Genoveva (opera)
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| Title: | Genoveva |
| Shape: | Opera in four acts |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Robert Schumann |
| Libretto : | Robert Reinick and Robert Schumann |
| Premiere: | June 25, 1850 |
| Place of premiere: | City Theater Leipzig |
| Playing time: | approx. 2 ¼ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Strasbourg , around 730 |
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Genoveva op. 81 is the only opera by Robert Schumann , who composed both the music and wrote the text between April 1847 and August 1848. It was premiered on June 25, 1850 in the Leipzig City Theater under the direction of the composer .
The four-act opera of steadfast love belongs to German romanticism . The very negative criticism in the press was probably the main reason why Schumann did not write any more operas. Even today the opera is not very popular despite its popular composer, but is still performed over and over again. The model for the plot is the medieval French saga of Genoveva of Brabant . In the 18th century, its history was one of the best-known folk fabrics alongside those of Faust and Don Juan .
action
The opera is set in Strasbourg around 730 . Genoveva is the wife of Count Palatine Siegfried, who goes out with his warriors to fight the Moors . That is why he uses Golo as guardian of his wife and administrator of his castle. But Golo, who is in love with Genoveva, would have preferred to go to war with him.
In the first act, Countess Genoveva says goodbye to her husband to go to war and faints in the pain of her parting. Golo takes advantage of this to kiss her. The greedy nurse Margaretha watches him. Since Siegfried had previously chased her away because of her witchcraft , she seeks revenge and lets Golo believe that Genoveva feels something for him.
In the second act, Golo Genoveva brings the news of her husband's victory. He confesses his kiss to her. Injured when Genoveva indignantly rejects his advances and only thinks of her husband, Golo swears revenge. He started a rumor that Genoveva had a relationship with the chaplain. Together with Margaretha he lures the court master Drago with the pretext that he should take care of Genoveva there, into their apartments, where he is "discovered" and accused by Margaretha of having a relationship with Genoveva, whereupon the servant Balthasar stabs him and because of Genoveva Adultery is thrown into the tower.
In the third act Siegfried, injured in battle, is in Strasbourg, where Margaretha wants to poison him. After she has taken care of him there, he wants to go home, but receives from Golo the news of Genoveva's alleged infidelity. Siegfried believes him and condemns Genoveva. Margaretha shows him in her magic mirror a mirage of the licentiousness of his wife, whereupon he confirms the death sentence. Drago's ghost appears to Margaretha and threatens her with the stake if she doesn't tell the truth.
In the fourth and last act, Genoveva is led into the forest, where Golo wants to execute her with Siegfried's sword. Genoveva submits to the judgment of her still beloved husband, but continues to protest her innocence. Golo tries to take advantage of her plight and wants to flee with her if she chooses him. Genoveva chases Golo away and would rather die. Siegfried, to whom Margaretha confessed the truth, rushes over and saves his wife at the last moment. He asks her forgiveness for the injustice he has done her, and Genoveva forgives him. The two are married a second time by the bishop.
Emergence
First Schumann had chosen his friend, Robert Reinick , a poet and painter without any stage experience, as a librettist , who provided a text based on Ludwig Tieck's Life and Death of Saint Genoveva from 1799, which Schumann was too lyrical. Since there was no agreement on the text, Schumann wrote his own text, in which he took over parts of the original wording of the tragedy Genoveva by Friedrich Hebbel , published in 1843 . From Reinick's original version only around 200 verses remained. Nevertheless, Schumann's version is independent and differs in terms of content from the original templates. B. in the happy ending . The first Genoveva was the singer Marianne Lüdeke .
orchestra
The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:
- Woodwinds : flute piccolo , two flutes , two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons
- Brass : four horns , two trumpets , three trombones , tuba
- Timpani , hoopla
- Strings
- Incidental music : two piccolo flutes, two clarinets, four (or more) horns, four trumpets, three trombones (ad lib.), Bass trombone
literature
- Eduard Hanslick : Robert Schumann as an opera composer , in: ders., The modern opera. Reviews and studies , Berlin 1892, pp. 256-273 ( digitized version )
- Hermann Abert : Robert Schumann's "Genoveva". In: Journal of the International Music Society. Vol. 11 (1909/10), pp. 277-289.
- Gerd Nauhaus : Genoveva - and no end. Impressions from an "unplayable" opera. In: Festschrift for Beatrix Borchard . Cologne 2010, pp. 95-105 ( limited preview in the Google book search)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Egon Voss : Genoveva. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater . Volume 5: Works. Piccinni - Spontini. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1994, ISBN 3-492-02415-7 , pp. 674-678.