Bright nights (opera)
| Opera dates | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Bright nights |
| Shape: | Opera |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Moritz Eggert |
| Libretto : | Helmut Krausser |
| Literary source: |
A thousand and one nights , Knut Hamsun : Mysteries |
| Premiere: | 1) April 8, 1997 2) August 26, 2006 |
| Place of premiere: | 1) Prinzregententheater Munich 2) Theater Hagen |
| Playing time: | 1) approx. 2 hours 2) approx. 1 ¾ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Norway and the Orient, fairytale time |
| people | |
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Roles of the original version: prolog
Aziz and Aziza
About the lover who pretended to be a thief
About the goldsmith and the singer
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Helle Nights is an opera by Moritz Eggert (music) with a libretto by Helmut Krausser based on motifs from the Arabian Nights and Knut Hamsun's novel Mysteries . The world premiere took place on April 8, 1997 in the Prinzregententheater in Munich as part of the 5th Munich Biennale . A revised version with a reduced orchestra was premiered on August 26, 2006 in the Hagen Theater. The opera is named “66e-o6-HW” in Eggert's catalog raisonné.
action
The following table of contents is based on the information in Sikorski, Heinz Wagner's Large Handbook of the Opera and the program booklet for the Hagen performance.
prolog
Johann Nagel meets the pastor's daughter Dagny Kjelland and spontaneously falls in love with her. His love is returned. However, since Dagny is already engaged to a captain's lieutenant, she initially behaves cautiously. During a night walk, Johann tells her a dream. There, on a strangely bright night, he met a dwarf and his blind daughter, who led him to a high tower. He asks Dagny, who is deeply impressed by his story, to tell him in return a love story based on the model of the Arabian Nights .
Aziz and Aziza
Aziz and Aziza are promised each other as cousin and cousin. Shortly before the planned wedding, an unknown beauty gives Aziz strange signs at the window, whereupon Aziz falls in love with her. He tells Aziza about the encounter and lets her explain the signs to him. Since Aziza loves him selflessly, she supports his new relationship and also agrees to take sick leave in order to delay the marriage. However, her own heart is broken and she dies.
Johann finds Aziza's story implausible and exaggeratedly sentimental. He believes that no one can intentionally renounce their love. He then tells another story from the Arabian Nights.
About the goldsmith and the singer
While a goldsmith looks at the portrait of a singer, he falls madly in love with the person pictured. After learning from the painter that she lives in the Sultan's Palace in Kashmir, he sets out on a journey there. In front of the city gates he meets a soldier whose job it is to guard witches condemned to starvation in a pit. This gives him the idea of snatching the beloved from the sultan's hands. He breaks into the palace at night, injures the singer in the buttocks and leaves a golden box with her. The following day he goes to the Sultan and claims that he was robbed and robbed by witches. He was able to injure one of them, but she fled to his palace. Since the alleged stolen property is found with the singer, the sultan, like the other witches, condemns her to starvation in the pit. The goldsmith can then easily bribe the guard and flee with the singer.
This time Dagny criticizes the story. She says no one can love someone who forces love through lies and blackmail. She tells another story.
About the lover who pretended to be a thief
A young man was sentenced to lose his right hand after being stolen. On the way to the place of execution, the imam becomes uncertain about the boy's guilt. However, this itself demands a quick execution. He only demands that a certain veiled lady be removed from the audience. At the last moment she pushes her way between the executioner and the convict, reveals herself as Dagny and reveals that the alleged thief is her lover. He only pretended to be a burglar when her brothers caught him with her one night. Since the executioner doesn't believe her, she unmasked the convict: It's Johann. He cheated his way into her story to end the sentimentalism.
epilogue
Dagny is no longer in control of her emotions. To find her calm again, she slaps herself and disappears. The supposed thief and the imam remain confused. You think you have landed in the wrong fairy tale. As they try to find their way back to the Orient, they recall the story of Dagny and Nagel.
layout
According to Eggert, he assigned different soundscapes to the various episodes. That of “Aziz and Aziza” is “rather serious and lyrical”, that of the goldsmith “fast and burlesque”. His dramaturgical model for this was Claude Debussy's unrealized plan for The Downfall of the House of Usher , which was to be followed by a Buffonese one-act act. There are few oriental echoes and only because he had previously dealt with this culture "in order to find new forms of melody". He wanted to tie in with a “certain melodic tradition” of the 20th century by Leoš Janáček or Igor Stravinsky . The melody is "the least used element that music currently has to offer". But he does not want to exclude funds.
