Legenda Bałtyku
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| Title: | Baltic legend |
| Original title: | Legenda Bałtyku |
Excerpt from the poster for the premiere, Posen 1924 |
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| Shape: | Opera in three acts |
| Original language: | Polish |
| Music: | Feliks Nowowiejski |
| Libretto : | Waleria Szalay-Groele |
| Literary source: | Slavic legend of the sunken city of Vineta |
| Premiere: | November 28, 1924 |
| Place of premiere: | Great Theater Poznan |
| Playing time: | about 2 hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Prehistoric Slavic Baltic coast |
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Legenda Bałtyku (German: Baltic legend ) is an opera in three acts , Op. 28, by Feliks Nowowiejski (music) with a libretto by Waleria Szalay-Groele. The premiere took place on November 28, 1924 in the Great Theater in Poznan .
action
first act
The young fisherman Doman and his friend Tomir return home after a successful fishing trip. It's Midsummer Eve, and Doman believes this is the best time to finally win over his beloved Bogna. When Bogna and the other villagers appear, Bogna immediately goes to him. She has already made a sacrifice at the shrine to favor the god Svetovid. However, Bogna has another admirer: the rich, but already older amber merchant Lubor, who has already come to an agreement with her father Mestwin. Lubor highlights the merits of his wealth over the poverty that Bogna would otherwise expect. Doman's friend Tomir has a fitting answer in which he makes fun of Lubor's age and ugliness.
Mestwin tells the legend of the old, rich city of Vineta , the "daughter of the Baltic". Traditionally, the prettiest princess was married there to the sea god Perun . The Princess Jurata, however, refused to marry and threw the crown that Perun had received into the sea. In his anger at this rejection, Perun let the waves engulf the city. The inhabitants have lived in agony on the bottom of the sea ever since. Only when a courageous fisherman jumps into the sea out of love for a woman and retrieves Jurata's crown on midsummer night will Vineta be redeemed. Mestwin promises Doman his daughter's hand if he succeeds. The villagers are horrified. Obviously, Mestwin wants to get rid of the unwanted applicant this way. Lubor is already triumphant - he wants to win Bogna over while Doman is away. However, Doman accepts the challenge. When Lubor calls him a coward in order to demotivate him, a fight breaks out between the two. Mestwin separates them from each other.
Bogna begs Doman to forego the dangerous venture. Other villagers warn him about the spirits of the sea. However, Doman remains steadfast and sets off. Bogna begs the god Svetovid for help. Her friend Swatawa tries to comfort her. When Tomir reports that Doman wants to row out to sea without him, Bogna goes in search of him. Tomir and Swatawa stay behind and recognize their mutual love. The villagers prepare for the midsummer night celebrations with their pagan rituals.
Doman is ready to go on the beach. Bogna comes to him and they say goodbye to each other tenderly and worriedly. The silhouette of the city of Vineta appears in the distance. The voice of the god Perun promises Doman support. Bogna is somewhat reassured. Doman rows away and Bogna stays behind praying for her lover.
Second act
On the Baltic Sea, Doman's boat gets caught in a storm and capsizes. Doman sinks unconscious to the sea floor. There he has visions of the submarine city of Vineta. He tries to approach the Queen Jurata, but demons prevent him. Finally he manages to get to her. The residents appear and praise him for their redemption. The curse is finally broken. Jurata hands him her crown.
Doman wakes up on the beach and finds the crown.
Third act
The villagers pray in the temple of the god Svetovid. Lubor looks for Bogna to win her love. He wants to confess his love to her and ask her forgiveness for his past behavior. While the others prepare the ritual fires, Swatawa and Tomir finally meet. Bogna appears, desperate that her lover has not returned yet and that her father remains adamant. The ceremonies begin. One dances in honor of the goddess of love Dziedzilla. After the priest has led the crowd away, Bogna prays to them for Doman's return. Lubor steps up, confesses his love for her and begs her to hear him. Bogna rejects him. Then the sky darkens. Lubor gets angry, extinguishes the sacred fire and knocks over the statue of Dziedzilla. When the residents return in horror, he blames Bogna for the outrage. This begs Perun to expose his lie. But the others believe Lubor. They want to offer Bogna to the gods. Her father pleads in vain for pity. At the last moment the voice of Perun rings out, confirming Bogna's innocence. Lubor sees his only way out in flight. He falls off a cliff and drowns.
