Joseph's legend

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Leonide Massine as Joseph in Josephs Legende (1914)
Léon Bakst (1914): Potiphar's Wife
Dancer Nijinsky (1914) by Georg Kolbe , commemorative stamp from 1981

Josephs Legende (at the Paris premiere in 1914 under the title La Légende de Joseph ) is an "act in one act" ( ballet ) based on a libretto by Harry Graf Kessler and Hugo von Hofmannsthal . The music was created by Richard Strauss (op. 63). It is the composer's first ballet composition and, besides Schlagobers (1924), the only one.

Origin and premiere

After sending the draft libretto, Strauss initially responded in the affirmative:

“Joseph is excellent, is swallowed. I've already started sketching. "

A short time later, however, he clearly stated:

«[...] the chaste Joseph himself does not suit me and what pugs me, I find music difficult to do with it. Such a Joseph who seeks God - I have to force myself to do it like hell. Well, maybe there is still a pious melody in some atavistic appendicitis - -. "

In retrospect, Strauss presented it as follows:

«I wanted to renew the dance with Joseph's legend. The dance as an expression of the dramatic - but not exclusively. We must not lose the pure possession of what is truly nourishing, just as, analogously in music, alongside the characteristic, programmatic and elementary, the line of the absolutely lovely should never be neglected. "

For the orchestration, Strauss adopted his principles from Elektra - a three-way division of the violins , heckelphone , four harps and celestas , piano and organ. The premiere took place on May 14, 1914 in Paris, it was performed by the Ballets Russes on the stage of the Opéra . Impresario was Sergei Diaghilev , Vaclav Nijinsky was originally intended to be the choreographer and creator of the title role - after his marriage he was replaced by the choreographer Michail Fokine and the 18-year-old Léonide Massine before rehearsals . The singer Maria Kuznetsova had taken on the pantomime role of Potiphar's wife. The costumes came from Léon Bakst and Alexandre Benois , the equipment from Josep Maria Sert . The first production of the ballet was based on a painting by Paolo Veronese and the aura of a Renaissance subject. Strauss conducted the premiere himself and there were seven performances. There were another seven at the Theater Royal Drury Lane London under the direction of Sir Thomas Beecham . Because of the impending war, Strauss never received his fee of 6,000 francs. Nijinsky did not appear in the role of Joseph even after his reconciliation with Diaghilev.

Reception history

Joseph's legend was rather controversial in its reception history and did not achieve the number of performances of Strauss' operas. The German premiere (referred to as the German premiere in the program) took place under the direction of the composer on February 4, 1921 at the Berlin State Opera in the production of Heinrich Kröller and the equipment by Emil Pirchan . The 40-year-old Kröller danced the title role himself, Tilla Durieux played the Potiphar . The Austrian premiere took place, also under the direction of the composer, on March 18, 1922 at the Vienna State Opera in the equipment of Alfred Roller and again in the choreography of Heinrich Kröller, who had meanwhile moved to Vienna. The soprano Marie Gutheil-Schoder appeared as the actress in the main female role , as Joseph Willy Fränzl . The review by Julius Korngold in the Neue Freie Presse fundamentally discusses a presentation of such content in the ballet genre and comes to a negative result. The critic David Josef Bach in the Arbeiter-Zeitung describes the dichotomy of the portrayal of the supposedly chaste ironic:

Ketevan Papava (Potiphar's Weib) Davide Dato (Joseph), Vienna 2015

“The scenic poets Hofmannsthal and Keßler, of course, shy away from the word ballet or pantomime, and want no other designation than legend. They mean it to be terribly chaste and holy. Without doubt. It is just a pity that to express this chastity all lust and perversity are necessary. This Joseph legend has turned the biblical Joseph, who does not allow himself to be seduced by the loving Mrs. Potiphar, into a thoroughly homosexual affair. First women among each other, veiled, unveiled, regularly in the deepest lust, then men among each other, naked, half-naked, finally boys with their playmate Josef, who is an exemplary holy dancer. As a slave exhibited for sale, he dances from the arrogant Potiphar like David from the Ark of the Covenant, full of God, protected by the heavenly hosts. He rejects the request of Mrs. Potiphar with astonishment and majesty. How not? Obviously he doesn't care about women. Perhaps in this aversion, and also in the fear of women, there is a good part of what we rightly call chastity in men; but in the legend this component is emphasized a bit. The sexual perception of the abnormality also corresponds to the transformation of the dungeon, into which the biblical Joseph is thrown down until his liberation, into a torture scene with fire and iron; That this is undeniably a great theatrical effect is shown by the theater in its function as a nerve whip of modern society. An angel in silver armor frees Joseph and leads him to the bliss of a womanless existence. "

In his younger years Toni Birkmeyer also appeared in the role of Joseph. When Sasha Leontjew was ballet master for a short period in 1928, Hedy Pfundmayr mimed Potiphar's wife and in 1930 also went to the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires with this role . Günter Hess danced Joseph in 1924 at the Leipzig Opera , Heino Hallhuber later in Munich. The most important choreographies include those by Leopold Sachse , Yvonne Georgi , George Balanchine , Aurel von Milloss , Margarethe Wallmann , Victor Gsovsky , Antony Tudor and Erich Walter . Heinz Spoerli choreographed the piece in 1992 with Falco Kapuste for the Deutsche Oper am Rhein , Youri Vámos in 1997 for the Bonn Opera , Jurek Makarowski in 1999 for the Mainfranken Theater in Würzburg (with Ivo van Zwieten as Joseph). In 2012 Anna Vita choreographed a new version for the Würzburg Theater.

