Prima Donna (Opera)
| Opera dates | |
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| Original title: | Great Donna |
Rufus Wainwright 2010 |
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| Original language: | French |
| Music: | Rufus Wainwright |
| Libretto : | Rufus Wainwright and Bernadette Colomine |
| Premiere: | July 10, 2009 |
| Place of premiere: | Palace Theater, Manchester |
| Playing time: | about 2 hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Paris, July 14, 1970 |
| people | |
Prima Donna is an opera in two acts by Rufus Wainwright (music), who also wrote the libretto with Bernadette Colomine . It was commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera New York, but not played there. The world premiere took place on July 10, 2009 at the Palace Theater in Manchester.
action
The opera takes place on the French National Day (July 14th) in 1970 . Régine Saint Laurent, a once celebrated opera singer, is planning her comeback. Six years earlier she had sung the title role in the world premiere of the opera Aliénor , which was composed for her, with great success , but her voice failed in the second performance. Then she withdrew from the stage. Her butler Philipp has long been hoping that she will return to the spotlight. The chambermaid Marie, on the other hand, is more concerned about the health and peace of mind Régines. On this day the journalist André Letourneur appears for an interview, who turns out to be a long-time fan of Régines.
first act
In Madame Saint Laurent's Paris apartment, early in the morning
Scene 1. The housemaid Marie is startled when she meets her employer who seems confused in the living room. She slept badly and asks Marie to bring two cups of coffee because she wants to talk to her. Marie has only been working in her household for three weeks, and Régine wishes to be addressed as "Madame" by her.
Scene 2. While she waits, Régine thinks about her nightmare of walking through the rainy streets of Paris. She feels like a bird with a broken wing, but believes she can fly anyway (aria: “J'ai rêvé toute la nuit”).
Scene 3. Marie talks about her life. She has two young daughters and an unemployed and moody husband who blames her for his misfortune.
Scene 4. Régine tells Marie that she wants to restart her career. Marie has already learned from the newspaper that Régine will be singing the title role in Aliénor again after six years .
Scene 5. Régine raves about her role in this opera composed for her: Eleanor of Aquitaine was the wife of two kings, first Queen of France, then of England, as well as the mother of eight children and muse of the troubadours . The premiere was a huge success, but at the second performance, Régin's voice failed during the great duet. Now she is afraid of the comeback.
Scene 6. Marie tries to encourage Régine. She asks her to address her by her first name from now on.
Scene 7. The butler Philippe enters the room with his assistant François. He is indignant about the confidentiality between the maid and Madame, sends Marie to work in the kitchen and asks Régine to get dressed, as a journalist has announced his visit.
Scene 8-11. While Philippe and François frantically decorate the apartment, Philippe laments about Régine's earlier glorious times - his best years. This time he and she won't make the same mistakes again.
Scene 12. Marie comes back and the expected journalist arrives too. He introduces himself to Philippe as André Letourneur. Philippe asks Marie to get coffee.
Scene 13-14. Dressed up as a diva, Régine enters the room and greets her guest. André admits that he was an ardent fan of hers even as a student. He studied singing himself and as a tenor still enjoys singing Henry's aria from Aliénor.
Scene 15-16. André starts the tape recorder and begins the interview. Régine says she has lived in Paris for twenty years and in this apartment for ten years. One reason for her comeback desire is the famous record of the Aliénor premiere. The memory of the unsuccessful second performance makes her sink so deep in thought that Marie worries about her. But Philippe roughly orders her to shut up.
Scene 17-19. André asks Régine to sing to him. She goes to the piano and begins to play and sing the duet (duet: "Dans ce jardin fleuri resplendissant"). After a while she interrupts and asks André if he knows the tenor aria. André says yes. He even brought the sheet music with him and performed it (aria: “Abandonne, pose ta couronne juste pour un instant”). Régine gives him some hints for improvement and then suggests singing the duet together (duet: "Dans ce jardin fleuri resplendissant"). But suddenly she collapses overwhelmed by feelings.
