Jesus' wedding
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Jesus' wedding |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Gottfried von One |
| Libretto : | Lotte Ingrisch |
| Literary source: | New Testament |
| Premiere: | May 18, 1980 |
| Place of premiere: | Theater an der Wien , Vienna |
| Playing time: | approx. 1 ¾ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Biblical time |
| people | |
The wedding of Jesus is a mystery opera in two acts by Gottfried von One . The libretto was written by his wife Lotte Ingrisch . It is based on quotations from the Bible and the librettist's own verses. The work had its world premiere on May 18, 1980 in the Theater an der Wien (director: Giancarlo del Monaco ) and was broadcast live on ORF and ZDF .
action
first act
Interior of a church ruin. Mary and Joseph are irritated by Mary's pregnancy, but it is announced to them that Mary will bring the Savior into the world. The dead woman demonstrates her power over the world, the boy Lazarus is chased by her and then strangled. Jesus wants to put a stop to it and points to the approaching reconciliation between humanity and death. He symbolically kisses the dead woman, this is his marriage to her, but both are struck down by lightning. Mary and Joseph do not recognize their son. Mary Magdalene, looking for her brother Lazarus, is comforted by Jesus by bringing the boy to life. The dead woman wants revenge, so she puts on the mask of Judas, which brings Magdalena to a fit of possession, whereby she tries to seduce Jesus into unchastity. But he was not deterred by her or his parents and moved to Jerusalem with his disciples.
Second act
The train to Jerusalem is disrupted by a storm, but Jesus is able to restrain it and points to the future kingdom of heaven. The apostles become evangelists, while the disciples become a gray crowd. Whipped up by the dead woman in the mask of Judas, the false apostles turn away from Jesus and condemn him to death. Mary and Joseph recognize their son, but are led away by the angel of the Lord so that they do not have to witness his crucifixion.
Aftermath
Mary Magdalene is converted and professes her faith.
layout
Instrumentation
The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:
- Woodwinds : two flutes (2nd also piccolo ), two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons
- Brass : two horns , two trumpets , bass trombone
- Timpani , percussion : triangle , cymbals , tambourine , military drum , stirring drum , bass drum , two wooden blocks ad lib.
- Guitar (electrically amplified)
- Strings
music
The music moves in a moderately modern harmony. Numerous major and minor chords are assigned to certain protagonists.
Origin and reception history
Theatrical games with the theme of the marriage of Jesus already existed in the Middle Ages and early modern times. Since the 1970s, there has also been a “Jesus wave” in musical theater (for example with Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Jesus Christ Superstar ), but this work is only indirectly part of it.
Initially it was planned to bring the opera out at the Carinthian Summer in Ossiach as a modern mystery play in the collegiate church , but this idea was then rejected after the festival management had concerns. After the decision to open the Wiener Festwochen in 1980 with the opera, this idea was welcomed by numerous well-known personalities (including Helmut Zilk and Ernst Wolfram Marboe, among others ), but also vigorously opposed by ultra-Catholic circles. Ingrisch had assured himself from Cardinal König that there was nothing wrong with a performance by the Austrian Catholic Church. But then there was such a drastic rejection front against the work that a performance almost failed to materialize. The ORF had then acquired the broadcasting rights together with the ZDF and, despite the opposition, prevailed to broadcast the premiere, during which there were loud heckling and stink bombs.
There were further rehearsals in the 1980s at the Lower Saxony State Theater Hanover (conductor: George Alexander Albrecht ) and at the State Theater Mainz (1987). But the controversial debate about the spiritual content of the work overshadowed the discussion about Gottfried von Einems Musik. It was not until the late rerun on the occasion of the Carinthian Summer 2016 that the critics recognized it as a “salvation of honor” for an important step into the musical “postmodern”.
literature
- Margret Dietrich , Wolfgang Greisenegger (Ed.): Pros and Cons of Jesus' wedding: Documentation of an opera scandal. (= Mask and Kothurn , supplement 3). Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Graz 1980, 412 p. Illustrations, graph. Darst., Sheet music, numerous facsimiles of letters to the editor for and against the performance.
- Klaus Umbach : Fornication with God's son . In: Der Spiegel . No. 21 , 1980 ( online ).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Rainer Franke: Jesus' wedding. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater . Volume 2: Works. Donizetti - Henze. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1987, ISBN 3-492-02412-2 , pp. 133-135.
- ^ Wilhelm Sinkovicz : Carinthian Summer: "Jesus Re-Marriage" succeeded! Review of the 2016 revival. In Die Presse on August 8, 2016, accessed on February 24, 2018.