One of the most important recent productions is that of John Neumeier with Kevin Haigen and Judith Jamison (Vienna 1977) in the equipment of Ernst Fuchs , which he reworked for Hamburg in 2008 and with Denys Cherevychko and Rebecca Horner or Davide Dato and Ketevan Papava in 2015 Vienna brought out anew.

Gianni Versace first designed stage costumes for Joseph's legend in 1982.

action

Ketevan Papava (Potiphar's Weib) Davide Dato (Joseph), Vienna 2015
roll
  • Potiphar.
  • Potiphar's wife.
  • Their favorite slave.
  • Potiphar's guests.
  • Potiphar's caretaker.
  • Potiphar's servants, bodyguards and slaves.
  • A sheik.
  • Its eight companions.
  • His young servant.
  • Three veiled people.
  • Three unveiled people.
  • Servants of the veiled.
  • Two guards.
  • Sulamith, a dancer.
  • Six boxers.
  • Their companion.
  • Joseph, a fifteen year old shepherd boy.
  • Six boys, his playmates.
  • Executioners of Potiphar.
  • A male archangel armed entirely in gold.
Potiphar's Palace, hypostyle hall in the style of Andrea Palladio

A festive meal takes place at Potiphar's court. Gifts are brought by slaves, but Potiphar's wife ignores them. Sulamith dances and show wrestling matches take place. Negro slaves bring in the sleeping shepherd boy, Joseph, wrapped in a carpet. This is awakened and demonstrates his search for the way to salvation with pantomime and sometimes with ecstatic leaps, as well as his innocence. With his demeanor he arouses the erotic interest of Potiphar's wife, who sends the court away. Joseph dreams of his guardian angel, but is touched and kissed by Potiphar's wife. He wraps himself in his coat, but she hugs him passionately until he breaks free and stands in front of her, bared. Guards surprise the couple and take into custody the boy who is to be tortured on Potiphar's orders. The apparition of the angel, previously seen in a dream, saves Joseph and his chains fall to the ground, he is able to follow the angel. Those left behind stand frozen, the seductress strangles herself on her pearl necklace.

literature

Recordings

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Schott-Verlag zu Josephs Legende ( Memento of the original from January 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.schott-musik.de
  2. ^ Program leaflet on the website of the German Dance Archive Cologne
  3. ^ New free press March 19, 1922
  4. ↑ Arbeiter-Zeitung , March 23, 1922, p. 5.
  5. ^ Ivo van Zwieten and Viola Michel
  6. ^ Neumeier 's Josephs Legende (Vienna 1977)
  7. ↑ https://db-staatsoper.die-response.eu/performances/38353
  8. ^ Neumeier 's Josephs Legende (Vienna 2015)
  9. ↑ Synopsis by Leopold Schmidt: “In honor of Potiphar's wife a festival is celebrated in a splendid columned hall. A sheik offers precious gifts for sale: jewels and carpets, rare animals and beautiful women performing a dance of lust. Mrs. Potiphar, who embodies the over-saturated joie de vivre of the ancient world, remains cold and apathetic. A wild fist fight takes place before her eyes: she does not move. Josef, the shepherd boy, is carried in asleep in a carpet. His dance expresses innocence and purity and longing for God and worship. From the first moment on, the ruler is transformed into her feelings by his appearance, the higher of which she suspects, as if fascinated. She touches him lustfully and yet shyly shrinks back. After a noisy party, Josef is left alone. He prays and dreams, Potiphar's wife approaches his bed in the night robe. It doesn't leave her in peace: she has to fathom the strangely new that has entered her life, has to possess it. But she feels the impenetrable nature of his being, which she cannot understand. The more passionately she desires him, the more his resistance grows. Under their desire, the consciousness of the divine awakens in Joseph; the boy becomes a hero. The cloak falls, majestic nakedness stands before the inwardly destroyed woman, whose frenzy of love turns shame into hatred and contempt. Your servants dance a dance of horror and disgust, symbolizing the feelings of the mistress. Potiphar appears and delivers the alleged assassin to his torturers; but a gold-armored archangel abducts Joseph from the earthly realms to those heights, the sounds of which he had already heard in a dream. Ms. Potiphar is strangling herself with her string of pearls. "
  10. ^ Edward Greenfield: The man who dared to monkey with Beethoven . In: The Guardian , July 14, 2000. Retrieved January 31, 2012. 
  11. ↑ Tim Ashley: Strauss: Joseph legend; Budapest Festival Orchestra / Fischer . In: The Guardian , April 13, 2007. Retrieved January 31, 2012. 
  12. ↑ Joseph's legend, Op. 63 , Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, conductor: Hiroshi Wakasugi. Nippon Columbia, 1988

Web links

Commons : Josephslegende (Bakst)  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files