Proserpina (Rihm)

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Opera dates
Title: Proserpine
Proserpine with pomegranate, detail from a painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1874)

Proserpine with pomegranate,
detail from a painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1874)

Shape: Monodrama
Original language: German
Music: Wolfgang Rihm
Libretto : Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Premiere: May 2, 2009
Place of premiere: Schwetzingen Palace Theater
Playing time: approx. 1 ¼ hours
people

Proserpina is an opera (original name: " Monodrama ") based on Johann Wolfgang Goethe for soprano , choir and chamber orchestra by Wolfgang Rihm . It was premiered on May 2, 2009 in the Schlosstheater Schwetzingen .

action

A barren rocky area, a cave in the ground, on one side a pomegranate tree with fruits

Proserpina, the daughter of Jupiter and Ceres , was kidnapped into the underworld by her admirer Pluton (→ robbery of Persephone ). There she feels lonely and abandoned. She misses the blooming valleys of her homeland and her friends. She cannot be comforted by the love of Pluton, who made her queen of the underworld. Here she has to watch the torments of the damned, but can neither help Tantalus nor Ixtion nor the Danaids . She thinks of her mother and her playmates in the upper world, who are now desperately looking for her. She begs her father to lead her mother to her and give her a way back into the sunlight. Unexpectedly, she finds a pomegranate that reminds her of home. She eats some grains that are refreshing at first. However, the voices of the Parzen tell her that the bite into the fruit has finally sealed her fate: She now belongs to them and will rule over them as queen.

layout

Rihm decided to give the music a special euphony. It is in contrast to the character of the Goethe monologue, which alternates between aggressiveness and depression. There are some echoes of Schönberg's expressionist monodrama Expectation . Rihm's tonal language, however, appears “more sensual, cantable, but also more artificial, more self-loving” ( Uwe Schweikert ). A highlight is the "orgiastic moaning" Proserpina to the words "Refreshment! refreshing! ”after her bite into the pomegranate, which is also savored by the instrumental ensemble. Here "love and death fatigue" merge.

orchestra

The chamber music ensemble of the opera includes the following instruments:

Work history

Wolfgang Rihm wrote his monodrama Proserpina in 2008 on behalf of the Schwetzingen Festival and Südwestrundfunk . The plot is based on the myth of the goddess Proserpina, who has been kidnapped into the underworld, and is often set to music . As a libretto, Rihm used the unabridged text of the eponymous Sturm und Drang monodrama by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe from 1777, which had been provided with music by Karl Siegmund von Seckendorff at the time .

The world premiere took place on May 2, 2009 in the Schlosstheater Schwetzingen with the soprano Mojca Erdmann (for whose voice Rihm wrote the part) in the title role, the ladies of the SWR Vocal Ensemble Stuttgart and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra of the SWR under the conductor Jonathan Stockhammer . The production was done by Hans Neuenfels , the stage by Gisbert Jäkel and the costumes by Elina Schnizler.

The reviewer of the opera world particularly praised the musical quality of the performance and the “outstanding” soprano Mojca Erdmann. However, he found the scenic implementation "unimaginative", the silent roles added by Neuenfels as "irritating" and the depiction of the final scene (Pluto sent Proserpine to the line) as "silly" and "offending the spirit of the text and music ". In the critics' survey of the opera world , the production was voted "World Premiere of the Year".

Eleven months later, the production was also shown on the Wuppertal stages . Here Elena Fink sang the title role. Florian Frannek directed the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra and the ladies' choir of the Wuppertaler Bühnen.

In June 2016 there was a new production of the opera in the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma as part of the “Fast Forward Festival” . As in the premiere, Mojca Erdmann sang Proserpine. Directed by Valentina Carrasco. The set was by Carles Berga and the costumes by Clay Apenouvon. Walter Kobéra was the musical director .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Frieder Reininghaus : Hell of sound beauty. Wolfgang Rihm's “Proserpina” at the start of the Schwetzingen Festival (premiere on May 2nd). In: Austrian music magazine . Volume 64, Issue 6, ISSN (Online) 2307-2970, ISSN (Print) 0029-9316, doi: 10.7767 / omz.2009.64.6.50 , pp. 50-51.
  2. ↑ a b c d Uwe Schweikert : Beauty drunk against the wall. Review of the premiere. In: Opernwelt , July 2009, p. 8.
  3. ↑ a b work information of Universal Edition , accessed on August 13 of 2019.
  4. ↑ a b Indication in the score.
  5. ^ Frieder Reininghaus : Lust der Tor: Wolfgang Rihm's “Proserpina” premiered in Schwetzingen. In: Neue Musikzeitung , May 5, 2009, accessed on August 13, 2019.
  6. ↑ Performances (1770–1830) of Proserpina in the DFG opera project , accessed on August 13, 2019.
  7. ↑ Uwe Schweikert : Dignified fantasy, laconic poetry. World premieres of the year. In: Opernwelt Jahrbuch 2009, p. 23.
  8. ↑ Pedro Obiera: Hans Neuenfels staged Wolfgang Rihm's opera "Proserpina". In: Gießener Allgemeine Zeitung , April 12, 2010, accessed on August 13, 2019.
  9. ↑ Christa Blank: Pomegranate in the furniture store. Review of the performance at the Fast Forward Festival in Rome 2016 on kultura-extra.de, June 8, 2016, accessed on August 13, 2019.