Regina (opera)
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Regina |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Albert Lortzing |
| Libretto : | Albert Lortzing |
| Premiere: | March 21, 1899 |
| Place of premiere: | Berlin, Royal Opera |
| people | |
|
|
Regina is an opera in three acts by Albert Lortzing with a libretto by the composer.
action
first act
When the curtain rises, you see a factory with excited workers who are on strike, demanding more wages and wanting fundamental changes (“We will get our way now, if not with words, then with weapons”). The foreman Richard, who is secretly engaged to Regina, the daughter of the factory owner, knows how to moderate the workers to "reasonable" demands. Stephan, another foreman, also loves Regina, but connects with political rebels, a "free corps", and occupies the factory where the engagement is about to be celebrated. Choir stands against chorus, moderates against radicals; In 1848, the early forms of social democracy and communism stand opposite one another . A fight ensues, the factory is set on fire, Regina is kidnapped.
Second act
You see Stephan and Regina in a lonely hut. Regina tries to persuade the kidnapper to turn back. A simple employee comes into the hut and is mocked by the drunken Soldateska, but Stephan knows how to flee with Regina.
Third act
Stephan still has Regina under his control and fled with her to a "powder tower", an ammunition dump. The liberators under Richard's leadership approach and surround the powder tower, whereupon the violent Stephan seizes an open fire and threatens to blow himself and Regina and everything around him into the air. At that moment Regina shoots him. The freedom-driven “workers of all classes storm the stage”, in the frenzy of their success and the freedoms they had gained in the spring of 1848 (the emperor and chancellor fled), sing freedom chants in three-quarter rounds (“the people cannot be mocked”, “So glory comes to the people ”), so the opera ends in a waltz frenzy, in a black-red-gold democratic vision.
Reception history
Regina is a completely unusual opera by Albert Lortzing, for which he wrote the libretto himself . This romantic- political "freedom opera", which was set unusually in a factory and where the main protagonists are workers who strike and sing of freedom, was created in 1848, but was only published in Berlin on March 21, 1899, long after Lortzing's death Royal Opera , although the piece that was previously undesirable for political reasons was heavily adapted by Adolph L'Arronge . Where z. B. at Lortzing the choirs sing “Heil Freiheit!”, Under Kaiser Wilhelm II. Farm workers sing “Hoch Blücher !” The title addition “or the Marauders” is an addition from 1899. In Lortzing's handwriting the opera is simply called Regina ( after his wife Rosina Regina Ahles , with whom he had eleven children).
Later versions also changed Regina again and again. The only recording available on sound carriers until July 2013 was a radio production by East Berlin Radio from 1951 in which the dialogues had been changed in the socialist sense. The first performance of the opera in its original version (based on Lortzing's handwritten score) took place - exactly 150 years after the start of the struggles for freedom in Vienna and Berlin - on March 13, 1998 in the Musiktheater im Revier in Gelsenkirchen. It was directed by Peter Konwitschny , who was then voted “Opera Director of the Year” for the first time by a large jury of critics. The 2011 recording under Ulf Schirmer is based on the critical edition by Ricordi .
Lortzing was postmarked after this opera, which was never performed during his lifetime. His last comment was: “Regina is waiting for better times.” He had problems finding a job as Kapellmeister again and supporting his large family. In January 1851 he died, deeply in debt, in his native Berlin.
Productions
- 1899 Berlin (edited)
- 1953 Rostock (edited)
- 1981 Oberhausen (edited)
- 1983 Linz (edited)
- 1984 Wittenberg (edited)
- 1998 Karlsruhe (in excerpts)
- 1998 Gelsenkirchen
- 2006 Berlin
- 2013 Kaiserslautern
- 2016 Meiningen
Recordings / sound carriers
- Regina . Berlin Radio Choir and Orchestra, Walter Schartner (cond.). 1951 (mono). Cantus Classics / Line Music 5.00825
- Regina . Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Ulf Schirmer (cond.). 2011. cpo 777 710-2
Music edition
- Albert Lortzing: Regina. Opera in three acts. Edited from the composer's manuscripts by Irmlind Capelle . XXXIX, 514, VIII S. Munich Ricordi 2002.
literature
- Georg Richard Kruse : Albert Lortzing. Famous musician. Pictures of life and character along with an introduction to the works of the masters . Volume VII. Berlin, Harmonie, 1899.
- Jürgen Lodemann : Lortzing. Life and work of the poetic, composing and singing audience favorite, family father and comically tragic game opera world champion from Berlin. Steidl, Göttingen 2000, ISBN 3-88243-733-2
- Jürgen Lodemann: Now comes the great tomorrow of freedom. Lortzing's singular work and freedom opera "Regina" from 1848. ( online )
- Jürgen Lodemann: Finally - The German freedom opera Regina. In: ders .: Opera - O pure nonsense. Albert Lortzing, opera maker. Edition WUZ 19, Freiberg a. N. 2005 ( online ; RTF ; 23 kB)
Web links
- Action ( memento of September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- Theater materials from the Lortzing Collection - Regina ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Performance history in the Lortzing Collection
- Regina - cast sheet for the premiere
- Regina at the Meininger Theater