Scene 20-21. Philippe orders Marie to take care of Madame, fetch water and open the window. After Régine came to, they postpone the interview until the evening. André says goodbye.
Scene 22-23. After an orchestral interlude, Philippe and Marie leave the room. André, on the other hand, returns once more to fetch his forgotten notes on the piano. Régine looks at him longingly. André goes to her and kisses her. In the background, Marie comes into the room, watches the embrace and quietly leaves the room.
Second act
Later that evening at Madame's apartment
Scene 1. Marie sings about her old life in Picardy, which she compares to life in Paris, where everything revolves around love (song: “Dans mon pays de Picardie”).
Scene 2. Marie explains to the butler that she is worried about Madame about the journalist's second visit. On the one hand, fireworks are planned for the evening, and on the other hand, she believes he is playing with Madame's feelings. Philippe replies that it is none of their business. He is glad that all is not lost. He leaves the room with the threatening remark that Marie's days are numbered.
Scene 3-4. Madame enters the room singing vocalises. She tries her aria from Aliénor, but fails several times on the highest note (aria: "Quand j'étais jeune étudiante au conservatoire"). Then she looks at the record of the opera, which she still hasn't listened to, and puts it on.
Scene 5. While the record is playing, the scene changes to that of the original Aliénor production six years earlier. The stage represents the French court, and André sings the role of King Henry (duet: "Dans ce jardin fleuri resplendissant").
Scene 6-7. Régine rests exhausted (meditation). She doubts that she can sing this role again. Philippe is appalled by this. He gets rude, reminds her that he's only been there for her for ten years, and then threatens to be beaten. Marie and Régine run to the phone to call the police.
Scene 8. Philippe declares that he wants to give up his position. He gathers his things and wishes Madame good luck. At that moment André appears at the door. Everyone calms down again.
Scene 9. André has brought his fiancée Sophie with him and apologizes for forgetting to meet her. Marie and Régine need a while to come to terms with the changed situation. André asks Régine to sign his Aliénor album.
Scene 10. While Régine is writing the autograph, she thinks about her life, which until now has served conductors, composers and the public (aria “Prenez-le donc”). She realizes that André doesn't really deserve her autograph, so she gets her own album, signs it and gives it to Marie. This is supposed to be her last act as an artist, “La Prima Donna”. She asks the others to leave her alone.
Scene 11-12. For a longer orchestral interlude, Régine extinguishes the candles until the stage is completely dark. During the fireworks she looks at the people celebrating in the street (aria: “Les feux d'artifice t'appellent”).
Instrumentation
The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:
- Woodwinds : three flutes (3rd also piccolo ), two oboes (2nd also English horn ), three clarinets (2nd also Eb clarinet , 3rd also bass clarinet ), two bassoons , contrabassoon
- Brass : four horns , three trumpets , two trombones , bass trombone
- Timpani , percussion (two players)
- harp
- Organ , piano , celesta
- Strings
Work history
The composer Rufus Wainwright, known as a singer-songwriter , received the inspiration for his opera Prima Donna from a DVD with an interview of Maria Callas with Lord Harewood . In the supplement to the CD release of the opera, Wainwright explicitly pointed out that despite the support of a few assistants, he had composed and orchestrated every single note of the opera completely himself.
In 2006 he was commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera in cooperation with the Lincoln Center Theater in New York. In 2008 he gave up the plan for a production at the Metropolitan Opera. This and Lincoln Center had insisted on a performance in English, although he wrote the opera in French. He stated that although he had thought of an English translation, the French words were now too integrated into the music. Another problem was the premiere, which was only possible in 2014 at the earliest.
Eventually he received a new joint assignment from the Manchester International Festival, Sadler's Wells London, the Luminato Festival (Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity) and the Melbourne International Arts Festival. The Opera North Orchestra conducted by Pierre-André Valade played at the world premiere on July 10, 2009 at the Palace Theater in Manchester. Directed by Daniel Kramer, the stage was by Antony McDonald, and the lighting design by Peter Mumford. Janis Kelly (Régine), Jonathan Summers (Philippe), Rebecca Bottone (Marie) and William Joyner (André) sang .
