Peace day (opera)
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Peace day |
Hans Hotter , Richard Strauss and Viorica Ursuleac , |
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| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Richard Strauss |
| Libretto : | Joseph Gregor |
| Premiere: | July 24, 1938 |
| Place of premiere: | Munich National Theater |
| Playing time: | about 80 minutes |
| Place and time of the action: | Citadel of a besieged city; October 24, 1648 |
| people | |
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Peace Day - Opera in One Act (Opus 81, TrV 271) is the 12th opera by the composer Richard Strauss . The textbook was written by Joseph Gregor . The first performance took place on July 24, 1938 in the Munich National Theater.
action
Place and time: In the citadel of a besieged city, October 24, 1648
Stage: Round hall in the citadel, the walls partially repaired poorly, loopholes in the walls.
In a city at the end of the Thirty Years War. Soldiers who only know war. Isolated calls for peace fade away. The starving population begins to revolt. But the citadel commander who has been asked to surrender does not want to give up. He announces the surrender of the city to the people, but wants to blow up the fortress first. He advises the soldiers to flee, some stay with him. His wife Maria would rather die with him than flee. When everyone anticipates the citadel to explode, bells ring. The Peace of Munster was concluded. The people open the city to the enemy, only the commander believes in a ruse and wants to continue the fight. Maria is able to stop him, finally he throws away his weapons and hugs the commander of the opposing troops to the cheers of the citizens.
history
The idea for the opera Peace Day goes back to the Spanish poet Pedro Calderón de la Barca and his drama The Capitulation of Breda . Strauss read about the play in the world history of the theater by the theater historian Joseph Gregor, whom he valued, and he also knew the painting The Surrender of Breda by Velázquez . His librettist at the time, Stefan Zweig , made a draft named 1648 at Strauss' request in 1934 . While Zweig wrote a parable on the political situation in the III. Reich envisioned, the pragmatist Strauss tried to bring “operatic” elements into the plot. Work on the piece was interrupted by Zweig's emigration. Zweig himself suggested that the opera book be carried out by the aforementioned Joseph Gregor. Strauss accepted the suggestion, but the poorly harmonious collaboration between the composer, Gregor and the branch, which was occasionally referred to in letters as a "mediator", resulted in a text that did not inspire the composer. The opera was completed in 1936, and Strauss dedicated the score to the conductor Clemens Krauss and his wife, the soprano Viorica Ursuleac .
Originally, the composer planned to premiere the almost simultaneously composed operas Peace Day and Daphne in one evening - Strauss appreciated the alternation between the tragic and the cheerful, also in the themes of his compositions. However, Peace Day was brought forward at short notice. On July 24, 1938, Clemens Krauss conducted the premiere in the Munich National Theater. The mixture of unconditional willingness to make sacrifices and a deep desire for peace that echoes in the opera was politically exploited by the National Socialists and determined the reception of the work. The fact that the Jew Stefan Zweig was behind the idea of the work and libretto remained hidden from the Nazis. Performances followed in Dresden (with the premiere of Daphne, here combining the two works in one evening did not make sense), Vienna and Berlin. The opera appeared on the repertoire in over 20 cities in Europe until the theater was closed during the war, but without establishing a permanent place in the repertoire. Even after the war, the opera remained one of the composer's least-played works. Strauss' ambivalent political stance during the time of writing, the cumbersome text and the rather pale composition (of course also due to the subject) prevented the opera from spreading outside of “complete works” or evenings of curiosities.
