Glasnost (musical)
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| Original title: | Glasnost |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Fritz Metz |
| Book: | Werner Wiegand |
| Lyrics: | Werner Wiegand |
| Original direction: | Hans Todt |
| Premiere: | June 17, 1995 |
| Place of premiere: | Weinheim |
| Playing time: | 102 minutes |
| Place and time of the action: | A restaurant in West Germany , modern times ( 1985 ) |
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Glasnost is a musical by Fritz Metz (music), Werner Wiegand (text and screenplay) and Hans Todt (direction) in four acts.
It tells the hopes and longings of Russian exiles in Germany around 1985, when Mikhail Gorbachev came to power as General Secretary of the CPSU . The terms glasnost and perestroika stood for the dawn of a new age and aroused hope for a better life.
A generation conflict is woven in: the children or grandchildren of the protagonists are around 20 years old and are more attached to socialist ideas, which the parents or Grandparents are particularly bitter about their experiences.
The good news from Russia led to an upturn in sentiment, and the desire to return was awakened. The resulting optimistic mood is suddenly ended by reports of unrest in the old homeland. The hopes for a lasting peace have not been fulfilled.
From 1995 onwards, the musical was performed mostly with amateur actors in front of over 12,000 spectators in Weinheim and Moscow .
action
first act
The Hungarian exile and pub owner Ferenc and his daughter Ilona find one of their regulars, the Russian émigré Ivan, sleeping in the pub early in the morning. Ferenc goes to the market to go shopping and Ilona, who wants to clean up, wakes Ivan. Ivan tells her about his dream, the dream of peace. Ferenc, who has meanwhile returned, wishes Iwan that his dream may soon come true and that he and his friends can return to his homeland. But Ilona contradicts and says that as long as the capitalists are at the helm, there can be no real peace.
Suddenly there is noise in the pub, which is getting louder and louder. Another regular guest, Fedja, a former Volga boatman and also an emigrant, storms excitedly into the pub and reports on a group of young people, “left-wing chaos”, who demonstrate and do not stop at violence and destruction. Fedja's grandson Gregor, who has joined the group, comes to pick up Ilona, who is also committed to the scene.
Ferenc tries to appease Fedja, who is indignant about his grandson's activities, by saying that young people should not be taken seriously, in a few years' time, when they have to live on their self-earned money, they will all be good citizens . Fedja is thoughtful when Ferenc sings about the ideal world and the beautiful hours to be counted.
Ilona and Gregor arm themselves with a mask and baton to join the left chaotic, but stay in the room when Ivan begins to talk about the good old days and his childhood friend, the Harlequin. The harlequin appears and tells circus stories, supported by a group of children who sing and dance with him.
Second act
Ivan wakes up at the table in the bar. It turns out that he only dreamed of the harlequin, the children and the homeland. Suddenly five young people rush into the pub to pick up Ilona and Gregor. There is an argument between Iwan and Olli, one of the chaos, when Iwan makes fun of the young people. Shortly before there were fights, Ilona intervened, but the atmosphere remained very tense. The slobs believe that the capitalists have to be taught a lesson, that the time of the little man will come and that the cop has to be hit on the nose. After the song “Bulle, Bulle” the chaos leave the pub with Ilona. Gregor, although in love with Ilona, remains hesitant and thoughtful and expresses his doubts in the song “Zwei Herzen”.
In the meantime, the minds have calmed down and Fedja remembers his homeland and sings about his youth, when he spent the nights on the banks of the Volga with the Cossacks resting there. In a second song he expresses his longing for his beloved river, the Volga.
Third act
Ferenc is listening to a csárdás on an old gramophone when Iwan and Fedja join in, who have watched the demonstration of the left chaos from afar. Ivan still fears a lot of trouble from the young people, but Ferenc doesn't want to hear about it and prefers to talk about his homeland, old Szegedin. While he sings the song "Szegediner Nights", a gypsy band and a group of festively dressed young women dance a csárdás.
But that too was only a dream from which Ferenc, sitting at the table with Fedja and Ivan, wakes up.
