Salomé (Mariotte)

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Opera dates
Title: Salomé
Title page of the piano reduction, Paris 1910

Title page of the piano reduction, Paris 1910

Shape: Tragédie lyrique in one act
Original language: French
Music: Antoine Mariotte
Libretto : Antoine Mariotte
Literary source: Oscar Wilde : Salome
Premiere: October 30, 1908
Place of premiere: Grand Theater de Lyon
Playing time: approx. 1 ½ hours
Place and time of the action: Jerusalem, on a terrace of Herod's palace
people

Salomé is an opera (original name: " Tragédie lyrique ") in one act by Antoine Mariotte with a libretto based on Oscar Wilde's drama Salome . It was composed between 1902 and 1906, but was not premiered until October 30, 1908 in the Grand Théatre de Lyon due to legal disputes.

action

The action takes place on a terrace of Hérode's palace, which is bordered by a gallery in the background and offers a view of the palace gardens. On the right side a large staircase leads to a brightly lit ballroom. In the left background is an old cistern that is used as a prison for the prophet.

Scene I. Soldiers are walking up and down the terrace and the gallery. The young Syrian Narraboth and a page from Queen Hérodias look at the ballroom, from which music is playing. Narraboth is so fascinated by the beauty of Princess Salomé that the page warns him not to stare too hard. The voice of the prophet Iokanaan, who foretells the coming of Christ, can be heard from the cistern. Two soldiers talk about the incomprehensibility of his prophecies. The moon reminds the pages of a dead woman who comes out of her grave. Narraboth thinks she looks like a princess who wants to dance in a yellow veil. Meanwhile, the guests in the festival hall toast the emperor's well-being. The first soldier tells the second that the brother of the tetrarch Hérode, the first husband of the Hérodias, was imprisoned in the same cistern for twelve years before his execution. Narraboth points out that the princess has got up and is walking towards her.

Mlle de Wailly as Salomé

Scene II. Annoyed by the intrusive looks of Hérode, Salomé leaves the banquet hall. When Narraboth tries to speak to her, the voice of the prophet is heard again, and the first soldier gives the princess his name. A messenger tells Narraboth that Hérode wants to see the princess again at the festival. However, Salomé refuses. She wants to know more about the prophet. Although the first soldier explains to her that Hérode has even forbidden the high priest to go near him, Salomé insists on speaking to him. She turns to Narraboth, knowing that he cannot refuse her any wish. Narraboth orders the soldiers to get the prophet out of the cistern.

Scene III. As Iokanaan slowly moves towards the others, he continues with his prophetic speeches. They appear to be curses that Salomé believes are directed against her mother. You notice his black eyes and his pale, thin figure. Despite Narraboth's warnings, she goes up to the prophet to touch him. Iokanaan repels them. He calls her "daughter of Babylon" and asks her to go veiled into the desert to seek out the Son of Man. In the meantime, Salomé is also attracted to him sensually. One after the other she raves about his white body (whiter than the snow in the mountains of Judea), his black hair (like grapes) and his purple mouth (like a pomegranate), which she wants to kiss. Each time Iokanaan rejects her with insulting words, whereupon she claims the opposite - his body is leprous and repulsive, his hair is covered in mud. Narraboth can no longer stand this scene. He begs Salomé to stop. Since Salomé ignores him, he kills himself. His body falls between the two. Salomé passes it carelessly and continues to insist on a kiss from Iokanaan. He warns them about the angel of death, whose wings he heard in the palace. Only one man could save her. He is in a boat on the Sea of ​​Galilee . When Salomé does not respond and continues to demand a kiss, he curses her. The page meanwhile mourns his friend Narraboth.

Scene from the opera

Scene IV. In the ballroom, Hérode impatiently calls for Salomé. He looks for and finds her on the terrace. Against the objections of his wife Hérodias, he decided to continue the party outside and had carpets, torches and tables carried out. When he discovers Narraboth's body, he remembers his predilection for Salomé. Then he has him taken away. After the company is seated, Hérode invites Salomé to drink and eat fruit with him. She refuses. The voice of Iokanaan can be heard again, prophesying the end of the world - the sun will turn black like an open grave, the moon like blood, and the stars will fall to earth. Hérodias asks her husband to silence the prophet. Hérode hesitates because he is afraid of a bad omen. Instead he has wine brought in to toast the emperor's health. He then asks Salomé to dance for him. When she refuses, he promises to grant her any wish. Salomé agrees with this. She has the seven veils brought to her and her sandals taken off. At this moment the moon takes on a reddish tint from a cloud and Hérode thinks of the prophecy of Iokanaan. Annoyed by his continued calls, he orders Salomé to begin the dance.