orchestra
The orchestral line-up of the first version of the opera contains the following instruments:
- Woodwinds : recorder ( garklein recorder , treble recorder , soprano recorder , treble recorder, tenor recorder , bass recorder), flutes , two clarinets (also bass clarinet ), tenor saxophone , bassoon (also contrabassoon )
- Brass : two trumpets (also piccolo trumpet ), euphonium , trombone , tuba
-
Drums (three players, the instruments marked with an asterisk are played together by I and II):
- I: TPK, Chimes , Güiro , mouth Irene, drum set, bass drum *, big hoopla *, bell, chimes *, vibraphone * birds chirping
- II: TPK, BPk, whip , ratchet , maracas , large crank Irene, Flex, mouth Irene, Cabaza, Conga , four toms , tenor drum , bass drum * * fanfare, glockenspiel * * vibraphone, marimba
- III ( mouth drums ): Triangle , 4 bells, Cymbales antiques, Vibraslap , bamboo pendulum rattle Rainmaker , whistle , jaw drum , mouth Irene, mouth drums, Kazoo , Frog Boys, SMelodika, metal shell with balls, small hump Gong , Waldteufel
- Electric guitar , electric bass
- accordion
- Piano (also harmonium ), MIDI keyboard
- Strings : solo violin , solo viola , solo cello , three violins, three violas, three cellos, three double basses
The revised cast of the second version provides for the following instruments:
- Woodwinds: flute (also piccolo ), two clarinets (also bass clarinet), alto saxophone , bassoon (also contrabassoon)
- Brass: two trumpets (also piccolo trumpet), two trombones (both also tenor trombone, 1 also bass trombone), tuba
- Percussion (two players):
- I: timpani , triangle, chimes, bells, mouth Irene, Whistle, Guero, bongos , tom, Rototom , snare drum, bass drum Cymbles antiques, pool , drum set, hi-hat , tam-tam, bell, chimes, vibraphone, marimba, birdsong , Forest devil
- II: timpani, triangle, ratchet, cabaza, whip, siren, mouth siren, flex, frogcracker, bamboo pendulum rattle, maracas, jaw harp, tom tom, beater drum, bass drum, conga, humpback gong, tam tam, glockenspiel, vibraphone, marimba, metal bowl with balls
- Piano, harmonium, MIDI keyboard (three players)
- Strings (divided up to three times)
Work history
Light Nights is Moritz Eggert's first collaboration with the writer Helmut Krausser . The work is based on three episodes from the Arabian Nights , which were supplemented by a framework plot based on motifs from Knut Hamsun's novel Mysteries . The name of the opera comes from the chapter of the same name in the Mysteries. The composition was written in 1995 and 1996. Eggert completed it on November 16, 1996. It is dedicated to “the dear muse”. The original version requires at least ten solo singers to take on several roles and two actors.
The world premiere took place on April 8, 1997 in the Prinzregententheater in Munich as part of the 5th Munich Biennale . Peter Hirsch directed the Bavarian State Orchestra . The production was done by Tilman Knabe , the stage by Alfred Peter, the costumes by Kathrin Maurer and the lighting design by Michael Bauer . Martina Koppelstetter (Dagny), Wolfgang Wirsching (nail / goldsmith / executioner), Charles Maxwell (Aziz / thief), Anne Salvan (Aziza), Claes-Håkan Ahnsjö (father / sultan), Päivi Elina (stranger / witch) sang and played I), Irmgard Vilsmaier (servant I / people), Anne Pellekoorne (servant II / witch III), Simone Schneider (singer / people), Rüdiger Trebes (painter / soldier / people), Helena Jungwirth (witch II / people), Hans Wilbrink (Imam), Gundula Köster (Dagny as speaking role), Peter Pruchniewitz (Nagel as speaking role) and Monika Manz and Bülent Kullukcu (guards / doctors / hangman's helpers, silent roles).