Finally Doman appears with the crown of Jurata and tells of his experiences. He places the crown on the altar, whereupon the holy flame lights up again. Then he hands it over to Mestwin, who now accepts him as his son-in-law. All swear to watch over the crown in the future.
layout
Like Richard Wagner's Parsifal and Nikolai Rimski-Korsakov's operas The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitesch and the Virgin Fewronija , Legenda Bałtyku is also about the myth of a lost city. The Polish Hellenistic professor Tadeusz Zieliński assumed that the theme of all three myths goes back to the Hellenic culture. Although the opera is Nordic inspired, it does not refer to Germanic or Nordic myths, but rather to Baltic (Lithuanian) and Slavic. Jurata is a Lithuanian goddess. The human characters as well as the thunder god Perun and the love and spring goddess Dodola are Slavic.
The aria of the Doman "Czy ty mnie kochasz, o dziewczyno?" ("Do you love me, girl?"), Which u. a. was often sung by Jan Kiepura . For this purpose, Nowowiejski had expanded an arioso, which originally only consisted of two identical punches, to a complete aria at the suggestion of tenor Józef Woliński. There is also a version of this for solo tenor or soprano and piano.
The opera contains some successful large ensemble scenes with choir and soloists. It stands in the tradition of Italian and German opera. In addition, Nowowiejski integrated elements of Polish and prot-Slavic folklore and archaic sounds. The sound language is eclectic and is largely based on Wagner's music. There are several main themes. Four different ones are assigned to the figure of the doman: the fisherman's theme after the overture, the heroic theme and two love themes. Bogna has its own very lyrical theme that goes back to an organ meditation by Novowiejski in 1911. He processed and combined the topics in a similar way to Wagner. The finale of 1938 brings together the themes of Domans and his lover Bogna (this connection is missing in the later dubious final apotheosis). There are also some musical references. The well-known Aria Domans, for example, is reminiscent of Giacomo Puccini and the style of Cavaradossi in his opera Tosca . The dance of Jurata in the second act is reminiscent of the dance of Anitra from Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt . The opening of the ballet act, the call of the horns appears like a quote from “awakening nature” in Gustav Mahler's 3rd Symphony . The folk dances in the second act (e.g. a Kolomyjka) are inspired by Polish folklore.
While the first and third acts are in traditional operatic style with arias and duets, the short second act consists exclusively of dance and choral scenes. It can therefore be seen as an interlude between the two main acts.
orchestra
The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:
- Woodwind : three flutes , three oboes , three clarinets , three bassoons
- Brass : four horns , three trumpets , three trombones , tuba
- Drums (four players)
- Celesta
- harp
- Strings
Work history
Feliks Nowowiejski intended to write an opera on national Polish themes while studying in Berlin in 1903. First, however, he received an opera libretto from Arnold Horlaska called Busola or Castelletto on an Italian theme. He found it interesting and also started to set it to music. At his first concert in Warsaw in 1906 he performed an excerpt from it, but did not complete the opera. Later he discovered another libretto by the Lwów poet Waleria Szalay, which appealed to him far more. This dealt with the Slavic myth of the city of Vineta , sunk in the Baltic Sea , presented by five composers - Heinrich Frankenburger ( Wineta, Sondershausen 1851), Richard Wüerst ( Vineta, or Am Meeresstrand, Berlin 1863), Jan Nepomuk Škroup ( Vineta, Prague) 1870), Artur Könnemann ( Vineta, revised as Die versunkene Stadt, Lipsku 1895) and Friedrich Oskar Wermann ( Vineta ) - on the subject of operas. Szalay also integrated some elements of the Lithuanian or Old Prussian fairy tale of Jurata, Queen of the Baltic Sea, into her text. Nowowiejski used musical material from the unfinished opera Busola for his setting . The u. a. by Lucjan Kamieński represented assumption that Nowowiejski originally planned his opera with a German subject, was contradicted by his son. Despite the reused material, Legenda Bałtyku differs fundamentally from the older fragment in terms of content.
The opera premiered on November 28, 1924 in the Great Theater in Poznan under the musical direction of Piotr Stermich-Valcrociata and the direction of Stanisław Tarnawski. The stage was by Stanisław Jarocki and the choreography by Maksymilian Statkiewicz. The singers were Kazimierz Czarnecki (Doman), Irena Cywińska (Bogna), Karol Urbanowicz (Mestwin), Aleksandra Szafrańska (Swatawa), Jan Romejko (Tomir) and Gabriel Górski (Lubor). The performance was a great success. The opera was performed more than 50 times in one season. It was soon referred to as the Polish National Opera.
This was followed by performances in Lwów (1927), Katowice (1928) and Warsaw (1937), for each of which Nowowiejski revised his opera. He created the last version in 1938. However, it could no longer be performed due to the outbreak of war. In 1941 he allegedly composed a new finale entitled “Apotheosis of the Slavs”. However, the authorship is questioned. It may have come from one of his sons.
