Eréndira (opera)
| Opera dates | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Eréndira |
| Shape: | Opera in six scenes |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Violeta Dinescu |
| Libretto : | Monika Rothmaier |
| Literary source: | Gabriel García Márquez : The unbelievable and sad story of the simple-minded Eréndira and her heartless grandmother |
| Premiere: | March 18, 1992 |
| Place of premiere: | Chamber theater of the Stuttgart State Opera |
| Playing time: | about 70 minutes |
| Place and time of the action: | Somewhere in a desert landscape, present |
| people | |
Eréndira is an opera in six scenes by Violeta Dinescu (music) with a libretto by Monika Rothmaier based on the story The unbelievable and sad story of the simple-minded Eréndira and her heartless grandmother by Gabriel García Márquez . The world premiere took place on March 18, 1992 in the chamber theater of the Stuttgart State Opera .
action
First scene: "The wind of bad luck is blowing ..."
Eréndira lives with her grandmother in a lonely palace in the desert. While Eréndira helps her to get dressed, the grandmother reminisces about her husband Amadis and their son of the same name, who made a living smuggling and who are both long dead and buried in the palace courtyard. In addition to her grandmother, Eréndira also takes care of the household without complaint. Among other things, she has to wind up countless clocks that run faster and faster. She works so hard that she falls asleep while walking while carrying a soup pot and drops it in shock when the bell rings. Even after she has put her grandmother to bed in the evening, she has to iron the laundry, put the flowers outside and give the "graves to drink". When she can finally go to sleep, she is tired and forgets to put out her candelabra. A gust of wind knocks it over and fire breaks out.
Second scene: "Departure to the sea"
The next day the palace burned down completely. Indians from the village collect the remains in sacks. It's raining. Eréndira is desperate because her grandmother blames her for the misfortune. To make up for the financial loss, Eréndira has to prostitute herself. The grandmother haggles with the suitors, who examine the girl like an animal. The first to get involved is a shopkeeper who brutally raped Eréndira behind the stage. Meanwhile, the grandmother recruits more suitors, including a poor postman who is supposed to advertise them in return. Another man, Ulysses, wants to eat Eréndira completely, but cannot pay the remaining debts of 871,895 Pesos calculated by the grandmother. In the meantime, the workers have loaded the items that can still be used onto a cart. The two women move away.
Third scene: "In the desert ..."
The grandmother and Eréndira have settled in an amusement park in a Colombian slum between black market traders and indigenous people, where she advertises her dressed up granddaughter with signs like “Eréndira is better” or “No life without Eréndira”. Although Eréndira suffers severely from the abuse, the grandmother assumes that she will not have paid off her debt for "eight years, seven months and eleven days". Ulysses followed them here and tried to buy Eréndira out. The grandmother rejects him on the grounds that he is unlucky: “You can't get in me without wings!” Only when Eréndira is close to death from exhaustion, the grandmother drives the last ten men away. Eréndira is supposed to take a sage bath to relax.
Fourth scene: "Through the dreams ..."
After the bath, Eréndira wants to go to bed. "Tears of exhaustion run down her cheeks." The already sleeping grandmother dreams of her youth and her two amadises. Ulysses takes the opportunity to speak to Eréndira and give her the money. He helps her change the sheets. Despite Ulysses shameful awkwardness, they both grow closer. He tells her about his life as a smuggler of valuable oranges that glow from within. The two love each other until Eréndira happily falls asleep. Ulysses quietly leaves the tent.
Fifth scene: "Desires"
Eréndira was kidnapped and wrapped in a mosquito net and taken to a monastery cell. Nuns dress them simply and cut their hair into a brush head. Eréndira refuses to tell them about her life.
In the morning the grandmother notices the attack. Angry, she lets the Indians carry her to the monastery in the litter. A missionary tries to prevent her from doing so, because he wants to protect Eréndira "from immorality". But when the grandmother points out her “connections to the highest circles”, he withdraws. She is now looking for support from the mayor - but he says his job is only to make rain. Even a smuggler refuses to help her - he doesn't want to interfere "in God's affairs". Pregnant women have gathered in the monastery to be ceremonially married. Men are let in for this. The grandmother speaks to one of them. She learns that he has been promised five pesos for his first communion and offers him twenty if he marries Eréndira. The young man goes to the monastery, receives the blessing and puts a white wreath on Eréndira's hair at the wedding ceremony. Then he asks her what she wants. Eréndira wants to leave the area.
