Gilgamesh (oratorio)

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The Gilgamesh oratorio . Oratorio music drama was set to music in 1956 by the Viennese academy professor Alfred Uhl and premiered in 1957 in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein .

The oratorio is based on the Sumerian Epic Gilgamesh , the first version of which dates from around 2900 BC. BC originated. It describes the life and philosophy of the legendary god-king Gilgamesh , who is also credited with building the first city wall of Uruk .

The strongly dramatic musical epic paints the heroic deeds of the king and his friend, the beastman Enkidu, with a powerful voice. a. the fights with the dragon Chumbaba and the heavenly bull , the death of Enkidus decided by the gods and Gilgamesh's mourning for him. The question of death and the meaning of life leads the king, after many errors, into the underworld , which he reaches in days through a pitch-dark corridor - up to the redeeming encounter with Utnapishtim, the biblical Noah .

First performance in 1957 at the Wiener Musikverein

Uhl composed the work for large orchestra and organ, 6 to 8 soloists, speakers, mixed choir and boys' choir . At the world premiere under Michael Gielen and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra , the Singverein of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna and the Mozart Boys' Choir sang . The Gilgamesh was given by Paul Schöffler (bass), his friend Enkidu Robert Charlebois (bass), the goddess Ischtar Hannelore Backrass (soprano), the ferryman in the underworld Julius Patzak (tenor), the Utnapishtim (Noah) Frederick Guthrie and the speaker Fred Hennings . Also worked with Lotte Rysanek (soprano), Kurt Equiluz (tenor) and on the organ Josef Nebois .

For Alfred Uhl, the Gilgamesh epic - one of the world's oldest poems - was particularly stimulating because it contains many primordial myths of humanity, such as a Babylonian account of the Flood and the question of the ultimate things . In an interview on the occasion of the premiere in 1957 he admitted: “The poetic substance of the accusation fascinated me. The subject matter, which poses the eternal questions of mankind about the meaning of life and death in a most exciting way, is so dramatic that it almost turns into an opera from it. I wrote this opera for the concert hall. "

Uhl spent two and a half years on the setting. Eight versions were made before the final final shape was achieved in 1968. And from here came (according to Uhl) “the platform for another, large, contradicting work of its own accord: a ballet opera that has already been conceived to the end. It bears the title 'Katzenmusik' ... "

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