Solaris (Glanert)
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| Title: | Solaris |
Solaris with its two suns |
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| Shape: | Opera in two parts |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Detlev Glanert |
| Libretto : | Reinhard Palm |
| Literary source: | Stanisław Lem : Solaris |
| Premiere: | July 18, 2012 |
| Place of premiere: | Festival Hall Bregenz |
| Playing time: | approx. 2 ¼ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | The planet Solaris |
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Solaris is an opera in two parts by Detlev Glanert (music) with a libretto by Reinhard Palm based on the novel Solaris by Stanisław Lem . The world premiere took place on July 18, 2012 in the Festspielhaus Bregenz .
action
The psychologist Kris Kelvin arrives after a sixteen-month flight on a space station around the planet Solaris, where he meets some research colleagues. The planet is in an unpredictable orbit around a double star - a red and a blue sun. It is covered by a vast ocean of plasma. There are problems on the ward. Ghosts from their past haunt all crew members. They were apparently generated from their own thoughts by the planet's ocean. The neglected drinker Snaut encounters his Oedipal revered old mother and the analyst Sartorius a babbling dwarf. The researcher Gibarian had already killed himself out of desperation before the opera began, after he was persecuted by a "monstrous negress" - she is now looking after his corpse. Kelvin himself does not remain undisturbed for long either: his former wife Harey, who committed suicide at the age of 19, appears and lets his feelings revive. He first tries to get rid of her by shooting her into space in a space capsule - but she appears again the following night. Only when Sartorius bombarded the planet with specially processed radiation did the researchers succeed in getting rid of the ghosts. At the end of the opera Kelvin flies with the shuttle to the surface of the planet, where he faces his feelings and is surrounded by the ocean.
The opera's libretto is preceded by a quote from William Faulkner : "The past is never dead. It has not even passed."
First part
1st scene. The cosmos
During the prelude, the empty cosmos can be seen first. This is followed by a first glimpse from a distance of the planet Solaris. The second closer look shows a blue day with the blue sun, then night. At the third glance, the plasma sea with its bizarre shapes can be seen, then a red day through the red sun. The scene turns into night and space station. The choir sings simple vowels.
2nd scene. In the space station
The space station consists of a large messy room with five doors. A large picture window offers a view of the sky. A space capsule slowly floats in through a docking hatch and Kelvin gets out. By the middle of the scene, the light changes to a blue day, appears "like the burner of a strong quartz lamp, everything takes on withered colors, brown and red become gray, green and yellow become bright and self-luminous". A “blinding fire” in the middle of the scene takes up a third of the horizon. Then night falls again.
Kelvin calls for the crew members Snaut, Gibarian and Doctor Sartorius. Instead, a monstrous, naked negress appears unseen by him and disappears into Gibarian's room. Snaut hurries out of another room. He is completely confused and does not recognize Kelvin at first. After he has caught himself, he explains that there is chaos in the station. Gibarian committed suicide, Sartorius locked himself in, and the station was haunted by apparitions that Kelvin should absolutely ignore. Snaut hurries back to his room. It's getting dark. The negress scurries past Kelvin into Gibarian's room. Kelvin tries to open the door, but it is locked. The dwarf asks him from Sartorius' laboratory to catch him. At Kelvin's increasing urging, Sartorius emerges from the laboratory, the door of which he carefully closes behind him. Kelvin introduces himself and demands clarification about the conditions on the ward. Sartorius, feeling attacked by Kelvin, tells him to leave. At the same time he tries hard to keep his door locked, from which a figure is trying to force its way out. The negress reappears, pulls a cooler with Gibarian's body out of the wall and lies down with him. Snaut returns tired and tells Kelvin that he will understand what happened if he himself has guests. Kelvin thinks he's hallucinating. To test his mind, he solves a math problem and has his result checked by the computer. It's true - so Kelvin isn't insane.
First interlude. Night. The planet scans Kelvin's brain
The planet, represented by the choir, sings syllables from the names of the crew members: "Sar-to-ri-us", "Gi-ba-ri-an", "Sna-ut", "Kel-vin", "Ha -rey ".
3rd scene. Night. Kelvin's cabin
During this scene the “red day” gradually begins. Kelvin is sleeping in bed. His wife, Harey, who had committed suicide fourteen years earlier, is sitting barefoot in a beach dress by the window. When Kelvin wakes up, he thinks the situation is a dream. However, Harey assures him that they are both home. To make sure, Kelvin cuts her arm with a scalpel. The wound bleeds for a short time, but heals very quickly. Harey appears increasingly confused. She can't remember anything. The sun sets. “The sky is blazing. Clouds with a lilac border flood over this two-tone, indescribably bleak landscape. ”Kelvin gives Harey a sleeping pill. After she falls asleep, he puts her on the bed, leaves the room and locks the door.
