Thamos, king of Egypt

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Thamos, King of Egypt (Vienna, 1774)

Thamos, King in Egypt , KV 345 (336a), is a play by Tobias Philipp Freiherr von Gebler , for which Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote the incidental music . It appeared in print in Dresden in 1773 and was probably premiered the following year - on April 4, 1774 - in the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna without any notable success . Other sources, without specifying the location, speak of December 11, 1773 as the day of the premiere .

Emergence

The piece, about the history of which is little known, is shaped by the zeitgeist of the time, in that it takes up the emerging Egyptian fashion as well as the Enlightenment and Freemasonry. The heroic novel Séthos (1731) by Jean Terrasson strongly influenced Gebler in the creation of his drama without it being a stage adaptation of the same. Thamos, King of Egypt concludes a series of twelve plays published by Gebler in 1772 and 1773. The sequence, beginning with comedies, gradually heading more and more towards the genre of the heroic drama, indicates that the author considered Thamos to be the culmination of his work.

construction

The heroic drama is a 5-act work that its author conceived as a dialectical didactic piece . The game plot around 3000 BC Chr lasts from morning to evening and takes place continuously in Heliopolis, the city of the sun.

Role Directory

  • Thamos, King of Egypt
  • Sethos, high priest of the sun temple
  • Pheron, prince of the royal house
  • Mirza, head of the Sun Maidens
  • Sais and Myris, noble Egyptian women in the care of the sun maidens
  • Phanes, general
  • Hammon, sun priest
  • Choir of priests
  • Choir of the Sun Maidens

as well as greats of the empire, men of war, other Egyptians

Stage design

A royal castle is connected to the sun temple in the center of the stage by two buildings. On the other side is the house of the sun maidens, in the background are the priestly apartments. The first, third, fourth and fifth act shows the temple of the sun as described, the second takes place in a gallery of the house of the sun maiden.

action

The king of Egypt, Menes, has been dethroned by the rebel Ramesses. While his people, who think he is dead, mourn for him, only his confidants Hammon and the general Phanes know that Menes is staying as a wise, supreme priest under the name of Sethos in the sun temple of the city of Heliopolis. Setho's daughter Tharsis, whom the father believes burned, has meanwhile been given by Ramesses as Sais into the raising hands of the sun maiden superior Mirza. After Ramesses dies, his son Thamos takes over the scepter. Thamos and Sais love each other, but Mirza tries to steer them into the hands of the rebel Pheron, a disapproving courtier who also loves Sais and wants to gain the throne with her help, which she succeeds. Only the words of the wise Sethos cause Thamos and Sais to prevent Pheron and Mirza from acceding to the throne. When Pheron finally takes up arms in order to achieve his failed goal, Sethos stands between the two and finally reveals himself to be the only legitimate ruler of Menes. The lovers Thamos and Sais have survived the danger and are put on the throne by Menes. Mirza then chooses suicide with the dagger. Pheron, on the other hand, surrenders to blasphemy - and is swept away by a falling lightning bolt.

Incidental music

The piece contains two choral scenes that Gebler had initially commissioned Johann Tobias Sattler to set. For an unknown reason, Gebler commissioned the music again in the year it was published - this time from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Mozart composed the two choirs in late summer or autumn of 1773.

The first performance of the piece in Vienna in 1774 probably initially only included the music for these two choirs. It is uncertain whether Mozart had already composed the inter-act music in 1773.

In Köchelverzeichnis the music to appear Thamos along with a later added choral piece in points 173d, 345 and 336a. The pieces are in detail:

  • Chorus: Already give way, sun
  • After the first act
  • After the 2nd act
  • After the 3rd act
  • After the 4th act
  • Choir: deity, deity, above all
  • After the fifth and last act
  • Chorus: You children of dust, tremble

As incidental music to Lanassa

Johann Böhm made a guest appearance with his drama troupe in Salzburg in 1779, where Mozart was also staying at that time. It is due to this fact that Mozart carefully reworked the choral scenes, possibly also contributed the five instrumental pieces and finally composed a third choir to conclude the play, the text of which was probably written by the Salzburg court trumpeter Andreas Schachtner , who was also an occasional poet emerged. However, Böhm did not use all of the music for a performance of the piece Geblers set in Egypt, but rather the drama Lanassa (printed 1782) by Karl Martin Plümicke , which is set in India.

As church music

The opening and closing choirs were later provided with Latin texts for liturgical use. No. 1 of the play, "Already give way, sun" became "Splendente te, Deus"; No.6, "Godhead, mighty over all", to "Jesus, Rex tremendae"; No. 7, “You children of dust, to“ Ne pulvis et cinis. ”A copy of these revisions was found in Mozart's estate.

effect

Thamos, who became king in Egypt , B. 1776 in Salzburg (one of the few documented performances at all), also performed without Mozart's music. Since the first edition, however, it has hardly appeared in print in German. In 1780 it was translated into Italian.

"This piece is (...) because it was not liked, among the discarded pieces that are no longer performed", Mozart already noted the unsuccessful success of Gebler's Thamos, king in Egypt, in a letter to his father (15. February 1783) and wished "it only had to be performed for the sake of the music".

further reading

Text output

  • Harald Heckmann : revised version of the dramatic text by Karl-Heinz Ruppel for the stage. In: Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus: / [New edition of all works]: / Critical reports. / Series 2. Stage works / Work group 6. Music for plays, pantomimes and ballets / Vol. 1/2. Choirs u. Between acts of Thamos, King in Egypt [among others]. (1970)?

Secondary literature

  • Laurenz Lütteken : "- it just has to be performed for the sake of the music". Text and context in Mozart's “Thamos” melodrama. In: Ludwig Finscher , Bärbel Pelker, Jochen Reutter (eds.): Mozart and Mannheim (= sources and studies on the history of the Mannheim court orchestra. Vol. 2). Congress report Mannheim 1991. Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1994, ISBN 3-631-46597-1 , pp. 167-186.
  • Antje Tumat: The Drama Music Thamos, King in Egypt. In: Dieter Borchmeyer , Gernot Gruber (Hrsg.): The Mozart Handbook in 7 volumes. Volume 3/1: Mozart's operas. Laaber, Laaber-Verlag 2007, ISBN 978-3-89007-463-4 , pp. 501-512.
  • Antje Tumat: Mozart and Drama Music . In: Siegfried Mauser, Elisabeth Schmierer (eds.): Cantata, older sacred music, drama music (= handbook of musical genres. Volume 17.2). Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2010, ISBN 978-3-89007-328-6 , pp. 259-267. (Reprinted from: Mozart yearbook. 2006, pp. 265–277.)

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