Julia (opera)
| Opera dates | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Julia |
| Shape: | Chamber opera in two parts and fifteen scenes |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Rudolf Kelterborn |
| Libretto : | David Freeman and Rudolf Kelterborn |
| Literary source: |
William Shakespeare : Romeo and Juliet , Gottfried Keller : Romeo and Juliet in the village |
| Premiere: | April 23, 1991 |
| Place of premiere: | Theater Gessnerallee , Zurich |
| Playing time: | approx. 1 ½ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Verona, Switzerland, in the Middle East |
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Julia is a chamber opera in two parts and fifteen scenes by Rudolf Kelterborn (music) with a libretto by David Freeman and Rudolf Kelterborn. It is based on scenes from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet , Gottfried Keller's novella Romeo and Juliet in the village and a corresponding motif from Israel / Palestine at the time of its creation. The world premiere took place on April 23, 1991 at the Gessnerallee Theater in Zurich by the Opera Factory.
action
The opera deals like a collage on three different levels with the tragic story of Juliet and her lovers Romeo (based on William Shakespeare), Sali (based on Gottfried Keller) and Ahmed (present day) up to their suicide. The respective levels are indicated in the textbook by the letters “A” (Shakespeare), “B” (basement) and “C” (present).
First part
Scene I. Guard / Julia [A]. The guard criticizes Juliet for falling in love with Romeo, who has been banished from Verona, for purely external reasons. Compared to Count Paris, he was just a "rascal".
Scene II. Julia with her father [C]. In Israel, Julia reminds her father Moshe of the rights of the Palestinians. However, the father is of the opinion that Israel should only negotiate the occupied territories when all Arabs recognize their claims and are ready for peace.
Scene III. Julia alone [A / C]. Julia longs for the night and her lover.
Scene IV. The fight of the fathers on the bridge / Sali and Julia [B]. The two Swiss farmers Marti and Manz are fighting violently over a piece of land. Marti's daughter Julia and Manz's son Sali try desperately to separate them.
Scene V. Julia and the Rabbi [C]. Julia seeks understanding from a rabbi for her views. She believes that an understanding with the Palestinians would be possible. Although the rabbi deeply mistrusts them, he hopes that one day peaceful coexistence will be possible. Julia carefully brings the conversation to the subject of mixed marriages between Israelis and Palestinians. The rabbi realizes that Julia is talking about herself and tells her to end this impossible relationship.
Scene VI. Julia and her parents / caretaker [A]. Countess Capulet informs her daughter Julia that she will be married to Count Paris next Thursday. Julia asks her to respite. When her father and the nurse arrive, Julia sticks to her refusal. The father threatens to cast her out if she sticks to her decision.
Scene VII. Ahmed and his father [C]. Like Julia before, Ahmed tries his father to understand the other side. He thinks that Palestinians and Israelis have suffered equally and should talk to each other. However, his father is unforgiving. He wants to keep his business closed as a sign of his boycott.
Scene VIII. Main scene: First love scene Sali / Julia / Der Schwarze Geiger [B]. Julia and Sali, tired of their parents' argument, fall in love. They meet the black violinist who feels betrayed by both fathers. He himself is the legitimate heir of the country, but has not been able to produce any relevant documents. The two fathers, who could actually have attested to his origins, then usurped his inheritance and drove him away. Julia and Sali run away and settle down in the cornfield, where the first kisses take place. Their caresses are suddenly interrupted when Julia's father Marti appears and insults and beats his daughter. Sali knocks him down with a stone.
The eighth scene is overlaid by four fade-ins:
Fade-in scene a) Romeo / Mercutio / Tybalt [A]. Romeo and Mercutio meet the Capulet Tybalt. Mercutio challenges him to fight with the sword. Tybalt kills Mercutio. Romeo avenges him and kills Tybalt.
Fade-in scene b) Ahmed / Police [C]. Ahmed was arrested as a supposed political rebel when he was trying to get a book from his father's closed shop for his studies. He urges Julia to be careful not to see them together.
Fade-in scene c) Sali's parents in the pub [B]. Sali's mother welcomes two guests to her pub and apologizes for their depraved condition, which will soon improve. Sali's father insults her for her "disgusting behavior" with which she has already driven her son away.
