Manru
| Opera dates | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Manru |
Poster for the premiere in Krakow 1901 |
|
| Shape: | Opera |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Ignacy Jan Paderewski |
| Libretto : | Alfred Nossig |
| Literary source: | A hut behind the village (1843) by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski |
| Premiere: | May 29, 1901 |
| Place of premiere: | Semperoper Dresden |
| Playing time: | approx. 2 ½ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | a village in the Tatra Mountains around 1901 |
| people | |
Manru is an opera in three acts by Ignacy Jan Paderewski with a libretto by Alfred Nossig . It is Paderewski's only opera.
action
first act
The farmer's wife Jadwiga regrets the shame her daughter Ulana brought upon her and herself when she married the gypsy Manru. Ulana would like to be reconciled with her mother, but she would only consent if Ulana left Manru. Ulana, who no longer has a home, fears that Manru might leave her and therefore asks the dwarf Urok, who has magical powers, to brew her a potion with which she can bind Manru to herself forever, because she has heard, how unfaithful gypsy men are.
Second act
Manru left the gypsies to live with Ulana in the city. They have a child together, but Manru is still unhappy and Ulana is becoming more and more afraid that he might leave her. In fact, Manru meets a gypsy and learns that the young gypsy Asa has fallen in love with him and wishes him to come back to the gypsies. Ultimately, Ulana gives Manru the magical potion and the act ends with him declaring his passion for her.
Third act
Manru wanders through a forest and is amazed at the magic that has suddenly come over him. He meets his gypsies and is immediately asked by some to return to them, only the leader, Oros, does not want to take Manru back in. Annoyed by Oro's stubbornness, the gypsies decide to depose him as leader and follow Manru instead. Manru accepts this decision and stays with them. Desperate to have lost Manru after all, Ulana kills himself. In mourning over the death of his secret love and anger over Manru, Urok kills the gypsy leader.
layout
music
In implementing the libretto, Paderewski adhered to the conventions of the late 19th century and used harmonies that represent both Wagner's influence and the orchestration approach of German composers. The introduction to the third act is a narrative point in which various motifs from the previous scene between Manru and the gypsies seem to unite. Somehow this is reminiscent of the opening of the final act of Götterdämmerung with its interlude between the solo tenor and the other male voices, which underlines and sometimes augments chords or short dissonances of the orchestra. In terms of melodic content, Paderewski's approach sometimes resembles the style of Smetana and Dvořák, whose opera Rusalka was written at the same time. Declamatory passages take the form of a recitative, associated with Italian opera. Flowing dialogues, which require you to pay attention to the text, are reproduced with tone repetitions and relatively simple melodies.
Some of the more expressive lines can be found in Manru, whose main role is obvious since Paderewski named the opera after him. Manrus Part contains a number of poignant lines, especially in the moving scene between himself and Ulana at the beginning of Act II. While Ulana's role remains declamatory in Act I, she becomes reflective in Act II, as she and Manru live outside their respective communities and wonder why they are alienated from one another. This scene is the heart of the work and sets the emotional place that leads the opera to its tragic climax (Climax).
Suggestions of folk melodies and local tints are part of Paderewski's musical language, but nowhere does he fall into a formulaic scheme. This is serious work that effectively shows folk elements in the larger context of a Polish opera. The importance of the drama is indirectly underlined in the musical text by the course of the voices, which helps to assess the emotional situation of the event. At the same time, Paderewski cleverly uses the orchestra to underline the lyrics and suggest the plot. The March of the Gypsies later in the third act is reminiscent of orchestral colors without using a cliché, and the dramatic course of the voices during the final scene reinforces the plot without overtaking it.
libretto
In keeping with the nationalism promoted Paderewski based libretto by Alfred Nossig on Józef Ignacy Kraszewski's novel Chaty za wsią ( "The cottage behind the village") from the year 1843. While this generally regarded as the first Polish music drama is seen, then the eclectic style Paderewski used in this work, more than a Slavic imitation of Wagner's opera. The story itself resembles some of the narratives that attracted verismo composers at the same time as Paderewski. The plot sheds light on the unlucky relationship between the Polish farmer's daughter Ulana and the gypsy Manru, who comes along with some clichés to illustrate the clash of cultures. While the opera stands out from the repertoire, it is still regarded as Paderewski's masterpiece.