Sixth scene: "Against the wind"
On the plantation with the oranges that glow from within, Ulysses longs for Eréndira. He steals three of the precious oranges and goes looking for her.
The grandmother and Eréndira now live in a magnificent tent on the seashore. Although they have now become rich, their relationship has not changed. The grandmother promises her that after her death she will lead a free and happy life in her own home. Eréndira likes this thought. She secretly grabs a knife. But just as she is about to stab her, the grandmother speaks to her to explain the next day's work. Eréndira drops the knife.
After the grandmother has gone to bed, Ulysses appears and shows Eréndira the oranges. Inside there is a real diamond. You can use it to travel around the world. The two love each other. Eréndira persuades Ulysses to kill the grandmother.
Ulysses brings the grandmother a birthday cake “with 72 pink candles”, which she eats with great pleasure. Although Ulysses had poisoned the cake with plenty of arsenic, the grandmother did not die, but fell into a state of madness, fantasizing, dancing and singing in a hoarse voice. Finally he takes a knife and stabs her first in the chest, then in the back. The grandmother, however, defends herself and is even getting stronger. Only when he slits open her stomach does he reach his goal: “A green fountain pours out of grandmother's body. She lies lifeless on the ground. ”Eréndira watched the fight impassively. After making sure she is dead, she leaves the tent. Ulysses tries to follow her. He calls out to her with "heartbreaking cries, which however were no longer those of a lover, but those of a son".
layout
The opera dispenses with the South American ambience of the original. The plot is divided into individual images and image fragments. The three time levels of past, present and future merge as well as real and imagined events. The composer supplemented the external plot with an internal one that ran asynchronously to it. She herself explained this as follows:
“So I have not only integrated a linearly functioning story or a libretto into my music, but also the development and growth of this living space, which Márquez knows how to realize in his texts so clearly. The figures and the instruments, which show and search for themselves in many reflections from the creation to the definitive transformation of the material, respond to this in the permanent play of an almost hallucinatory spiral impulse - in the form of an organic structure in which each element is the nucleus of a new story carries itself. "
According to the composer, the composition contains a “Romanian signature” on all levels, which is evident “in the interval repertoire, in certain tone sequences, certain coherences and timelines”. The decorations with very small intervals in the vocal lines are also inspired by the vocal tradition of Romanian folk music. The quarter-tone intervals and the complex rhythmic structures not considered contemporary art, but as stylized continuation of the ancient tradition of songs of Romanian farmers.
The tasks of the soloists alternate between declamatory and melodramatic speaking and arioso singing. The musical structure appears light and filigree. The composer dispenses with superficial sound effects. The colors of the chamber orchestra are used sensitively. In the second scene, when the grandmother forces her granddaughter into prostitution for the first time, the partly sung, partly spoken haggling over her virginity remains intelligible at all times, despite the large cast with all strings, drums, harpsichord and woodwinds.
The vocal lines depict the different characters of the main characters. Grandmother's “crazy coloraturas”, for example, correspond to her state of madness; the part of the submissive Eréndira, on the other hand, often appears very reserved or sleepwalking. There are few connections between the voices and the instruments. The musical means in the instrumental movement include “strings flageolets in extremely high registers, oscillating fissures from the wind instruments, subtle chord breaks on the guitar and whispered drum effects” as well as frequent glissandos .
orchestra
The chamber music cast of the opera requires the following instruments:
- Woodwinds : flute , oboe , clarinet , bassoon
- Brass : horn , trumpet , trombone
- Percussion (three players)
- guitar
- Piano (also harpsichord , organ , celesta , synthesizer )
- Strings (solo): violin 1, violin 2, viola , violoncello , double bass
Work history
Eréndira is the third stage work by the Romanian composer Violeta Dinescu . Monika Rothmaier's libretto is based on Gabriel García Márquez 's story The unbelievable and sad story of the simple-minded Eréndira and her heartless grandmother . It is a work commissioned by the City of Munich in coproduction with the Stuttgart State Theater .
In an interview, the composer reported that she had the idea for the material after buying a book of novellas by Marquez at a book table to relax on a Sunday stroll through Baden-Baden . She had been looking in vain for a suitable opera material for months and had just decided to give it up for the time being. The last story in this volume spoke to her at once, and in the end she knew that she had found her subject. She was particularly interested in the “connection between fantastic elements and reality” and the “enormous symbolic power of the story”. The “transition from the real to the fantastic and mythical” is also characteristic of Romanian culture.
