Silvana (opera)
| Opera dates | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Silvana |
Theater ticket for the premiere in 1810 |
|
| Shape: | Opera in three acts |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Carl Maria von Weber |
| Libretto : | Franz Carl Hiemer |
| Literary source: | Karl von Steinberg |
| Premiere: | September 16, 1810 |
| Place of premiere: | Frankfurt am Main |
| Playing time: | approx. 2 ½ hours |
| people | |
|
original version
Version by Langer and Pasqué
|
|
Silvana is a romantic (also heroic-comic) opera in three acts by Carl Maria von Weber . The libretto is by Franz Carl Hiemer and is based on Weber's opera The Forest Girl. The premiere took place on September 16, 1810 in Frankfurt am Main. A revised version was performed on July 10, 1812 in the Schauspielhaus Berlin. A version by Ferdinand Langer and Ernst Pasqué , which was completely revised around 1885 and which also used Weber's music from outside the work, was also widely used.
Plot (original version, 1810)
The following table of contents is based on the libretto from 1812 and notes on the CD recording from 2010.
first act
No. 1. Introduction. Choir of the hunters: "The hip horn resounds through mountains and forest"
Fust and the hunters are on a bear hunt in a mountainous forest area. Unnoticed, Silvana steps out of a rock cave with a basket in hand to pick berries. When she heard the hunting horns, she ran away. The choir sings about the fall of the bear.
No. 2. Aria. Krips: "Is such a beast lying stretched out"
Krips, the squire of Count Rudolph von Helfenstein and a comic character in the opera, finds the bear that has been killed and believes that he himself killed it. The hunters laugh at him.
No. 3. Choir. "Hi H! Hi H! Only life is happy in the forest! "
No. 4. Recitative and aria. Rudolph: "So should this heart never find love?" - "Unsteadiness wanders the longing of the breast"
Rudolph sent the others away. He thinks about his upcoming wedding to Mechthilde, the daughter of Count Adelhart. He knows that she won't return his love, but he doesn't want to force her into marriage either. Rather, he wants to leave the country and go to war.
No. 5. Duet. Rudolph, Krips: "So go, and bring the girl out of that cave!"
Krips has noticed Silvana and is asked by Rudolph to show her to him. However, Krips considers her a supernatural being and anxiously refuses. Rudolph is annoyed by the cowardice of his squire and enters the cave himself.
No. 6. Aria. Krips: "I have courage, on my honor!"
No. 7. Aria. Rudolph: "Don't you want to swap this stay with a friendlier one?"
Rudolph tries to win the trust of the mute Silvana and to get her to come with him. She rejects this pantomime. Rudolph believes she doesn't do this willingly and wants to find out why.
No. 8. Finale. Rudolph and Chor: "Enjoyed, but modest"
The hunters come back and sing of their joy at the gifts of the Rhine. Rudolph fell in love with Silvana. He has given her a sleeping potion and has her brought to Adelharts Castle, where a knight tournament is to take place.
Second act
No. 9. Duet. Adelhart, Mechthilde: "Dare to oppose me!"
Count Adelhart persuades his daughter Mechthilde to agree to the wedding with Rudolph. Mechthilde is desperate. He gets angry and sets the wedding for the following day.
No. 10. Recitative and aria. Mechthilde: “He's going! He doesn't hear me! "-" How was I so cheerful, so blessed "
Mechthilde desperately thinks of her lover Albert von Cleeburg. Unfortunately, their families are enemies because Albert's father once kidnapped her sister Ottilie.
No. 11th Quartet. Albert, Mechthilde, Klara, Kurt: "O, the most beautiful day of my life"
In the garden, Mechthilde and Albert meet again in the presence of Albert's squire Kurt and Mechthilde's maid Klara. They swear their love.
The sleeping Silvana is brought to the castle by Rudolph and his people.
No. 12. Ballo (pantomime).
Silvana wakes up in Rudolph's room and begins to dance in front of a mirror. Rudolph approaches her unnoticed at first. Silvana collides with him in the dance. She uses gestures to tell him that her father is still in the forest. Rudolph instructs his squire to have him fetched. Silvana is now ready to stay with him. He confesses his love to her.
No. 13. Aria. Rudolph: "I love you!"
Krips enters and reports that Rudolph should come to the tournament. He also gives him a letter in which an anonymous scribe tells him that Mechthilde has a lover. Rudolph is pleasantly surprised that he is now free for Silvana. Krips, on the other hand, has lost interest in women and prefers wine.