Second interlude. Night. The planet mixes Kelvin and Harey
A mirror-like coating forms on the ocean, which rises like a giant bubble, bursts open, forms different shapes and finally collapses again.
4th scene. Becoming blue day. Five-door room
The old woman speaks to Snaut as if he were still a small child. She encourages him to play in order to prepare for his future dream job as a researcher. Snaut misinterprets her embrace and approaches her immorally - whereupon the old woman insults him as a dirty failure and retreats into his room. Mixed feelings overwhelmed Snaut. When Kelvin arrives, he explains that he considers the phenomenon to be in contact with another civilization. Gibarian was the first to be affected. Sartorius leaves the laboratory and suggests analyzing the phenomenon together. He believes the plasma on the planet is able to read their minds. The conversation is interrupted when Harey forcibly breaks through the locked door and asks Kelvin to introduce her to his colleagues. The dwarf from Sartorius' room and the old woman reappear, a little later the negress too. Sartorius found that the shapes develop very quickly and can also regenerate quickly. The "guests" are becoming more and more intrusive towards the scientists, who can only bring them back into their rooms with great difficulty. Kelvin manages to put the negress back in the refrigerator compartment. Then he tells Harey that he has to leave the station again. Harey wants to come with you. She accompanies him to the rocket lock, takes off her dress and gets in first. Kelvin explains that he still has to close the hatch - but does so from the outside and starts the rocket with Harey as the only occupant.
Second part
5th scene. Blue day. The laboratory
The slightly drunk Snaut teasingly points out to Kelvin that he shouldn't believe that he got rid of his guest so easily. The apparition will come again without remembering anything. Kelvin admits that Harey killed himself when he moved out of the shared apartment after an argument. Sartorius comes in to present his latest theory (meanwhile the dwarf appears and makes obscene gestures): Since the guests always come when they wake up, the ocean seems to be examining their brains while they sleep. The problems started after Gibarian irradiated the ocean. Sartorius proposes that the planet should now be fired with rays that have been modulated by brain waves from Kelvin's waking consciousness. Kelvin and Snaut are skeptical. (The dwarf interrupts Sartorius again and again with silly words until he loses patience and tries to strangle his tormentor. The others must intervene.) But there is his alternative proposal to bombard the planet (his project "Freedom") for the station could be dangerous, Kelvin and Snaut accept the first suggestion. Kelvin is strapped to a chair and connected to the devices.
Third interlude. Night. Kelvin's brain waves are recorded
Large waves form on the ocean, between which blood-red foam collects. The blue sun has now completely set, while the rise of the red sun is noticeable through appropriately colored clouds. The choir is gradually able to form complete words.
6th scene. Kelvin's cabin
Kelvin dreams restlessly. When he utters his wife's name in disgust in his sleep, she goes to his bed and speaks to him. Kelvin wakes up. Harey feels indefinite loss and breaks down in tears. Then Kelvin notices that she is wearing the same dress as before - an identical dress is still on the floor. Harey doesn't understand why he doesn't want her anymore. Kelvin tries to calm her down. He hugs her and lies down again. After falling asleep, Harey takes a liquid oxygen device out of the closet and drinks from it. Kelvin wakes up again through the rattle of the apparently dying. However, Harey is recovering quickly. Kelvin states that she is arguably "less mortal" than him. Although she is very similar to his wife, they are apparently not the same person. But now he loves her and not the former Harey. They hug and fall asleep together.
Fourth interlude. Kelvin's nightmare
Kelvin dreams of being scanned by a hand while at the same time an identical body is created. The two flow around each other. The words of the choir become increasingly coherent.
7th scene. Starting day, laboratory
At the beginning of the “blue day”, widening spots of light appear on the surface of the ocean. While Kelvin is doing experiments, the again drunk Snaut enters. Kelvin tells him about his nocturnal experience. He is considering leaving with Harey. Snaut advises him that far from this planet she will not be viable. The negress appears in the room with Gibarian's body. She warns Kelvin that he was late, otherwise Gibarian would still be alive. Sartorius comes in in a good mood and tells his colleagues that he has found a solution. The two should come to his cabin in an hour. Snaut dumps Gibarian and the negress in a closet and breaks into senseless complaints before leaving the laboratory. Darkness spreads across the ocean. Harey approaches the exhausted Kelvin, who confesses his love for her.
