The first people (opera)
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The first people |
| Original title: | The first people |
| Shape: | thoroughly composed |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Rudi Stephan |
| Libretto : | Otto Borngräber |
| Premiere: | July 1, 1920 |
| Place of premiere: | Frankfurt am Main |
| Place and time of the action: | Old testament |
| people | |
The first people is an opera in two acts by Rudi Stephan . As a libretto he chose the poem of the same name by Otto Borngräber , which he had described as an "erotic mystery". The work was premiered on July 1, 1920 in Frankfurt am Main, almost five years after the composer's death.
action
The opera takes place after the expulsion from paradise at the beginning of the Old Testament. The picture shows a primeval landscape in spring.
first act
Adahm toiled in the field to earn his bread in the sweat of his brow. While he has already become a typical representative of bourgeois society, his wife Chawa and their two sons Kajin and Chabel are longing to return to the Garden of Eden, where there were as yet no fixed moral concepts. As Chawa watches her husband at work, she imagines how he physically desires her. Kajin's faring is similar to his mother's. Sexual restlessness flows through him too when he looks at Chawa. Through her he discovers the desire for the opposite sex. When Chawa notices his lust, she turns away from him in horror. Both Adahm in his brooding and Chawa in their unfulfilled desires feel lonely and lost. They feel comforted when the returning Chabel tells them about his mystical vision of an all-good, all-knowing and all-powerful God.
Second act
It's night. Chawa stands in front of the sacrificial stone and begs God to give her husband the idea that he will find her desirable again as in earlier times. Suddenly she realizes that her son Chabel is watching her. He realizes for the first time what a beautiful woman his mother is. When Kajin arrives and notices his brother's desires, he is seized with jealousy. In excess, he hits Chabel so hard that he stops moving.
Chawa is stunned when she notices the murder. She curses her son and wants to pounce on him. But before she can commit the same act on him, she is held back by Adahm. The coming of the new day, towards which the couple is now approaching, symbolizes the beginning of a new (better?) World.
music
One notices in the music that the composer - similar to Arnold Schönberg - on the one hand has his roots in the late romantic era, but on the other hand is clearly striving towards the modern age. In addition to tonal elements, the opera also contains expressionistic sounds that are sometimes no longer tied to any key.
Sound carrier
- Complete recording by the German label cpo on two CDs with Siegmund Nimsgern, Gabriele Maria Ronge, Florian Cerny and Hans Aschenbach as well as the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Karl Anton Rickenbacher
- Complete recording by the French label Naïve on two CDs with Nancy Gustafson, Franz Hawlata, Wolfgang Millgramm, Donnie Ray Albert and the Orchester National de France under the direction of Mikko Franck