Black Peter (Opera)
| Work data | |
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| Title: | Black Peter |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Norbert Schultze |
| Libretto : | Walter Lieck |
| Premiere: | December 6, 1936 |
| Place of premiere: | Hamburg |
| Playing time: | about two and a half hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Lüneburg Heath , fairytale Middle Ages |
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Schwarzer Peter is an opera for young and old based on the Low German fairy tale Erica by Heinrich Traulsen , edited by Wilhelm Wisser . The libretto is by Walter Lieck , the music by Norbert Schultze . The best-known piece from it is the duet of the royal children “Oh, I have in my heart inside ...” , which was later reworked into a tenor solo (with children's choir) for Rudolf Schock in the film The Happy Wanderer .
The premiere took place on December 6, 1936 in the Hamburg State Opera .
action
Poor King Hans and the mighty King Klaus, who is prone to tantrums, both live house to house. They want a son to be the heir to the royal throne. A wise man tells them that it is written in the stars that tonight between two and seven the stork will bring them a child. To pass the time until then, the kings play the card game " Schwarzer Peter " with the minstrel . In fact, the wives of both kings have a child that night. King Klaus is blaspheming about King Hans, because he will certainly "only" have a daughter who can then marry his son. But it comes to the annoyance of King Klaus exactly the other way around. Poor King Hans has a son Roderich and Klaus has a daughter whom he calls Erika instead of Erich. Full of anger, Klaus drives King Hans and his family out of the kingdom. Hans settles in the heather, his son Roderich becomes a young man who earns money with broomcloths.
One day, when Roderich was once again tying brooms out of heather, he was surprised by a thunderstorm. He finds a distraught girl who has got lost because her carriage got stuck in the mud and she wanted to walk a bit. Roderich protects the frightened girl from the thunderstorm. Both wait in the high heather until the thunderstorm is over. As a parting, the girl - it's Erika - lets Roderich show her what he's doing in the heath. He shows her his broom. Erika says that there are no brooms, but flowers, because there are blooms on the branches. Roderich gives Erika his erica twigs and they both fall in love and sing the well-known duet “Oh, I have in my heart” .
Shortly afterwards, the minstrel moves to the heath with children and meets King Hans there. He tells him that his master, King Klaus, is preparing the wedding of his daughter Erika and that all the brooms have been damaged while cleaning the house. Hans promises to send his son Roderich to the castle with new brooms the next day.
Erika has meanwhile come up with something special: Only the one who brings her the most beautiful flowers should become her husband. The meeting between Roderich and Erika was almost inevitable, and both want to get married. But when King Klaus learns that Erika has chosen a broom-maker for her husband, he chases her out of the house.
After the minstrel was persuaded, King Klaus allowed Erika to take whatever she loved out of the house. Of course, she decides in favor of her father, who is dead tired after drinking grog and does not notice that he is being brought into the heather in a cart. When he wakes up there the next morning, he realizes what bad he has done. He is reconciled again with his daughter and the exiled King Hans. Their children get married, and if they haven't died, both kings are still playing "Black Peter" with the minstrel.
music
Musically, the work is very easy to understand even for the inexperienced opera listener. Many melodies are kept in the tone of folk songs and are very memorable. The highlights - in addition to the duet of the royal children already mentioned in the introduction, which has achieved the greatest fame among the opera's melodies - are:
- Quartet of astrologers, King Hans, King Klaus and Spielmann: It is written in the stars
- Trio of the minstrel with the two kings: I like to play Black Peter
- Lullaby of the minstrel: Child, only see the world is beautiful
- Erika's aria: Oh, I got lost
- Song of the minstrel with the children's choir: When we wander
- Song of Erika (repetition of the melody of the duet of the royal children): The one who can give me the most beautiful flowers
- Song of King Klaus: Oh, this anger makes me very sick
- Duet between minstrel and King Klaus: I'm thirsty for ten
- Choir of the people: Juchheißa, juchheißa, life is beautiful
filming
- ZDF; 1966; Director: Joachim Hess ; Actors: Toni Blankenheim , Manfred Lichtenfeld , Peter Roth-Ehrang , Claudio Nicolai , Harald Axtner, Doris Herbert and Theo Lingen .
Sound carrier
- Complete recording with Grit van Jüten , Martha Mödl , Brigitte Mira , Theo Altmeyer , Barry McDaniel , Gerd Vespermann , Willy Schneider , Kölner Rundfunkorchester under the direction of the composer (double CD on the Koch Schwann label No. B000025PXA)
- Large cross-section with Heinz Hoppe , Toni Blankenheim , Hermann Prey , Hans-Joachim Kulenkampff , Gerhard Unger , Anneliese Rothenberger , Alice Oelke , the Rias Chamber Choir, the Schöneberger Boys' Choir and the FFB Orchestra under the direction of the composer (CD on the Emi Classics label - EMI Electrola No. 724357555128, also available as LP)