The second decision
| Opera dates | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The second decision |
| Shape: | Opera in seven pictures and three interludes |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Udo Zimmermann |
| Libretto : | Ingo Zimmermann |
| Premiere: | 10/11 May 1970 |
| Place of premiere: | Theaters of the City of Magdeburg , State Theater Dessau |
| Playing time: | approx. 2 ½ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Big city in the GDR, late 1960s |
| people | |
|
|
The second decision is an opera in seven pictures and three interludes by Udo Zimmermann (music) with a libretto by his brother Ingo Zimmermann . It was created in 1969 and was performed for the first time in the context of a Ring premiere on May 10, 1970 in the Great House of the City of Magdeburg and the following day in the State Theater in Dessau .
action
At the time it was written, the opera was set in a large GDR city at the end of the 1960s , where an international scientific conference was taking place. The evening before, the old scientist Hausmann made a discovery in genetic engineering that could open up undreamt-of possibilities. He gets into a conflict of conscience because he fears that the new technology could be used against people, as it was often before. He therefore decides not to publish the research results. His assistant Peter Clausnitzer contradicts with the argument that another researcher will soon make the same discovery, but will not be silent.
Hausmann hopes for the support of his friend, Polish colleague Janusz, who almost became a victim of fascist doctors himself during the National Socialist regime. Janusz urges action. Meanwhile, Clausnitzer intends to inform a minister who has come to attend the conference about the discovery so that Hausmann will force it to publish it. Out of love for Hausmann's daughter Christine and because of the advice of his friend Christoph Meinhardt, he refrains from such betrayal. After further deliberation, Hausmann makes a second decision: he will now publish his work because he is convinced that abuse cannot occur in a “socialist” society.
Three interludes break through the otherwise linear plot. They represent Hausmann's decision-making process with musical means.
layout
orchestra
The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:
- Woodwinds : flute , alto flute, oboe , English horn , clarinet , bass clarinet , bassoon
- Brass : two horns , two trumpets , two trombones
- Timpani , drums
- Harp , guitar
- Piano , harpsichord (also celesta )
- Strings
music
Zimmermann described his musical language in the program booklet for the premiere as follows:
“This is how we find the […] sensitive chamber music tone next to the emphatically dramatic gesture, composed speaking next to a freely swinging vocal line, whispering next to the scream. Noise and tone, the indefinite and the definite interpenetrate each other, beat noise changes into beat sound, from noise complexes grow tones that gradually take on thematic form. "
According to Zimmermann, the portrayal of Hausmann's reflection in the interludes is based on an idea from the play Biography: A play by Max Frisch: “The scientist Hausmann split into a second self, which can contemplate and reflect on the other self.” Through the “split in conscience "As a" means of examining conscience "the actions and statements are commented on. The tonal language of the interludes is also characterized by “sound alienations”, for which Zimmermann cited the composition Threnos - The Victims of Hiroshima by Krzysztof Penderecki as a technical and associative model. In addition, Zimmermann used aleatoric elements for dramaturgical goals, for example to depict the mental “chaos” in Hausmann's conflict of conscience: “Such mental disorder or dissolution can result in a dissolution of the material and its orderly design.” The fictional second Hausmann is one Speaking role. He is "emotionally supported" by a three-part speaking choir recorded from the tape. The loudspeakers required for this should achieve a sound spatial effect and be placed on all sides and on the ceiling in the middle of the auditorium. In addition, an invisible chamber choir can be heard as a symbol of "Hausmann's concept of humanity". In the first two interludes he confines himself to vocalises . In the first interlude, falling semitones are in the foreground as a lament motif and aleatoric techniques. In the second, the "Janusz theme" is added as a warning reminder of Auschwitz. In the third interlude, the choir sings inviting texts such as “Look around”.
Another scene with spatial sound language takes place at the airport, where Clausnitzer is waiting for the minister. Here engine noises, loudspeaker announcements and texts in different languages overlap. At the same time as this "growing, increasingly aggressive wave of sound" sounds his own "inner voice", which gradually displaces the din. Clausnitzer ultimately decides not to betray his teacher.
Work history
The end of the 1960s was a time of belief in progress on both sides of the Iron Curtain. In America people began to experiment with genetic engineering, and this area of research was also noticed in the GDR. In 1969 the Magdeburg Medical Academy opened a department for human genetics and medical genetic engineering. The opera's authors also shared this optimism. They wrote their opera The Second Decision on this occasion in 1969 in close cooperation with the stages of the city of Magdeburg .
The opera was presented to the public as part of a Ring premiere on May 10, 1970 in the Great House of the City of Magdeburg and on May 11 in the Dessau State Theater . It was received positively by the Magdeburg genetic researchers and the Kühlungsborn working group of biogenetics, headed by Erhard Geißler , who at the time were seeking trust and attention.
Just a few years later, the assessment of genetic engineering gradually changed. Writers like Jurij Brězan ( Krabat or The Metamorphosis of the World, 1976) have expressed concern. From 1979 the conflict became public - first in an interview with Brězan for the magazine Sinn und Form (Issue 5, Berlin 1979), then in a public exchange of letters between Brězan and Geißler (Issue 5, Berlin 1980). After other artists had entered the discussion, Geißler referred to The Second Decision as a counterpoint to the time-critical play Bruder Eichmann by Heinar Kipphardt, staged in the Deutsches Theater in 1984, and complained about the widespread hostility towards science, which had not yet existed in 1970. Despite further critical voices, the opera underwent a certain rehabilitation, as the conflict was essentially based on the experience with Auschwitz, the importance of which for genetic researchers, however, was "a well-kept secret" (according to the scientist Benno Müller-Hill 1985). Sigrid Neef therefore assessed the work as follows:
“As a work of art, Zimmermann's opera was idealistic in its argumentation, but sincere and worth considering in the way it posed the question, although it was precisely these qualities that could only be demonstrated after more than a decade. Example of an 'opera that came too early'? Rather the example of a discussion that started too late! "
Zimmermann himself qualified the statement of his opera in 1988:
“'The second decision' shows in the first part how the scientist struggles to find a solution to this question (the responsibility of the scientist). In the second part he quasi addresses humanity and relieves himself by handing the decision over to the socialist society. But there the piece becomes flat, there it is simply no longer right, because even in socialism there is the problem of personal decision and responsibility. These cannot be canceled by any society. "
literature
- Heike Sauer: Dream - Reality - Utopia. German music theater 1961–1971 as a mirror of political and social aspects of its time. Dissertation. Waxmann, Münster / New York 1994, ISBN 3-89325-235-5 , pp. 163–173 ( limited preview in Google book search)
Web links
- The second decision. Work information from the Breitkopf & Härtel publishing house
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Sigrid Neef : German Opera in the 20th Century - GDR 1949–1989. Lang, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-86032-011-4 , pp. 538-543.
- ^ A b Udo Zimmermann : Conversation with Fritz Hennenberg . In: Mathias Hansen (Ed.): Composing at the time. Conversations with composers from the GDR. Leipzig 1988.
White Rose (1967/1968) | The second decision (1970) | Levin's Mill (1973) | The Schuhu and the Flying Princess (1976) | The wondrous shoemaker's wife (1982) | White Rose (1986)