Snow White (Opera)

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Opera dates
Title: Snow white
Shape: Chamber opera in five scenes, a prologue and an epilogue
Original language: German
Music: Heinz Holliger
Libretto : Heinz Holliger
Literary source: Robert Walser : Snow White
Premiere: October 17, 1998
Place of premiere: Zurich Opera House
Playing time: about 2 hours
Place and time of the action: Fairytale world and time or "now time"
people

Schneewittchen is a chamber opera in five scenes, a prologue and an epilogue by Heinz Holliger with its own libretto based on the dramolet Schneewittchen by Robert Walser . It premiered on October 17, 1998 at the Zurich Opera House . It is not a children's opera, but a psychoanalytic evaluation of the events of the fairy tale.

action

Walser's short drama takes place following the well-known plot of the fairy tale Snow White . These, the queen, the prince and the hunter talk about the past and wonder what really happened and who is to blame for what happened. Your views and interpretations are constantly changing. In the fourth scene, Snow White and the hunter re-enact his attempt at murder, which was not carried out out of sympathy in the fairy tale. The fifth person in the epilogue is the king. The work ends with a general reconciliation.

prolog

In the prologue, the five characters of the fairy tale introduce themselves to the audience.

First Scene

Garden; right entrance to the castle; rolling mountains in the background

When the queen, apparently concerned, inquires about Snow White's health, she replies with serious accusations and recalls her mother-in-law's multiple attempts to murder her: The hunter tried to stab her by kisses, and the poisoned apple really hurts her added. The queen denies everything. She advises Snow White to get some fresh air to relax and forget about any previous misconduct. Snow White now asks the hunter to confirm her memories. The hunter replies that out of compassion he did not carry out the murder and instead killed a deer. Snow White is reminiscent of the intimate relationship between the hunter and the queen, which the prince also confirms. The queen continues to deny everything. She claims she always loved Snow White like a child of her own. She shouldn't believe the slander from the fairy tale. Still, Snow White doesn't trust her. The prince agrees and suggests that you reflect on the past in peace. He leads Snow White into the castle. Queen and hunter stay behind.

Second scene

Room in the castle

The prince describes his love for Snow White in extravagant words. However, she feels overwhelmed by the torrent of words. She would rather joke and dance carefree. When looking out of the window, the prince is fascinated by the queen and the hunter making love in the garden and describes all the details to Snow White. She feels repulsed by it, compares herself to the snow that sinks into the earth in the warmth of spring, and longs to be "dead smiling". The prince apologizes for snatching her from the coffin, in which she had already found the peace she had longed for. He thinks her anger increases his love. But now he wants to go into the garden to separate the hunter and the queen. Snow White asks him to send loving greetings to her mother-in-law. She forgive her and the prince should ask her forgiveness on her behalf as well. He promises to send the queen reconciled to her and goes off. While Snow White waits, she ponders the prince's infidelity.

Third scene

When the mother comes into the room, Snow White throws herself at her feet and asks her forgiveness. She no longer believes that her stepmother actually wanted to kill her. Her feeling absolves her from all sin. The Queen suspiciously reminds Snow White that she actually committed all these terrible deeds. Snow White is now deceiving herself. The fairy tale also tells of her crimes and calls her an evil queen. Snow White is probably just trying to fool her. The queen now relentlessly describes the crimes of the time, to which she was driven by her hatred and jealousy of Snow White's beauty. But this is over. Now she wants to love. She asks Snow White to accept the prince as her lover. Despite his bitter words, she was "very good" to him.

Fourth scene

The prince explains to the queen that Snow White resents him for rescuing her from the coffin. He is no longer interested in the girl, but confesses his love to the queen. She is confused about his sudden change of heart, asks him for patience and calls the hunter in. This and Snow White are supposed to reenact the scene of his attempted murder. When Snow White begs for mercy and the hunter pitifully wants to lower the weapon, the queen demands a change: the hunter should really kill her now. Startled, the prince intervenes. The queen laughingly exclaims that everything is just a game. She invites everyone for a walk in the garden, where she wants to prove that she is not angry.

Fifth scene

Garden like in the first scene

As at the beginning, Snow White believes that her mother-in-law hates her deadly. She longs to go back to her quiet life with the dwarfs, where no resentment was felt. She regrets having returned home of her own free will. Even in the coffin she would have had more joy than here. The stepmother tries first to appease her, but then loses patience and calls the hunter to help. He should comfort Snow White in her place and carefully explain her feelings to her. Reluctantly, Snow White confesses that she wants to believe him, even if he lies. The hunter then declares the queen “free from guilt and shame”. Her incitement to murder described in the fairy tale is untrue. She has no reason to be jealous of Snow White's beauty, since she is beautiful herself. He also never wanted to kill her, and the story with the poisonous apple was itself a poisonous lie. He asks Snow White to kiss the stepmother as a token of her love. Snow White does this.