Fade-in scene d) Shakespeare prologue [A / C]. An excerpt from the chorus prologue of Shakespeare's drama is reinterpreted to refer to the situation in Israel and the love of Ahmed and Juliet.
Second part
Scene IX. Romeo and Juliet / attendant [A]. After Romeo and Juliet spend the night together, they both want to discard their family names. At daybreak the guard announces the countess's arrival. Romeo hurries out of the window.
Scene X. Juliet's mother's friend [C]. Julia's mother's friend, who spent over a year in the concentration camp, tells Julia about the atrocities there. Your own mother was murdered. She only survived because she could play the violin. In spite of everything, she was able to retain a remnant of humanity. She wishes that violence would never be used in the name of Judaism.
Scene XI. Julia and Ahmed / Nomad [C]. Julia and Ahmed have fled into the desert and don't know what to do next. A nomad allows them to spend the night in one of the tents. But then they have to leave the camp because they cannot resolve their conflicts in the desert.
Scene XII. Julia and Sali in the Paradise Garden / The Black Violinist [B]. At a celebration of ordinary people in the Paradiesgärtlein, Julia and Sali meet the black violinist again. They dance. While the violinist is singing a song ("Step into my house, dearest!"), The landlord explains to a guest that he cannot light candles because of the wind. Julia and Sali occasionally dance with other guests. Sali can't bear to hold a girl other than Julia in her arms. Since the two can no longer leave each other, the violinist advises them to marry immediately. Guided by the violinist, they leave.
Scene XIII. Mercutio and Benvolio [A]. Romeo's friends Benvolio and Mercutio have watched Romeo's escape from Juliet's house and scoff at his love for the girl.
Scene XIV. Sali and Julia on the river [B]. Romeo at the tomb of the Capulets [A]. Fade-in scene. Interrogation of Ahmed [C]. Sali and Julia have escaped the crowd and are considering how to proceed. Romeo mourns at the grave of the Capulets over the alleged death of his lover. He hugs her one last time and decides to kill himself. Julia moves away with Sali. The two give each other engagement rings. In the fade-in scene, Ahmed is interrogated by two police officers. Romeo drinks the poison. Sali and Julia decide to get married this hour and then drown themselves in the river. Juliet discovers dead Romeo, kisses him and takes his dagger. She goes into the water with Sali on a hayship.
Scene XV. Party at Capulet. News of Ahmed and Juliet's suicide [A / B / C]. Capulet welcomes his guests - the countess, Sali's mother, the rabbi, the policeman, Benvolio and the violinist - to a party. Immediately afterwards, a television newsreader reads that a “young Jew from the peace movement” and a “Palestinian sympathizer of the Intifada” committed suicide together after a police interrogation because they could not get over the parents' resistance to their marriage: “The parents were the Opinion that the children are too young to marry. "
layout
Kelterborn himself named "violence, love, fear, hope, threats, incomprehension and humanity, death in a changing social environment" as the theme of his opera. The eponymous figure of Julia forms the center of the opera. Although there are also a few scenes without her involvement, she is always present. Corresponding to this meaning, he also assigned it the "richest, most differentiated" music with a variety of forms of expression:
“Dramatic directness (for example in the violent argument between the fathers from the basement novella); expressive, nocturnal musical poetry (for example in the monologue of Juliet or in the duet Romeo / Juliet); almost childlike light poetry in scenes between Julia and Sali, which is implemented musically through a subtle simplification of the tonal references; Passions that are withheld or erupt; Anxiety (for example in the instrumentally extremely sparse monologue of the Jewish friend), intermezzo-like moments, etc. find their counterparts in diverse musical textures and also in the varied use of the instrumental ensemble (14 musicians), which is not only a small orchestra, but always changing chamber music formations. This diversity is also bound by dense (more open and hidden) references to musical structures. "
Regarding the dramaturgical aspect of the non-continuous action in this opera and at the same time taking place on several temporal levels, Kelterborn referred to the metaphor of the "spherical shape of time" introduced by Bernd Alois Zimmermann in a different context. The peculiarity that the person of Julia and her three fathers is sung by a single actor, while her respective lover is sung by three different ones, has musical and dramaturgical reasons and cannot be traced back to the framework conditions of the chamber opera.
