The Snow Queen (Lange)
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| Title: | the snow Queen |
Illustration of the Snow Queen by Rudolf Koivu |
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| Shape: | Family opera in seven "stories" |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Marius Felix Lange |
| Libretto : | Marius Felix Lange |
| Literary source: | Hans Christian Andersen : The Snow Queen |
| Premiere: | April 23, 2016 |
| Place of premiere: | German Opera on the Rhine in the Duisburg Theater |
| Playing time: | approx. 1 ½ hours |
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The Snow Queen is a family opera in seven “stories” by Marius Felix Lange (music) with its own libretto based on the fairy tale The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen .
action
First story: The Devil's Mirror
Gannet trolls and idiot trolls have found the door to their school closed for several days. A sign tells them the reason, "Important work," and warns them not to enter. Then the door opens and your teacher, the Deubeltroll, comes out. He made a large mirror that shows the world as ugly as it really is. The two students should now bring the mirror to earth to hold it up to people. But on the way it falls out of their hands and breaks. Countless small pieces are spread across the earth. There the two trolls fall under the spell of the Snow Queen.
Second story: Gerda and Kay
The children Kay and Gerda sit in the apartment with their grandmother and watch a hail shower through the window. Kay believes that snowflakes are like bees, but unlike bees, they don't have a queen. The grandmother contradicts this. The Snow Queen is the largest of the flakes and sometimes even looks in through the window. Kay mockingly replies that the next time he'll put it on the stove to watch it melt.
When the sun shines again, Kay and Gerda go outside to admire their roses, which fortunately survived the shower undamaged (rose song: “In a distant garden there are rare roses waiting for you”). Suddenly Kay screams. One of the Deubeltroll's mirror splinters caught his eye and immediately penetrated his heart. His behavior changes immediately. He is no longer happy about the beautiful roses, but detests them. He also becomes inexplicably rough with Gerda. Desperately she calls for grandmother.
In the next winter, the two trolls dressed as children lure Kay into her sleigh on the orders of the Snow Queen. She noticed him because he wanted to put her on the stove. The other children playing in the snow sing about the Snow Queen while they are playing. When Kay sees the Snow Queen, he is immediately enchanted by her beauty. Your kisses make him gradually lose memory. She leads him to her ice palace, where he is supposed to help her solve a difficult task.
Third story: the flower woman
The following spring, Kay still hasn't returned. Rumor has it that he drowned in the river. To get clarity, Gerda goes to the river and asks him personally. Since there is no answer, she asks him to take her to Kay. The two little trolls watch their departure. For fear of the Snow Queen, they want to prevent Gerda from going there.
On her journey Gerda first comes to a garden full of flowers, which is guarded by two wooden soldiers (the disguised trolls). A flower woman kindly invites them in. She knows nothing about Kay's fate, but tries to comfort Gerda and combs her disheveled hair. Because of the magic comb, Gerda falls asleep and loses her memory. The flower woman would like to keep her with her permanently, because she had always wanted a friend. After Gerda wakes up again, the flowers tell her various fairy tales ( The Princess and the Pea , The Emperor's Nightingale and The Little Girl with the Brimstone ). Only when the flowers sang the rose song to her does Gerda remember her own roses and the purpose of her journey. She moves on. The two trolls cannot stop her and follow her.
Fourth story: prince and princess
Next Gerda meets a crow. She tells her about the wedding of the princess and is sure that Kay was the groom. The crow promises to bring Gerda to him the next morning. Meanwhile, she wants to scout the way.
Overtired, Gerda goes to sleep. She dreams of how Kay has to put a certain word to the Snow Queen out of shards of ice.
In the morning Gerda and the crow arrive at the princess's castle. These and the prince are still sleeping. Gerda immediately realizes that the crow was wrong: the prince is not her friend Kay. However, the two are compassionate. They give Gerda a warm muff and leave her a carriage with two drivers for the journey north.
Fifth story: the robber girl
The two coachmen are actually the two trolls who drive Gerda not to the barren mountains of the north, but into a dense forest. When Gerda notices this, she wants to stop immediately. The trolls just laugh at them. But then a fallen tree blocks their way. A robber girl ambushes the carriage. The trolls run away scared. The robber girl leads Gerda, who at first thinks she is the princess, into her cave, in which she is already holding pigeons and the reindeer, bah. The following night the pigeons tell Gerda that Kay and the Snow Queen came by here in their sleigh. The reindeer also knows the destination of their journey, their own home, Lapland. The next morning the robber girl orders the reindeer to bring Gerda to Lapland.
Sixth story: The Finnish Lappin
Gerda and Bäh meet an old, wise Lappin in a sauna. The reindeer asks her to make Gerda as strong as twelve men so that she can conquer the Snow Queen. However, the Lappin explains to them that this would not do anything, because Kay is already completely under her spell by the kisses of the Snow Queen. When the reindeer asks her to give Gerda the power to break this spell, the Lappin replies that only Gerda's own power of her “loving life” is capable of doing this.
