Odysseus (break)

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Title page of Odysseus

Odysseus op. 41, for mixed choir, solos and orchestra is an oratorio by Max Bruch . It is subtitled Scenes from the Odyssey and is about the return of Odysseus to Ithaca .

Emergence

Bruch began working on Odysseus in September 1871 after he had the first idea. The poet Wilhelm Paul Graff wrote the libretto. In November 1872 the oratorio was completed; it is dedicated to the Sing-Academie in Bremen.

Six scenes completed by then were performed on May 16, 1872 by Carl Martin Reinthaler in Bremen. Bruch conducted the world premiere of the entire work on February 8, 1873 in Barmen ( Wuppertal ). The originally planned soloist Julius Stockhausen had to be replaced by Josef Bletzacher and the originally planned soloist Amalie Joachim (wife of the violinist Joseph Joachim, who was friends with Bruch ) by Adele Graf .

action

part One

Odysseus can be found on the island of Calypso . He longs for his wife, Queen Penelope and his homeland Ithaca . Hermes , messenger of the gods, enables Odysseus to flee from Calypso on a raft.

In Hades , Odysseus and his companions lament the fate they have suffered and are urged by the blind sage Teiresias and the spirit of his mother Antikleia to continue their flight. With wax in their ears, the men escape the singing of the sirens .

On his raft, Odysseus gets caught in a storm sparked by Poseidon , but is saved by Leukothea and ends up on the island of the Phaeacians .

Part II

On Ithaca, Penelope mourns the loss of her son Telemachus , who has gone in search of his father Odysseus, and asks the gods to lead Odysseus home safely.

Meanwhile Odysseus sees Nausicaa , the daughter of phäakischen King Alkinoos , and dance her companions and is fascinated by her beauty. Nausicaa invites him and his companions to her father's farm. During the feast he reveals his identity and tells of the fate he has suffered so far. The Phaeacians have pity on him and provide him with a ship to take him home.

Penelope sings in the night while she tears open a handkerchief she has been weaving during the day; she had promised to take one of her suitors as husband as soon as the handkerchief was ready. Meanwhile Odysseus reaches Ithaca; while he sleeps, the Phaean seamen bring him ashore. At first he does not realize where he is. Goddess Athena assures him that he has arrived home and tells him about Penelope's suitors. Odysseus swears vengeance on the suitors for harassing Penelope and desecrating the temple.

There is general cheering in Ithaca, including a tender duet between Odysseus and Penelope.

effect

Odysseus established Bruch's reputation in a similar way to his First Violin Concerto . In Bruch's list of 42 performances of the oratorio there are also cities such as New York, Manchester (planned) and Liverpool. The performance in Liverpool helped Bruch to succeed Julius Benedict as director of the Royal Philharmonic Society in Liverpool in 1880 .

Despite the prophecy of the reviewer Hermann Deiters in the Allgemeine Musikischen Zeitung that the popularity of the oratorio would last forever, it only lasted until around the beginning of the First World War .

Bruch became dissatisfied with Ferdinand Hiller because Bruch suspected his former teacher of having prevented a review of Odysseus in the Kölner Zeitung . Publisher Fritz Simrock was able to persuade Bruch to accept Hiller's invitation to conduct the work himself at the Cologne performance on January 27, 1874.

literature

  • Christopher Fifield: Max Bruch. Biography of a composer. From d. Engl. By Renate Maria Wendel, Schweizer Verlagshaus, 1990 Zurich, ISBN 3-7263-6616-4 , pp. 129-136

Web links