Operetka
| Opera dates | |
|---|---|
| Title: | operetta |
| Original title: | Operetka |
| Shape: | Opera in two acts |
| Original language: | Polish |
| Music: | Michał Dobrzyński |
| Libretto : | Michał Dobrzyński |
| Literary source: | Witold Gombrowicz : Operetka |
| Premiere: | April 9, 2015 |
| Place of premiere: | Warsaw Chamber Opera |
| Playing time: | approx. 1 ¼ hours |
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Operetka ( Eng .: “Operetta”) is an opera in two acts by Michał Dobrzyński (music and libretto) based on the play Operetka by Witold Gombrowicz . It was premiered on April 9, 2015 in the Warsaw Chamber Opera.
action
first act
Like Gombrowicz's play, the opera deals with the contrast between the nobility (in the form of the “masters”) and the poor people (“lackeys”).
At the beginning, four lackeys set up chairs for their masters' upcoming ball. The first guest is the womanizer Count Szarm, who lets his lackey Ladislas fix his clothes. Szarm has a thief brought in, whose services he wants to use to seduce the bourgeois Albertynka - he wants to present himself to her as a savior. Szarm competes with Baron Firulet, with whom he repeatedly clashes. At the moment, however, with 257 female conquests, he surpasses Firulets 256. Next, the professor appears with his friend, Count Hufnagiel, who suffers from “chronic vomiting”. The star guest of the evening is the fashion designer Fior, whose constant innovations make it possible for the nobles to distinguish themselves from the lower classes, as the latter are constantly trying to imitate the clothes of the upper classes. The aristocrats let their servants clean their shoes. Everyone is looking forward to the upcoming ball. The guests move away. Only Szarm receives another injection from his lackey Ladislas.
Albertynka tries to catch a fly. She lies down exhausted. The thief approaches her and tries to caress her, but Szarm shows him out. Albertynka laughs and introduces him to the various parts of her body (hand, foot, eyes, etc.). Szarm tries to furnish her with fashionable clothing, but she refuses all of them. She prefers to be undressed rather than undressed - which amazes Szarm. Albertynka assures him that she would prefer to be naked.
The guests come back. Hufnagiel suggests a masked ball. Everyone should wear a costume that is as bizarre as possible, wrapped in a sack that they drop as soon as Master Fior gives the sign. Fior should be inspired by this for his "fashion of the future". After the guests have withdrawn, Fior laments the "great gallop without progress", in which he sees no point. He would love to become "like a statue" to stop him. But he realizes the absurdity of his wish and is desperate.
Second act
Albertynka continues to crave nudity. The disguised guests come in. The nobles wonder why Szarm invited the middle-class Albertynka - apparently he wants to flirt with her. Szarm and his adversary Firulet outdo each other in giving her elegant clothes. While they are arguing, Albertynka tosses the presents aside and begins to undress.
Finally, Fior calls out the start of the ball. The guests consider nudity to be a symbol of socialism, because class differences would fall without clothing. Hufnagiel seizes the opportunity to propagate his own hitherto secret cause, the revolution. The professor explains that the supposed count is actually Joseph - the prince's former lackey who was dismissed for disobedience. He confesses to having smuggled it into the castle himself. Joseph believes, however, that the professor has no real faith in the revolution. When the professor admits to hating himself for his weakness, Joseph explains to him the three stages of the revolution: the infiltration of the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie (already done), the contact with the exploited class (started) and the awakening of all destructive elements, to start a social revolt (started). The professor calls him a fool.
The ball begins. You dance exuberantly. Fior asks the guests to remove the oversacks to reveal the costumes underneath. He is surprised by the costumes of Hufnagiel and the professor. The other guests sing of the hunt for a butterfly. Meanwhile the revolution takes its course and is victorious. Fior insists that the subjugated nobles should not be punished without trial. Joseph finds this superfluous at first, but then appoints his horse as prosecutor and Fior as defense counsel and immediately pronounces the verdict: "guilty". Fior protests. The nobles keep singing about the butterfly.
Szarm and Firulet still believe in a joke for a while, but then give up. When Szarm Albertynka goes missing, Firulet suspects that she was kidnapped and murdered. All turn away from their own past and place symbols of their previous existence in a coffin. You are now singing about the “sacred human nudity” yourself. Finally, the naked Albertynka climbs out of the coffin.
Work history
Michał Dobrzyński's opera Operetka is based on the play Operatka by Witold Gombrowicz . The Polish writer had worked on the work for fifteen years, but did not see the world premiere himself. It was not premiered until November 1969, a few months after his death, in L'Aquila, Italy. It is now one of his most important works and has already been musically processed several times. For example, Oscar Strasnoy created the piece Opérette (Reims 2003) and Mario Wiegand the music theater piece Operetta (Osnabrück 2009) on this basis. Dobrzyński tightened the text of the original, deleted some secondary characters, shifted some accents and slightly modified the function of some characters, but kept the basic message.
Barbara Zamek (Albertynka), Jan Jakub Monowid (Fior), Tomasz Rak (Szarm), Karol Bartosiński (Firulet), Anna Radziejewska (Princess), Artur Janda ( Professor), Piotr Pieron (Hufnagiel), Paweł Tucholski (priest), Magdalena Smulczyńska, Ewa Puchalska and Andrzej Marusiak ("gentlemen") and Jakub Andrzej Grabowski, Piotr Kazimierczak, Piotr Kędziora, Grzegorz Żołyniak (Lakaien). The musical director was Przemysław Fiugajski, the director was Jerzy Lach, and the set was designed by Jerzy Rudzki.
The production was selected for the competition of the Armel Opera Festival 2017, in which Melinda Heiter took on the role of Albertynka as a competitor. The performance took place on July 2, 2017 at MuTh Vienna and was made available by Arte on the Internet.
Web links
- Collected reviews (Polish with English translation) on the website of the composer Michał Dobrzyński
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ticking bomb. Review of a performance of Gombrowicz's play at the Bochumer Schauspielhaus in 1971. In: Der Spiegel from March 8, 1972.
- ↑ a b Operetka 20170702. Performance information at MuTh Vienna, accessed on July 7, 2017.
- ↑ Wojciech Giczkowski: bankructwo ideologii naszego Stulecia, czyli Rewolucja lokajów trwa tu i teraz. Review of the opera (Polish) ( memento of July 9, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) on teatrdlawas.pl, accessed on July 7, 2017.
- ↑ Biography of Oscar Strasnoy on SWR2, accessed July 7, 2017.
- ^ Biography of Mario Wiegand on c2hamburg.de, accessed on July 7, 2017.
- ↑ Małgorzata Komorowska: Gombrowicz operowy i upupiony. In: Ruch Muzyczny # 5 2015. From the composer's website , accessed July 7, 2017.
- ↑ Dates of the premiere in the Elektroniczna Encyklopedia Teatru Polskiego, accessed on July 7, 2017.
- ↑ “Operetka” by Michal Dobrzynski @ Armel Opera ( Memento from July 4, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) in the Arte Mediathek, video no longer available.