Television opera

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The television opera is a complex stage work with dramatic poetry, music and more as a total work of art that is created especially for television broadcasting or as a version of a stage opera. In a broader sense, it also includes television broadcasts of stage operas.

The television opera belongs as a genre to the operas and the music theater and is also subject to their rules, specifications, elements and classification. The production for television differs at best from the production for an opera house . A television version needs to be directed specially, as it is a medial communication, i. H. special conditions must be observed. A television opera can be broadcast live or as a recording to the viewer. Critics criticize the technical limitation and the associated reduction of the perceptible as a keyhole character. On the other hand, the large distribution volume can be named as an advantage. The premiere of “ Traviata ” 2005 in Salzburg, strictly speaking 'just' a television broadcast of a stage opera, reached around 949,000 viewers via the ORF broadcaster.

The one-act opera Amahl and the nocturnal visitors by composer Gian Carlo Menotti , which was first broadcast on the US television network NBC on December 24, 1951, is regarded as the first opera developed directly for television . In the following years NBC showed other television operas a. a. by Bohuslav Martinů ( The Marriage , February 7, 1953), Lukas Foss ( Griffelkin , November 6, 1955), Norman Dello Joio ( The Trial at Rouen , April 8, 1956), Leonard Kastle ( The Swing , June 11, 1956) and Stanley Hollingsworth ( La Grande Bretèche , February 10, 1957).

The competing television network CBS followed suit in the late 1950s with a composition commission to Ezra Laderman ( Sarah , November 29, 1959). The collaboration with Laderman was continued in later years, CBS broadcast Laderman's three other television operas until 1973 ( The Trials of Galileo , And David Wept , The Questions of Abraham ), some of which were closely related to the genre of the oratorio . The collaboration with Igor Stravinsky , whose work The Flood was first broadcast on June 14, 1962 , also became significant . CBS also worked with Gian Carlo Menotti for the new genre of television opera , although his work Martin's Lie, broadcast on May 30, 1965, had already had a stage premiere at the Bath International Music Festival the year before.

In the UK , the BBC began contracting television operas in the mid-1950s. B. to Arthur Benjamin ( Mañana , February 1, 1956), Malcolm Arnold ( The Open Window , December 14, 1956), Arthur Bliss ( Tobias and the Angel , May 19, 1960), Phyllis Tate ( Dark Pilgrimage , July 5 1962) and Carl Davis ( The Arrangement , May 30, 1965). Benjamin Britten's composition Owen Wingrave , which premiered on May 16, 1971, was a milestone .

After interest in the genre had waned in the 1970s, Channel Four launched a sensational project in the early 1990s in which a total of six new operas were commissioned for television, namely by Orlando Gough ( The Empress , January 30, 1994 ), Anthony Moore ( Camera , February 6, 994), Stewart Copeland ( Horse Opera , March 13, 1994), Michael Torke ( King of Hearts , February 26, 1995), Gerald Barry ( The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit , 5. March 1995) and Kate and Mike Westbrook ( Good Friday, 1663 , March 12, 1995).

In German-speaking countries, interest in television operas began in the mid-1950s, after Menottis Amahl and the nocturnal visitors were also shown on NWDR television in January 1953 in a production on the Dutch station KRO . The first television opera in German is probably Winfried Zillig's composition Die Bauernpassion , which was broadcast on German television in 1955 as a production by Bavarian Radio . In Austria this role is played by Paul Angerer's composition Passport Control (ORF, June 8, 1958), in Switzerland by Heinrich Sutermeister's Seraphine or the silent pharmacist (DRS, June 10, 1959).

In other European countries, too, the genre of television opera began at the latest by the end of the 1950s, until 1960, for example, in Yugoslavia ( Ivo Lhotka-Kalinski : Putovanje , 1957), Belgium (David van de Woestijne: Débat de Folie et d'Amour , 1959), the Netherlands ( Henk Badings : Salto Mortale , June 19, 1959 / Jurriaan Andriessen : Kalchas , June 28, 1959), France ( Pierre Wissmer : Léonidas , September 12, 1958), Italy ( Renzo Rossellini : Le Campane , May 19, 1959), Denmark ( Svend S. Schultz : Marionetterne , December 2, 1959) and Japan (Shimisu Osamu: Shûzenji monogatari , 1959) operas specially conceived for the medium of television hit the television screens.