Klaus Kalchschmid, the reviewer of the opera world , found the portrayal of the framework plot in the preludes, interludes and epilogues particularly successful, while the transition to the fairy tales was difficult. While the composer consistently avoided orientalisms, the staging was "a bit overloaded". In the music, “the simultaneous parody and complex further development of minimalist structures” and “the merging of the buffa tone of the second story with the lofty pathos of the first in the last episode” were convincing. The singer's vocalises in the first fairy tale are a “musical cabinet piece” and “the restrained end [...] a subtle apotheosis”. The staging was imaginative, but had "sometimes done too much of a good thing". Reinhard Kager , the reviewer of the Austrian music magazine , however, was disappointed with the production after the performance. The music is poorly orchestrated and "especially the eloquence that is crucial for fairy tale settings is sorely lacking". In addition, Knabe's staging served "even the most stale oriental clichés".
Eggert revised the opera for a production by the Hagen Theater in 2006 by re-orchestrating it and shortening it slightly. He also moved the position of the break. He completed this version on August 1, 2006. It was premiered on August 26, 2006 in the Hagen Theater with the Hagen Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Antony Hermus . The director was Roman Hovenbitzer , the stage was by Roy Spahn and the choreography by Hilton Ellis. The actors in the production were Johanna Krumin (Dagny), Peter Schöne (Nagel / Goldschmied / Executioner), Frank Dolphin-Wong (Nagel Traum-Double / Imam), Marc Baron / Florian Weber (Nagel Traum-Double scenic), Tanja Schun ( Engel), Andrea Schmermbeck (scenic angel), Margarete Nüßlein (unknown), Leonie Theis / Kirsten Wagner (unknown scenic), Richard van Gemert / Jeffery Krueger (father / dwarf / sultan), Dorian Lübbeck / Ben Joy Muin (dwarf dream- Double scenic), Liane Keegan (Aziza), Marily Bennett (Aziz / thief), Stefania Dovhan (singer) and Andrey Valiguras (painter / soldier).
The Opernnetz reviewer gave the new version a positive rating: “It touts, flutes, rattles, claps, whispers from the ditch; there are chances of association for knowledgeable listeners: Ber [n] stein , Nyman , Henze , rap - Moritz Eggert composes a refined, naive sound image to love fairy tales from 1001 nights. "
Recordings
So far (as of 2018) only parts of the opera have been released on phonograms.
The Wergo music label released a CD with works by Eggert in 2002 (WER 6543 2), which u. a. the “Song of the Singer” - with Simonie Schneider (soprano) and Wolfgang Wirsching (baritone) and the Bavarian State Orchestra under Peter Hirsch .
Excerpts also appeared on the CD Opera, Operetta, Musical - Irrenoffensive (Sony / BMG, 2002)
Web links
- Video excerpt from the Hagen production on YouTube
- Stefan Schmöe: What we always wanted to know about sex. Review of the Hagen production. In: Online music magazine
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Heinz Wagner: The great manual of the opera. 4th edition. Nikol, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-937872-38-4 , p. 335.
- ↑ a b c d work information from Sikorski music publishers , accessed on November 9, 2018.
- ↑ a b Bright nights. Program of the Hagen Theater , 2006/2007 season.
- ↑ a b c d information on the original version on the website of the composer Moritz Eggert, accessed on November 9, 2018.
- ↑ a b c information on the work of the Hagen version on the website of the composer Moritz Eggert, accessed on November 9, 2018.
- ^ Moritz Eggert: "Bright Nights" at the Hagen Theater. Announcement of the Hagen performance in the news archive of Sikorski Musikverlage from August 2006, accessed on November 10, 2018.
- ↑ Klaus Kalchschmid: Myth and fairy tale. In: Opera world . June 1997, p. 49.
- ↑ Reinhard Kager : Myths set to music at the 5th Munich Biennale. In: Österreichische Musikzeitschrift , Volume 52, Issue 6, 1997, pp. 49-50, ISSN 2307-2970 (online), ISSN 0029-9316 (print), doi : 10.7767 / omz.1997.52.6.49 (accessed via De Gruyter Online ).
- ↑ Love and Poetry. Review of the Hagen production. In: Opernnetz - Zeitschrift für Musiktheater und Oper, accessed on November 11, 2018.
- ↑ Information on the Wergo CD at zeitgenoessische-musik.de, accessed on November 11, 2018.
- ↑ Music in Germany 1950–2000 Musiktheater, series […] opera, operetta, musical, opera 1990–1996: Mad offensive at WorldCat, accessed on November 11, 2018.