No. 14. Ariette. Krips: "I used to see a girl"
No. 15. Finale. Choir: “Triumph! Triumph of the warrior "
The victory celebration for the tournament is being prepared in the ballroom. Through the window the servants see like an unknown knight defeated all others. The tournament company enters the hall to the sound of a march. Adelhart, the Herald, Mechthilde and the choir celebrate the unknown knight. But only after a long request does he open the visor. He identifies himself as Albert von Cleeburg and asks for Mechthilde's hand. It was also he who wrote the anonymous letter. Adelhart wants to lock his old enemy in the dungeon and have them killed, but Rudolph, Mechthilde and their entourage stand protectively in front of him. In return, Adelhart's entourage calls for revenge.
Third act
No. 16. Choir: "How terribly the clouds blacken!"
Albert and his people were able to flee into the forest. A thunderstorm is approaching and increases Albert's bad mood. He would rather die than do without Mechthilde. Silvana's foster father Ulrich meets them while looking for his daughter. It turns out that he used to be a squire of Albert's father. After this had stolen Mechthilde's sister Ottilie, Ulrich was supposed to kill her in the forest. Instead he raised her under the name Silvana and now wishes to take her to her real father. When Fust and his entourage appear in search of Silvana's father, Ulrich reveals himself to them. However, they are discovered by Adelhart's people who arrest Albert and his entourage and lead them back to the castle. Ulrich and Fust follow them.
Adelhart is appalled that his daughter Mechthilde does not want to marry Rudolph, but his enemy Albert. He doesn't want to stand idly by and decides to kill Albert and Silvana.
No. 17. Recitative and aria. Adelhart: "What a terrible lot I fell from heaven!" - "The courage that animates me"
No. 18. Trio. Adelhart, Rudolph, Mechthilde: "Down with her!"
Adelhart and one of his henchmen advanced to Silvana to murder her. Rudolph and Mechthilde step in between. Adelhart agrees to let Silvana go if Mechthilde marries Rudolf. The two agree to the condition - but they cannot give up their real love. That is not enough for Adelhart. He insists on his revenge and now wants to kill Silvana with his own hands.
Albert appears and interrupts him with the words “Stop, you are murdering your child!” Adelhart only believes this when he recognizes his daughter Ottilie, who was believed to be lost, by a birthmark. Her foster father Ulrich also joins them. He had forbidden Silvana to speak out of caution and is now breaking this ban.
No. 19. Finale. "In league with the God of Love" - torch dance - final choir: "Renounce worries"
After Adelhart has given the two couples his blessing, the noble women, knights and squires celebrate the happy ending.
Plot (version by Langer and Pasqué, around 1885)
The opera is set in the Rheingau and Sternberg Castle, named after a castle in the Middle Rhine Valley . It takes place in the time of the sagas .
first act
The character “Sage” tells a prehistory in which the Rhine Count Boland von Sternberg killed his brother out of jealousy and suspects that his daughter Silvana is dead. However, this was saved by the nymph Dryada and raised by the charcoal burner Ratto.
Years later, Boland's son Gerold goes hunting in the forest where Silvana and the charcoal burner live. When Silvana and Gerold meet, they fall in love. However, Ratto does not want to release his foster daughter. The nymph Dryada stuns the charcoal burner with a sleep spell so that Gerold and Silvana can move to his father's castle, who meanwhile regrets his deed.
Second act
The vassal Guntram brings Boland the news that his son Silvana wants to marry. The Count, Gerold and Silvana celebrate at a fair in a village near the castle. Ratto is also there to look for his foster daughter. A traveling singer reports on the murder, causing the count to get furious and try to kill the singer. When Silvana stands between the two, Gerold becomes jealous because he recognizes the Koehler as her foster father. Boland has the nymph as well as Silvana and Ratto thrown into dungeon , Gerold's plea for mercy is in vain.
Third act
The Koehler and Silvana are still imprisoned, but Dryada is no longer in the dungeon. Boland tries to convince Silvana to forget Gerold, otherwise she and her lover would have to die. After the count leaves the dungeon, Gerold comes and swears eternal loyalty and love to Silvana. Then Silvana falls asleep. Dryada appears, transforms the prison into an enchanted forest and shows the sleeper the future.
Fourth act
In the court, Boland and other judges are suing Silvana for sorcery and seduction . Despite Gerold's appeals, she is sentenced to death . Shortly before the execution of the sentence, Dryada appears and reports on Silvana's origins. The count regrets his actions and the lovers fall into each other's arms.
