Sardanapalus
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Sardanapalus |
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Eugène Delacroix : The Death of Sardanapal (1827) |
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| Shape: | Opera in three acts with prologue |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Christian Ludwig Boxberg |
| Libretto : | Christian Ludwig Boxberg |
| Premiere: | 1698 |
| Place of premiere: | Ansbach |
| Playing time: | about 3 hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Nineveh , Assyria in the 7th century BC Chr. |
| people | |
Prolog: |
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Sardanapalus is the only surviving opera by the German composer and librettist Christian Ludwig Boxberg . As a musician he was a student of Nicolaus Adam Strungk , for whom he also wrote opera libretti.
The play is about the last ruler of the Assyrians, who perishes in his lust for luxury and his passions and in the end burns himself at the stake with his women and treasures.
Emergence
Boxberg, born in 1670 as the son of the Sondershauser court organist, became an alumnus of the Thomas School in Leipzig in 1685 when Johann Schelle was Thomaskantor. When Nicolaus Adam Strungk opened Central Germany's first bourgeois opera house with his Alceste in Leipzig in 1693 , his pupil Boxberg, now a student at Leipzig University , took on the tenor role of the funny servant Lesbus during the opening production.
Boxberg soon became Strungk's right-hand man in creating the Leipzig operas. From 1696 at the latest, he wrote almost all of the libretti for his teacher's operas, mostly based on Italian models. After 1697 Boxberg also composed operas that were performed in Wolfenbüttel and Kassel , where he worked as Kapellmeister. But Boxberg was only allowed to write music for Leipzig later, when Strungk, who was always highly indebted, could no longer appear in Leipzig for fear of the creditors. But the Leipzig opera company made a trip to Ansbach in 1698 without Kapellmeister Strungk. There it was given the opportunity to perform two operas - Die Schweidene Treue and Sardanapalus - at the court of the art-loving young Margrave Georg Friedrich von Brandenburg-Ansbach ; Boxberg wrote and composed both. One of them - the Sardanapalus - has been preserved in the Ansbach library. The piece is the oldest surviving German-language opera from Central Germany and thus in many ways a remarkable monument to early German operatic history.
libretto
It is very likely that Boxberg wrote his libretto on the basis of an Italian model. In the opinion of Alberto Martino, this was the Dramma per musica Sardanapalo by Carlo Mademi, which was premiered in Venice in 1679 with the music of Giovanni Domenico Freschi . Boxberg's libretto consists of a prologue and three acts and this was printed by Jeremias Kretschmann in Ansbach in 1698.
The first modern re-performance of the piece took place on July 27, 2012 in the historic Ekhof Theater in Gotha, with the Compagnie Opéra Baroque and the United Continuo Ensemble under the musical direction of Bernhard Epstein and in a production based on historically informed performance practice Baroque gestures and dance by Milo Pablo Momm .
action
Historical and literary background
The largely fictitious plot with its closely interwoven intrigues about love and power, whose entanglements and mix-ups and artistic repetitions ultimately lead to a happy ending for some virtuous couples, but to the death of the lustful ruler and his wife, is embedded in the universal story of Diodor's ( II, 27) passed on and relates to the history of Assyria and Persia of Ktesias of Knidos of the legendary last Assyrian king Sardanapalus. This figure is probably a conglomerate of the historical Assyrian kings Aššur-bāni-apli , his brother Šamaš-šuma-ukin and his son Sin-šar-iškun . The conquest of the Assyrian capital, Nineveh, by the Babylonians and Medes took place in 612 BC. Where Sin-šar-iškun died.
prolog
Mars loves war. Juno, Venus, Diana and Apollo try to appease his passion for burning villages. Cupid comes to the rescue and threatens Mars with his arrows. Thereupon he extinguishes the fire in the villages and jokingly mentions that he only intends to use these fire effects to celebrate a party for the ruler. Instead of waging war, he will tell the story of Sardanapalus, because: If you want to see virtue, you should first take a closer look at the vice.
first act
The immoderate Assyrian ruler Sardanapalus has once again triumphed against his enemy Belesus and his ally, the young general Arbaces. Belesus is desperate because he believes his son Belochus is lost in the battle. Arbaces, competitor of Sardanapalus regarding the beautiful and clever Agrina, is desperate because he knows her in the palace of the pleasure-loving Sardanapalus. Agrina, who has sworn eternal loyalty to her Arbaces, meets the beautiful Belochus at the victory celebration of Sardanapalus, who declares his love for her. She remains steadfast and makes plans. Through her page Misius, she would like to secretly send a message to the enemy camp to give tips on when to attack again. The beautiful Belochus is immediately captured because of his carelessness - to the great delight of two women of Sardanapalus.
