Palestrina (opera)

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Opera dates
Original title: Palestrina
Roberto Saccà as Palestrina, surrounded by the dead masters of music in the first act (Hamburg State Opera 2011)

Roberto Saccà as Palestrina, surrounded by the dead masters of music in the first act ( Hamburg State Opera 2011)

Shape: Musical legend
Original language: German
Music: Hans Pfitzner
Libretto : Hans Pfitzner
Premiere: June 12, 1917
Place of premiere: Prinzregententheater Munich
Playing time: approx. 3 ½ hours
Place and time of the action: Rome and Trent 1563
people

The opera Palestrina by the composer Hans Pfitzner - composed between 1912 and 1915 - was premiered on June 12, 1917 in the Prinzregententheater in Munich under Bruno Walter as a "Musical Legend". It is often considered to be Pfitzner's most important creation.

Pfitzner's intention

In his most successful stage work, Pfitzner, who wrote the libretto himself, addressed the contrast between artist and world. In doing so, he resorted to the historically incorrect tradition that the composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was just able to prevent the abolition or at least strict restriction of church music in the Catholic liturgy , which was called for at the Council of Trent , by submitting a sample composition, the Missa Papae Marcelli .

Pfitzner assumes a text passage from Arthur Schopenhauer's Parerga and Paralipomena for his text on the “musical legend” :

“That purely intellectual life of the individual corresponds to a life of the whole of humanity, whose real life is also in the will. This purely intellectual life of mankind consists in its progressive knowledge by means of the sciences, and in the perfection of the arts, which both, through generations and centuries, slowly continue, and to which the individual sexes hurry by, contributing their amount. This intellectual life hovers, like an ethereal addition, a fragrant scent that develops from fermentation over the worldly hustle and bustle, the actually real, will-led life of the peoples, and alongside world history goes innocently and not bloodstained the history of philosophy, of science and the arts. "

action

first act

First act: Cardinal Borromeo ( Struckmann , standing) wants a new mass from Palestrina ( Saccà , half-seated), who refuses. ( Hamburg State Opera 2011)

Rome, in the residence of the composer Palestrina in 1563, shortly before the conclusion of the Council of Trent.

In Palestrina's study, his student Silla plays a piece on the violin that he composed himself and sings along with it. He explains to the joining Ighino, Palestrina's young son, how much he is enthusiastic about a new style of music that has emerged in Florence. Meanwhile, Palestrina and Cardinal Borromeo, who is coming from the Council of Trent, enter the room. Borromeo criticizes Silla's new tones and is amazed that Palestrina is more tolerant: “This is the new time that is fermenting in him”, the latter appeases Silla's new artistic ideas and suggests “whether the world is not going unexpected ways , and what seemed eternal to us, not blown in the wind? ”Borromeo, who does not believe in the newfangled, worldly sounds and describes the profane lyrics and lush song motifs as errors, wants to revive the tried and tested polyphonic music style and asks Palestrina, in this sense one to write new mass:

If such a work succeeds
- the Pope has granted me this -
then the curse of severity
which still banishes the whole of art may be released;
The style and attitude of the new trade fair are
now the fixed norm.
This work would
bring direction and reform to the art of music.

Palestrina rejects the cardinal's request for a new sample mass, as he has found himself at the end of his creativity since the death of his wife. Borromeo cannot change his mind and leaves the composer in anger. He remains alone in the room overwhelmed by sadness. Suddenly he has a vision: the great masters of the past appear to him and challenge him to complete and crown his life's work with the composition of the mass. Finally, the scene culminates in the silent appearance of Palestrina's late wife Lucrezia and a choir of angels who dictate a new work to the pen for the composer. After the work is done, Palestrina falls asleep exhausted. The next morning, Silla and Ighino collect the sheet music from the mass that was written over the course of one night, which was scattered on the table and the floor.

Second act

Second act: appearance of the cardinal legate Morone ( Koch ), left the Italians, right the Spaniards ( Hamburgische Staatsoper 2011)

Trient, hall in the palace of Prince-Bishop Madruscht.

Cardinals Novagerio and Borromeo prepare the next session of the council in the palace of Prince-Bishop Madruscht in Trento. It is about politically opportune concessions by the Pope to the German Emperor Ferdinand , who, among other things, wishes the church music to be saved. Borromeo reports of his failure at Palestrina, Novagerio explains that the composition of the mass should, if necessary, be forced with the use of force against the musician.

After Cardinal Morone solemnly opened the Council session, there were turbulent arguments. One can neither agree on the future of church music nor on the language of the mass (whether Latin or the national language). Personal vanities, senseless objections, the question of diets - all sorts of grotesque and repulsive side effects of such a gathering come to light. The turmoil grows bigger and bigger, so that the session finally has to be interrupted.

Finally, the servants of some church princes get into a violent argument. The landlord Madruscht lets them shoot and orders the survivors to be dragged to be tortured.

Third act

Third act: The Pope ( Randes ) has spoken, Palestrina ( Saccà ) and Ighino ( Tretyakova ) to the right of it ( Hamburgische Staatsoper 2011)

Rome, in the house of Palestrina.