The cast of the premiere was:
| Lot | Performers |
|---|---|
| Commander of the besieged city | Hans Hotter |
| Maria | Viorica Ursuleac |
| Constable | Georg Hann |
| Sagittarius | Julius Patzak |
| Constant | Georg Wieter |
| musketeer | Karl Schmidt |
| Bugler | Willi Merkert |
| officer | Emil Graf |
| Front officer | Josef Knapp |
| A Piedmontese | Peter Anders |
| The Holsteiner | Ludwig Weber |
| mayor | Karl Ostertag |
| prelate | Franz Theo Reuter |
| Woman from the people | Else Schürhoff |
layout
orchestra
- 3 large flutes (III. Also piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn, 3 clarinets with bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon
- 6 horns, 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, tuba
- Timpani, bass drum, tam-tam, military drums, cymbals, triangle, tambourine
- 16 first violins, 16 second violins, 12 violas, 10 cellos, 8 double basses
- On the stage: organ, bells, signal trumpets
music
Peace Day is more like an oratorio than an opera due to the dominance of the choir scenes. Parallels to Beethoven's Fidelio cannot be ignored; Strauss almost completely adopts the key plan. The music corresponds to the predominant basic tone of the text's hopelessness - one would almost like to call it lackluster, because the wondrously happy ending also sounds rather conventional. Most of the actors also remain pale. Only the figure of Maria was able to inspire Strauss to create some great melodic scenes, the figure of the young Piedmontese soldier is also a nice idea, who with his Italian song makes the first scene - a dreary dialogue between the soldiers on guard - one of the most successful .
Discography
- GA 1939; Clemens Krauss ; Hotter (commandant), Witt (shooter), Wiedemann (Konstabel), Dermota (Piedmontese), Kamann (Holsteiner), Ursuleac (Maria); Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera (Schwann)
- GA 1989 (live); Robert Bass; Roloff, Shirley, Wittges, Broitman, Cook, Marc; Collegiate Orcheatra (cook)
- GA 1989; Wolfgang Sawallisch ; Weikl, Vacik, Rootering, Villa, Moll, Hass; Orchestra of the Bavarian. Broadcasting (EMI)
- GA 1999; Giuseppe Sinopoli ; Dohmen, Voigt, Reiter, Kupfer, Martinsen, Jun; Staatskapelle Dresden (DG 2001; brilliant)
literature
- Constantin Grun: Richard Strauss and Karl Amadeus Hartmann - two people from Munich between war and peace. In: Die Musikforschung, Volume 62, Issue 3, Kassel 2009, ISSN 0027-4801, pp. 251–261.
- Mathias Lehmann: The Thirty Years War in Music Theater during the Nazi Era : Investigations into political aspects of music using the example of Karl Amadeus Hartmann's “ Des Simplicius Simplicissimus Jugend ”, Ludwig Maurick's “Simplicius Simplicissimus”, Richard Mohaupt's “The crooks of Courasche”, Eberhard Wolfgang Möllers and Hans Joachim Sobanski's “The Frankenburger Würfelspiel” and Joseph Gregors and Richard Strauss ' “Peace Day ”. Hamburg 2004.
- Peter Petersen : "Peace Day" by Stefan Zweig, Richard Strauss and Joseph Gregor. A pacifist opera in the “Third Reich” (= Music and Dictatorship Vol. 2, Ed. Friedrich Geiger). Waxmann, Münster 2017.
- Ulrich Schreiber : Opera guide for advanced, volume 3. 1st edition. Bärenreiter-Verlag, Kassel 2000, ISBN 3-7618-1436-4 .
- Kurt Wilhelm : Richard Strauss personally . 1st edition. Henschel, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-89487-326-4 .
Web links
- Peace Day, Op.81 : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Plot and libretto from Peace Day (opera) on Opera-Guide landing page due to URL change currently not available
- Discography on Peace Day at Operadis
Individual evidence
- ↑ Peter Petersen: "'Peace Day' by Stefan Zweig, Richard Strauss and Joseph Gregor. A pacifist opera in the 'Third Reich'." Waxmann, Münster 2017.
- ↑ Richard Strauss: Peace Day. Opera in one act by Joseph Gregor, op.81 . Study score (= Richard-Strauss-Edition. All stage works), Vienna and Mainz 1996, world premiere / first performance
- ↑ Schreiber, p. 235
Guntram (1894) | Fire distress (1901) | Salome (1905) | Elektra (1909) | Der Rosenkavalier (1911) | Ariadne on Naxos (1912/16) | The woman without a shadow (1919) | Intermezzo (1924) | The Egyptian Helena (1928) | Arabella (1933) | The silent woman (1935) | Peace Day (1938) | Daphne (1938) | The love of Danae (1940) | Capriccio (1942) | The Donkey's Shadow (1949, unfinished)