Since the 1950s, television opera has primarily been seen as an experimental form. Due to technical developments, television operas were initially received primarily in black and white .

literature

  • Helga Bertz-Dostal : Opera on TV. Basic research as part of the research program of the Institute for Theater Studies at the University of Vienna. 2 volumes. Minor Verlag, Vienna 1970–1971.
  • Peter Csobádi, Gernot Gruber , Jürgen Kühnel, Ulrich Müller, Oswald Panagl, Franz Viktor Spechtler (eds.): The music theater in the audiovisual media. "... Acts of music that have become apparent". Lectures and discussions of the Salzburg Symposium 1999. Müller-Speiser, Anif / Salzburg 2001, ISBN 3-85145-074-4 ( Word and Music 48).
  • Bettina Fellinger: Opera on TV. The opera adaptations by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle . Hamburg 1987, (Master's thesis from the University of Hamburg, 1988).
  • Istituto di Ricerca per il Teatro Musicale (Ed.): Opera e televisione. Un problema di linguaggi. (Roma, 27-30 October 1993). Istituto di Ricerca per il Teatro Musicale, Rome 1997, ISBN 88-86704-25-9 ( Quaderni dell'IRTE.M. 20).
  • Jürgen Kühnel: Mimesis and Diegesis - Scenic representation and cinematic narration on the aesthetics of opera in film and television. In: Peter Csobádi et al. (Hrsg.): The music theater in the audiovisual media. "... Acts of music that have become apparent". Lectures and discussions at the Salzburg Symposium 1999. Müller-Speiser, Anif / Salzburg 2001, ISBN 3-85145-074-4 , pp. 60–79 ( word and music 48).
  • Jürgen Kühnel: Opera on TV. In: Inga Lemke (Ed.): Theater stage - television pictures. Speech, music and dance theater in and for television. Müller-Speiser, Anif / Salzburg 1998, ISBN 3-85145-047-7 , pp. 159-188 ( word and music 37).
  • Bernd Riede : Preparing for the Abitur, musical history of the 20th century. Manz, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-7863-4402-7 , p. 150 ( Manz learning aids ).
  • Johannes Schmidt-Sistermanns: Opera direction on television. Media-specific direction concepts for the visualization of opera on television. Association of Scientific Societies in Austria (VWGÖ), Vienna 1991, ISBN 3-85369-832-8 (also: Osnabrück, Univ., Diss., 1989).
  • Sigrid Wiesmann: Fra Diavolo in film and television. In: Milan Pospísil (ed.): Le rayonnement de l'opéra-comique en Europe au XIXe siècle. Actes du Colloque International de Musicologie tenu à Prague 12-14 May 1999. KLP - Koniasch Latin Press, Prague 2003, ISBN 80-8591765-3 , pp. 157-164.
  • Sigrid Wiesmann: Opera on TV - aesthetic and dramaturgical problems. Typescript (in the estate of Sigrid Wiesmann in the Vienna library in the town hall , manuscript collection ZPH 1229, see directory (PDF; 263 kB) , p. 7).

Web links

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jennifer Barnes: Television Opera: The Fall of Opera Commissioned for Television , Woodbrige 2003, p. 103.
  2. ↑ Ibid.
  3. ↑ Ibid., P. 104
  4. ↑ Ibid., P. 104
  5. ^ Helga Bertz-Dostal: Opera on TV Volume 1, Vienna 1971, pp. 130f.
  6. ^ Helga Bertz-Dostal: Opera on TV Volume 2, Vienna 1971, p. 659
  7. ^ Helga Bertz-Dostal: Opera on TV Volume 2, Vienna 1971, p. 659
  8. ^ Helga Bertz-Dostal: Opera on TV Volume 2, Vienna 1971, p. 659
  9. ^ Helga Bertz-Dostal: Opera on TV Volume 2, Vienna 1971, p. 656
  10. ^ Helga Bertz-Dostal: Opera on TV Volume 2, Vienna 1971. P. 659
  11. ^ Helga Bertz-Dostal: Opera on TV Volume 2, Vienna 1971, p. 660
  12. ^ Helga Bertz-Dostal: Opera on TV Volume 2, Vienna 1971, p. 659