Suddenly Ilona rushes into the bar together with her masked friends. The young people immediately go into hiding as they are being followed by the police. The policemen want to know where Ilona and her friends are, ask emphatically and threaten the three old people, but Ferenc, Fedja and Ivan do not betray the young people. The policemen leave and the chaos reappear. Another argument breaks out when Fedja says that they hadn't betrayed the chaos just for Ferenc's sake and that the police officers could happily knock in their heads, which Olli calls Fedja “old capitalist pig”. Ivan interferes and says they are good and honorable citizens, whereupon one of the angry people doubts that Ivan knows the difference between a capitalist and a pig. Ilona then replies that there is no difference at all, to which Dirk, one of her friends, says that there is. In the following song the chaos sing about the capitalists and the pigs, who both mess up and only differ in the number of their legs.
Fedja contradicts this comparison and insists on Solzhenitsyn's work “ The Gulag Archipelago ”, where those who think differently are banned and sentenced to forced labor.
The song "Hunters and Inquisitors", which he performed with great excitement, leads into a scene in which prisoners in a Russian labor camp beat stones and carry them away. While they keep repeating the same sentences about the hard work and their miserable existence - getting louder and louder - they are watched by guards who abuse the prisoners and finally shoot some of them.
After this shocking performance, Ferenc, Iwan, Ilona and their friends return to reality, disturbed and awakening as if from a bad dream. The angry people leave the pub, thoughtfully, only Ilona remains with Gregor, Ferenc, Iwan and Fedja.
Ilona asks Gregor's forgiveness, she hadn't imagined it that way. With the song “It's not too late”, the two regret that they surrounded each other with the wrong friends. They are glad that fate put them back on the right track and brought them both together in love.
Fourth act
Fedja, Iwan and Ferenc are happy about their happiness, and Iwan thinks wistfully of his family back home. With the song "Russia" he expresses his sadness about the state of his country. Through a phone call from his friend Igor, Iwan learns of serious changes in his home country. A new general secretary had come to power and he had promised all people glasnost and perestroika. Igor and other friends, all of them exiled Russians, storm into the pub beaming with joy and happiness, only Fedja remains skeptical despite the good news about Russia. He doesn't think things will change for the better there. The friends disagree and tell him about the positive developments, so that Fedja can also ultimately change his mind. Everyone is beside themselves with joy and envisions their return home in the warmest of tones. News of unrest and outbreaks of violence in Russia suddenly burst into the spontaneous celebration. Iwan, shaken and broken, sees his dream of peace and a good life at home fading into the distant future.
Project history
Emergence
Werner Wiegand, property developer from Weinheim, traveled through the Soviet Union as a tourist in the mid-1970s . The changes that Mikhail Gorbachev had initiated met with great interest and inspired him to write several lyrics on the subject of Russia. Fritz Metz, musician and music dealer from Weinheim, who has also composed since his youth, has been writing songs with Werner Wiegand since 1985.
In 1994 the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Education launched the pilot project “School Music on Saturdays”. When a project failed, Volker Schneider (choir director and rector of various schools) was asked whether he might have a replacement. Volker Schneider then contacted Werner Wiegand and Fritz Metz.
Werner Wiegand and Fritz Metz had individual songs and an idea at this point, but no finished musical. Volker Schneider received several suggestions: "Glasnost", "Weltreise", "Beloved Weinheim", "Weinheimer Kultursommer". He decided on the musical Glasnost, which was to be brought to the stage as part of the “School - Association” cooperation with choirs and students. It still took a lot of persuasion from Volker Schneider, especially in schools, in order to dispel reservations about the project.
production
From the beginning of the rehearsals on February 8, 1995 to the general rehearsal on June 16, 1995, 38 rehearsals took place under the direction of Hans Todt, mostly in a no longer used and now demolished factory building of the Freudenberg company in Weinheim. All rehearsals were musically accompanied by Fritz Metz; individual rehearsals with the soloists also took place in the composer's living room. The ensemble and orchestra only had three rehearsals together.
Musician:
- Marianne Freiburg (mezzo-soprano): won the 1990 award at “ Jugend musiziert ”, is a trained opera singer
- Helmut Schmiedel (baritone): is a trained concert and opera singer.
- Rolf Krämer (bass): was already active as a soloist in several choral societies in the region before glasnost.
- Martin Grieb (baritone): was already active as a baritone soloist in several Weinheim choral societies before Glasnost.