Bernhard Kontarsky was in charge of the world premiere on March 18, 1992 in the Chamber Theater of the Stuttgart State Opera . The production was done by Beat Fäh , the stage and costumes by Carolin Mittler. The singers included Catriona Smith as Eréndira and Catherine Gayer as grandmother. From May 7, 1992 the work was played in the Muffathalle in Munich.
In 1993 (premiere on March 17th) there was a production by the Hans Otto Theater Potsdam in a production by Bernd Weißig with equipment by Matthias Körner. Diether Noll was the musical director . Alenka Genzel (Eréndira), Christina Ascher (grandmother) and Hans-Georg Priese (Ulysses) played the leading roles . The production was shown in June 1993 as a guest performance at the 3rd days of the New Music Theater in North Rhine-Westphalia.
In the same year (premiere on October 9, 1993) the Vienna Chamber Opera also added opera to its program. It was a co-production with the Vienna State Opera and the Vienna Volksoper . Kornelia Repschläger directed. The stage design and costumes came from Mimi Zuzanek. Manfred Ramin led members of the Bratislava Symphonic Orchestra. The main roles were sung by Alessandra Catterucci (Eréndira), Christina Ascher (grandmother) and Josef Luftensteiner (Ulysses).
In December 2002 Eréndira was performed in the Oldenburg State Theater . This production was a great success with many sold out performances. The production was done by Masche Pörzgen, the stage and costumes by Cordelia Matthes. Eric Solén conducted it. Anja Metzger sang the title role , the grandmother again Christina Ascher and Ulysses Paul Brady.
literature
- Andrea Dorothea Beel: Studies on the opera "Eréndira" by Violeta Dinescu. Master's thesis at the University of Bonn, 1996.
Individual evidence
- ^ Christian Baier: Hologram of existential sensitivities - Violeta Dinescu's "Eréndira". In: Austrian music magazine . Volume 48, Issues 10-11 (October 1993).
- ↑ a b c d Performance information in the archive of the Munich Biennale , accessed on October 23, 2017.
- ↑ a b Myth and Reality or On the Romanian Dimension in Marquez. From a conversation with Violeta Dinescu and Christina Ascher. In: Eréndira. Program of the Hans Otto Theater Potsdam. 1992/1993 season.
- ↑ a b Harenberg opera guide. 4th edition. Meyers Lexikonverlag, 2003, ISBN 3-411-76107-5 , p. 189.
- ^ Ulrich Schreiber : Opera guide for advanced learners. The 20th century III. Eastern and Northern Europe, branch lines on the main route, intercontinental distribution. Bärenreiter, Kassel 2006, ISBN 3-7618-1859-9 , p. 262.
- ↑ Kadja Grönke: Where the terrible of the beautiful begins: On the connection between violence, horror, power and creativity in the work of Violeta Dinescu. In: Hermes A. Kick, Theo Sundermeier (Ed.): Violence and power in psychotherapy, society and art. LIT Verlag, Münster 2014, ISBN 978-3-643-12549-1 , pp. 159–161 ( limited preview in Google book search).
- ↑ a b Claus Spahn : The Wind of Unluckiness - Violeta Dinescu's opera "Eréndira" premiered in Stuttgart. In: Die Zeit , March 27, 1992, accessed October 23, 2017.
- ↑ Eréndira (1991). Work information from the Ricordi publishing house , accessed on October 23, 2017.
- ↑ Eréndira. Program of the Hans Otto Theater Potsdam. 1992/1993 season.
- ↑ Jörg Loskill: The third and last chapter “Days of the New Music Theater” in NRW. In: Opernwelt from September 1993, p. 5.
- ^ Austrian Federal Theater Association - report 1993/94 (PDF), p. 140 on parlament.gv.at, accessed on October 28, 2017.
- ↑ The composer Violeta Dinescu - Uni Oldenburg (PDF) , accessed on October 28, 2017.
- ↑ Contemporary music theater on the website of the director Mascha Pörzgen, accessed on October 28, 2017.
- ↑ Ute Schalz-Laurenze: From the desert to the sea. In: taz of December 5, 2002, accessed on October 28, 2017.