The miracle of the helians
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The miracle of the helians |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Erich Wolfgang Korngold |
| Libretto : | Hans Müller-Einigen , based on "Die Heilige" by Hans Kaltneker |
| Premiere: | October 7, 1927 |
| Place of premiere: | Hamburg State Opera |
| Place and time of the action: | An unnamed totalitarian state in an unknown time |
| people | |
The miracle of Sunray , Op. 20 is an opera in three acts by Erich Wolfgang Korngold .
history
The premiere on October 7, 1927 under the conductor Egon Pollak at the Hamburg State Opera was, according to press reports, a great success with "frenetic" reactions from the audience. However, the work quickly came into the line of fire of Korngold's opponents after his father Julius Korngold tried to prevent a production of Ernst Krenek's extremely successful opera Jonny plays on in Vienna. Despite performances at a total of twelve opera houses, it now failed and then disappeared into oblivion. Critics from Frankfurt and Vienna considered it anachronistic. In addition, the performance in 1928 under Bruno Walter at the Städtische Oper Berlin was considered artistically unsuccessful. A little later, the National Socialists banned Korngold from performing because of his Jewish origins.
After the Second World War, the work was staged again for the first time in 1970 at the Flemish Opera in Ghent . As part of the Degenerate Music series , the opera was recorded in Berlin in 1992 for DECCA . Anna Tomowa-Sintow , Hartmut Welker and John David de Haan will sing under the direction of John Mauceri . The British premiere took place in 2007 in London's Royal Festival Hall under Vladimir Jurowski .
The still little-known opera was staged in a co-production with the National Theater Brno at the Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern under Uwe Sandner and directed by Johannes Reitmeier . The sets in the style of the film Metropolis came from Daniel Dvorak , the costumes from Thomas Dörfler . Sally du Randt sang the title role . In 2012 the production was rehearsed by Heinz Lukas-Kindermann in Brno .
In January 2017, the Vienna Volksoper brought three concert performances of the opera under the musical direction of Jac van Steen with Annemarie Kremer in the title role as well as Daniel Kirch and Martin Winkler . The Philharmonic Orchestra Freiburg played Heliane twice in concert in the Konzerthaus Freiburg in July 2017 under the direction of Fabrice Bollon , also with Annemarie Kremer in the title role, Michael Bedjai (The Stranger) and Aris Argiris (The Ruler). A recording of the performances was published on CD by Naxos in 2018 .
In March 2018, the opera at the Deutsche Oper Berlin with Sara Jakubiak and Brian Jagde in the leading roles under the direction of Marc Albrecht and directed by Christof Loy had a celebrated premiere. Some performances were recorded and released on DVD / Blu-ray Disc in June 2019.
content
1st act
The tyrannical ruler suffers from being unable to win the love of his wife Heliane. Because he is unhappy himself, he does not allow his subjects to be happy either. A young stranger who recently entered the country and brought life and joy to the people was arrested and sentenced to death. The sentence is to be carried out at sunrise.
The evening before the execution of the sentence, the ruler visits the prisoner to find out the reason for his actions. He wants to make people happy, says the stranger. They are not ready for this, says the ruler. The stranger asks for mercy, but the ruler insists on execution, but agrees that the stranger may remain unbound for the last night of his life. After her husband has left the prisoner, Heliane comes into the cell to comfort the stranger. She recognizes his kindness and her feelings for him turn from pity and sadness to love.
The stranger admires Heliane's beauty and she loosens her long golden hair, shows her bare feet and finally stands completely naked in front of him. The stranger asks Heliane if she would be willing to give herself to him on the last night of his life, but she refuses and goes to the chapel to pray for the stranger.
The ruler returns to the cell and makes the stranger an offer that he will pardon him if he teaches the queen to love him, the king. Heliane, still naked, returns from the chapel and is horrified to find her husband in the cell. In his anger, the latter orders the stranger's death and Heliane's accusation.
2nd act
Judges and executioners are summoned by the messenger and the blind sword judge also appears. Heliane is to be brought to justice because the ruler accuses her of adultery with the stranger. Heliane cannot deny that she was standing naked in front of the stranger, but she insists that she only gave herself to him in thought. The ruler presses his dagger to her chest and tells her to kill herself.
The stranger is brought in to testify, but he refuses to testify until he can be alone with Heliane for a short time. He kisses her, takes the dagger and kills himself, thus forever hiding the truth that the ruler wanted to know from him. The ruler dismisses the court and tells Heliane that she has to submit to a divine judgment: If she is innocent, as she claims, she must bring the stranger back to life. Raptured, she agrees.