- Ulrich Maus (bass): sang even before Glasnost with MGV Liederkranz Altenbach and the Weinheimer Blütensänger
- Oxana Schmiedel: is a trained concert pianist
Orchestra of the Badische Bergstrasse Music School (conductor Hansjörg Korward)
1st Weinheim Mandolin Orchestra
Theater group of the MGV Sängerbund 1873 eV Großsachsen
School choir of the Rippenweier elementary school
Singer of the associations MGV 1850 Hohensachsen and MGV 1955 Weinheim
Youth choir "Young Rhythm Singers" of the Weinheim group
Project management: Volker Schneider and Philipp Otto
Director: Hans Todt
Choreography: Iris Ohrband and the dancers of the ballet studio Ohrband, Weinheim.
Stage design: Dieter Korsch set up an adult education course especially for the creation of the stage designs; the stage designs were made by the participants in a disused tobacco factory in Greater Saxony.
Props: Margarete Schneider. Most of the props were made in projects in the youth center, the "Schülerhilfe Weinheim" and various schools in Weinheim.
Costumes: Renate Scheffer
Mask: Günther Fath
Stage manager: Joachim Goedelmann
Prompter: Uli Schilling
The musical had a total of 200 performers between the ages of 5 and 70.
The public relations work was actively supported by the editor and publisher of the “ Weinheimer Nachrichten ” Heiner Diesbach and his wife Inge Diesbach. a. the program booklet available.
The entire project became a model of exemplary cooperation between clubs and schools.
The content of the musical, the German-Russian contacts and the student exchange give a good impression of the mood in Europe at the end of the Cold War .
successes
In 1996 the musical won the main prize of the Baden-Wuerttemberg State's “Municipal Citizens' Actions” competition in the amount of DM 5,000 . It was selected from 346 participating citizens' actions.
Lyricist Werner Wiegand, composer Fritz Metz, director Hans Todt and project manager Volker Schneider were honored in 1998 with the golden Schubert plaque from the Weinheim singers' circle.
Performances
Weinheim
The musical premiered on Saturday, June 17, 1995 in the Weinheim town hall.
Due to the good contacts of the school authority director Kuno Schnader to Russia, these guests of honor traveled from Moscow to the premiere:
- WG Kulikow , Marshal of the Soviet Union, last commander in chief of the Warsaw Pact troops, chairman of the coordination committee of the social project "Russia and Germany in the new Europe" and honorary chairman of the social association "Children in Moscow"
- Sergej Kolobkow, Rector of the Russian Academy of Music (Gnessin Institute) , Moscow
- Alexej Nasarewski, President of the Association "Children of Moscow"
- W. Schikorin, Colonel and N. Plyssuek, Colonel
The musical was performed 17 more times in Weinheim between 1995 and 2018.
Moscow
At the invitation of Marshal Kulikow, on 20./21. On March 22nd, 1996 three performances were held at the Moscow Music Academy.
A total of 301 people traveled to Moscow by plane. The props were sent ahead by truck. The transport to Moscow succeeded without any problems. However, before they could be used on stage, some unexpected difficulties had to be overcome.
Marshal Kulikov and Archbishop Patriarch Sergij Solnschnogorsky were again present at the performances in Moscow.
The Moscow trip was self-financed. In addition to the travel expenses of the participants, the profits from the three performances in Weinheim in March 1996 were used, sponsors added the amount.
Reshuffles
The musical was played with the same line-up for the entire season.
From 1999 Marianne Freiburg (Ilona) was no longer available for the role of Ilona because she had other engagements. Bettina Endrich took on her role.
Karl Winkler took over the role of Gregorij in 1996 (previously Markus Kohl).
Track list
first act
- overture
- Ivan, wake up
- The dream of peace
- Perfect world
- My friend the harlequin
- Circus stories
Second act
- Cop, cop
- Two hearts
- Cossack song
- Songs of the Volga
Third act
- Szeged nights
- Capitalists and pigs
- Hunters and informers
- Work work
- It's not too late yet
Fourth act
- Russia
- Glasnost, perestroika
- Home, we'll be back
- The dream of peace
Charitable
9,000 DM were donated to Russia from the proceeds of the musical.
Kuno Schnader, school authority director and chairman of the “Children and Youth Welfare Russia”, supported the trip to Russia and made it possible with his extensive contacts in Russia. Its activities also included a German-Russian school exchange, drug donations, humanitarian and medical aid worth around 1.15 million euros.
