The women's school (Liebermann)
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The women's school |
| Shape: | Opera buffa |
| Original language: | (First version) English, (extended new version) German |
| Music: | Rolf Liebermann |
| Libretto : | Heinrich Strobel |
| Literary source: | L'école des femmes by Molière |
| Premiere: | (First version) December 3, 1955, (extended new version) August 17, 1957 |
| Place of premiere: | (First version) Louisville (Kentucky), (extended new version) Salzburg |
| Playing time: | approx. 1 ¾ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | France in the 17th century |
| people | |
Die Schule der Frauen is an opera buffa by Rolf Liebermann based on a libretto by Heinrich Strobel . The libretto is based on the French Verskomödie L'école des femmes of Molière . The one-act original version was premiered on December 3, 1955 in Louisville , Kentucky in the English translation and adaptation by Elisabeth Montague under the title The School for Wives . A new version, expanded to three acts, was staged for the first time on August 17, 1957 in the Salzburg State Theater as part of the Salzburg Festival . Walter Berry , Kurt Böhme , Anneliese Rothenberger , Nicolai Gedda and Christa Ludwig sang . George Szell conducted the Vienna Philharmonic . The following explanations are based on the expanded new version.
orchestra
Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, a timpani, a percussion, a harpsichord and 30 strings. A small wind ensemble is placed opposite the orchestra in the auditorium.
action
place and time
The opera is set in a French city in the time of Molière, in the middle of the 17th century. However, the staging is not specifically tied to these specifications.
Three-act version
Arnolphe has already passed the best years of his life. His favorite activity is to shatter the good marriages of his neighbors and relatives through gossip. For himself, however, he hopes that one day he will be spared such a fate. That is why he had his foster daughter Agnes raised in strict monastic seclusion in order to lead her to the altar herself as soon as she is of marriageable age. So that the girl does not get stupid ideas, but should always be loyal to him, he denies her any education.
In the meantime Agnes has matured into a pretty lady and felt love for the first time, but not with her old guardian, but with the young Horace, the son of Arnolphes friend Oronte. The old man is now trying with cunning and cunning to get the naive girl on his side, but thanks to the intervention of Molière himself - and here the operatic version differs significantly from the literary model - who repeatedly appears on the open stage as a poquelin, Alain and Henri disguised and directing the story in favor of the young lovers, in the end Arnolphe can only watch as his furs swim away from him.
music
Liebermann provides the baroque comedy with music from the 20th century. Although he used the twelve-tone technique , the music remains immediately effective with its light parlando , its dramatic recitatives and its lyrical ariosi .
literature
- Hellmuth Steger, Karl Howe: Opernführer , Fischer Bücherei Frankfurt am Main, Paperback No. 49 (April 1961 edition)
- Gerhart von Westerman , Karl Schumann: Knaurs opera guide . Droemersche Verlagsanstalt Th. Knaur Nachf., November 1969 edition
- The women's school . In: Die Zeit , No. 34/1957