George Scott shot the documentary Prima Donna: The Story of an Opera ( Rufus Wainwright: Prima Donna! ) About the production of the opera . It aired on January 7, 2012 on 3sat .
The world premiere was followed by performances in London (2010), Toronto (also 2010) and by the New York City Opera at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (2012).
A 40-minute concert version was presented on September 3, 2010 in Portland.
In March 2014, Wainwright launched a successful crowdfunding campaign on Pledge Music to fund the recording of his opera with the BBC Symphony Orchestra . The CD was released by Deutsche Grammophon in September 2015 .
In 2015, Wainwright presented a new version of the opera entitled Prima Donna: A Symphonic Visual Concert , for which the artists Francesco Vezzoli and Cindy Sherman created a video installation of the finale. It was first performed in the Odeon of Herodes Atticus at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens. There were further performances in 2016 at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, at the Hong Kong Arts Festival and the Avignon Festival and in 2017 at the Auckland Arts Festival.
On June 28, 2017 the opera was shown as part of the Armel Opera Festival in the Thalia Theater in Budapest. Arte Concert made a video recording available on the Internet.
The Theater Augsburg played Prima Donna from February 3, 2018 in the alternative venue in Martini-Park as a German premiere in a specially made German translation by Lothar Nickel. Lancelot Fuhry and Ivan Demidov were the musical directors . Staging, stage design and video concept came from Hans Peter Cloos, the costumes from Marie Pawlotsky. Sally du Randt sang the title role .
Recordings
- January 2015 - Jayce Ogren (conductor), BBC Symphony Orchestra .
Janis Kelly (Régine), Richard Morrison (Philippe), Kathryn Guthrie (Marie), Antonio Figueroa (André).
Studio recording.
Deutsche Grammophon 4795340.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b information on the piano reduction of the opera from the European American Music Distributors Company, accessed on July 1, 2017.
- ↑ a b Rufus Wainwright: Foreword in the supplement to the CD Deutsche Grammophon 4795340, p. 4.
- ^ The Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center Theater Announce Met / LCT Opera / Theater Commissions in the Archives of the Metropolitan Opera ( Memento of July 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ).
- ^ Daniel J. Wakin: Pop Singer Drops Plan to Compose for the Met. In: The New York Times, August 27, 2008, accessed July 1, 2017.
- ^ Program of the Manchester International Festival of July 2009 ( Memento of March 5, 2009 in the Internet Archive ).
- ↑ Prima Donna: The Story of an Opera at Rotten Tomatoes, accessed July 1, 2017.
- ↑ Rufus Wainwright: PRIMA DONNA! in the 3sat program , accessed on July 1, 2017.
- ↑ a b c d Rufus Wainwright: Afterword in the supplement to the CD Deutsche Grammophon 4795340, p. 19.
- ↑ Prima Donna - Concert Version. Work information on the piano reduction from the European American Music Distributors Company, accessed on July 1, 2017.
- ↑ Prima Donna: The Album on Pledge Music, accessed July 1, 2017.
- ^ Derek Blasberg: Rufus Wainwright Gives Opera a Face-lift. Article from April 24, 2015 on vanityfair.com, accessed July 1, 2017.
- ^ Prima donna by R. Wainwright at the Museum of Cycladic Art, accessed July 1, 2017.
- ↑ Prima Donna at the Teatro Colón , accessed July 1, 2017.
- ↑ Ken Smith: Prima Donna, Hong Kong - review: 'a stylistic amalgam'. Reviewed March 2, 2016 on ft.com, accessed July 1, 2017.
- ^ Prima Donna / Rufus Wainwright at the Avignon Festival , accessed July 1, 2017.
- ^ Program and libretto of the Symphonic Visual Concert (PDF) at the Auckland Arts Festival, accessed on July 1, 2017.
- ^ "Prima Donna" @ Armel Opera ( memento of July 3, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) on Arte Concert (video no longer available), accessed on July 1, 2017.
- ↑ Performance information from the Augsburg Theater, accessed on March 9, 2018.