Lady Magnesia
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| Title: | Lady Magnesia |
| Original title: | Леди Магнезия |
| Shape: | Opera in one act |
| Original language: | Russian |
| Music: | Mieczysław vineyard |
| Libretto : | Mieczysław vineyard |
| Literary source: | George Bernard Shaw : Passion, Poison and Petrification |
| Premiere: | November 18, 2009 (concert version); February 2, 2012 (scenic) |
| Place of premiere: | Liverpool, Weinberg Festival (concert version); Theater Erfurt, Studio (scenic) |
| Playing time: | about 50 minutes |
| Place and time of the action: | A property, fictional time |
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Lady Magnesia (Russian: Леди Магнезия) is an opera in one act by Mieczysław Weinberg , which was composed in 1975. The composer wrote the libretto himself on the basis of the farce Passion, Poison and Petrification by George Bernard Shaw . The opera was premiered in concert on November 18, 2009 in Liverpool and staged on February 2, 2012 at the Erfurt Theater.
action
Lady Magnesia has an affair with the house servant Adolphus Bastable. Her jealous husband, Lord George Fitztollemache, therefore intends to murder her. Lady Magnesia instructs her housekeeper Phyllis to make the bed for her. A violent storm is raging outside, and Phyllis has grim premonitions. After the lady has gone to sleep, her husband sneaks into the room with a knife. His attempt fails, however, because Lady Magnesia wakes up with a sneeze. When Lord George claims that the knife was a gift from his mother, the lady replies that she preferred a fish knife. Adolphus knocks on the door to show off his new wardrobe. He is let in. The lord serves drinks, poisoning the servant's soda water. Adolphus falls to the ground with severe stomach ache. In view of the impending death of her lover, Lady Magnesia declares that she now wants to transfer her love back to her husband. But she would mourn Adolphus like a real wife. Lord George is so touched by this that he wants to save Adolphus again. Concentrated lime is said to act as an antidote. First, Adolphus tries some stucco that has fallen from the ceiling. When this has no effect, they ask the maid to dissolve the lady's plaster bust in hot water. This "medicine" works immediately: Adolphus' pain disappears. He dies without further agony and petrified by the plaster of paris to form a statue, which spreads her hands over the touched couple as if in blessing.
layout
Instrumentation
The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:
- Piccolo flute , two B flat clarinets , alto saxophone
- Horn, trombone
- Drums, three tom-toms
- Guitar , electric guitar , bass guitar
- Piano, harmonium
- Violin I, violin II, viola, violoncello, double bass (solo or choral)
- Children's, women's and men's choirs from the tape
music
Analogous to Shaw's literary model, Weinberg's music also has a great variety of forms and styles. There are dance movements such as the tarantella , the march or the waltz, as well as echoes of baroque music, early modern 20th century music, light music and jazz. In the program booklet for the Erfurt performance, Berthold Warnecke suspected the reason for this in the influence of French music of the 1920s and 30s. Certain features such as "an almost classical clarity of structures, melodic wit and harmonic friction and sharpening" refer to the proximity to the group of composers Groupe des Six . The sometimes elegiac tone is reminiscent of Benjamin Britten . The opera includes arias, ensembles, choirs, spoken chants and spoken texts. She uses instruments that are rather untypical in classical music.
Work history
Mieczysław Weinberg composed this short chamber opera as early as 1975. Weinberg wrote the libretto himself. It is based on the theater posse Passion, Poison and Petrification by George Bernard Shaw , published in 1905 . In the composer's catalog raisonné, the opera bears opus number 112.
The opera was premiered posthumously in concert on November 18, 2009 as part of the first International Weinberg Festival in Liverpool. The ensemble played 10/10 under the musical direction of Clark Rundell. The soloists were Tom Raskin (Sir George Fitztollemache), Emma Morwood (Lady Magnesia), Carolina Krogius (Phyllis) and Phil Smith (Adolphus Bastable).
The scenic world premiere took place on February 2, 2012 in the studio of the Theater Erfurt in a German version by Hans-Ulrich Duffek. Members of the Erfurt Philharmonic Orchestra , women of the Erfurt Philharmonic Choir (soprano solo: Tina Adam) and men of the Erfurt Opera Choir were conducted by Samuel Bächli . The production was done by Barbara Schöne , the equipment by Jeannine Cleemen and the dramaturgy by Berthold Warnecke . The soloists were Marwan Shamiyeh (Sir George Fitztollemache), Marisca Mulder (Lady Magnesia), Stéphanie Müther (Phyllis) and Máté Sólyom-Nagy (Adolphus Bastable).
In 2019, the Münchner Kammerspiele showed the work as the highlight of a week-long Weinberg retrospective in a production by Miriam Ibrahim. Daniel Grossmann directed the Jewish Chamber Orchestra . Juan Carlos Petruzziello (Sir George Fitztollemache), Susanne Bernhard (Lady Magnesia), Yulia Sokolik (Phyllis) and Petro Ostapenko (Adolphus Bastable) sang.
Web links
- Lady Magnesia at Theater Erfurt ( Memento from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- Review of the performance at Theater Erfurt on Die deutsche Bühne
- Review of the performance at Theater Erfurt on Deutschlandradio Kultur
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lady Magnesia. Opera in 1 act. Work information from Sikorski , accessed on April 1, 2016.
- ^ Berthold Warnecke: Lady Magnesia. In: Theater Erfurt program booklet, 2011/12 season.
- ↑ a b Lady Magnesia. Theater Erfurt program booklet, 2011/12 season.
- ↑ Lady Magnesia: World Premiere of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's Opera in Liverpool on sikorski.de , accessed on April 2, 2016.
- ↑ Peter Krause: Taken on the grain. Review of the performance in Munich 2019. In: Opernwelt , July 2019, p. 46.