Mlle de Wailly as Salomé

Scene V - Dance of the Seven Veils. Incense burners burn during the dance. The torches emit a reddish light which, together with the moonlight, creates a varied and fantastic effect on the veils. The dance itself begins calmly and gradually comes to life. In between, Iokanaan calls for the whore of Babylon to be stoned.

Scene VI. Hérode is enthusiastic about Salomé's performance. When he asks her to express her wish, she demands Iokanaan's head in a silver bowl. While her mother is delighted, Hérode is appalled. He considers the prophet a holy man and fears the punishment of God. However, his attempts to offer her another reward, including half the kingdom, great treasures, the high priest's cloak or the temple curtain, do not change her mind. Finally, Hérode gives in. His wife pulls the "ring of death" from his hand and gives it to her page, who passes it to the executioner. The latter hesitates for a moment, receives a shield from one of the soldiers and enters the cistern. For a long time everyone listens intently without a sound being heard. Salomé impatiently orders some soldiers to bring her head. Then the executioner steps out of the cistern with the head of the prophet on the shield. The Nazarenes present kneel down in prayer and Hérode hides his face in his cloak, but Hérodias smiles.

Mlle de Wailly as Salomé

Scene VII. While the moon is repeatedly obscured by large clouds, Salomé hurries towards the cistern. Now she can finally kiss the prophet. She reaches for the sign, bends down to his head and repeats the love affairs from the third scene - interspersed with accusations that he despised her. Then she takes hold of the bloody head. Shaken, Hérode orders all lights to be extinguished. At the same time, a black cloud covers the moon so that the stage becomes completely black. Salomé's voice speaks of the bitter taste of Iokanaan's lips. Then a moonbeam illuminates Salomé hunched over the Prophet's head. When Hérode sees this, he orders: “Kill this woman!” The soldiers pounce on her.

layout

Mariotte removed from Oscar Wilde's text, among other things, the comedic taunts between Hérode and Hérodias and all references to the Jewish religion. This also eliminates the arguments between the five Jews and two Nazarenes. In return, the scene instructions are even more detailed than in the template.

Apart from a short break between scenes III and IV, the music is composed through. There is a multitude of leitmotifs and musical symbols that are assigned to groups of people and emotions in addition to the characters. In contrast to Richard Strauss' opera, Mariottes Salomé is more cautiously orchestrated. His musical language is more in the tradition of Claude Debussy or Paul Dukas .

Music numbers

The scenes are listed as follows in the piano reduction from 1910:

  • Prelude
  • Scene I. “Ah! comme la princesse Salomé est belle ce soir! "(Page of Hérodias, voice of Iokanaan, the young Syrian, first soldier, second soldier)
  • Scene II. "Je ne resterai pas" (same, Salomé)
    • Salomé and the Syrian: “Ah! vous ferez cela pour moi "
  • Scene III. "Où est celui dont la coupe d'abomination est déjà pleine?" (Same, Iokanaan)
    • (Scene: Salomé and Iokanaan :) “Arrière! Arrière! "
    • The Syrian's death: “Princesse! Le jeune capitaine vient de se tuer! "
  • Scene IV. Enter Hérodes, then Hérodias and the entire court. "Où est Salomé? ..." (Salomé, Hérodias, voice of Iokanaan, Hérode, first soldier, choirs)
    • Hérode: "Salomé, dansez pour moi! ..."
  • Scene V. Dance of the Seven Veils (Iokanaan on stage)
  • Scene VI. Hérode and Salomé: “Ah! c'est magnifique! "
  • Scene VII. Salomé and choirs: “Ah! Je baiserai ta bouche! Iokanaan! "(Salomé, choirs)

The opera can be divided between scenes III and IV,

Work history

The French composer Antoine Mariotte (1875-1944), a pupil of Vincent d'Indy , composed his act opera Salome for the most part in the years 1902 to 1905. As a libretto he used a condensed version of the original French-language drama Salomé of Oscar Wilde from the year 1893.