Palestrina is sitting in his armchair at home in the glow of the setting evening sun. The composer makes a clearly worn and aged impression, because he had been arrested and incarcerated in the meantime. Only after his son Ighino had delivered the score of his new work to the church henchmen, he was released again. Now both are waiting together with some singers from Palestrina's choir for the success of the mass that has just been performed. In contrast to the other acting people, the composer seems completely absent-minded, he is hardly aware of past and present events. Suddenly there are cheering shouts coming closer and closer: “Evviva Palestrina!” Singers from the papal band crowd into the house and announce the great success of Palestrina's new composition. At the height of the general enthusiasm, the Pope appears to personally congratulate Palestrina and to appoint him lifelong director of church music in the Sistine and “Prince of Music”. After Pius IV has left again with the cheering crowd, Cardinal Borromeo approaches Palestrina. He falls at the feet of the musician, asks his forgiveness and finally pulls himself out of his arms with his face averted. Ighino is left alone with Palestrina. Overwhelmed with joy, he is surprised that his father himself shows so little euphoria. Finally he runs out into the street to express his youthful enthusiasm, while Palestrina, after standing in front of the picture of his wife for a while, lost in the improvisation of some notes on his little house organ. The opera ends with a barely audible organ pianissimo.

Orchestral line-up

Stylistic position

Pfitzner's musical language is clearly influenced by Wagner , it uses a far-reaching and artfully mastered leitmotif technique . The harmony is mainly diatonic with modal features, so its independence and boldness does not lie in the exploration of chromatic border areas (as in Wagner's Tristan and Isolde ), but in fourths and fifths that can be heard over and over again. All in all, it conjures up an archaic mood that the listener can hardly escape from after the first few sounds of the prelude. In addition, there is the concise melodic power of various motifs.

Musically and lyrically, the opera thrives on opposites on different levels. For example, in Act 2, the contrast between the impressive external splendor and dignity of the Catholic Church and the selfishness, vanity, stupidity and moral depravity of at least some of its officials creates a particular tension. Likewise, an archetypal generation conflict is thematized with the figure of the pupil Silla, which - like many others - is reminiscent of the conflict between Hans Sachs and Stolzing in Wagner's Mastersingers .

Performance history and reception

Theater ticket for a performance in the Prinzregententheater Munich in August 1919 under the direction of the composer with the singer of the world premiere Karl Erb in the title role

The Munich premiere on June 12, 1917 under the direction of Bruno Walter with Karl Erb in the title role was an extraordinary success. Bruno Walter later always stood up for the work he loved, but other conductors such as Joseph Keilberth , Robert Heger or later Rafael Kubelík and Wolfgang Sawallisch also valued Pfitzner's “musical legend” very much. Richard Strauss , who otherwise had little sympathy for his colleague, wanted to include Palestrina in an "opera museum" that was to be created.

Frequent performances on smaller stages were hampered by the opera's enormous technical difficulties. In addition, after the Second World War , Pfitzner was considered at least a problematic composer by many people in charge of the cultural sector due to his political entanglements during the National Socialist era . Nevertheless, there were repeated productions in Germany, for example in Munich, Augsburg, Nuremberg, Düsseldorf, Bremen and Berlin. In the GDR, too, there was at least one production at the Berlin State Opera with Peter Schreier in the role of Palestrina at the end of the 1980s . In the meantime, various recordings (record and CD) of the work are available. Recently, Christian Thielemann in particular , who conducted Palestrina in Nuremberg and Berlin, has repeatedly dealt intensively with Pfitzner's music. The most recent new productions took place in 2009 in Munich (director: Christian Stückl , conductor: Simone Young ), Frankfurt (director: Harry Kupfer , conductor: Kirill Petrenko ) and in 2011 at the Zurich Opera House (director: Jens-Daniel Herzog , conductor: Ingo Metzmacher , Palestrina : Roberto Saccà ).

Recordings

literature

  • Jost Hermand: Hans Pfitzner: Palestrina (1917) - A musical legend . In: The same: Splendor and misery of German opera . Böhlau, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-412-20098-5 , pp. 163-178.
  • Jürgen Maehder : Orchestral sound as the medium of the work's intention in Pfitzner's “Palestrina”. In: Rainer Franke, Wolfgang Osthoff , Reinhard Wiesend (eds.): Hans Pfitzner and the musical theater. Report on the Symposium Schloß Thurnau 1999. Hans Schneider, Tutzing 2008, pp. 87–122.
  • Owen Toller: Pfitzner's Palestrina. The 'Musical Legend' and its Background. With a preface by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Toccata Press, London 1997. ISBN 0-907689-24-8
  • Dieter Borchmeyer : What is German? A nation's search for itself. Berlin 2017. pp. 774–796.

Web links

Commons : Palestrina  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Deutsche Grammophon 1973, No. 2530364-67. New edition 1989: No. CD 89/02503
  2. ↑ Berlin Classics 1992, No. 0310 001 or Edel 2002, No. BC 1001-2
  3. ↑ Hans Pfitzner: Palestrina ( Memento from December 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) at EuroArts, DVD No. 2072528, Release 2010.