Savitri (opera)
| Opera dates | |
|---|---|
| Original title: | Savitri |
| Original language: | English |
| Music: | Gustav Holst |
| Libretto : | Gustav Holst |
| Literary source: | Mahabharata |
| Premiere: | December 5, 1916 |
| Place of premiere: | Wellington Hall, London |
| Playing time: | 30 minutes |
| people | |
Savitri op.25 is an opera by the British composer Gustav Holst . It describes the legend of Savitri and Satyavan from the Indian epic Mahabharata .
Emergence
At the end of the 1890s, Gustav Holst began to be interested in Indian mythology and specifically learned Sanskrit as there were no English translations. One of the first results of the study of Indian mythology was the opera Sita about the Indian deity of the same name .
Holst began working on the one-act opera Savitri in 1908 after a vacation in Algeria . After Holst Sita had composed in the style of Richard Wagner , he returned to the form of the chamber opera in the case of Savitri .
action
The action takes place in the Indian forest in the evening. When the woodcutter Satyavan sees death approaching, he collapses powerless. He speaks about the impossibility of escaping from him and announces that he wants to take Satyavan with him. Satyavan's wife Savitri manages to flatter death and ask him for the fulfillment of a wish. Death promises her everything but Satyavan's life. Savitri asks death for everything that life is to her. When the granting of the wish is granted to Savitri, death reveals that Satyavan is her whole life. Since death feels bound by its word, it has to surrender and leave without having achieved anything.
effect
Savitri was premiered on December 5, 1916 under the direction of Herman Grunebaum in Wellington Hall in St. John's Wood (district in the City of Westminster, London ). The soloists at the premiere were George Pawlo as Satyavan, Mabel Corran as Savitri and Harrison Cook as Death. Conductor Herman Grunebaum's suggestion to have a female choir sing rather than a mixed choir probably had no artistic background, but rather was due to a lack of male singers. The premiere evidently met with a positive response.
layout
The instrumental line-up consists of two flutes , cor anglais , two string quartets and a double bass . The composer wanted the work to be played “outdoors or in a small building” while keeping the choir, instrumentalists and conductor hidden.
literature
- Michael Short: Gustav Holst - The Man and his Music , Circaidy Gregory Press (first published by Oxford University Press), 1990, new edition 2014
Web links
- Savitri : Sheet Music and Audio Files in the International Music Score Library Project
Individual evidence
- ^ Michael Short: Gustav Holst - The Man and his Music , Circaidy Gregory Press (first published by Oxford University Press), 1990, new edition 2014, pp. 45–46
- ↑ Michael Short: Gustav Holst - The Man and his Music , Circaidy Gregory Press (first published by Oxford University Press), 1990, new edition 2014, pp. 89–90
- ↑ Michael Hurd: Savitri. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater . Volume 3: Works. Henze - Massine. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-492-02413-0 , p. 96 f.