Only after the composition was almost finished, learned Mariotte of Strauss' simultaneously incurred Opera Opera . In January 1906 he asked Wilde's administrator, Charles Russell, for approval. However, the rights turned out to be unaffordable for him. While he was trying to raise the money, the rights to Wilde's text went to the British publishing house Methuen. In the spring of 1906, Mariotte learned that Strauss' publisher Adolph Fürstner had acquired the exclusive rights to the libretto. Although the future of the work was now uncertain, he completed the composition in autumn 1906. After the premiere of Strauss' Salome on May 8, 1907, Mariotte decided to contact him directly. In a letter dated May 17, he explained the situation to him and asked for permission to run his own opera. At first Strauss simply wanted to ignore this request, but allowed any number of performances at the end of May. Mariotte then succeeded in accommodating the work at the Opéra de Lyon. After the performance had been publicly announced on September 4, the journalist Émile Berr, who knew Mariotte from his time as a naval officer , published a heavily romanticized story about the making of the opera on the front page of the daily Le Figaro on September 11, according to which Mariotte had already begun the composition twelve years earlier on the ship in the Chinese sea, long before Strauss. Five days later, Fürstner banned the Lyon performances. When Mariotte turned to Strauss again, Strauss denied any knowledge of the ban, blamed the publisher solely and refused to speak to Mariotte personally. It was not until November 26 that Fürstner gave in and allowed production in Lyon, which was now scheduled for autumn 1908 - on the condition that Strauss should receive 40 percent of the income and Fürstner himself another 10 percent. In addition, at the end of the series of performances, Mariotte should deliver all of the performance material for destruction. Mariotte agreed.

The first performance took place under the direction of the composer on October 20, 1908 in the Grand Théâtre de Lyon. De Wailly (Salomé), Soini (Hérodias), Édouard Cotreuil (Hérode), Jean Aubert (Iokanaan) and Grillières (Narraboth) sang.

On November 25, 1908, the influential music critic Pierre Lalo published a polemical article in Le Temps , in which he denounced the artistic suppression of Mariotte and also personally attacked Strauss, whose behavior he compared with Pontius Pilate . Other French newspapers followed suit, and the conflict, now with nationalistic undertones, became known to larger circles under the name "Le Cas Strauss-Mariotte" or "L'Affaire Salomé". Paul de Stœcklin found particularly harsh words on April 1, 1909 in an article in the Le Courrier musical, in which he described Strauss as "l'esthétisme, l'amoralisme, Nietzsche, le névrosisme antique, le décadisme bourgeois". In return, German authors defended Strauss' position. Leopold Schmidt, for example, accused Mariotte of wanting to benefit from Strauss' success. In reality, he only started the composition after the premiere of his opera. Schmidt suggested that Mariotte should underlay the music with a different text to eliminate the problem. Finally, in the spring of 1909, the writer Romain Rolland, who was a friend of Strauss, brought about a reconciliation. After both sides had outlined their positions, Rolland realized that if there was a conflict between artists, beware of journalists. In a letter dated June 29, 1909, he urgently asked Strauss for understanding for Mariotte and asked him to grant him the full rights to his opera. Strauss' July 12 reply appeared in full in the August-September issue of the Bulletin français. In it, Strauss announced that he had succeeded in persuading Fürstner to release the rights. Fürstner will work out the necessary formalities directly with Mariotte.

Two years later the work was also performed in Paris at the Théâtre de la Gaîté-Lyrique . The premiere on April 22, 1910 was conducted by A. Amalou. Directed by Émile and Vincent Isola. The vocal parts took Lucienne Bréval (Salomé), Mathilde Comès (Hérodias), Jean-Alexis Périer (Hérode), Paul Seveilhac (Iokanaan) and André Gilly (Narraboth). Ballerina Natalia Trouhanova performed the veil dance.

In 1911 the Théâtre de la Gaîté-Lyrique resumed opera. It was also played in Marseille and in Czech in Prague. In the following years there were productions in Nancy, Le Havre, Geneva and Prague.

In 1919 there was a new production in Paris, now at the Palais Garnier of the Paris Opera , directed by Merle Forest. François Ruhlmann was the musical director . The actors were Lucy Foreau-Isnardon (Salomé), Yvonne Courso (Hérodias), Léonie Courbières (Page), André Gresse (Hérode), Léonce Teissié (Iokanaan), Louis Marie (Narraboth), Armand-Émile Narçon (first soldier), Ezanno (second soldier) and the dancer J. Delsaux (veil dance). On January 26, 1920, the work was resumed with the same line-up.

Despite the public discussions, there was no great success. Critics rated the treatment of the musical themes and the orchestration in Mariottes Salomé as "interesting", and the opera was seen as an "example of good taste and morality".

The German premiere only took place in 2005 in the Landestheater Neustrelitz . A German text version was played by Larysa Molnárová, who also sang the title role. The production was by Ralf-Peter Schulze, the equipment by Iris Bertelsmann and the choreography by Kathrin Wolfram. Stefan Malzew was the musical director .

The Opéra National de Montpellier also showed the opera in 2005 together with the competing work by Richard Strauss. A recording was released on CD.

