The Philosopher's Stone or The Magic Island
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| Title: | The Philosopher's Stone or The Magic Island |
| Shape: | Singspiel in two acts |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Johann Baptist Henneberg , Franz Xaver Gerl , Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Benedikt Schack , Emanuel Schikaneder |
| Libretto : | Emanuel Schikaneder |
| Literary source: | Christoph Martin Wieland : Dschinnistan |
| Premiere: | September 11, 1790 |
| Place of premiere: | Wiedner Theater |
| Place and time of the action: | Sometime and somewhere in Arcadia, a fairy tale |
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The Philosopher's Stone or The Magic Island is an opera (more precisely a Singspiel ). The libretto is by Emanuel Schikaneder .
Origin and reception history
According to entries in a Hamburg score copy that was initially inaccessible after the Second World War, the music for this work by Schikaneder is said to come from Johann Baptist Henneberg , and it contains insert numbers by Franz Xaver Gerl , Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Benedikt Schack and Schikaneder. The world premiere took place on September 11, 1790 in the Wiedner Theater , and the work was also performed in a number of theaters in the German-speaking area.
A summary of the plot can be found in the Tamino Klassikforum .
In 1996 the opera was rediscovered by the American musicologist David J. Buch in the music collection of the Hamburg State and University Library and recorded for the first time in November 1998 by Boston Baroque under Martin Pearlman .
This discovery was because the opera, among other reasons a sensation several important parallels to a year later premiered The Magic Flute by Mozart has. The Philosopher's Stone also contains motifs from Christoph Martin Wieland's collection of fairy tales, Dschinnistan , and his five composers were all involved in the Magic Flute , as composer, librettist, conductor of the premiere or singer in the premiere. In addition, there are many very striking musical similarities between those parts of the Philosopher's Stone that were not composed by Mozart and the Magic Flute . These parallels are explained in more detail by Martin Pearlman in the “Discussion Disc” of his recording based on research by David Buch.
The opera was performed in Augsburg 2001, at the Garsington Opera Festival in 2006 and in Innsbruck 2017.
Personal parallels between the Philosopher's Stone and the Magic Flute
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Co-composer of the Philosopher's Stone , composer of the Magic Flute
- Johann Baptist Henneberg: Co-composer and conductor of the Philosopher's Stone , conductor of the Magic Flute
- Benedikt Schack: Co- composer of the Philosopher's Stone , Astromonte in the Philosopher's Stone , Tamino in the Magic Flute
- Franz Xaver Gerl: Co- composer of the Philosopher's Stone , Eutifronte in the Philosopher's Stone , Sarastro in the Magic Flute
- Emanuel Schikaneder: librettist and co-composer of the Philosopher's Stone , Lubano in the Philosopher's Stone , librettist of the Magic Flute , Papageno in the Magic Flute
- Urban Schikaneder (brother of Emanuel Schikaneder): Sadik in the Philosopher's Stone , first priest in the Magic Flute
- Johann Michael Kistler: Nadir in the Philosopher's Stone , second priest in the Magic Flute
- Anna Gottlieb : Nadine in the Philosopher's Stone , Pamina in the Magic Flute
- Barbara Gerl (wife of Franz Xaver Gerl): Lubanara in the Philosopher's Stone , Papagena in the Magic Flute
Editions
- David J. Buch, Manuela Jahrmärker (Ed.): Schikaneder's heroic-comic opera The Philosopher's Stone - model for Mozart's Magic Flute. Critical edition of the text book (= Hainholz Musikwissenschaft. Vol. 5). Hainholz, Göttingen 2002, ISBN 3-932622-46-4 .
- David J. Buch (Ed.): The Philosopher's Stone (score). AR Editions Inc., Middleton 2007, ISBN 0-89579-616-3 ( limited preview in Google book search).
Web links
- Thomas Schacher: Black and white become gray. Review of a performance in Winterthur 2010. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , 7 September 2018
- The Philosopher's Stone at Bampton Classical Opera
Individual evidence
- ↑ Table of contents in the Tamino Klassikforum, accessed on December 6, 2018.
- ^ Edward Rothstein: Not Even Mostly Mozart, but Clearly Some. In: The New York Times , June 12, 1997, accessed September 18, 2018.
- ^ Jan Schleusener: A fingerprint of Mozart: "The Philosopher's Stone". In: Die Welt , May 8, 2001, accessed on September 18, 2018.
- ↑ George Hall: The Philosopher's Stone review at Garsington Oxfordshire. In: The Stage , July 6, 2006, accessed September 18, 2018.
- ↑ Udo Pacolt: Innsbruck / Tiroler Landestheater: The Philosopher's Stone by Mozart and four other composers. In: Online Merker, June 23, 2018, accessed on September 18, 2018.