After the Second World War, a four-act version with a revised libretto was created by Krystyna Jeżewska, for which another composer wrote a new finale. The voice of the sea god Perun is missing in this version. It was played in Poznan in 1955 (directed by Adolf Popławski) and in Warsaw in 1960. There were also productions in Łódź (1954, directed by Antoni Majak), Gdansk (1974, directed by Maria Fołtyn) and again in Poznan (1975, directed by Sławomir Żerdzicki).
The German premiere took place on June 19, 1959 in the Rostock Volkstheater under the title Vineta . The musical director was Zeljko Straka, the director was Hans Fetting, and the choreography was by Stanislaw Miszczyk. The production was a huge public success.
To mark the opening of the 2011/2012 season of the Polish Radio Orchestra, there was a concert performance in the Polish Radio Concert Studio on September 18, 2011, which was broadcast on the radio a week later. The conductor was Łukasz Borowicz. Pavlo Tolstoy (Doman), Aleksander Teliga (Mestwin), Ewa Biegas (Bogna), Agnieszka Makówka (Swatawa / Rozalia), Michał Partyka (Tomir) and Robert Gierlach (Lubor) sang.
Excerpts from the work were performed under the direction of Jerzy Wolosiuk at the opening of the 2016/2017 season of the Vorpommern Theater in cooperation with the Stettiner Opera na Zamku in Greifswald, Stralsund and Stettin. The soloists were Ewa Biegas (soprano) and Tadeusz Szlenkier (tenor).
A first production of the final original version from 1938 based on the composer's manuscripts took place in December 2017 at the Poznan Opera, where it was premiered. The choir, ballet and orchestra of Teatr Wielki Poznań were directed by Tadeusz Kozłowski. The staging and choreography was by Robert Bondara, the stage by Julia Skrzynecka, the costumes by Martyna Kander and the lighting design by Maciej Igielski. A video recording of the performance was then made available on the Operavision Internet platform.
Remarks
- ↑ Some sources state that the famous aria of the Doman comes from the second act. This apparently relates to the four-act post-war version. In the video broadcast of the Poznan performance in 2017, the aria is in the first act at position 0:51:10.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Feliks Maria Nowowiejski: Geneza “Legendy Bałtyku” (PDF). In: Komunikaty Mazursko-Warmińskie No. 1, pp. 105–118. 1968. English summary on p. 118.
- ↑ a b c Intermission after the second act of the video transmission of the Poznan performance from 2017, from position 2:01:00.
- ↑ a b c Legenda Bałtyku. In: Encyklopedia muzyki PWN, accessed December 14, 2017.
- ↑ Aria "Czy ty mnie kochasz?" z opery “Legenda Bałtyku”. Library record of the Cyfrowa Biblioteka Polskiej Piosenki, accessed on December 15, 2017.
- ↑ a b c work information of the PWM Edition , accessed on December 14, 2017.
- ↑ Break contribution after the first act of the video broadcast of the Poznan performance from 2017, from position 1:12:00.
- ↑ Heinrich Frankenberger: Wineta. Digitized libretto from the Munich Digitization Center .
- ^ Richard Wüerst: Vineta, or on the beach. Digitized libretto from the Munich Digitization Center .
- ↑ Constantin von Wurzbach : Škroup, Johann Nepomuk . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 35th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1877, p. 106 ( digital copy ).
- ↑ Karel Steinmetz: Hudební kultura ostravského a olomouckého regionu (PDF). Olomuc 2014, p. 41.
- ↑ Karl-Josef Kutsch , Leo Riemens : Large singer lexicon (= digital library . Volume 33). Electronic edition of the third, expanded edition. Directmedia, Berlin 2000, appendix p. 28188.
- ↑ Tadeusz Świtała: Opera Poznańska, 1919-1969. Wydział Kultury i Sztuki Prezydium Rady Narodowej Miasta Poznania, Posen 1973, p. 75.
- ↑ a b c Intermission after the second act of the video transmission of the Poznan performance from 2017, from position 1:56:20.
- ↑ Legenda Bałtyku. Performance database in the Encyklopedia teatru polsklego, accessed December 14, 2017.
- ^ "Vineta" in Rostock. In: Neues Deutschland from June 19, 1959, p. 5.
- ↑ "Legenda Bałtyku" - na inaugurację sezonu 2011/2012 Polskiej Orkiestry Radiowej (Polish) , accessed on 15 December 2017th
- ↑ Program announcement for the season opening concert 2016/2017 of the Theater Vorpommern , accessed on December 15, 2017.
- ↑ Theater spectacle at the beginning of the season. In: Ostsee-Zeitung of September 21, 2016, accessed on December 15, 2017.
- ↑ Intermission after the first act of the video broadcast of the Poznan performance from 2017, from position 1:04:40.
- ↑ Legenda Bałtyku at Operavision ( Memento from December 15, 2017 in the Internet Archive ).