Second act
Both Salomena, the "faithful" wife of Sardananalus, and Didonia, who freed Belochus from dungeon and who was put in women's clothes for the purpose, passionately desire the young, handsome man. In the palace of the joyful Sardanapalus, some things go haywire in love relationships. The bodyguard Saropes Salomena passionately confesses his love several times, which the wife of Sardanapalus in love doesn't want to know about. As soon as the intrusive Belochus is out of sight, Sardanapalus already approaches the beautiful Agrina in his seraglio. Unsuccessful. But in Salomena he finds a willing and enjoyable replacement. To please her piquant passions, Sardanapalus dresses up as a woman. Atrax, the zealous servant of the enemy Arbaces, also an admirer of Agrina, creeps into the seraglio disguised as a woman in order to find her. When Sardanapalus learns that the beautiful Belochus has fled the dungeon, he accidentally meets the disguised Atrax, who is immediately seduced, even still in woman's clothes. Perhaps a little confused and proud of his impact as a woman, Atrax falls into the clutches of the jealous Salomena. He flies. But she lets him go. Finally he finds Agrina and dutifully brings her the message from his master Arbaces that he still loves her. Agrina puts her (relatively annoyed) page Misius at his side to help him escape. At night in the ruler's garden, Atrax then happens to find the discarded clothes of the fugitive beautiful Belochus and immediately puts them on in order to continue his escape. Of course he is arrested immediately and ends up in dungeon. The real, fleeting, beautiful Belochus has promptly reached Agrina, his great love, and asks her again for a hearing. She renounces him again, but this time not so heatedly, but with the good justification of her great love for the general Arbaces. Belochus sees the futility of his wooing and renounces it. At that very moment, Arbaces, disguised as a moor, himself entered the palace and just notices that Belochus and Agrina are embracing conciliatory. He feels bitterly betrayed and reports allegedly as a Moor by his master Arbaces, i.e. himself, that Arbaces no longer loves Agrina. The disappointed Belochus has since found a replacement in Didonia, his liberator, and has gone into an intimate love-frenzy. The Atrax, still falsely languishing in the dungeon as Belochus, is freed by Misius, the page of Agrina, who has meanwhile taken a liking to the disguised Atrax, using a wonder box with precarious items of clothing. But before it really comes to that, Salomena showed up there. Atrax enjoys its effect in the clothes of the beautiful Belochus. But he flies up again and Salomena lets him go again.
Third act
An area of great misunderstanding and jealousy on all sides. Before the private turmoil comes to an end, war breaks out again. Arbaces and Belesus storm the walls of the city of Nineveh. Sardanapalus, disinterested in the war, has entrusted his wife Salomena with the war business. Salomena is wounded and dies. Only now does Sardanapalus realize that there is no longer any way out for him. In order not to fall into the hands of the enemy, he burns himself at the stake with his women and all his treasures. Arbaces and Belochus successfully won the war. Agrina is turned down by Arbaces. He still thinks she is unfaithful. Well, she believes, she can give up all dreams of sitting on the throne at Arbaces' side one day. Only when he discovers the lovers Belochus and Didonia does he realize that he may have wronged Agrina. The new government in Assyria takes over: the reconciled lovers Arbaces and Agrina on one throne and the old Belesus on the other. Belesus can't believe his luck: His son Belochus, believed dead, is alive. The beautiful Belochus and his now beloved Didonia decide for a life of private happiness. And the "horny dog" Sardanapalus is dead.
music
Boxberg's score is a remarkable synthesis of various European national styles. In addition to German influences, there are numerous French and even some Italian operas. It thus represents an early form of Les Goûts Réunis , the mixed taste, the style of composition that the flautist, composer and theoretician Johann Joachim Quantz described decades later as typical of the works of Telemann, Bach and Handel.
Characteristic are the many short arias, which, like those in the operas of Johann Philipp Krieger , Philipp Heinrich Erlebach , Johann Löhner and those of his teacher Strungk, are stanzas with instrumental rituals, with syllabic text distribution, simple harmonization and often dance-like rhythm. The Italian influence is much less pronounced here than, for example, in the stage works by Johann Wolfgang Franck , Reinhard Keizer , Johann Sigismund Kusser and the first work of the young Georg Friedrich Handel , the Almira .
orchestra
Recorder , three oboes , bassoon , four trumpets , timpani , strings, basso continuo (violon or violoncello, lute, harpsichord).
literature
- Michael Maul : Christian Ludwig Boxberg and his Sardanapalus. In: Sardanapalus , program booklet, Wilhelma Theater, Stuttgart 2014, pp. 3–6
Web links
- Digitized version of the libretto by Sardanapalus
- The plot and background of Sardanapalus
- Announcement of the re-performance in Gotha
- Criticism of the re-performance of Sardanapalus in Gotha
Individual evidence
- ^ Alberto Martino: The Italian literature in the German-speaking area . In: Chloe, Beihefte zum Daphnis , Volume 17, Editions Rodopi BV, Amsterdam 1994, p. 444