The huge cuckold
| Work data | |
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| Title: | The huge cuckold |
| Shape: | tragicomedy |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Berthold Goldschmidt |
| Libretto : | Berthold Goldschmidt |
| Literary source: | Le Cocu Magnifique ( Fernand Crommelynck ) |
| Premiere: | February 14, 1932 |
| Place of premiere: | National Theater Mannheim |
| Place and time of the action: | In a Flemish village, in the first half of the 20th century |
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The mighty cuckold (op. 14) is an opera in three acts by Berthold Goldschmidt .
action
first act
The village clerk Bruno is married to the beautiful Stella, who loves her husband more than anything and feels terribly lonely because he is not at home tonight. The ox herdsman, who also loves Stella, takes advantage of this, confesses his love and becomes intrusive. Meme comes to the aid of Stella and knocks the unwanted lover down from behind. He walks away smiling and promises to come back. Bruno finally returns and is greeted tenderly by his wife. Shortly afterwards, Stella's cousin, Captain Petrus, who is on vacation, appears. He gets a room in the house from Bruno, who wants to show him his wife's beauty by showing off her breast. Shortly afterwards, however, he knocks him to the ground in a fit of jealousy. Bruno confesses to the scribe Estrugo that he has doubts about Stella's loyalty, although she never gave him the slightest reason to be.
Second act
Bruno's jealousy, which he persuades himself, grows day by day, he hides his wife from people. One day a young man comes to him and asks him to write a love letter to the most beautiful girl in the village. Since Bruno believes that this can only be Stella, he suspects that the young man is a rival, but this is not confirmed when he leaves the two of them alone. Nevertheless, Bruno's doubts about Stella's loyalty grow bigger and bigger, that he finally asks her, against all reason, to remove his doubts and to deceive him once. Stella and Petrus cannot follow this logic, but then go into the marital bedroom together at Bruno 's request. Now Bruno turns it into a scandal by summoning the neighbors who are appalled by what happened. From now on Bruno is regarded as a cuckold and Stella as an accessible woman.
Third act
When Bruno hears this, he wants Stella to be there for all men. This happens despite the gendarme's warnings. Bruno even comes to his wife once at night, disguised, who, since the stranger seems familiar, gives in to his wishes. When the women in the village find out what is going on, they want to kill Stella as a witch who charms all men. In spite of everything, Stella still loves her husband and rejects the shepherd who wants to bring her out of the house. Now Bruno is sure that this is the rival he is looking for and threatens him with the rifle. Stella now believes that Bruno's madness is incurable and decides to live with the ox herd in the future. She's walking away with him. Bruno thinks this is just a trick and remains alone, smiling at first, but soon realizes his mistake.
History of the opera
Poetry and composition
At the suggestion of his publisher, Goldschmidt began looking for a suitable libretto for an opera in 1928. The director Arthur Maria Rabenalt , who was employed at the Landestheater Darmstadt at the same time as Goldschmidt , drew the composer's attention to the piece Le Cocu Magnifíque by the Belgian author Fernand Crommelynck in 1929 , whose German translation by Elvira Bachrach Goldschmidt himself reworked into a suitable opera text. Crommelynck approved the setting of his shortened text in March 1930 after Goldschmidt had presented the composition of the first two acts to him in Paris. The III. The act was completed in June 1930, but the prelude was not composed until the piano reduction was published.
Performance history
Numerous opera houses showed interest in the performance of the opera, the world premiere finally took place on February 14, 1932 at the Nationaltheater Mannheim , the musical direction was Joseph Rosenstock . The composer was extremely positive about the first rendering of his work, although the director Richard Hein had made minor changes in the work to defuse some "morally offensive" scenes.
The reception by the audience and the critics was mostly positive. The local National Socialists had announced demonstrations against the plant in advance, but limited themselves to "a few tentative whistles" at the end of the play. "In any case, the performance deserved the not-too-strong applause that was due to it, in which lively shouts and whistles mingled at the end. But it was precisely them that sparked the applause so much that the composer with conductor and director could finally appear on the ramp." There were only two follow-up performances, which the critic Karl Laux attributed to the political situation. "The good citizens were afraid. Of the material, of the music and of the nagging of the National Socialist press" A performance planned for the 1932/33 season in Berlin was no longer taking place. In 1935 Goldschmidt emigrated to London.
It was not until 1981 that excerpts from the opera could be heard publicly again; another, poorly prepared performance of parts of the play took place in London in 1982. Despite the rather poor presentation of the piece, it aroused great interest from the professional world. But it took again until December 1, 1992 that The Great Cuckold came to a complete concert performance as part of a CD recording. The first scenic new production took place in 1994 under the direction of Harry Kupfer and Yakov Kreizberg at the Komische Oper Berlin , further series of performances followed at the Stadttheater Bern , the Staatstheater Darmstadt and the Stadttheater Bremerhaven .
Endnotes
- ↑ see: Barbara Busch, Berthold Goldschmidts Opern in the Context of Music and Contemporary History, bis, Oldenburg 2000 p. 151
- ↑ ibid. P. 152
- ↑ ibid. P. 153
Discography
- GA 1994; Lothar Zagrosek ; Roberta Alexander , Helen Lawrence, Robert Wörle, Michael Kraus, Claudio Otelli; German Symphony Orchestra Berlin (DECCA)
literature
- Bachrach, Elvire. "Der Hahnrei", Munich: Drei Masken-Verlag 1922
- Busch, Barbara. Berthold Goldschmidt's operas in the context of music and contemporary history . Oldenburg, bis, 2000. ISBN 3-8142-0747-5 ( also available online )
- Schreiber, Ulrich . Advanced Opera Guide - Volume 3 . 1st edition Kassel: Bärenreiter-Verlag, 2000. ISBN 3-7618-1436-4