The birds (opera)
| Opera dates | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The birds |
| Shape: | Fantastic lyric play in two acts, op.30 |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Walter Braunfels |
| Libretto : | Walter Braunfels |
| Literary source: | Aristophanes : The birds |
| Premiere: | November 30, 1920 |
| Place of premiere: | National Theater Munich |
| Playing time: | approx. 2 ½ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Rocky mountain area in mythical times |
| people | |
|
|
The Birds is an opera in two acts by Walter Braunfels ( music and libretto ) based on the ancient comedy The Birds by Aristophanes , which was composed between 1913 and 1919 and premiered on November 30, 1920 at the National Theater in Munich.
action
first act
The two spoiled, urban bon vivants Ratefreund and Hoffegut are looking for the kingdom of the birds in order to devote themselves entirely to “art” and to leave the past distractions behind. The hoopoe, the king of the birds, welcomes them reluctantly, because what he really wants is some peace and quiet. The very power-conscious and shrewd guessing friend drafts the plan for a fortified city in the air called Cloud Cuckoo Land. This residence is said to be so magnificent that it secures the birds dominion over the gods and men, because the sacrificial smoke, on which heaven depends, could then no longer rise. Curious, the hoopoe gathers its people to discuss the plan. At first the opponents dominate, because many birds have had very bad experiences with humans. But finally the will to power wins, enthusiasm spreads and all necessary tasks during the construction work from the procurement of the mortar to the water supply are distributed to the birds.
Second act
On a full moon night, the sensitive Hoffegut meets the nightingale and is enchanted by their singing. For him it is a poetic symbol of infinity as well as immortality. The imposing bird city is finally built, everyone involved is intoxicated by its success, the dove and the pigeon are the first couple to dance into the fortress. Enter a wild, grim man who turns out to be Prometheus. He warns the birds of the consequences of their pride. Zeus, the father of the gods, is still “sleeping”, but when he wakes up his anger will be terrible. As proof of this, Prometheus describes his own fate, as he was chained to a rock above the sea spray after he had brought fire to the people. After all, Zeus even pardoned him in his kindness. The shrewd guessing friend is not deterred by Prometheus and incites the birds to war against the gods, they will know how to defend themselves. The wind rushes, the fight begins - and ends in the total destruction of Cloud Cuckoo Land. The birds feel compelled to recognize the unattainable greatness of the gods. Inwardly little touched by this tragic end, advice friend and Hoffegut return to their city. Ratefreund is already longing for homely cosiness, Hoffegut's thoughts are all about the nightingale, which alone was worth setting out into the world of birds.
orchestra
The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:
- Woodwinds : three flutes (3rd also Piccolo ), two oboes (the second also English horn ), two clarinets , two bassoons (3rd also contrabassoon )
- Brass : four horns , two trumpets , three trombones , tuba
- four timpani , percussion : bass drum , snare drum , cymbal , tambourine , castanets , triangle , glockenspiel
- Celesta
- two harps
- Strings
- Stage music behind the scene: flute piccolo, flute
history
Emergence
Braunfels began composing in 1913 and, according to his own statement, came to the point when he was called up to the Western Front in 1915, "because the work of the establishment of an unreal state by the incited unreality of the birds seems to have succeeded". He was wounded there in 1917 and was only able to continue work after the end of the First World War and his return to his home town of Frankfurt am Main . Braunfels spoke in a radio address in 1948 about his motives for setting the ancient Komödienstoff to music and placed himself in a row with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , who also edited the birds in the summer of 1780 and made it into a parodic one-act play:
“What attracted a composer to this frizzy, time-bound piece? Well, first of all the same thing that once lured Goethe when he began to rewrite this comedy: to revive the ingeniously positioned, eternally repeating situation of the archetype anew in time. At that time, Goethe thought of the Weimar situation, I of course first of the Munich and, if you then look at the text poem, you will still find some of this original creative moment. "
Alteration of the ancient text
Braunfels intervened considerably in the ancient text. Aristophanes had his birds in 415 BC. Written as a warning against arrogance in foreign policy. At that time, spurred on by Alcibiades, Athens prepared the Sicily expedition, a colonial war that led to the destruction of the expeditionary army and contributed to the decisive weakening of Athens. The character of important people in the play was changed by Braunfels, above all Prometheus , who plays a strange role in Aristophanes as the messenger of Zeus , but in the opera becomes the deepest warner of arrogance and loss of reality and, according to Braunfels, a “representative of supernatural divine world ”. In the ancient model, the nightingale is a mute symbol for “romantic” human desires and in the opera it turns the head of the poetically inclined Hoffegut with its lovely song. Overall, the birds in the operatic version are much darker than in Aristophanes', yes Braunfels turns the comedy into a tragedy , because he depicts the war between birds and gods in detail and ends in catastrophe, certainly inspired by its own circumstances, Germany had for many "unexpectedly" lost the First World War, with the disastrous mental consequences.
