The bearskin (Siegfried Wagner)
| Work data | |
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| Title: | The bearskin |
| Shape: | Opera in three acts |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Siegfried Wagner |
| Libretto : | Siegfried Wagner |
| Premiere: | January 22, 1899 |
| Place of premiere: | Munich |
| Place and time of the action: | Bayreuther Lande at the time of the Thirty Years War |
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Der Bärenhäuter is an opera in three acts by Siegfried Wagner , who also wrote the libretto . The play takes place in the Bayreuth region at the time of the Thirty Years' War .
The bearskin based on the fairy tale of the same name by the Brothers Grimm (→ Der Bärenhäuter ) is the first of a total of 17 operas by Siegfried Wagner. It was premiered on January 22nd, 1899 at the Court and National Theater in Munich .
Emergence
In the spring of 1895, Siegfried Wagner learned that Engelbert Humperdinck had thought of setting the two related fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, The Bear Skin and The Devil's Sooty Brother , to music, but had given up this idea. This inspired him to become active in this direction himself.
In early 1896 he began composing the overture, for which he already had themes in mind. Compared to preludes and overtures by his contemporaries such as Eugen d'Albert , Engelbert Humperdinck or Richard Strauss , the overture, with a playing time of around 14 minutes, is just as extensive as the other orchestral preludes and interludes of this work. In terms of the orchestral line-up, he differs from Richard Strauss, whose line-up became more and more powerful, while Wagner used an orchestra of the usual size.
The libretto written by Wagner himself the above fairy tale, a legend from the minstrel book by Wilhelm Hertz and a historic event from the Thirty Years' War, which was to give the work a real background.
When Siegfried Wagner had completed Act 1, a legal dispute broke out between Wagner and Arnold Mendelssohn , who was working on the same subject and declared that Wagner had known that he was the first to start the composition. There was no agreement and Wagner completed the second score in October after the Bayreuth Festival in 1897 and the entire score on his 29th birthday, June 6, 1898.
The work was published by Max Brockhaus Musikverlag in Leipzig , after its premiere it was included in the repertoire of various stages in German-speaking countries and performed 77 times in the first season. The venues included Frankfurt, Gotha, Hamburg, Karlsruhe, Leipzig, Vienna (under the direction of Gustav Mahler ) and Prague. With 177 performances on around 35 stages, Der Bärenhäuter became the most frequently performed opera in the 1899/1900 season, with opera houses in England, France and Hungary also performing the work.
Siegfried Wagner was branded as a composer of fairy tale operas through this success, just as Humperdinck had done before with his opera Hansel and Gretel in 1893. Arnold Mendelssohn's opera of the same name was premiered in Berlin in 1900 and was removed from the program after a few performances.
action
first act
The people of a small village greet returnees from the Thirty Years' War. Only Hans Kraft, whose mother has since passed away, receives no attention. The jobless Hans receives an offer from the devil to guard the cauldrons in hell in which the poor sinners stew. He accepts the offer and accompanies the devil to hell, where the devil reminds him once more of his duty, because otherwise he would have to expect punishment. The devil goes on a journey and Hans begins to heat the boiler. Then he recognizes in one of the plaintive voices that of his sergeant who had particularly plagued him during the war.
A stranger appears, pretends to be Peter Closer and suggests a game of dice for Hans. Since Hans has no money, he puts souls out of the cauldron and keeps losing. In the end he believes he will win with 12 eyes, but the stranger rolls a "13" and wins all souls who ascend to heaven with a hallelujah.
When the devil returns home and furiously notices the loss of all souls, Hans is supposed to return to the world in the form of a devil as a punishment. He is not allowed to wash himself and is finally addicted to the devil if he does not find a girl who loves him despite his ugly appearance and remains loyal to him for three years. He should give the girl half of his ring and if the other half does not bleach, this is the sign of her loyalty and he gets his human form back. He receives a sack full of gold, which is never empty and should he succeed in liberation, Hans has three additional wishes with the devil.
The devil summons other devils who deface Hans, spray him with soot and excrement and put a bearskin around his head. Then a dragon's mouth-like hole spits him out of hell under fire, lightning and thunder.