epilogue

When the king arrives with the prince and his entourage of noblemen and ladies-in-waiting, Snow White asks him to finally settle the dispute. However, the queen explains to him that love has already triumphed. Her former hatred was just a fleeting whim. The king points out that the prince seriously accused the hunter. Snow White replies that this is not true. The hunter is honorable and has no love affair with the queen. The Queen and Snow White urge the prince to drop his allegations. However, the prince cannot let the past rest. He withdraws uncertainly. Snow White asks the hunter to bring him back. The Queen is confident that the prince will give in and resume his relationship with Snow White. When she remembers her atrocities one more time, she is interrupted by Snow White: only the fairy tale claims such a thing, but never herself. Her doubts are over. Everyone goes to the castle.

layout

libretto

Walser's Dramolet is about uncovering the psychoanalytic patterns on which the fairy tale is based . The term “mother” loses its usual emotional meaning here. Instead of “homeliness and familiarity”, the piece deals with “power structures, dependencies, injuries, and ultimately existential loneliness”. The characters' various attempts to answer are "entirely in keeping with Robert Walser's ambiguous aesthetic ".

music

Holliger's Snow White is occasionally compared to Helmut Lachenmann's opera Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern , which is also based on a fairy tale . In both works “the nature and origin of instrumental sound is thematized” ( Ulrich Schreiber ). Unlike Lachenmann with his aesthetic of refusal, however, Holliger's opera has a “distinctive sound” that creates a “magic of its own”. Harp, accordion, glass harmonica and celesta create an “almost unreal superstructure” of the sound of wind instruments and a solo string quartet.

orchestra

The opera's chamber music instrumentation includes the following instruments:

Music numbers

In the supplement to the CD recording from 1999, the following pieces are listed:

  • prolog
  • Scene 1
  • Interlude 1 (Invention)
  • Scene 2, part one
  • Fughetta (in nomine flumis)
  • Scene 2, part two
  • Interlude 2
  • Quasi Fuga
  • Scene 3
  • Interlude 3
  • Scene 4
  • Interlude 5
  • Scene 5
  • Epilogue (chorale variations)

Work history

Heinz Holliger's opera Schneewittchen was written in 1997 and 1998 on behalf of Alexander Pereira , the artistic director of the Zurich Opera House . It is not a setting of the well-known fairy tale, but is based on the dramolet of the same name by Robert Walser from 1901, the text of which the composer only slightly adapted for his libretto. Holliger composed the opera in two steps: first he wrote down the vocal parts and then the score for the chamber ensemble.

Holliger himself conducted the premiere of the opera on October 17, 1998. The production was by Reto Nickler , the costumes by Katharina Weissenborn and the set by Hermann Feuchter . The soloists were Juliane Banse (Snow White), Cornelia Kallisch (Queen), Steve Davislim (Prince), Oliver Widmer (Hunter) and Werner Gröschel (King). The work was well received by both audiences and critics. The four scheduled performances were sold out. In the critics' survey by Opernwelt magazine , Snow White was voted "World Premiere of the Year".

On October 28 of the same year the production was shown as a guest performance and German premiere at the Frankfurt Opera . In 2002, the Zurich Opera House took her back into the program for five further performances with the same cast of soloists. On November 25th, 2002 it was played as an Austrian premiere in concert at the Konzerthaus in Vienna .

In 2014 there was a new production at the Basel Theater by Achim Freyer as director and set designer with the costumes of his daughter Amanda Freyer. Here Anu Komsi and Esther Lee sang the title role or their alter ego "Schnee-Wittchen", which was added to the production. Maria Riccarda Wesseling sang the queen, Mark Milhofer the prince, Christopher Bolduc the hunter and Pavel Kudinov the king.

Recordings

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b plot of Snow White (opera) on Opera-Guide target page due to URL change currently unavailable , accessed on September 24, 2019.
  2. ↑ a b c d Snow White. In: Harenberg opera guide. 4th edition. Meyers Lexikonverlag, 2003, ISBN 3-411-76107-5 , p. 390.
  3. ↑ a b c d e work information from Verlag Schott Music , accessed on August 19, 2019.
  4. ^ Ulrich Schreiber : Opera guide for advanced learners. 20th Century II. German and Italian Opera after 1945, France, Great Britain. Bärenreiter, Kassel 2005, ISBN 3-7618-1437-2 , pp. 191–192.
  5. ↑ a b c d e Peter Hagmann: A fairy tale, twisted and turned. Review of the performance in Basel 2014. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , February 22, 2014, accessed on August 22, 2019.
  6. ↑ a b Albrecht Thiemann: Back, forward, everywhere. Review of the performance in Basel 2014. In: Opernwelt , April 2014, p. 10.
  7. ↑ October 17, 1998: "Snow White". In: L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia ..
  8. ^ Alfred Zimmerlin : Never heard twice - "Snow White" in the Zurich Opera House. Report on the resumption in Zurich 2002. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , September 18, 2002, accessed on September 24, 2019.
  9. ↑ Dominik Troger: Family constellation. Review of the concert performance in Vienna 2002 on operinwien.at, accessed on September 25, 2019.
  10. ^ Frieder Reininghaus : Threefold alienated - Heinz Holliger's literary opera “Snow White” at the Basel Theater. Review of the performance in Basel 2014. In: Neue Musikzeitung , February 22, 2014, accessed on September 24, 2019.
  11. ↑ a b Heinz Holliger. In: Andreas Ommer: Directory of all complete opera recordings (= Zeno.org . Volume 20). Directmedia, Berlin 2005.