History of origin
Silvana is Weber's fifth opera. It is based on his opera Das Waldmädchen, long thought lost by Weber researchers , and which he wrote as a child. In 1890, Hans Michel Schletterer described the changes made as follows, although he did not know The Forest Girl , as it was lost at the time except for marginal fragments:
“The opera 'Silvana' emerged from the 'Waldmädchen' composed ten years earlier in Freiberg, but it should nevertheless be regarded as a completely new work; because probably each of the numbers that may have been taken over has undergone radical changes and revisions, others (nos. 1-3, 4b , 10b , 15, 16 and 19) were newly composed. "
The Waldmächen manuscript was found again in 2000 in the archives of the Mariinsky Theater in Saint Petersburg, where it had ended up at the beginning of the 19th century. The text of the connecting dialogues is still lost.
In 1807 Weber had accepted a position in Stuttgart as the private secretary of Duke Ludwig , the younger brother of King Friedrich von Württemberg . Although his employer was not interested in the theater, he began composing the new opera on July 18, 1808. He was encouraged by the composer Franz Danzi . Franz Carl Hiemer , who was commissioned with the revision of the libretto, was reluctant to go to work and had to be encouraged by Weber again and again. On July 19, 1809 Weber wrote him a 50-line poem: Epistle to Hiemer . The work was finally completed on February 23, 1810, and the rehearsals could have started if Weber had not been embroiled in an intrigue that led to his banishment from Württemberg on February 26. The planned premiere in Stuttgart therefore no longer took place. The tenor Johann Baptist Krebs was intended for the role of Rudolph . The Mechthilde was to be sung by Gretchen Lang .
With the help of a few friends it was finally possible to perform the work on September 16, 1810 in Frankfurt am Main . Gretchen Lang, already planned for Stuttgart, took on the role of Mechthilde. The Silvana played Weber's future wife Caroline Brandt . During the costume rehearsal on September 13, it became known that the balloonist Sophie Blanchard wanted to make a new attempt at flight. Since the performance date could not be changed, a corresponding note was placed on the theater bill: “In the case of Mad. Blanchard's flight, the start is at 7 o'clock. In the opposite case, as usual at 6 o'clock. ”This event created some distraction and restlessness in the audience. Overall, however, the opera was well received and some numbers had to be repeated as encores.
Another performance took place on July 10, 1812 in Berlin under the direction of Weber. On this occasion, he replaced two numbers from the first version: No. 4 (Rudolf) and No. 10 (Mechthilde). This performance became his first major success and the basis for his fame as the founder of German romantic opera. Further performances followed u. a. in Dresden (1815), Bremen and Prague (1817), Leipzig (1818), Königsberg (1821) and Riga (1823). Weber reworked the work again in 1818 for a performance in Dresden. In 1828 it was performed in English in London.
A piano reduction without the ensemble movements was published by Schlesinger in Berlin as early as 1812 . In 1828 a complete edition of the piano reduction was published posthumously. Further publications and adaptations followed. The overture in particular was arranged several times for different ensembles, for example for piano (1826 by Weber himself), for piano, flute, violin and cello (1828 in London) or for military band (1882 in London). The score was not published until the 1920s as part of the complete edition of Weber's works.
Around 1885 a largely redesigned version by Ferdinand Langer (music) and Ernst Pasqué (text) appeared with a completely new plot. The authors added a prologue and an epilogue and also used Weber's music from outside the work. This version is the basis for some of the contents that can still be found in opera guides today.
In the 20th century, the opera was only performed again in Zwingenberg in 1989. In 1996 staged performances followed in the Stadttheater Hagen , on the basis of which a CD was released. In 2010 a new recording of the original version from 1810 was released under the direction of Ulf Schirmer .
layout
Because the role of Silvana is designed as a silent role, Weber was able to put more emotional weight on the orchestration. The oboe and the violoncello, in particular, are of particular importance. The figures of the villain Adelhart and the knight Rudolph are carefully characterized and are already reminiscent of Weber's later figures Caspar and Huon. The musical design of Silvana's silent role leaves the greatest impression. Nevertheless, there is also criticism. In the foreword to the 1890 edition of the libretto, Hans Michel Schletterer criticized a few lengths through repetitions of the text, absurdities in the libretto and the design of Count Adelhart as a bloodthirsty rage. But he also praised the humorous presentation of the Knappen Krip, the drinking song No. 14, the choirs and especially the music: "All numbers mark Weber's rich and inexhaustible source of melodies, characteristic truth and peculiarity of harmony and pleasing, graceful form."
