Crown Prince Friedrich (Opera)
| Work data | |
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| Title: | Crown Prince Friedrich |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Siegfried Matthus |
| Libretto : | Thomas Höft |
| Premiere: | December 30, 1999 |
| Place of premiere: | Rheinsberg Palace Theater |
| Playing time: | about an hour |
| Place and time of the action: | Küstrin fortress during the execution of Katte in November 1730 and flashbacks |
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Kronprinz Friedrich is a one- act chamber opera by Siegfried Matthus with a libretto by Thomas Höft . The work was premiered at the end of 1999 in the Rheinsberg Palace Theater on the occasion of its reopening. There are two versions of the composer's instrumentation; the first with flutes and trombones in the melody instruments , the second also with strings . The opera is about the education of Crown Prince Friedrich by his father Friedrich Wilhelm I , pointed to the relationship between young Friedrich and Lieutenant von Katte , whom Friedrich Wilhelm I had executed.
action
After trying to escape in August 1730, the Crown Prince is imprisoned in the Küstrin Fortress. A trial is being conducted against him and his confidante Katte, which ends with the verdict of lifelong imprisonment for Katte. Friedrich Wilhelm I converts the sentence into the death penalty. The Crown Prince is forced to watch his friend Katte being beheaded. The plot revolves around the trial and imprisonment, interrupted by flashbacks to the Crown Prince's childhood and his blossoming friendship with Katte. The opera is divided into ten scenes and is played without a break.
music
In the first or original version, the opera was orchestrated with 14 flutes, from piccolo to alto flutes, recorders, large recorder, double bass flute to sub double bass flute. The latter had to be specially made for the premiere. The flutes mainly orchestrate the voices of Crown Prince and Katte, plus the female roles. There are also three trombones , double bass and drums as the king's vocal instruments . A harpsichord plays transitions and chords.
In the second version (WP 2000 in Radebeul) the number of flutes is reduced to four, but a group of ten solo strings with violin, viola and cello is added. Brass, drums and harpsichord remain. The main reason for the re-instrumentation was the difficulty in setting up the many flutes in later performances. Chamber operas in particular are often performed in houses with limited financial means. Since there are hardly any other flute ensembles of this size and with these instruments, the additional (and expensive) involvement of soloists is essential. In the second instrumentation, the line-up comes close to a chamber orchestra.
The music of the opera is not atonal, but contains atonal elements. Characteristic are partly complex ensemble movements. There are hardly any choral parts. Despite the dramatic plot, the music has a lyrical character, which is particularly evident in the duet scenes between Crown Prince and Katte.
history
Origin and premiere
In 1996, Siegfried Matthus and Götz Friedrich agreed to celebrate the opening of the Rheinsberger Schlosstheater with the world premiere of an opera. Matthus graduated from high school in Rheinsberg and founded the singing competition and the associated opera festival Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg in 1991 . Friedrich was the opera director in Berlin. The topic of the Crown Prince and Katte was an obvious choice because of the local reference to Rheinsberg, after all, after his pardon and a stopover in Ruppin, the Crown Prince spent four years here, during which he also devoted himself to music. A direct reference to Friedrich's time in Rheinsberg was ruled out because hardly any dramatic material could be found in this happy time for the Crown Prince.
Götz Friedrich introduced Matthus to the librettist Thomas Höft. Matthus is said to have asked Höft “a second cornet”, alluding to his own opera based on the Rilke story , which focuses on the relationship between two young men. After two weeks, Höft submitted a draft, which Matthus immediately liked. Kronprinz und Katte composed Matthus as trouser roles for young mezzo-sopranos because they can "represent adolescent youth and sing better than young men". He felt more comfortable with the portrayal of the enthusiastic and erotically charged relationship between two men. During the works the ensemble Instrumentation learned Matthus 14 Berlin Flotisten know, and wrote for these orchestration with direct reference to the flute player Frederick II. Originally, the opera Frederick and Katte hot, but a 1998 in Minden , first performed under this title Opera Wolfgang Knuth anticipated that.
On December 30, 1999, the world premiere took place in Rheinsberg Castle as a co-production of the Rheinsberg Chamber Opera and the Deutsche Oper Berlin . Rolf Reuter was the musical director and Götz Friedrich directed. The part of the Crown Prince was cast with Karen Leonie Leiber, Katte with Alicja de Rota. Lars Fosser played the king, and all the other singing roles were played by young winners of the Rheinsberg competition. The criticism ranged from mixed to positive, with the young singers generally praising their expression and precision. However, it was criticized that the role of the king was too one-sided as a villain, that the opera was written solely “from the perspective of the pubescent heir to the throne”, whose eventual turn to obedience was not conveyed credibly. The topic of “male love at the Hohenzollernhof” would also be hidden in the “shameful approximation”. After the premiere, the production went to Hanover as a guest performance at the Expo 2000 , then to the Bayreuth Castle Theater and was performed again in Rheinsberg in June 2000 at the opera festival.
More productions
- 2000: Saxony State Theaters in Radebeul, premiere on March 25, 2000 in the second version.
- 2001: Staatstheater Cottbus , premiere on June 22, 2001 with Waltraud Mucher (Crown Prince).
- 2004: Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz, musical direction Ingo Ingensand, direction Henry Mason . Premiere on April 22nd, 2004 in Ansfelden , then Hauzenberg , as well as a guest performance in Berlin in the Leibnitz-Saal of the Academy of Sciences on October 4th, 2004.
- 2012: Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg , musical director Daniel Hoyem-Cavazza, director Kay Kuntze . Premiere on July 20, 2012 with Maria Schlestein (Crown Prince), Annette Hörle (Katte), Filip Szczepanski (King) and other award winners of the competition.
Web links
- Matthus: Crown Prince Friedrich at the Breitkopf & Härtel music publisher ( memento from January 19, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
- Works for musical theater on the website of Siegfried Matthus
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Matthus: Crown Prince Friedrich at the music publisher Breitkopf & Härtel ( memento from January 19, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ).
- ^ Rainer Schwarz, production manager of the Rheinsberg Chamber Opera, on July 27, 2012.
- ↑ Raoul Mörchen: The wound of the Hohenzollern . In: Berliner Zeitung of October 8, 1998.
- ↑ a b Manuel Brug: Girl years of a Prussian king . In: Die Welt from January 5, 2000.
- ↑ Peter Uehling: Royal drama without royalty . In: Berliner Zeitung of January 3, 2000.
- ↑ Paula Bölzow: Crown Prince returned . In: The Ostpreußenblatt of March 4, 2000.