reception
The premiere on November 30, 1920 under the direction of Bruno Walter was a great success, and fifty performances followed. The main roles were prominently cast, for example Maria Ivogün , Richard Strauss' favorite coloratura soprano sang the nightingale , the star tenor Karl Erb sang Hoffegut. Walter paid tribute to the work in his memoirs with the words: “Whoever has heard Karl Erb's song of man's longing and the comforting voice of the nightingale from the treetop above him from Ivogün, whom the grotesque scenes of the work amused and the romantic ones touched , will gratefully commemorate this poetic and witty transformation of Aristophanes' comedy into opera and its Munich performance. "The music critic Alfred Einstein judged after the premiere:
“I don't think that such an absolute artistic work has ever passed through the German opera stage as this 'lyrical-fantastic play based on Aristophanes'. [...] You can see very clearly the line in the operatic movement into which it belongs. It is one of the documents of anti-naturalism in opera, which has increasingly gripped composers over the past decade, and whose milestones include the unreal style balance of Ariadne , the fairy tale world of the woman without a shadow , perhaps also the best elements of Schreker's operas. Except that it is apparently more subjective and yet more necessary in its special and profound sense than all these operas. You can and must compare it as an artist's work - not as an artist's drama - with the Meistersingers and the Palestrina Pfitzner [...]. "
The birds were re-enacted in Cologne, Vienna, Stuttgart and Berlin . However, the number of performances dropped drastically as early as 1927, as the New Objectivity in music that was emerging at the time was difficult to reconcile with Braunfels' late romantic tonal language, which was based on Richard Strauss. When the National Socialists came to power in early 1933, Braunfels works were banned from performing anyway.
After the Second World War , the birds no longer suited contemporary tastes in New Music and it was not until 17 years after the composer's death (1954) that the Karlsruhe Theater dared to reinterpret it in 1971, shortly afterwards a production in Bremen followed, which, however, had no lasting interest in the Opera could wake up. It was not until 1996 that the reception was given a decisive boost with a complete recording of Decca in the Degenerate Music series . The conductor Lothar Zagrosek , who also directed a concert in Berlin in 2009 as well as a production in 2019 at the Tyrolean Festival in Erl, made a name for himself . In a production by the Osnabrück Theater in the summer of 2014, director Yona Kim addressed the genesis of the opera. She showed film sequences from the First World War, equipped the birds with spiked hoods and uniforms and optically anticipated National Socialism.
literature
- Walter Braunfels: Radio speech on the Frankfurt recording of the birds , 1948, printed in: Die Vögel , program booklet of the Tyrolean Festival Erl, 2019, pp. 12–15.
Web links
- The Birds : Sheet Music and Audio Files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Action by Die Vögel (Opera) on Opera-Guide landing page due to URL change currently unavailable
Individual evidence
- ↑ Monika Schwarz: The birds. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater . Volume 1: Works. Abbatini - Donizetti. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1986, ISBN 3-492-02411-4 , pp. 433-434.
- ^ Walter Braunfels: Radio speech on the Frankfurt re-recording of the birds , 1948, printed in: Die Vögel , program booklet of the Tyrolean Festival Erl, 2019, p. 12.
- ↑ Walter Braunfels: Radio speech on the Frankfurt recording of the birds , 1948, printed in: Die Vögel , program booklet of the Tiroler Festspiele Erl, 2019, p. 14.
- ↑ Bruno Walter: Theme and Variations , Frankfurt 1988, p. 306.
- ^ Alfred Einstein : "The Birds" by Walter Braunfels , review of the premiere, Munich Art Show No. 46, December 3, 1920.
- ↑ Preface to the complete score of the birds , accessed on July 31, 2019.