Discography
- 1996: Studio recording with the Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hagen Opera Choir under the direction of Gerhard Markson with Stefan Adam (Adelhart), Volker Thies (Albert), Horst Fiehl (Grimmbach), Peter Martin Sturm (Herold), Annelie Pfeffer (Klärchen), Andreas Haller (Krips), Sergio Gomez (Kurt), Angelina Ruzzafante (Mechthilde), Alexander Spemann (Rudolph), Katja Isken (Silvana) and Jürgen Dittebrand (Ulrich). Marco Polo 8.223844-5 (2 CD).
- 2010: Recording of the original version from 1810 with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester and the Bavarian Radio Choir under the direction of Ulf Schirmer with Lea Woitack (Silvana, actress), Detlef Roth (Adelhart), Michaela Kaune (Mechthilde), Ferdinand von Bothmer (Rudolph) , Jörg Schörner (Albert), Andreas Burkhart (Fust), Tareq Nazmi (Kurt), Simon Pauly (Krips), Ines Krapp (Klärchen) and Marco Cilic (A Herald, speaking role).
Literature and editions
- Markus Bandur (ed.): Silvana. Romantic opera in three acts. Text by Franz Carl Hiemer (with addenda by FG Toll) (WeV C.5) (= Carl Maria von Weber Complete Works , Series III, Vol. 3a, 3b, 3c), Mainz: Schott, 2011. [3 volumes] ISBN 978-3-7957-9344-9 , ISBN 978-3-7957-9447-7 , ISBN 978-3-7957-9448-4
- Natalja Gubkina: The forest girl from Carl Maria von Weber. Notes on the Petersburg performance material with incipits of all musical numbers of the opera. In: Weberiana H. 11 (2001), pp. 32-51
Web links
- Silvana : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Performance briefing, Berlin: “Silvana” by Carl Maria von Weber on July 10, 1812. Document text of the Carl Maria von Weber Complete Edition
- Libretto, Berlin 1812. Digitized version of the Munich digitization center
- Libretto, Dresden 1850. Digitized version of the Dresden State and University Library
- Libretto, Wiesbaden 1890. Digitized version of the Munich digitization center
- Friedrich Wilhelm Jähns : Silvana and the forest girl. In: Carl Maria von Weber in his works. Berlin, Schlesinger 1871, pp. 95 ff and 413 ff. Digitized in the Internet Archive
Remarks
- ↑ Since the spoken dialogues are missing in the published libretto, the plot has been compared and supplemented with the manuscript for the broadcast of the Schirmer recording on April 18, 2010 on BR-Klassik for better understanding . The plot of the 1996 Naxos shot is slightly different.
Individual evidence
- ^ Long lost Weber opera is performed in concert in Freiberg. Focus from September 12, 2014. Accessed August 29, 2015.
- ↑ The forest girl. Event notice of the Central Saxon Theater. ( Memento of August 14, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Retrieved August 29, 2015.
- ↑ Epistle to Hiemer. In: Complete writings of Carl Maria von Weber. Critical edition by Georg Kaiser. Schuster & Loeffler, Berlin and Leipzig 1908, p. 522 ( online in the Internet archive ).
- ↑ a b c d e f Bradford Robinson: Foreword to the performance material from 2005 on musikmph.de. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
- ^ A b John Warrack: About this Recording - 8.223844-45 - WEBER: Silvana. on naxos.com. Retrieved August 13, 2015.
- ^ A b Hans Michel Schletterer : Foreword to the libretto edition from 1890
- ^ Record of the piano reduction of the version by Langer / Pasqué in the library service center Baden-Württemberg.
- ↑ Silvana. In: Reclam's Opernlexikon. Digital library volume 52. Philipp Reclam jun., 2001, p. 2392.
- ^ Weber Carl Maria von: Silvana (Romantic opera in three acts). CD review on klassik-heute.com. Retrieved August 13, 2015.
- ↑ Carl Maria von Weber. In: Andreas Ommer: Directory of all opera complete recordings. Zeno.org , Volume 20, p. 23929.
- ↑ Carl Maria von Weber - "Silvana". CD review on BR-KLASSIK. ( Memento of October 11, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved on August 13, 2015.