Fifth interlude. Night. Sartorius bombarded the planet
For a moment, a gigantic “Symmetriade” appears on the horizon in the northwest. A little later, a pillar rises several kilometers and splits into a tree-like structure until the upper ends of the branch contract like a mushroom. The lower part sinks in the form of separate structures. While Sartorius explains to his colleagues how he has modulated the beams, the “guests” haunt them. The ocean is now completely dark. Only the red outlines of innumerable shapes slide up into the sky “in infinite columns” until they too disappear.
8th scene. Five-door room
After the irradiation, the ocean appears darker than before. When Kelvin wakes up, he realizes that Harey is no longer there. Snaut explains to him that like the other “guests” she was destroyed by Sartorius' actions - he had carried out both experiments at the same time. Broken inside, Kelvin boarded the ferry to fly to the planet.
9th scene. Surface of the planet
Various bubbles and eruptions appear on the Solaris ocean, reminiscent of the movements of an animal. Kelvin, suffering from his loneliness, realizes that he can only believe in an "imperfect God". At the edge of the ocean, he reaches out a hand for a wave. The plasma of the ocean flows around it, but without touching it. His conclusion is: "We are looking for people, nobody else. We don't need any other worlds, we need mirrors."
layout
Instrumentation
The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:
- Woodwinds : three flutes (3rd also Piccolo ), two oboes , English horn , two clarinets , bass clarinet , two bassoons , contrabassoon
- Brass : four horns , four trumpets , three trombones , tuba
- Timpani , drums (three players)
- harp
- Celesta
- Strings : twelve violins I, ten violins II, eight violas , six cellos , four double basses
music
Glanert wasn't interested in writing a science fiction opera. He was more interested in the human dimension. In an interview with the Kölnische Rundschau he explained his idea: “How do we react when our past, especially the one associated with guilt, materializes again? The schemes come back from the past. ”He wanted to compose“ surrealist music ”for this theme. Together with the librettist, he reduced Lem's original novel to "pure plot", completely deleting the scientific reports and then structuring the work. In this way they received arias and Glanert's “first great duet”.
Alfred Zimmerlin wrote in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung that the libretto "skilfully" condenses the events, but then "loses itself in verbose mono and dialogues". The music is "stylistically flexible, dramaturgically precise", creates "atmosphere and tension" despite a lot of conventional gestures, but shows "lengths" in the second part.
The opera consists of solo scenes, orchestral and choral movements, the latter representing the planet Solaris. According to Michael Struck-Schloen, the music “strikes the middle between violence and tenderness, between suggestive, 'cosmic' glitter and strongly reduced, perforated textures.” At the same time, it seems “strangely old-fashioned”.
The opera begins with a “spherically delicate rise of music from the triple pianissimo” and ends with the “most breathy of all opera finals”. Heinz W. Koch, the reviewer of Opernwelt magazine, compared Glanert's instrumental art with that of Gustav Mahler in his review and praised his ability to compose for voices:
“His art of letting the instrumental colors shimmer is shown again here. Masterly how he lets the planet express itself chorally from the first syllable stems to the intact language. Glanert is also an extremely skilled voice composer: If there were the performance designation - one could call the result a recitativo cantabile. I mean: The ariosis dispute prevails. But also an emphatically eloquent, agile orchestral urge to move forward, which at times suggests a Rossini of today. Once everyone grins: when Glanert suddenly turns out to be a song-loving Weill adept. "
According to Fritz Jurmann, the opera “contains tremendously sensual sounds, fascinating in their ambiguity and complexity, which create and abandon worlds of harmony and which in no way shy away from the good old tonality. [...] The most delicate pastel colors in the dream sequences contrast with bright eruptions ”.