Second act
In an inn, the farmer Heiner and the tap maid Anna tell each other ghost stories. When there is a knock at the door and Anna opens it, she thinks the devil is at the door. It is Hans, the bearskin, who wants to enter. When he finally begins to rant, the peasants and the pastor suspect that he is human and not a devil. However, he must first test his feet to see whether he has a horse's foot. Finally Hans comes through the window into the dining room and when Anna tries to question him, he pretends to be crazy. After most of the guests and the pastor have left the inn, the landlord rudely wakes the mayor, who has fallen asleep at his table, asks him to pay his long-outstanding bill and threatens to seize his property. In the subsequent scuffle between the landlord and the mayor, Hans intervenes and takes over the mayor's debts.
At Wein, the mayor tells Hans about his three unmarried daughters, whom nobody wants to marry because he is so poor, which is why Hans offers himself as a suitor. At the May dance the next morning, Hans should be introduced to the three daughters, and his appearance should be explained by the fact that Hans had made a vow because of an unfaithful lover. The mayor says goodbye and Hans goes to rest. The landlord sneaks in and wants to steal the sack that Hans left in the guest room. When he opens it, all kinds of vermin fly out and torment him. When Hans comes in with a lamp, the ghost disappears.
Already at dawn the dining room is festively decorated and the village youths dance past. Then the mayor appears with his daughters Lene, Gunda and Luise. While the two older ones mock Hans and run away, Luise, the youngest of the three sisters, notices that Hans has a tear running down. After persistent questioning, he finally admits that she could help him if she kept half of his ring and did not forget it. Knowing that she would not forget the figure smeared with soot, she takes half of the ring and ties it to a ribbon around her neck.
The innkeeper, who was caught as a thief, incited the farmers against the bearskin and claimed that his money was devil's money. They threaten Hans with clubs and flails and when he thinks that the sixty guilders are also the devil's money, which he paid for the mayor, the landlord throws the money away and a flame shoots up from the floor. The bearskin seems to have been convicted of the devil and is to be slain. Luise, however, calls on other farmers to help and protects him because she is convinced that he is a good person. Hans can continue his hike unmolested.
Third act
Three years have passed and Luise has remained loyal to Hans. Now the devils wash and clean the bearskin. The devil's last attempt to keep Hans in his power fails. Mermaids should overthrow Hans in his sleep and steal the ring from him, but Hans wakes up first. Hans now expresses his three wishes: He would like to be the way he was again, but this wish has already been fulfilled. Second, he wants the sack free from money and spook, and third, he wants the devil to leave him alone once and for all. Hans leaves the bearskin to the devil as a reminder that a devil can be wrong too, and hurries to his bride.
After an orchestral interlude, Hans Der Fremde steps in and informs him that the Plassenburg will be attacked by the Wallensteiners if he does not warn the sleeping castle residents. The attack on the Plassenburg is observed from the village near Kulmbach, where Hans met his Luise. Then Kaspar Wild steps in, reports on Hans Kraft's rescue operation and everyone goes to the pub to celebrate. The mayor wants to convince Luise to marry the farmer Veit. The sisters mock her and she is left alone.
Hans entered unnoticed and asks Luise for bandages for the small wound he sustained in the fight. Luise hands him a cup of water into which he drops his ring. Luise is startled because she thinks it's her ring. Then Hans emerges to be recognized and the two embrace cheerfully.
Now Kaspar Wild returns with some farmers, the mayor and the fraudulent landlord. Hans gives the sack to the landlord, but he runs away screaming. Across from the farmers, Hans reveals himself as a former bearskin and everyone joins Luise's prayer of thanks to the angels.
literature
- Leo Melitz: Guide through the operas . Globus-Verlag, Berlin 1914, pp. 41–42.
- Paul Pretzsch: The bearskin. Guide through poetry and music (Die Kunst Siegfried Wagner; 1). Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig 1919.
- Horst Seeger : Opera Lexicon . Heinrichshofen Verlag, Wilhelmshaven 1979, ISBN 3-7959-0271-1 , p. 60.
Web links
- Website of the International Siegfried Wagner Society, accessed on August 6, 2014
Individual evidence
- ↑ Der Bärenhäuter on the website of the International Siegfried Wagner Society, accessed on August 6, 2014
- ↑ Der Bärenhäuter on the website of the music production Jürgen Höflich , accessed on April 6, 2018