3rd act
In front of the ruler's palace stands the bier, in front of which a crowd has gathered. The judges and the blind sword judge have also appeared. Heliane solemnly vows to raise the dead, but collapses in front of the corpse. The people incited by the messenger want to burn them, the ruler holds them back. She cries and doesn't want to lie, but instead admit that she loved the young stranger. When the ruler sees her crying, he wants to save her from being charged, but only on the condition that she be his. But he is rejected and leaves his wife to the crowd. The crowd drags her to the pole where she is supposed to die. There is a clap of thunder, stars appear in the sky and everyone is spellbound when the young stranger's body rises from the bier. As if by a miracle, he is still alive. Heliane tears herself away from the crowd and throws herself into the arms of the beloved stranger. The ruler thrusts his sword into Heliane's chest. The stranger blesses the crowd and banishes the ruler whose power is broken. The stranger takes Heliane in his arms and, united in their love, they ascend to heaven.
reception
From Alfred Einstein's review of the “World Premiere at the Hamburger Stadttheater” in the Berliner Tageblatt on October 8, 1927:
“It takes a tremendous naivety, a real beyond of good and evil of all tastes, to hang on to this operatic character of all operatic character music. […] [Korngold's] music is incomparably better than the libretto; it is felt, true, felt, you can feel this every moment. And yet one is not gripped for a moment, not a moment in the true sense of the word. The libretto forces the musician to continually exaggerate the expression; Depending on the situation, there is either cramp in the 'dramatic' passages, or in the lyrical passages a solemn and consecrated tone that prevents any genuine intimacy, any genuine naturalness. […] The success could not have been more brilliant - the applause took on more enthusiastic forms after each act, and Korngold and his helpers were able to show himself many times from the second act on. "
The production of the Deutsche Oper Berlin 2018 was named "Rediscovery of the Year" in the critics' survey by Opernwelt magazine .
literature
- Dirk Wegener: Studies on the music sources of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's opera Das Wunder der Heliane . Dissertation. Hildesheim: Olms 2007. ISBN 978-3-487-13520-5
- Yvonne Steiner: Erich Wolfgang Korngold's opera THE MIRACLE OF THE HELIANES: History of origin and impact . Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller 2008. ISBN 978-3-639-08816-8
Web links
- Lotte Lehmann sings the aria of Heliane from Act 2 I went to him . Members of the Staatskapelle Berlin , conductor Manfred Gurlitt . Photo taken on March 13, 1928 [1]
- Chronology of the performances from 1927 [2]
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Udo Bermbach (Ed.): Opera in the 20th century. Development tendencies and composers. Metzler, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-476-01733-8 , p. 110.
- ^ Rudolf Kloiber , Wulf Konold , Robert Maschka: Handbook of the Opera. 9th, expanded, revised edition 2002. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag / Bärenreiter, ISBN 3-423-32526-7 , p. 361 f.
- ^ Premiere on April 5, 1928. Directed by Karl Heinz Martin. With Grete Stückgold, Anny Helm, Marguerite Perras, Emil Schipper, Hans Fidesser, Alexander Kipnis. 4 performances. See Detlef Meyer zu Heringsdorf: The Charlottenburg Opera House from 1912 to 1961 . Dissertation Berlin 1988. Volume 2, p. 315.
- ↑ Harenberg opera guide. 4th edition. Meyers Lexikonverlag, 2003, ISBN 3-411-76107-5 , p. 440.
- ↑ The miracle of the Heliane in the program calendar of the Deutsche Oper Berlin , accessed on April 13, 2018.
- ↑ https://www.wagner-heavymetal.com/blog/das-wunder-der-heliane
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/music/2007/nov/24/classicalmusicandopera1
- ↑ Premiere in Brno
- ↑ Premiere in Brno
- ^ Review of the Viennese production
- ↑ Berliner Zeitung , March 19, 2018
- ↑ Naxos NBD0083V
- ↑ Das Wunder der Heliane at www.opern-freund.de , accessed on April 13, 2018
- ^ Alfred Einstein : Korngold: "The miracle of the Heliane" - world premiere at the Hamburg City Theater. In: Berliner Tageblatt , October 8, 1927 ( digitized p. 2 and digitized p. 3 of the Berlin State Library ).
- ↑ Arne Stollberg: Excessive on principle. Back to the lost paradise, by all means: Erich Wolfgang Korngold's mystery play “The Miracle of Heliane” and the dramaturgy of Eros. In: Opernwelt Jahrbuch 2018. Der Theaterverlag, September 2018, accessed on October 15, 2018 .