Dionysus (opera)
| Opera dates | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Dionysus |
Banner of the performance at the Salzburg Festival 2010 |
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| Shape: | Operatic fantasy |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Wolfgang Rihm |
| Libretto : | Wolfgang Rihm |
| Literary source: | Friedrich Nietzsche : Dionysus dithyrambs |
| Premiere: | July 27, 2010 |
| Place of premiere: | House for Mozart , Salzburg |
| Playing time: | about 2 hours |
| people | |
Dionysus is an “ opera fantasy based on texts by Friedrich Nietzsche ” (further subtitles: “Scenes and Dithyrambs”) by Wolfgang Rihm with a libretto by the composer based on Nietzsche's Dionysus dithyrambs . The world premiere took place on July 27, 2010 in the Haus für Mozart in Salzburg.
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The main character of the opera is "N". This abbreviation stands symbolically for the poet Nietzsche, but also for Dionysus, with whom the historical Nietzsche identified himself. Some scenes, such as the rowing trip across Lake Lucerne , the brothel scene or the final scene with a horse kiss on the market square in Turin, refer to events from Nietzsche's life. Nevertheless, it is not a biographical opera, but a playful processing of the Dionysus myth and its meaning. The plot is not linear, but presents different types of life.
First Scene. A lake
The spent poet N. (Nietzsche) comes on stage as an initially silent wanderer. Two nymphs laughingly tease him ("You want me ..."). One of them turns out to be Nietzsche's unreachable lover Cosima von Bülow . She ensnares him. He tries in vain to escape her in his rowboat across Lake Lucerne. He becomes the god Dionysus , who speaks to Ariadne : "I am your labyrinth". Similar to the Rhine daughters in Wagner's Rheingold , three dolphin girls appear and sing vocalises. A young man, the "guest" (the historical role model is Heinrich Köselitz ), appears and wins Ariadne for himself.
Second scene. On the mountains
N. and the guest, his more successful alter ego, travel together over the mountains. The dangerous mountain tour is represented with correspondingly rugged sound means. There are gaping chasms and storms. Towards the end the mood changes: “The air is strange and pure. Day of my life! The sun is sinking. ”The view of the summit cross remains - Dionysus the crucified.
Third scene. Three interiors
In search of love and truth, N. and the guest wander around. They get into a brothel, where the four Esmeralda girls swarm around them. N. and the guest argue with each other. As in a recital, N. performs the Wanderer song, with the guest accompanying him in pantomime on a piano dummy and imitating a flute player. The climax of this scene is the Bach chorale, alienated by the women, “Es ist Enough” (from O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 60 ) with its concise whole-tone series. The guest or now Apollon is torn to pieces by the women / maenads . But Apollon returns to life and pulls the skin off of N.'s rival Marsyas in his study, as in the legend . Choir and orchestra roar unleashed. The peeled off skin develops a life of its own.
Fourth scene. A place
The last scene is an anecdote from the life of Nietzsche. On January 3, 1889, he observed a coachman in Turin who brutally whipped his horse. Nitzsche then knelt down in front of the horse, hugged and kissed it out of pity. The opera ends with a mask procession, an instrumental epilogue and a short solo by Ariadne. "In the rapidly falling darkness you can just see that all the figures gathered on the stage are bowing very calmly towards the audience."
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Rihm compiled the text of the opera fantasy himself. It is based on words from Nietzsche's late work Dionysus-Dithyramben , which Rihm fragmented and reassembled. Rihm himself said: “Every word that is sung comes from Nietzsche. But the text is from me. ”He chose the text passages set to music based on his ideas about the composition. The music took precedence over the text.
In the program interview with Max Nyffeler , Rihm also commented on the term “fantasy”: “I believe that music theater needs more 'Magic Flute'. More work. Sudden appearance of guards. Fog. A snake. Three ladies. This is opera! [...] It finds its possibilities in situations that are not commonplace. "
In the early criticism of the Opernwelt magazine , the exuberant “reverberation of the late romantic sound sensuality” of the music was emphasized, which often reminds of Richard Strauss or Johannes Brahms .
The opera is Rihm's first “autobiographically charged” and at the same time his first comic opera.
Instrumentation
The orchestra needs the following instruments:
- Woodwinds : two flutes (2nd also piccolo ), two oboes (2nd also english horn ), two clarinets in A, bass clarinet in Bb, two bassoons (2nd also contrabassoon)
- Brass : four horns in F, two trumpets in C, three trombones , bass tuba
- Timpani , drums (five players)
- two harps
- Celesta , piano
- Strings : violin 1, violin 2, violas , cellos , double basses
Work history
Dionysus is Wolfgang Rihm's eleventh stage work. This “opera fantasy” arose after he had been preoccupied with the idea of a Dionysus opera for fifteen years, finally as a composition commission from the Salzburg Festival, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin and the De Nederlandse Opera . It is dedicated “in friendship” to the conductor Ingo Metzmacher , who also directed the premiere. Rihm wrote them mainly between December 2009 and May 2010 and sent them in sections to Metzmacher. He only finished the ending at the last second, as the idea for the mask procession and the orchestra epilogue was a long time coming.
Johannes Martin Kränzle (N.), Mojca Erdmann (1st high soprano), Elin Rombo (2nd high soprano), Matthias Klink ("A Guest" / ) sang and played at the world premiere on July 27, 2010 in the Haus für Mozart Salzburg Apollon), Virpi Räisänen (mezzo-soprano), Julia Faylenbogen (alto), Uli Kirsch ("The Skin"). The German Symphony Orchestra Berlin and the Vienna State Opera Choir Concert Association were under the musical direction of Ingo Metzmacher. Pierre Audi was in charge of the direction , the set was by Jonathan Meese , the costumes by Jorge Jara, the lighting by Jean Kalman , the videos by Martin Eidenberger and the dramaturgy by Klaus Bertitsch. The magazine Opernwelt named the performance the "World Premiere of the Year".
The production was given from June 8, 2011 in Amsterdam and from July 8, 2012 in the State Opera in the Schiller Theater in Berlin. On February 8, 2013, a new production by the Heidelberg Theater with a production by Ingo Kerkhof premiered.
A recording of the Salzburg premiere was released on DVD.
literature
- Ivanka Stoianova: Wolfgang Rihm - Dionysus: a writing on inner spaces. In: Art Research Journal V. 2, n. 1, January / June 2015, pp. 36–52 ( online ).
Web links
- Claus Spahn: The depth swallows us so quickly! Performance review. In: The time of August 5, 2010
- Roberto Becker: From the beautiful old world. Performance review. In: Online music magazine
- Joachim Lange: Music as an outbreak. Performance review of the Heidelberg production from 2013. In: Online Musik Magazin
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Universal Edition information on works, accessed on August 19, 2016.
- ↑ a b Performance details of the world premiere at the Salzburg Festival , accessed on August 19, 2016.
- ↑ a b c d e f Eleonore Büning: World premiere of the year - more work, please! In: Opernwelt-Jahrbuch 2011, p. 28.
- ^ Ivanka Stoianova: Wolfgang Rihm - Dionysos: a writing on inner spaces.
- ↑ a b c Joachim Lange: Mountain hiking with Nietzsche. In: Early review of Opernwelt magazine from July 28, 2010.
- ↑ Wolfgang Rihm's performance calendar at Universal Edition, accessed on August 19, 2016.