Peter P. Pachl pointed out in the Neue Musikzeitung that Glanert used the memory motif of the action to create "reflective chains of associations". The “dream of the return of the dead” is reminiscent of Korngold's opera Die tote Stadt . The large orchestral line-up with harp and celesta is "not inferior to Korngold in terms of drinkability", but is more transparent - which in turn is reminiscent of Franz Schreker's late work . The philosophizing invisible choir had already been the subject of his opera The Singing Devil . The music Snauts in the second part contains jazz echoes, as they also appeared in the time operas of the 20s. There are further allusions to the Doctor in Bergs Wozzeck (here Doctor Sartorius) and to Hans Sachs' monologue in Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Kelvin's reflection on the "madness"). Christoph Schmitz compared the beginning of the opera with the prelude to Wagner's Rheingold and went on to write: “From endless reclining tones, especially in the lower registers, bright light reflections repeatedly emerge, the harp, the triangle, the woodwind. Permanent repetitions of small phrases are also reminiscent of György Ligeti's music of the spheres , sometimes also of the minimal music of the Americans. "
Work history
Glanert received the commission for the opera in 2006. He composed it between 2010 and 2012. The libretto is by Reinhard Palm . It is based on the novel Solaris by Stanisław Lem from 1961. Glanert had already read this novel in the 1980s.
The world premiere took place on July 18, 2012 in the Festspielhaus Bregenz . Was directed by Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier . Markus Stenz directed the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the Prague Philharmonic Choir . Dietrich Henschel (Kelvin), Marie Arnet (Harey), Martin Koch (Snaut), Martin Winkler (Sartorius), Bonita Hyman (negress), Christiane Oertel (old woman) and Mirka Wagner (dwarf) sang . A recording was broadcast on Deutschlandradio Kultur on September 15, 2012 .
The German premiere was on November 2, 2014 in the Cologne Opera House . Here was Patrick Kinmonth responsible for overall design and directing. Kinmonth created the choreography together with Fernando Melo. Lothar Zagrosek was the musical director of the Gürzenich Orchestra and the Cologne Opera Choir . It sang Nikolay Borchev (Kelvin), Aoife Miskelly (Harey), Martin Koch (Snaut), Bjarni Thor Kristinsson (Sartorius), Qiulin Zhang (the Baboon), Dalia Schaechter (Old Woman), Hanna Herfurtner (dwarf) and Peter Bermes ( Gibarian).
The performance of the co-producing Komische Oper Berlin , originally planned for May 19, 2013 , was initially postponed and finally canceled without giving any reasons.
Web links
- Work information at Boosey & Hawkes
- View score (registration required)
- Scenes of the Bregenz premiere on siedemzero.com
Remarks
- ↑ a b The authors pointed out in the libretto that the term "Negerin" comes from Lem's original novel, should be interpreted as typical of the time and does not contain any derogatory attitude.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Heinz W. Koch: The distance very close. Review of the Bregenz premiere in 2012. In: Opernwelt from September / October 2012, p. 38.
- ↑ a b c Work information from Boosey & Hawkes , accessed on August 21, 2017.
- ↑ a b Interview with composer Detlev Glanert. No bar in the opera is yesterday. In: Kölnische Rundschau of October 30, 2014, accessed on August 21, 2017.
- ^ A b Alfred Zimmerlin : "Solaris" by Detlev Glanert in Bregenz: An opera. Review of the Bregenz premiere in 2012. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung from July 20, 2012, accessed on August 21, 2017.
- ↑ a b Michael Struck-Schloen: Glittering, perforated. Review of the Cologne performance in 2014. In: Opernwelt from December 2014, p. 43.
- ↑ a b c Fritz Jurmann: Successful festival premiere between existence and appearance: Detlev Glanert ventures into irrational dream worlds with his space thriller “Solaris”. Review of the Bregenz premiere in 2012. In: Kulturzeitschrift.at on July 19, 2012, accessed on August 21, 2017.
- ↑ Peter P. Pachl : Imploding dream of return. Review of the Bregenz premiere in 2012. In: Neue Musikzeitung on July 19, 2012, accessed on August 21, 2017.
- ^ Christoph Schmitz: "Solaris" at the Cologne Opera. In the jungle of memories. Review of the 2014 Cologne performance. Deutschlandfunk broadcast on November 3, 2014, accessed on August 21, 2017.
- ↑ Performance dates of the Wiener Symphoniker on July 18, 2012 , accessed on August 21, 2017.
- ↑ Concert archive from September 15, 2012 at Deutschlandfunk Kultur , accessed on August 22, 2017.
- ↑ Stefan Schmöe: The ocean speaks German. Review of the Cologne performance in Online Musik Magazin, accessed on August 21, 2017.
- ↑ Werner Häußner: COLOGNE: SOLARIS (Detlev Glanert) on November 12th. 2014 , online marker, accessed on August 22, 2017
- ↑ Berlin premiere of Solaris postponed ( memento from April 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) to markusstenz.com, accessed on August 21, 2017.
- ↑ ( canceled ) Solaris on visitberlin.de ( Memento from May 27, 2017 in the web archive archive.today ).