Horres , Stage: Xenia Hausner , Costumes: Danielle Laurent, K .: Richard Salter . This staging dispensed with the “bizarre-grotesque” and concentrated “on the Passionsweg Ks”.
- May 1993: City Theater Bern . Conductor: Andreas Delfs , production: Eike Gramss
- 1994: Hanover Opera House . Conductor: Hans Urbanek , production: Andreas Homoki
- September 1994: Resumption of the world premiere production at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Conductor: Michael Boder
- 1995/1996: National Theater Munich as part of the Munich Opera Festival . Conductor: Michael Boder. Guest performance of the world premiere production
- 1996: Art Nouveau Theater Vienna . Conductor: Andreas Mitisek
- 2005: Deutsche Oper Berlin. Conductor: Michail Jurowski
Recordings
- 2nd / 5th September 1992 - Michael Boder (conductor), Willy Decker (staging), Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin .
Wolfgang Schöne (K.), Friedrich Molsberger (landlord), Isoldé Elchlepp (landlady), Rolf Kühne (Schwarzer), Bengt-Ola Morgny (Artur), Ralf Lukas (Jeremias), Warren Mok (Barnabas), Ute Walther (Olga) , Michal Shamir (Amalia), Gerd Feldhoff (Herrenhofwirt), Adrianne Pieczonka (Frieda), Frieder Meyer-Wolff (community leader), Johanna Karl-Lory (Mizzi), Peter Maus (teacher), Peter Matić (Bürgel).
Live recording of the world premiere from the Deutsche Oper Berlin; without the lyrics of the 10th scene. - October / November 1996 - Michael Boder (conductor), Bavarian State Orchestra Munich.
Richard Salter (K.), Harry Dworchak (landlord), Isoldé Elchlepp (landlady), Rüdiger Trebes (Schwarzer), Bengt-Ola Morgny (Artur), Ralf Lukas (Jeremias), Claes-Håkan Ahnsjö (Barnabas), Ute Walther ( Olga), Jennifer Trost (Amalia), Hermann Becht (Herrenhofwirt), Eva Zweadberg (Frieda), Kieth Engen (community leader), Heidi Forster (Mizzi), Helmut Pampuch (teacher), Peter Matić (Bürgel).
Live montage from Munich; Opernwelt CD tip: "artistically valuable".
Wergo 286614-2 (2 CDs).
Web links
- Action by Das Schloss (Opera) on Opera-Guide target page due to URL change currently not available
- K. Umbach, M. Doerry: "I wanted to write hits". Interview with Aribert Reimann. In: Der Spiegel 36/1992
Remarks
- ↑ "Clam" is the Czech word for "deception" or "lie".
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e work information from Schott Music , accessed on October 9, 2018.
- ↑ Information in the text book.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i The castle. In: Harenberg opera guide. 4th edition. Meyers Lexikonverlag, 2003, ISBN 3-411-76107-5 , pp. 741-743.
- ↑ a b c 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. 161-163.
- ↑ a b c d questions to the conductor. In: The castle. Program of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, 1992/1993 season, pp. 7–9.
- ↑ a b c Heinz Josef Herbort: Franz Kafka's novel “Das Schloß” as music theater: Aribert Reimann's sixth opera premiered in Berlin: round dance around the tabernacle of bureaucracy. In: The time . No. 38/1992, September 11, 1992.
- ↑ a b c questions to the composer. In: The castle. Program of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, 1992/1993 season, pp. 4–6.
- ↑ Vita Huber: Thoughts on the “Castle”. In: The castle. Program of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, 1992/1993 season, pp. 2–3.
- ↑ a b c Aribert Reimann. In: Andreas Ommer: Directory of all complete opera recordings (= Zeno.org . Volume 20). Directmedia, Berlin 2005.
- ↑ The castle. Program of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, 1992/1993 season.