La damnation de Faust
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Faust's damnation |
| Original title: | La damnation de Faust |
Handwritten manuscript |
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| Shape: | “Légende-dramatique” in four parts |
| Original language: | French |
| Music: | Hector Berlioz |
| Libretto : |
Gérard de Nerval , Almire Gandonnière , Hector Berlioz |
| Literary source: | Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Faust I |
| Premiere: | December 6, 1846 (concert), February 18, 1893 (scenic) |
| Place of premiere: | Opéra-Comique , Paris (1846), Salle Garnier , Monte Carlo (1893) |
| Playing time: | about 2 hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Hungary and Germany |
| people | |
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La damnation de Faust op. 24 is a composition (original name: “Légende-dramatique”, “dramatic legend”) in four parts by Hector Berlioz with a libretto by Hector Berlioz and Almire Gandonnière based on the translation of Goethe's Faust I by Gérard de Nerval . The work has both operatic characteristics and those of a choral symphony. It was premiered on December 6, 1846 in concert at the Opéra-Comique in Paris .
action
The work is divided into four parts and an epilogue.
First part
The first part takes place in the Puszta landscape of Hungary. The wandering Faust wakes up on the spring meadow, sings a melancholy song, in contrast we hear the chants of happy farmers and villagers. The famous Rákóczi march ( marche hongroise ) sounds, but does not affect the self-conscious fist who runs away.
Second part
This and the other parts are set in Germany. Faust sits desperately in his study and thinks of suicide. Then Mephisto comes and leads him to Auerbach's wine cellar . In vain, because Faust is not impressed by the roaring of the drunkards. Mephisto only reaches his goal on the banks of the Elbe. Elves and nymphs put Faust to sleep at Mephistus's behest, and Margarethe, Gretchen, appears to him in a dream. When Faust wakes up, he absolutely wants to see this dream, and Mephisto is supposed to get the woman for him.
third part
The third part first shows Margaret's room, in which Faust was hiding. Gretchen braids her hair and sings the ballad of the king in Thule . In the meantime, Mephisto has brought his hellish cronies over and starts a serenade. The will-o'-the-wisps dance a minuet to it - everything is very eerie. Faust and Margarethe finally find each other, but their apparent happiness is relativized by Mephisto's cynicism.
fourth part
The fourth part shows Margaret in mourning. Contrary to all assurances, Faust left her. Faust himself is now wandering alone through a mountain range when Mephisto joins him and tells him that Margarethe had been sentenced to death for the murder of her mother. In his desperation, Faust finally overwrites his soul to Mephisto, if he could only save Margarethe. They ride off, but their path does not lead to Margarethe, but down to Hell. Mephisto won.
epilogue
Margarethe is redeemed and taken to heaven. A choir of angels announces their rescue.
orchestra
The orchestral line-up includes the following instruments:
- Woodwinds : two flutes (the second also piccolo ), two oboes (the second also English horn ), two clarinets , two bassoons
- Brass : four horns , two trumpets , two pistons (2nd ad lib.), Three trombones
- Timpani
- two harps
- Strings
- Incidental music on the scene: two oboes, two bassoons, tambourines
- Incidental music behind the scene: two trumpets, piston, drums (glasses struck on the table, bass drum , cymbals ), guitars
Work history
Emergence
About Goethe's Faust I , which the composer got to know in the translation of Gérard de Nervals, he wrote: “This wonderful book fascinated me immediately. I never parted with it anymore and read it all the time: at the table, in the theater, on the street, everywhere! ”In 1828/29 such a drama music (Huit scènes de Faust) was written, which Berlioz sent to Goethe. He showed interest and gave the score to Carl Friedrich Zelter . However, in response to his devastating judgment, Goethe held back. Berlioz continued to work on the subject and began composing the opera fifteen years later on a conducting tour through Austria, Hungary, Bohemia and Silesia.
"I tried neither to translate Goethe's masterpiece nor to imitate it, but just let it affect me in an effort to grasp its musical content."
In addition to Goethe's tragedy, the sources of inspiration for the design of the libretto were the lithographs by Eugène Delacroix . A particularly obvious difference to Goethe's Faust I is the musically brilliant Berlioz ride into hell. Berlioz's decision to move the first scene to Hungary was also completely arbitrary: this was done for the sole reason to be able to incorporate the popular Rákóczi March into the play. The score was first published in 1854 by Richault in Paris.
Performance history
The first performance took place in concert form on December 6, 1846 in the Parisian Salle Favart ( Opéra-Comique ) under the direction of the composer. The completely unsuccessful performance ended in financial disaster for Berlioz and plunged him into both high debt and an artistic crisis. Berlioz realized with resignation that his work was not very successful. After a second performance on December 12 of the same year, which increased the failure, the work was not performed again in Paris during Berlioz's lifetime. However, he conducted a performance in Vienna on December 16, 1866, in which the Wiener Singverein participated among others .
Berlioz never intended the work, a mixture of choral symphony and number opera , for a staged performance. The last part in particular, with its surreal, multi-layered layers of reality, would have overwhelmed the stage technology during Berlioz's lifetime. It was not until 24 years after his death, on February 18, 1893, that Raoul Gunsbourg dared to stage a first staged performance in the Salle Garnier ( Monte Carlo ), for which he made several changes of the scene and completely deleted individual, unrealizable parts.
To this day, the work is comparatively seldom staged. It has recently premiered at the Deutsche Oper Berlin (premiere: February 23, 2014, musical direction: Donald Runnicles , staging: Christian Spuck ), at the Theater Basel (premiere: May 25, 2014, musical direction: Enrico Delamboye, Production: Árpád Schilling), at Theater Lübeck (premiere: January 16, 2015, musical direction: Ryusuke Numajiri, production: Anthony Pilavachi), at the Mannheim National Theater (premiere: April 17, 2015, musical direction: Alois Seidlmeier, production: Vasily Barkhatov ), at the Opéra National de Paris (premiere: December 5, 2015, musical direction: Philippe Jordan , staging: Alvis Hermanis ), at Theater Bremen (premiere: March 18, 2017, musical direction: Markus Poschner , staging: Paul-Georg Dittrich ) and at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin (premiere: May 27, 2017, musical direction: Simon Rattle , staging: Terry Gilliam ).
Reception history
The famous Sylphentanz paraphrased u. a. Camille Saint-Saëns in the Carnival of the Animals and Oscar Straus in the score for La Ronde .
literature
- La damnation de Faust (score), Breitkopf & Härtel (translation of the libretto by H. Neugebauer)
- Daniel Albright: Berlioz's Semi-Operas - Roméo et Juliette and La Damnation de Faust. Suffolk 2001
Web links
- La damnation de Faust : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Libretto (French original version)
- Libretto (German version)
- Discography
- Hector Berlioz, Faust's damnation in Liebig pictures
- Berlioz ' La Damnation de Faust in the Capriccio-Kulturforum
- Recording of the concert La Damnation de Faust on February 22nd on medici.TV - Orchester National du Capitole - Wiener Singverein - Tugan Taimurasowitsch Sochijew
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Gabriele Brandstetter , Hermann Hofer: La Damnation de Faust. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater . Volume 1: Works. Abbatini - Donizetti. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1986, ISBN 3-492-02411-4 , pp. 307-310.