In 2014, a series of performances by the Bavarian Theater Academy August Everding in Munich's Prinzregententheater in a musical facility by the conductor Ulf Schirmer and a production by Balázs Kovalik met with greater response . The Bayerische Rundfunk accompanied the production and broadcast the Premiere of 28 February on the radio as well as a live video stream of the performance of 6 March on the Internet. Despite criticism of the production, it was narrowly voted “Rediscovery of the Year” in the 2014 Opernwelt magazine .

Also in 2014 the Irish Wexford Festival Opera showed the work. The director was Rosetta Cucchi, the set was by Tiziano Santi and the costumes by Claudia Pernigotti.

In 2017 there was a performance with piano accompaniment in the BlackBox Lounge Musiktheater of the Landestheater Linz .

Recordings

literature

  • Megan Elizabeth Varvir Coe: Composing Symbolism's Musicality of Language in Fin-De-Siècle France. Dissertation from the University of North Texas, August 2016 ( online, PDF ). Chapter 2 (“Caught Between Aesthetics and Politics: Mariotte's Salomé”, pp. 24-107) and Appendix C (“Mariotte's Salomé: Scene 7 Analysis”, pp. 317–329) deal explicitly with Mariottes Salomé.

Web links

Commons : Salomé (Mariotte)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b Voice according to en-Wiki; a receipt is missing there.
  2. ↑ "Tuez cette femme!"
  3. ↑ "La morale de l'histoire, c'est que, dans une discussion entre artistes il faut se défier des tiers (éditeurs ou journalistes)."
  4. ↑ "Je me had de vous annoncer que j'ai réussi aujourd'hui à obtenir de MM. Fuerstner [sic] que ceux-ci rendissent la liberté à la Salomé de Mariotte. M. Fuerstner s'entendra directement avec M. Mariotte pour les formalités à remplir. "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b October 20, 1908: "Mariotte". In: L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia ..
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Megan Elizabeth Varvir Coe: Composing Symbolism's Musicality of Language in Fin-De-Siècle France. Dissertation from the University of North Texas, August 2016 ( online, PDF ).
  3. ↑ a b "Salome" and "Salomé" on oe1.orf.at, accessed on January 30, 2019.
  4. ^ Arnold Whittall: Review of the CD from 2007. In: Gramophone , 4/2007, accessed on January 30, 2019.
  5. ^ A b Walter Werbeck (ed.): Richard Strauss Handbook. Metzler / Bärenreiter, Stuttgart / Weimar / Kassel 2014, ISBN 978-3-476-02344-5 , p. 519.
  6. ^ Richard Langham Smith :  Mariotte, Antoine. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
  7. ↑ April 22, 1910: “Mariotte”. In: L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia ..
  8. ^ Gabriele Brandstetter : Fuller: La Tragédie de Salomé. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater . Volume 2: Works. Donizetti - Henze. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1987, ISBN 3-492-02412-2 , p. 296.
  9. ^ Horst Seeger : The great lexicon of the opera. VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1978. Special edition for Pawlak, Herrsching 1985, p. 483.
  10. ↑ July 2, 1919: "Salomé". In: L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia ..
  11. ↑ January 26, 1920: "Salomé". In: L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia ..
  12. ^ Jürgen Otten: Building without joints. Review of the performance in Neustrelitz 2005. In: Opernwelt , February 2005, p. 26.
  13. ^ Salomé | Item description | Press on the website of Theater und Orchester GmbH Neubrandenburg / Neustrelitz, accessed on January 31, 2019.
  14. ↑ a b Fiona Maddocks: Salomé, Wexford festival review - Antoine Mariotte, anyone? In: The Guardian , November 2, 2014, accessed January 31, 2019.
  15. ↑ a b c Antoine Mariotte. In: Andreas Ommer: Directory of all complete opera recordings (= Zeno.org . Volume 20). Directmedia, Berlin 2005.
  16. ↑ Markus Thiel: Tart, crumbly, dark tones. Review of the performance in Munich 2014. In: Opernwelt , April 2014, p. 76.
  17. ^ Opera "Salomé" - The complete concert introduction on the website of the Bavarian Radio, accessed on January 31, 2019.
  18. ↑ a b Keris Nine: Mariotte - Salomé (Munich, 2014). In: OperaJournal, May 6, 2014, accessed January 30, 2019.
  19. ↑ Important rediscoveries of the season. In: Opernwelt Jahrbuch 2014, p. 119.
  20. ↑ What remains of 2013/14? The balance of the season in the judgment of 50 critics. In: Opernwelt Jahrbuch 2014, p. 96 ff.
  21. ^ Opera at the piano II - Salomé. Information about the performance in Linz 2017 on the website of the Landestheater Linz , accessed on January 31, 2019.