The harmony of the world

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Work data
Title: The harmony of the world
Shape: Thoroughly composed
Original language: German
Music: Paul Hindemith
Libretto : Paul Hindemith
Premiere: August 11, 1957
Place of premiere: Munich
Playing time: approx. 4 hours
Place and time of the action: Prague , Württemberg , Linz , Sagan and Regensburg between 1608 and 1630
people
  • Johannes Kepler ( baritone )
  • Wallenstein ( tenor )
  • Tansur ( bass )
  • Susanne, later Kepler's wife ( soprano )
  • Emperor Rudolf II (bass)
  • Emperor Ferdinand II (bass)
  • Ulrich Grüßer, Kepler's assistant, later soldier (tenor)
  • Katharina , Kepler's mother ( old )
  • Daniel Hitzler, pastor in Linz (bass)
  • Baron Starhemberg (baritone)
  • Christoph, Kepler's brother (tenor)
  • Little Susanne, Kepler's daughter from his first marriage (soprano)
  • Soldiers, people ( chorus )

The Harmony of the World is an opera in five acts by Paul Hindemith , who also wrote the libretto . The work had its world premiere on August 11, 1957 in the Prinzregententheater in Munich . The composer stood at the podium. In addition to the opera, Hindemith also wrote a symphony of the same name in 1951 .

orchestra

Two flutes, three oboes, three clarinets, three bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, four trombones, a timpani, a percussion, a harp and 40 strings. For the music on stage, seven woodwinds, four brass instruments, three strings and one percussion are required.

Stage sets

  • First act - picture 1: street in Prague, picture 2: a cemetery at night in Württemberg, picture 3: at the Prague Castle, picture 4: a room in Kepler's house in Prague
  • Second act - picture 5: square in Prague, picture 6: arcade courtyard of the Landhaus in Linz, picture 7: garden of the Starhemberger castle, picture 8: pub garden
  • Third act - picture 9: Kepler's house in Linz, picture 10: Güglingen in Württemberg
  • Fourth act - picture 11: Waldstein Palace in Prague
  • Fifth act - picture 12: Sagan in Silesia, picture 13: Great Hall in Regensburg, picture 14: Baroque sky painting with the throne of the sun

action

The widowed Johannes Kepler works as a mathematician and astronomer in the service of Emperor Rudolf II. The work does not satisfy him, the wages are meager, and in order to secure his livelihood he provides horoscopes to wealthy citizens . General Wallenstein is also one of his customers. He wants to know what fate the stars will tell him in the course of the impending war.

In Linz, Kepler meets his second wife, Susanne. The believing Protestant sees in the Lord's Supper only a symbol for the body and blood of Christ, but not a real change of bread and wine. Because he represents these thoughts publicly, the Church forbids him to continue participating in the sacrament. This circumstance weighs heavily on his soul.

Kepler's mother, Katharina , is charged as a witch. The son has to fight for six years until he finally manages to save her from death at the stake.

Kepler's doctrine of the heavenly bodies and their orbits is not only admired by his wife and mother, he is also highly valued by his students. His assistant Ulrich Grüßer becomes apostate from the pupils, who envy Kepler's successes.

In 1627 there was a second meeting between Kepler and Wallenstein. The general asks him to come into his service and regularly draw up horoscopes for him. So Wallenstein becomes Kepler's last employer.

The spirit of Rudolf II darkened more and more, so that he was deposed during the war. His successor Ferdinand II turns out to be a weakling. When the Swedes invade the country in 1630, the emperor calls his electors to Regensburg. In the wake of the emperor is also Kepler, who is marked by a fatal illness. He tries to exert a warning influence on politics - in vain. Devoted to his fate, he dies.

The last set shows a baroque sky painting with the throne of the sun. Almost all the characters in the opera represent heavenly bodies, such as the emperor the sun, Johannes Kepler the earth, Wallenstein the Jupiter, Tansur the Saturn, Ulrich Grüßer the Mars, Kepler's wife Venus, Daniel Hizler the Mercury and Kepler's mother the moon. They all follow their natural (or God) predetermined paths in a musical harmony of the world.

music

Particular highlights of the work are the depiction of the witch trial with the dogged urgency of the choirs, the Electoral Day in Regensburg and the final scene: the work ends in a radiant E major in a large-scale Passacaglia . The music seems baroque and modern at the same time.

In 2017 there was a new production by Dietrich Hilsdorf and Hermann Schneider at the Landestheater Linz , with Gerrit Prießnitz as the musical director .

literature

  • Hellmuth Steger, Karl Howe: Opernführer , Fischer Bücherei, Paperback No. 49, Frankfurt am Main 1961.
  • Simon Haasis: Mathis - Hindemith - Kepler. On the (meaning) interpretation of Paul Hindemith's operas between 1929 and 1957 against the background of the fantasy of a "musica mundana" , diploma thesis University of Vienna 2011.

Web links