San Paolo (Opera)
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| Title: | San Paolo |
| Shape: | Opera in seven scenes |
| Music: | Sidney Corbett |
| Libretto : | Ralf Waldschmidt |
| Literary source: | Pier Paolo Pasolini |
| Premiere: | April 28, 2018 |
| Place of premiere: | Osnabrück Theater |
| Playing time: | approx. 1 ½ hours |
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San Paolo is an opera by Sidney Corbett based on a fragment of a screenplay by Pier Paolo Pasolini . The world premiere took place on April 28, 2018 in the Osnabrück Theater, whose artistic director Ralf Waldschmidt wrote the libretto in Italian.
Adaptation
The composer Corbett and the librettist Waldschmidt adapted Pasolini's (1922–1975) plans for the opera into a film about Saint Paul of Tarsus (San Paolo). These plans, which were only partially preserved posthumously, ran for many years and the project was intended as a counterpart to the 1964 film Das 1. Evangelium - Matthäus made by Pasolini . In his draft of a script, Pasolini moved the plot from the time of early Christianity to the 20th century.
action
The plot of the opera consists of a total of seven scenes in which the life stages of Paul are shown. Individual scenes are in turn divided into several images, so that a revolving stage offers the possibility of dynamically realizing the change of scene and time during the performance in the Osnabrück theater . The program booklet names the time and place of those events from the New Testament that take place in the opera in the 20th century:
In the Acts ( Ac 7 EU ) occurs in Jerusalem 35 AD. For stoning of Stephanus . In the opera (scene 1, picture 2), Stefano's execution is carried out in 1941 in Paris during the German occupation . Paolo - here still in his identity as Saul Acts 8,3 EU and Acts 9,1-2 EU - has observed the execution as a persecutor of Christians .
After a three-year period of conversion, Paul came to Jerusalem in 38 AD according to Gal. 1.13-18 EU . Paolo spends three years at the opera in the desert. His companion Barnaba leads him to the resistance fighters in Paris in 1944 , but they refuse Paolo's participation (scene III).
According to Acts 9,29-30 EU , Paul flees to his hometown Tarsus in 38 AD because of death threats . He suffers from his past in which he persecuted Christians. In his parents' house he is asked by Barnabas to go with him to Antioch ( Acts 11 : 25-26 EU ). In the opera these events (scene IV, 1st picture) take place in 1944 in a European city during the Second World War .
One scene takes place in Bonn in 1952. The protagonist San Paolo appears at a party. But the guests paid no attention to his mission, his chant about Jesus and his resurrection - they turned away. Even in Italy in the 1970s, Paul’s mission cannot be heard. When he is beaten up by neo-fascists, no one rushes to his aid. In a change of time up to the 40s of the first century, the singers appear in a scene as apostles who discuss the question of whether the Christian faith should also be brought to the Gentiles at the apostles' council . The same singers then presented themselves in New York in 1965 as hippies and as homosexual people.
premiere
Alexander May staged the world premiere of the opera at the Osnabrück Theater on April 28, 2018 . Wolf Gutjahr was responsible for the stage design including the video recordings . The designs for the costumes come from Katharina Weissenborn . Jan Friedrich Eggers (Paolo), Daniel Wagner (Stefano / Timoteo), Lina Liu (Una voce), Genadijus Bergorulko (Anania / Barnaba), Klaus Fischer (Un uomo Anziano), Rhys Jenkins (Pietro), Susann Vent-Wunderlich sang (Giovanni detto Marco), José Gallisa (Un secondino), Mario Lee (Un capo) and Jong-Bae Bu (Un commissaro).
literature
- Pier Paolo Pasolini: San Paolo. Einaudi, Turin 1977
- Claude Tresmontant : Paul in self-testimonies and image documents. Translated from the French by Oswalt von Nostitz . Rowohlt, Hamburg 1959
Web links
- Christoph Schulte im Walde: From the life of a saint. Review of the premiere. In: The German Stage . April 29, 2018
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b San Paolo in the program of the Osnabrück Theater , accessed on May 7, 2018.
- ↑ Deutschlandfunk: Critique by Elisabeth Richter.
- ↑ a b Andrea Kohlhoff: Who was this guy from Tarsus? In: Kirchenbote, weekly newspaper for the Diocese of Osnabrück, No. 18 of May 6, 2018, p. 9.
- ↑ Theater Osnabrück, program booklet pp. 6–11, Osnabrück 2018.