history
Emergence
Among the few compositions by Paderewski, Manru stands out as the only opera. Since studying in Berlin, Paderewski had toyed with the idea of composing an opera. Manru is the result of the realization of this plan. The opera was premiered with a German-language libretto by Alfred Nossig on May 29, 1901 in the Semperoper in Dresden under the artistic direction of Ernst von Schuchin.
reception
On June 8, 1901, just a few days after its world premiere in Dresden, the opera was played in Lviv with a libretto translated into Polish. There were national premieres of the work in Prague on November 24, 1901, in Zurich on January 30, 1902 and in Warsaw on May 24, 1902. The opera was also performed in Nice , Monte Carlo , Bonn and Kiev . At the Metropolitan Opera , Manru was performed four times in the English translation by Henry Edward Krehbiel during the 1901/1902 opera season, the first of which was the US premiere on February 24, 1902. Alexander von Bandrowski as Manru and Marcella Sembrich as Ulana sang under the artistic direction of Walter Damrosch (a good friend of Paderewski). To this day, the opera is the only Polish opera that has ever been produced at the Metropolitan Opera. Other American performances of the opera are known from Philadelphia , Pittsburgh , Boston , Chicago and Baltimore .
In Poland, Paderewski's only opera did not attract regular attention until the 1960s. The Teatr Wielki (Warsaw) revived it in 1930 and gave further performances in 1936, and the Teatr Wielki (Posen) launched a completely new production of the opera in 1938. Since 1945 Manru has not been played outside of Poland, which may be due to the cosmopolitan flair of the work. Important events were therefore the operas in Poznan and Warsaw in 1961 and another performance in Wrocław in 1990 on the occasion of Paderewski's 130th birthday. In 2001, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Paderewski's death , the Breslau Opera organized a concert performance of the opera under the direction of Ewa Michnik. The Polish record company Dux Records produced a concert recording and released Paderewski's only opera work on record for the first time in the world.
Recordings / discography
- Ignacy Jan Paderewski: Manru with Taras Ivaniv (Manru), Ewa Czermak (Ulana), Barbara Krahel (Jadwiga), Agnieszka Rehlis (Aza), Radosław Żukowski (Jagu), Maciej Krzysztyniak (Urok), Zbiegniew Krahel (Oroz), Dorota Dryczka (a girl), Andrzej Kalinin (voice from the mountains), Stanisław Czermak (violin), Choir and Orchestra of the Silesian Opera in Wrocław, conductor: Ewa Michnik. Duration: 110 min, 2 CDs Dux Records, 2001
- Ignacy Jan Paderewski: Manru with Janusz Ratajcak (Manru), Violetta Chodowicz (Ulana), Barbara Krahel (Jadwiga), Monika Ledzion (Aza), Jacek Greszta (Oros), Leszek Skrla (Urok), Lukasz Golinski (Jagu) and others. a .; Opera Nova Bydgoszcz choir and orchestra; Head: Maciej Figas; 2CDs Dux Records, 2006
literature
- Hook, Max from: Manru from Ignacy Jan Paderewski. Text by Alfred Nossig. Textl. u. music. ext. by Max v. Hook. An opera guide, Leipzig: H. Seemann Nf., 1902
- "Opera Guide" by Jozef Kanski, PWM 1978
- Józef Kański: Przewodnik operowy , Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne, Warszawa 1973, pp. 394–395.
- Józef Kański: Przewodnik operowy , Wyd. XI. Warszawa: Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne, 2014, pp. 446–447. ISBN 978-83-224-0962-6 .
Web links
- Manru : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Synopsis from Charles Annesley's "The Standard Operaglass", 1920 (en)
- Review by Rob Barnett of the world's first recording of the opera "Manru", November 4, 2004 (en)
- Review by James L. Zychowicz in Opera Today , January 26, 2006 (s)
- Review of the opera Manru at Opera Lounge (de)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Manru's reception, documented by the US media ( Memento from May 26, 2016 in the Internet Archive )