The rose from the love garden

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Opera dates
Original title: The rose from the love garden
Shape: Opera in two acts with prelude and epilogue
Original language: German
Music: Hans Pfitzner
Libretto : James Grun
Premiere: November 9, 1901
Place of premiere: Elberfeld
people
  • The Star Maiden with the Sun Child (silent role)
  • Minneleide ( soprano )
  • Rotelse ( old )
  • Schwarzhilde (soprano)
  • Victory Not ( tenor )
  • Moormann (tenor)
  • The Singing Master (high baritone )
  • The Armorer ( bass baritone )
  • The Night Wonder ( Bass )
  • The keeper of the winter gate (silent role)
  • Nobles, noble women and noble children from the love garden, moor men and forest women, giants and dwarfs ( choir )

The rose from the love garden is a romantic opera by Hans Pfitzner . It comprises two acts including the prelude and epilogue; the libretto was written by James Grun .

action

  • Prelude: In the love garden
  • First act: In the jungle in front of the love garden
  • Second act: In the hollow mountain
  • Postplay: Before and in the garden of love

In the love garden, a kind of Germanic paradise, the star maiden, who is at the same time the goddess of love and thus the ruler of the garden, determines victory not to be the guardian of the spring gate, the entrance to the love garden. She gives the newly won guard a magical rose, and from then on Siegnot not only has the task of supervising the gate, but also of recruiting new members for the garden.

The elf queen Minneleide falls victim to lack of victory. He falls in love with her and gives her the rose. However, she is so blinded by the light of the love garden that she flees away from the garden into the jungle. Siegnot follows her, but the dark night wonder and his dwarfs seize Minneleides and knock down Siegnot. This follows the kidnappers unarmed into a mountain cave to trigger Minneleide in his place. The night wonder suggests a rehearsal: Minneleide is released, but has to step into the light alone and hand over the rose in the love garden. If she succeeds, both are free, but if she is discouraged, she is captured again by the night wonder, and the lack of victory must die. Convinced of his loved one, Siegnot accepts the test, but Minneleide fails again. Thereupon Siegnot tears down the pillars and is buried together with night wonders and dwarfs. Minneleide, spared, draws new strength from Siegnot's trust and manages to renounce the elven kingdom, to visit the love garden and to open the spring gate with the rose. Once in the love garden, however, they condemn the voices of a court. The star maiden, however, pronounces a pardon and awakens the need for victory to live together in the love garden.

Orchestral line-up

Work history

The rose from the love garden was premiered on November 9, 1901 in Elberfeld , but Pfitzner only described the Viennese production in 1904 as a "congenial performance of a work by me". Critics accused the opera of using overloaded and sometimes incomprehensible symbolism.

Pfitzner exegetes contented themselves with viewing the piece as the popular genre of fairy tale opera at the time . This is how Müller-Blattau managed : “Detlev von Lilienkron admires the indescribably beautiful 'fairytale atmosphere' in it. This is how the work wanted to be received: as a fairy tale, in which, of course, as in all true fairy tales, world events take shape. The criticism, however, continued to oracle about 'unclear symbolism', about the 'dramatically undeveloped plot'. And the audience repeated the slogans; they are still attached to the work today. "

The traces of fairy tales contained in the work were held up as an argument against any criticism, for example Pfitzner biographer Walter Abendroth made use of the accusation that the libretto was "Wagner-dependent" with the words: "[This is] nowhere else to be recognized (...) than in a series of fairy tale motifs that were inherent in German legends long before Wagner (...) "

Pfitzner himself also repeatedly emphasized the opera's proximity to fairy tales: “If it [the sphere of the plot] were well-known as a legend or fairy tale, nobody would have any objection to repositioning it as an opera; it would be the allowed, accustomed 'use of the saga' and even interpretations in detail, symbolic or allegorical finesse to be found by the readers and listeners would serve as recommendations and increase the charm of 'understanding' - which many see as the only pleasure; to the poet they would be counted as 'deepenings' in the legend. "

Max Reger called the opera a “very great, wonderful work.” According to Alma Mahler-Werfel, Gustav Mahler exclaimed after the first act: “Since the Valkyrie, first act, nothing as great has been written!” Bruno Walter heard in the Opera things “that belong to the most beautiful thing that has ever been written”.

The opera is rarely performed, most recently in 1998 at the Zurich Opera . In 2008 the opera was staged at the Chemnitz Theater by Jürgen R. Weber .

Recordings

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Joseph Müller-Blattau : Hans Pfitzner. Way of life and creative harvest , Waldemar Kramer Verlag Frankfurt / Main, 1969, p. 40/41
  2. ^ Abendroth, Walter Hans Pfitzner , reprint in the series Texts on Music of the First Half of the 20th Century , Volume 2, Kiefer & Albers Verlag, Aachen 1981 (original edition Albert Langen Verlag Munich, 1935), p. 313
  3. ^ Pfitzner, Hans: Collected Writings , Volume II, Dr. Benno Filser Verlag, Augsburg 1926, pp. 89–97 The 'symbolism' in the rose from the love garden (23 August 1915)
  4. ↑ Chemnitz, Opera - THE ROSE FROM THE LOVE GARDEN . Article about the performance at the Chemnitz Opera.
  5. ^ The rose from the love garden at the Chemnitz Theater ( Memento from December 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive ).
  6. ↑ Recording from November 29, 2008 on Deutschlandradio, accessed on May 1, 2019.