On the continuation of the journey, Gerda has to penetrate a thick snow storm. The two trolls continue to follow their trail.
Seventh story: In the Castle of the Snow Queen
In the Snow Queen's castle, Kay still tries in vain to find the word she is looking for with the broken pieces. Gerda comes in and reminds him of his past. At first he doesn't even notice her. Only when she sings the rose song for him does he wake up from his trance and recognize his girlfriend. But he is not allowed to leave the place before he has solved the riddle and put the word “eternity” together. Gerda folds the pieces together properly without any problems, and the two disappear in time before the Snow Queen steps in. The two trolls appear upset to warn of Gerda's arrival. They storm through the room and scatter the collapsed ice shards. The Snow Queen cannot fold them up again to read the Word.
Gerda and Kay have come home happy and are celebrating the beginning of summer.
orchestra
The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:
- Woodwinds : two flutes (including piccolo ), two oboes (also cor anglais ), two clarinets (including bass clarinet ), two bassoons (including contrabassoon )
- Brass : four horns , two trumpets , three trombones (also bass trombone), tuba
- Percussion (three players)
- harp
- Celesta
- Strings
Work history
The "Family Opera " The Snow Queen was commissioned by "Junge Opern Rhein-Ruhr", a cooperation between the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Duisburg / Düsseldorf, the Dortmund Theater and the Bonn Theater . The libretto was written by the composer Marius Felix Lange himself based on the fairy tale The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen .
At the world premiere on April 23, 2016 in the Duisburg Theater , the Duisburg Philharmonic , the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Duisburg and students from the Robert Schumann University in Düsseldorf performed under the direction of Lukas Beikircher . The singers directed by Johannes Schmid were Adela Zaharia (Snow Queen), Dmitri Vargin (Kay), Heidi Elisabeth Meier (Gerda), Susan McLean (grandmother and Lappin), Annika Boos (gannet troll), Conny Thimander (idiot troll), David Jerusalem (Deubeltroll), Annika Kaschenz (flower woman), Florian Simson (crow), Hubert Walawski (prince), Anna Tsartsidze (princess), Iryna Vakula / Maria Kataeva (robber girl) and Lukasz Konieczny (reindeer).
The premiere at the Opernhaus Düsseldorf was on July 4th, 2016. The Altstadtherbstorchester played here under the direction of Ville Enckelmann . At the Dortmund Theater Opera on April 8 had 2018 premiere. There Marie-Pierre Roy sang the title role. The Dortmund Philharmonic played under the direction of Ingo Martin Stadtmüller. In Bonn, the Snow Queen was played from January 27, 2019 by the local Beethoven Orchestra under Daniel Johannes Mayr with Julia Bauer in the title role.
Recordings
- 2016 - Ville Enckelmann (conductor), Johannes Schmid (staging), Tatjana Ivschina (stage and costumes), Volker Weinhart (lighting), Anna Holter (choreography), Altstadtherbstorchester Düsseldorf, students of the Robert Schumann University Düsseldorf , extras of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein .
Adela Zaharia (Snow Queen), Dmitri Vargin (Kay), Heidi Elisabeth Meier (Gerda), Susan Maclean (grandmother and Lappin), Aïsha Tümmler (Gannet Troll), Conny Thimander (Trotteltroll), David Jerusalem (Deubeltroll), Annika Kaschenz (Flower Woman) , Florian Simson (crow), Bryan Lopez Gonzalez (prince), Dimitra Kotidou (princess), Katharina von Bülow (robber girl), Lukasz Konieczny (reindeer).
Live from the Düsseldorf Opera House .
Video at Operavision.
Web links
- The Snow Queen at Operavision, video available until July 11, 2018
- Teaching material for opera (PDF) at Operavision
- The Snow Queen ( Memento from February 14, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) in the repertoire of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein
- The Snow Queen at the Dortmund Theater
- Petra Grünendahl: Inspiring a young audience with fairytale motifs and winning them over to culture. Review of the world premiere on duisburgamrhein.wordpress.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c The Snow Queen. Work information from the Sikorski music publishers , accessed on February 6, 2018.
- ↑ World premiere: Marius Felix Lange's family opera “Die Schneekönigin” in the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf Duisburg. In: Theaterkompass, accessed on February 7, 2018.
- ↑ Pedro Obiera: An ice desert can be so beautiful. Review of the premiere. In: Opernnetz, accessed on February 7, 2018.
- ↑ Klaus Stübler: Magical fairy tale world with trolls. Review of the premiere. In: Ruhr-Nachrichten of April 14, 2016.
- ↑ Stefan Schmöe: Children, that's how opera works! Review of the Düsseldorf premiere in Online Musik Magazin, accessed on February 7, 2018.
- ↑ The Snow Queen at Theater Dortmund , accessed on May 20, 2018.
- ^ Opera Bonn: Celebrated "Snow Queen" in the sold out house. In: Opernmagazin, accessed on March 11, 2019.
- ↑ The Snow Queen ( Memento from May 20, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) at Operavision, video no longer available.