The potion of immortality
| Work data | |
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| Original title: | The potion of immortality |
| Shape: | Opera in four acts |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | ETA Hoffmann |
| Libretto : | Julius von Soden |
| Premiere: | April 28, 2012 |
| Place of premiere: | Theater Erfurt |
| Playing time: | approx. 2 ½ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Persia, ancient times |
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The Drink of Immortality is a romantic opera in four acts by ETA Hoffmann . Julius von Soden wrote the libretto for the opera, which was composed in 1808. However, it was premiered on April 28, 2012 at the Erfurt Theater .
action
The wealthy nobleman Namarand is in search of immortality and eternal wealth. A hermit advises him to attend a priestly meeting. He is told that only virtue is immortal. Yet he does not give up his goal. He even turns down the offer of the Persian chess Schemzaddin, who wants to appoint him his grand vizier. Chess gets angry. He has Namarand's favorite wife, Mirza, kidnapped and brought to his harem. Namarand then sinks into grief. A genius hands him a potion with which he can attain the immortality he longs for. Namarand falls asleep. In his dream he sees a future in which all people age and die. Only he himself remains unchanged young. The now ruling chess, a grandson of Shemzaddin, sees him as a threat. He has him arrested. Finally Namarand wakes up. He gives up his pursuit of immortality, accepts the appointment as Grand Vizier and is reunited with his wife.
layout
The opera is not composed through. It consists of an overture and eighteen musical numbers, between which the plot develops in the form of spoken text. The division of the individual pieces was already given in the libretto. As was customary at the time, Hoffmann added the overture and the inter-act music. The Turkish march No. 4 and the appearance largo des Namarand No. 11 are also the composer's ingredients.
The melodrama technique used , in which spoken text is accompanied by instruments, is rather unusual . Hoffmann used it in recitative No. 3, in No. 6, which Soden actually intended as a duet, and in No. 12 at the end of the second act.
The numbers have the following designations:
- Overtura
- No. 1. Introduzzione [for the 1st act]
- No. 2. Recitativo e Coro
- No. 3. Recitativo e Duetto
- No. 4. Marcia turca (on the tenth scene at the appearance of chess with entourage)
- No. 5. Recitativo e Aria
- No. 6. (On the fifteenth scene: the back stage lights up etc.) [melodrama]
- No. 7. Aria
- No. 8. Finale
- No. 9. Introduzzione [for the 2nd act]
- No. 10. Arietta
- No. 11. (On the fifth scene: Namarand enters with entwined arms etc.)
- No. 12. Finale
- No. 13. Introduzzione [for the 3rd act]
- No. 14. Recitativo ed Aria
- No. 15. Finale
- No. 16. Introduzzione [for the 4th act]
- No. 17. Recitativo e Aria
- No. 18. Finale
Work history
The romantic opera Der Trank der Immortlichkeit was composed by E. T. A. Hoffmann in 1808 based on a text by Julius von Soden from 1806. Soden was then director of the theater in Bamberg. In 1807 he had posted a job advertisement in the Allgemeine Reichsanzeiger for the position of the new music director of his theater. Hoffmann applied and sent Soden the opera as a trial work to prove his skills. He was then hired as music director.
The libretto is based on the story The History of Nourjahad by the Irish writer Frances Sheridan (1724–1766), which appeared posthumously in 1767 and shortly thereafter came out in German as Die Geschichte des Nourjahad . The motive of the awakening sleeper appeared already in 1595 in the overall story of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew ( The Taming of the Shrew ) on. Soden added a prologue based on the story Alexander and the Source of Immortality by August Gottlieb Meißner , published in 1796 . Their hero is similar to Namarand in search of an immortality potion and is sent by a hermit to a priestly meeting. The actual plot of the opera essentially follows Sheridan's story. However, Soden changed the main character's name.
Hoffmann composed the opera without the aid of a piano. He wrote the notes right out of his head. For the sake of simplicity, he notated the transposing wind parts directly in C major instead of the usual transposition.
There was no performance of the Immortality Drink in Bamberg at the time, as Soden moved to the Würzburg Theater . The score remained and was kept by the Berlin State Library . It was given the number 34 in the composer's catalog raisonné.
It was not until 1997 that the performance material for the opera was created at the musicology seminar in Detmold. On January 18, 1998, the overture was first performed by the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss under Johannes Goritzki and shortly thereafter recorded on CD ( ETA Hoffmann: Music for the Stage , cpo).
The first performance of the complete opera took place on April 28, 2012 in the Erfurt Theater. Samuel Bächli was the musical director of the Erfurt Philharmonic Orchestra and the opera choir of the Erfurt Theater . The production was done by Peter P. Pachl , the equipment by Robert Pflanz and the dramaturgy by Arne Langer. Uwe Stickert (Namarand), Sebastian Pilgrim (Schemzaddin), Jörg Rathmann (Hassem), Marisca Mulder (Mirza), Julia Neumann (Mandane), Reinhard Friedrich (Zamgrad), Christian Schlegel (Ein Einsiedler), Dario Süß (Iman / Officer of the bodyguard), Wieland Lemke / Gonzalo Simonetti (high priest), Nicole Enßle (Fatime), Sylvia Wiryadi (Theone) and Antje Koark (Zaide).
literature
- Peter P. Pachl: From Namarand to Tristan. An analysis of ETA Hoffmann's opera “The Drink of Immortality” (= Academic series of publications, vol. V287764). Grin, 2012, ISBN 978-3-656-88304-3 .
- Diao-Long Shen: ETA Hoffmann's Path to Opera - From the Idea of the Romantic to the Genesis of Romantic Opera (= Perspectives of Opera Research , vol. 24). Peter Lang, Bern / Frankfurt / New York 2016, ISBN 978-3-631-66397-4 .
Web links
- The potion of immortality at the Theater Erfurt ( memento from April 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Drink of Immortality at the Erfurt Theater ( Memento from April 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive ).
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i program booklet The Potion of Immortality. Theater Erfurt, season 2011/2012
- ↑ a b Ure Grundmann: ETA Hoffmann: The potion of immortality. Performance review from May 2, 2012 on die-deutsche-buehne.de , accessed on April 11, 2016.
- ↑ Thomas Molke: The potion of immortality. Performance review in Online Musik Magazin , accessed April 11, 2016.
- ↑ a b Werner Keil : ETA Hoffmann as a composer in Bamberg. In: Hartmut Steinecke (Ed.): ETA Hoffmann-Jahrbuch 2009. Erich Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-503-09891-0 , p. 115 ( limited preview in the Google book search)
- ^ Uwe Friedrich: A case for the Germanist conference. Report from April 28, 2012 in Deutschlandradio Kultur , accessed on April 11, 2016.