Don Rodrigo
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| Title: | Don Rodrigo |
| Shape: | Opera in three acts and nine pictures |
| Original language: | Spanish |
| Music: | Alberto Ginastera |
| Libretto : | Alejandro Casona |
| Premiere: | July 24, 1964 |
| Place of premiere: | Teatro Colón , Buenos Aires |
| Playing time: | approx. 1 ½ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Toledo, around 700 |
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Don Rodrigo is a tragic opera by Alberto Ginastera . The opera has three acts and 9 pictures ( Opus 31), each scene is separated by an orchestral interlude . The world premiere took place on July 24, 1964 at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires . The opera is based on a Spanish libretto by Alejandro Casona .
layout
The text of the opera is highly condensed, and the overall concept of the opera is actually atonal .
The opera is designed as a colorful spectacle, and represents a parade of the Visigoth King Roderich (Rodrigo) of Toledo in the 8th century. It sounds less like a classical opera, since it lacks melodic swing and ingenuity, the opera lives on their well-organized and symmetrical musical structure. The characters are shown only slightly emotionally, the music does not manage to support the emotions of the protagonists , so the opera lives for the most part from its brilliant musical effects. The acting persons are only represented and not explained in detail; neither are their actions made intelligible by the music. In this way, the characters remain strange, as there is no musical description of their feelings. A performance by Don Rodrigo does not live from the emotions and the plot, but from the quality and power of the singers, the orchestra, and the staging.
Instrumentation
The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:
- Woodwinds : three flutes (1st alto flute, 3rd also Piccolo ), three oboes (3 also English horn ), three clarinets (3rd and bass clarinet ), three bassoons (3rd also contrabassoon)
- Brass : six horns , four trumpets , four trombones , tuba
- seven timpani (2 players), percussion (6 players): three drums, three crotales , three triangles , three small hanging cymbals , three tamtams [all small, medium, large], two cymbals, bass drum , whip
- xylophone
- Carillon
- Celesta
- mandolin
- harp
- Strings (Viola 1 also Viola d'amore )
- Incidental music: twelve horns, eight trumpets, twenty-five bells (also as a reduced version with six horns and four trumpets)
Others
The opera Don Rodrigo founded Plácido Domingo in the title role in 1966 at the New York City Opera his international career . Through this production, which he also sang in Los Angeles, the opera became known worldwide.
Web links
- Work information at Boosey & Hawkes
- Libretto (Spanish) at Kareol
Individual evidence
- ↑ Malena kiss : Don Rodrigo. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater . Volume 2: Works. Donizetti - Henze. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1987, ISBN 3-492-02412-2 , pp. 380-382.