The flood (opera)
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The flood |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Boris Blacher |
| Libretto : | Heinz von Cramer |
| Literary source: | Story by Guy de Maupassant |
| Premiere: | March 4, 1947 |
| Place of premiere: | Dresden |
| Playing time: | about 40 minutes |
| Place and time of the action: | Sandbar in the sea, someday |
| people | |
The flood is a one-act chamber opera by Boris Blacher . The libretto was written by Heinz von Cramer , based on a story by Guy de Maupassant . The first performance of the staged version - preceded by a radio opera in 1946 - was on March 4, 1947 in Dresden.
action
The scene is a sandbar on the wreck of a stranded old sailor, yesterday, today or tomorrow.
Not too far from the shore a few decades ago a sailing ship ran aground on a sandbank. Three people who are on a pleasure trip and have made a stopover on the shore look excitedly at the wreck: an old banker with his girlish lover and a young man who gives a somewhat dodgy impression. Finally the three tourists ask a fisherman to lead them to the wreck. Because he immediately took a liking to the girl, he accompanies the three strangers through the mudflats.
While the tourists visit the old sailor, the tide makes the water rise higher and higher until it surrounds the shipwreck. Now the old banker is scared. He pulls all the money he has with him out of his pocket and promises to give it to anyone who dares to swim to the bank and fetch a boat. He is disappointed to find that neither the young man nor the fisherman attach any importance to his money, even if for completely different reasons. The latter is completely in love with the young girl, and she is so impressed by the fisherman's strong arms that she is only too happy to reciprocate his flirting. The young man on the other hand - greedy at the sight of the many bills - only intends to rob the banker at the earliest opportunity.
Little by little the tide recedes. If the banker looked like a heap of misery just a few minutes ago, now the spirits are awakening again. But his joy is short-lived; because the young man asks him to return all of his money. When the old man refuses, the young man simply stabs him down. At first the girl is horrified by what has happened, but when the young man asks her to come with him, the desire for a carefree life and luxury wins inside her. For this very reason she had already allowed the old banker to put up with her; Love is not her motivation!
The fisherman is left alone with the old man's corpse on the shipwreck. Naively lost in thought, he dreams of the girl returning to him. Little does he know that this will never be the case.
music
The orchestration is minimal: five wind instruments and a string quintet. This ten-member chamber orchestra bears witness to how the composer succeeded in musically characterizing the four characters. The music is rich in contrasts, both melodically and rhythmically. It is unusual that the chamber choir sings along with all the scenic instructions. This can be explained by the fact that the work was originally composed for the radio.
Staging and reception
The minimalism of the opera Die Flut in terms of cast, orchestration, space requirements and low demands on the stage technology continued in Blacher's next opera Die Nachtschwalbe (1948). While this limitation of funds was probably due to the circumstances of the immediate post-war period, the two stage works also show similarities in terms of content and style in their socio-critical themes and based on the contemporary opera . The concentration on the individual actors and soloists enabled Blacher to develop an intensive dramaturgy.
The opera did not find a permanent place in the repertoire and is only rarely played today. In 2010, Die Flut was staged together with two other short operas by Blacher ( Abstract Opera No. 1 and Ariadne ) at the Komische Oper in Berlin.
literature
- Boris Blacher: The flood . Bote & Bock, Berlin 1947. (Piano excerpt, score as loan material today from Boosey & Hawkes )
Web links
- The cast and plot for Boosey & Hawkes music publisher
- Story of Die Flut (Opera) at Opera-Guide landing page due to URL change currently not available
- Work data for Die Flut based on MGG with discography at Operone
Individual evidence
- ↑ Andrew McCredie: Boris Blacher . In: Larry Sitsky (Ed.): Music of the twentieth-century avant-garde: a biocritical sourcebook . Greenwood, New York 2002, ISBN 0-313-29689-8 , p. 74.
- ↑ KO 11… Funkstation Sehnsucht: Three short operas by Boris Blacher ( Memento from December 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) at the Komische Oper Berlin