Gleanings
The musical influenced the life of many participants: Several marriages were concluded within the ensemble.
As a result of Glasnost, the Weinheim “Theater and Film Association Holzwurm” was founded, in which former Glasnost Ensemble members are also active.
The genesis of the musical and its effect on the cooperation between schools and associations and German-Russian cooperation in the field of school funding was the subject of a workshop at the advanced training event “Schule heute” organized by the Heidelberg, Mannheim and Mosbach school authorities.
media
Book: Werner Wiegand: Flashback: Project Chronicle from 1994 to 2018 . Self-published, March 2018 (136 pages) (Weinheim City Archive: Signature Bibl. 4783)
CD : Successful musical Glasnost (Weinheim City Archives: Rep. 41; No. 191)
VHS video cassette : Musical Glasnost (with documentation) . Heck Media Group.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Werner Wiegand: Flashback: Project chronicle from 1994 to 2018 . Self-published, March 2018 (136 pages).
- ^ Farewell to "Glasnost" . In: Badische Sängerzeitung . November 1998, ISSN 1612-0345 , p. 8 .
- ↑ a b c Jutta Schmitz-Rixen: Europe co-shaping, vol. 3, schools with a European profile, European week 1997 . Ed .: Ministry for Culture, Youth and Sport Baden-Württemberg. Omnia Verlag, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-89344-039-9 , p. 107 ff .
- ^ "Glasnost" - a musical as an overarching choral project . In: Badische Sängerzeitung . April 1995, ISSN 1612-0345 , p. 17 .
- ↑ "Not forbid, but at least critically appreciate" . In: Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung . June 9, 1995, p. 4 .
- ↑ " Watch the piece and form your own opinion" . In: Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung . June 14, 1995, p. 4 .
- ↑ Ideal trial conditions in an old vehicle fleet . In: Weinheimer Nachrichten . March 29, 1995, p. 6 .
- ↑ The viewers are still only painted on . In: Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung . March 29, 1995, p. 4 .
- ↑ Dream backdrops from tobacco factory . In: Weinheimer Nachrichten . May 18, 1995, p. 6 .
- ^ Sängerkreis Weinheim (ed.): Glasnost - Musical in four acts . Program booklet. Druckhaus Diesbach, Weinheim June 1995 (Stadtarchiv Weinheim Rep. 36, No. 1131).
- ^ World premiere of the musical "Glasnost" in Weinheim . In: Badische Sängerzeitung . July 1995, ISSN 1612-0345 , p. 8 .
- ↑ Award for "Glasnost" . In: Weinheimer Nachrichten . December 13, 1995, p. 4 .
- ↑ a b That was a real adventure. In: Mannheimer Morgen . February 15, 2015, accessed May 21, 2018 .
- ↑ All's well that ends well . In: Weinheimer Nachrichten . June 24, 1998, p. 4 .
- ↑ The Muscovites were delighted . In: Mannheimer Morgen . March 27, 1996, p. 27 .
- ↑ Behind the scenes . In: Weinheimer Nachrichten . March 26, 1996, p. 4 .
- ↑ Nicoline Pilz: Posters are eye-catchers in “Manfred's Museum”. In: https://www.rnz.de/ . Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung , February 15, 2018, accessed on May 21, 2018 .
- ↑ Recognition for "Glasnost" . In: Weinheimer Nachrichten . December 21, 1996, p. 5 .
- ↑ With the financing on the home stretch . In: Weinheimer Nachrichten . April 22, 1997, p. 4 .
- ↑ Your goal is the opera . In: Weinheimer Nachrichten . June 17, 2005, p. 11 .
- ↑ Performance planned in Moscow . In: Weinheimer Nachrichten . July 20, 1995, p. 4 .
- ↑ His commitment to the "Glasnost" musical was unparalleled . In: Weinheimer Nachrichten . December 3, 2008, p. 10 .
- ↑ The initial spark was a performance in Moscow . In: Weinheimer Nachrichten . May 10, 1997, p. 5 .
- ↑ Comedy 1997 - Aphrodite's Room. In: http://www.holzwurm-ev.de/ . October 13, 1997, accessed May 21, 2018 .
- ↑ The successful musical “Glasnost” as a workshop topic . In: Weinheimer Nachrichten . January 27, 1997, p. 4 .