The Vampire (Opera)
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| Title: | The vampire |
Program sheet of the world premiere |
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| Shape: | Romantic opera in two acts |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Heinrich Marschner |
| Libretto : | Wilhelm August Wohlbrück |
| Premiere: | March 29, 1828 |
| Place of premiere: | Theater of the City of Leipzig |
| Playing time: | about 3 hours |
| Place and time of the action: | In the Scottish highlands, 17th century |
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The Vampyr is a great romantic opera in two acts (four pictures) by Heinrich Marschner . Marschner completed the composition during his stay in Leipzig in 1827/1828 , where the premiere took place on March 29, 1828 at the Stadttheater . The libretto of the opera by Wilhelm August Wohlbrück is based on the play Der Vampyr oder die Todten-Braut by Heinrich Ludwig Ritter (1822), which in turn is a dramatization of the story The Vampyr by John Polidori . In the same year Peter Joseph von Lindpaintner also set this material to music.
action
Lord Ruthwen has become a vampire and has to sacrifice three virgin brides to the devil within 24 hours, for each of whom he is to be granted an additional year of life. With his first two victims, Janthe and Emmy, he has an easy time of it, with Aubry standing by the lord out of gratitude because he saved his life a long time ago. When Ruthwen chooses Malwina as the third victim, Aubry decides to disclose the truth about Ruthwen, despite his oath of secrecy. At the moment when Malwina's wedding takes place and she is to become Ruthwen's prey, his term ends and the vampire, struck by lightning , drives to hell .
music
Heinrich August Marschner's piece is considered the climax of a fashion movement of the Biedermeier period , in which numerous stories about vampires were created. The tonal language is somewhere between the popular German song and - in cautious hints - the Italian Belcanto style . The vampire is an important link between the works of Carl Maria von Weber and Richard Wagner .
The opera has spoken dialogues.
orchestra
The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:
- Woodwinds : two piccolo flutes , two flutes , two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons , serpent
- Brass : four horns , two trumpets , three trombones
- Timpani , drums : tam-tam , bell, thunder machine
- Strings
- Incidental music: two horns, two trumpets
Productions / arrangements
The opera was rarely performed and was considered obsolete by Wagner's The Flying Dutchman (1843). Hans Pfitzner tried to set up the opera in 1925 as a German game opera against the Welsche opera. In 2016 Romero Nunes staged the opera at the Komische Oper Berlin and deleted the dialogues and some subplots and had Johannes Hofmann compose new interludes, the opera now lasted 80 minutes.
The BBC's 1992 television miniseries The Vampyr: A Soap Opera is based on Marschner's opera.
Discography
- Jonas Kaufmann , Franz Hawlata , Regina Klepper , Markus Marquardt , Cologne Radio Orchestra, WDR Radio Choir Cologne, Helmuth Froschauer . 1999. Capriccio 60083
- Siegmund Nimsgern , Carol Farley, Anastasia Tomaszewska-Schepis, Josef Protschka , Armando Caforio, Galina Pisarenko, Martin Engel, choir and orchestra Sinfonica from Radio Italiana, conductor Günter Neuhold . Live recording in Rome, 1980. HOMMAGE 7001834-HOM (revised version by Hans Pfitzner )
- Nikolaus Hillebrand, Arleen Augér , Donald Grobe , Roland Hermann , Victor von Halem , Jane Marsch u. a .; Choir and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra , cond .: Fritz Rieger . Live, Munich 1974. Opera D'Oro OPD-1186. (Original Marschner version.)
- Gisela Rathauscher, Traute Skladal, Liane Synek , Maria Nussbaumer, Kurt Equiluz , Erich Kuchar, Fritz Sperlbauer, Great Vienna Radio Orchestra, conductor Kurt Tenner. Studio shot Vienna, 1951. Line Music / Cantus Classics CACD 5.00269 F (not the Pfitzner version?)
literature
- Allen Dean Palmer: Heinrich August Marschner, 1795–1861. His life and stage works . Ann Arbor 1980
- John, and Ewan West Warrack: The Oxford Dictionary of Opera . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1992, ISBN 0-19-869164-5 .
- Robert Hartford: Marschner: Der Vampyr , Program of the Wexford Festival Opera , 1992
- Amanda Holden, (editor), with Kenyon, Nicholas and Walsh, Stephen [1993]: The Viking Opera Guide . Viking, London, ISBN 0-670-81292-7 .
- From the Lucretia to the vampire. New sources on Marschner . Documents on the creation and reception of the Lucretia. Complete edition of the travel diary from 1826 to 1828. Notes on Marschner's journalistic work. Edited and commented by Till Gerrit Waidelich. Tutzing: Schneider 1996. ISBN 3-7952-0837-8
- Heinrich August Marschner. Report on the Zittau Marschner Symposium . A symposium of the Institute for Cultural Infrastructure Saxony. Edited by Allmuth Behrendt and Matthias Theodor Vogt. Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag 1998. (Cultural infrastructure. Vol. 5) ISBN 3-931922-22-7
Web links
- The Vampire : Sheet Music and Audio Files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Libretto, Munich 1830. Digitized at Google Books
- Libretto of the two-act original version from 1831 on jmucci.com
- Libretto for The Vampyr (4 Acts) at Zeno.org .
- Plot and libretto of Der Vampyr (Opera) on Opera-Guide landing page due to URL change currently not available
- Performances (1770–1830) of Der Vampyr in the DFG opera project
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Susanne Rode: The Vampire. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater . Volume 3: Works. Henze - Massine. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-492-02413-0 , pp. 674-677.
- ↑ Julia Spinola: The undead are among us . Review, in: NZZ , March 26, 2016, p. 24
- ↑ see The Vampyr: A Soap Opera in the English Wikipedia and entry in the IMDb