The principle of the three constantly alternating, intermingling and mutually influencing levels of action is essential for the text and music of this opera. It is clearly evident in the design of the title role:
"When the violin traces the pensive melancholy of utopian dream creations, the staccato of the grouchy nurse leads you into the melodic parade (I, 1), when Romeo and Juliet have savored the intoxication of the first night of love, the memory of the little sadistic incidents inevitably follows ', which a Jew who has escaped from the concentration camp snatches from oblivion in all details (II, 9/10) when Julia and Sali, engaged and happy, will sing the most fragile hopes in the screams of hatred until that streak of fog on the moon is over Ahmed interrogated and abused by eager police officers (II, 14). "
The conclusion of the opera particularly emphasizes this principle. Here the greeting of Count Capulet, who is obviously satisfied with the development, is immediately followed by the newscaster with the report of the suicide of the children.
occupation
The instrumental ensemble of the opera requires fourteen players with the following instruments:
- Woodwinds : flute (also piccolo ), oboe (also cor anglais ), two clarinets (both also bass clarinet )
- Brass : horn , trumpet , trombone
- Percussion (two players)
- harp
- Strings (soloist): violin , viola , cello , double bass
Work history
Rudolf Kelterborn's chamber opera Julia was created between 1989 and 1990 on behalf of the City of Zurich for the Opera Factory Zurich, a free music theater group without a permanent venue that existed from 1976 to 1996. Kelterborn wrote the libretto together with David Freeman, co-founder of the Opera Factory and director of the premiere. It uses motifs from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Gottfried Keller's novella Romeo and Juliet in the Village . In addition, they used a suitable contemporary theme from Israel / Palestine.
The world premiere took place on April 23, 1991 in the Theaterhaus Gessnerallee in Zurich under the musical direction of Brenton Langbein. The singers included Cynthia Grose Downing, Klaus Lapins, David Aldred, Fabrice Raviola, Jean-Pierre Gerber, Elizabeth Bachmann and Claudio Danuser. Afterwards there were guest performances in Dresden, Prague, Budapest, Belgrade, Sofia, London and Bath.
On May 2, 1993 there was the premiere of the German first production of the opera in the Great House of the Municipal Theaters in Osnabrück . The production was done by Holger Klembt, the set and costumes by Susanne Klopfstock and the dramaturgy by Andreas Wendholz. The musical direction was Jean-François Monnard . Maacha Deubner and Carl Saint-Clair sang the title role in a double cast. Romeo was portrayed by Peter Neff, Sali by Timothy Simpson and Ahmed by Christoph JH Kögel. The production was also performed as a guest performance at the 3rd days of the New Music Theater in North Rhine-Westphalia in 1993.
Web links
- Biography of the singer Maacha Deubner with photos from the opera in the online music magazine
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Rudolf Kelterborn: To my chamber opera JULIA. In: Program of the municipal theaters of Osnabrück 1992/93, ISSN 0178-0670, p. 11 f.
- ↑ a b Thorsten Stegemann: Simultaneity as a principle of style. In: Program of the municipal theaters of Osnabrück 1992/93, ISSN 0178-0670, pp. 13-17.
- ↑ a b c network information published by Boosey & Hawkes , accessed on 27 January 2018th
- ↑ a b c Rudolf Kelterborn: Julia. Text book. Bote & Bock, Berlin / Wiesbaden 1991, ISBN 3-7931-1650-6 .
- ↑ Jean Grädel: Opera Factory, Zurich ZH in the theater dictionary of the Institute for Theater Studies at the University of Bern, accessed on January 27, 2018.
- ↑ Kartei-A: Concert and opera dates December 19 , 1986 - March 20 , 1993 , p. 43 f, accessed on January 27, 2018.
- ^ Claudio Danuser - Repertoire , accessed on January 27, 2018.
- ↑ Julia. Program of the municipal theaters of Osnabrück 1992/93, ISSN 0178-0670.
- ↑ Jörg Loskill: The third and last chapter “Days of the New Music Theater” in NRW. In: Opernwelt from September 1993, p. 5.