The Crucible (Opera)
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| Title: | Witch hunt |
| Original title: | The Crucible |
| Shape: | Opera in four acts |
| Original language: | English |
| Music: | Robert Ward |
| Libretto : | Bernard Stambler |
| Literary source: | Arthur Miller : Witch Hunt |
| Premiere: | October 26, 1961 |
| Place of premiere: | New York City Opera |
| Playing time: | about 2 hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Salem , 1692 |
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The Crucible (German: Hexenjagd or Die Feuerprobe ) is an adaptation of the play of the same name by Arthur Miller by Robert Ward for the opera . It is about the Salem Witch Trials and premiered on 1961 at the New York City Opera .
action
Bernard Stambler's libretto largely follows the theater original . Miller himself is said to have thought of implementing it as an opera right from the start. Stambler deleted about two thirds of the text for the opera, including in the first act a few scenes with Abigail and her friends and various arguments and in the second act the scenes with Giles Corey and Francis Nurse and the long discussions between the Proctors and Reverend Hale. A scene with Abigail and Proctor that Miller wanted to remove was reinserted at Ward's urging. The trial in the third act does not take place in a church, as with Miller, but in a court house. In the fourth act, Ward and Stambler added a final encounter between Proctor and Abigail. Elizabeth's pregnancy is not mentioned in the opera.
The Crucible takes place in 1692 in Salem , a community in what is now the US state of Massachusetts . Like the theater piece, the play is a parable on the hunt for communists in the McCarthy era .
first act
Reverend Samuel Parris worries about his daughter Betty. He had met her and her cousin Abigail in a ritual dance in the woods the previous night. Then Betty collapsed. Since then she has been lying motionless in bed. When the slave Tituba asks how she is, he angrily sends her away. Abigail enters and tells of rumors of local witchcraft. She asks Parris to make a denial. Parris demands an explanation from her about her nocturnal activity and wants to know why she no longer works for the Proctors. Abigail assures that she has done nothing wrong. She left the Proctors because Mrs. Proctor treated her like a slave (later in the opera it becomes clear that she was actually having a relationship with John Proctor).
The devout Putnams tell Parris that their daughter Ruth is showing the same symptoms as Betty. They assume witchcraft and have therefore sent for the Reverend Hale, who is experienced in it. Parris is not happy about this development. He fears that his daughter could also be incriminated. His own critical attitude could also lead to problems. Old Giles Corey, Rebecca and Francis Nurse enter the room. Rebecca tries to calm down: the nightly event was certainly just child's play. When Putnam insists that witches work in Salem, Giles accuses him of wanting to drive his neighbors off their land. The dispute escalates and is not stopped by the arrival of John Proctor. Abigail is visibly upset by his presence. Rebecca tries to appease the men.
After Giles and John leave the house, the others sing a psalm to seek God's help. Meanwhile, Betty has a hysterical fit, screams and seems to want to fly out the window. Everyone rushes to her. Reverend Hale appears. He first calms down those present and then begins with his questions. He soon learns from Ann Putnam that the slave Tituba, who also took part in the nightly dance, is capable of magic. The slave is fetched. Hale urges Abigail to confess. Instead, she accuses Tituba of making a pact with the devil. Under pressure, Tituba confesses, but also declares that she has done nothing wrong. She even rejected the devil when he offered to kill Parris and her other opponents. After Tituba's confession, Betty's spell is broken. Everyone thanks God with another psalm. In the following days, Abigail and Betty accuse many more women of the place of witchcraft.
Second act
John Proctor returns home from work. His wife has not yet forgiven him for his relationship with Abigail. Believing he was trying to protect Abigail, she asked him to explain to Judge Danforth that what she said was false. His hesitation shows her that he still has feelings for Abigail. But John has no evidence of Abigail's lies and also fears that their love affair could be leaked. Elizabeth regrets that her previous love has gone.
Proctor's maid, Mary Warren, also testified in court. Filled with tears, she reports that the number of those arrested has tripled and that Goody Osburn has been sentenced to death on a rope. The heated atmosphere in the hall drove her to accuse others against her own will. When John threatens her with the whip if she continues her allegations, Mary exclaims that Elizabeth's name was also mentioned during the trial. Elizabeth is convinced that Abigail is behind this. She urges John again to go to court. At that moment, the Reverend Hale and the court clerk Cheever appear with an arrest warrant for them. Abigail has accused Elizabeth in court of using a witch doll to kill her. Mary asserts that it is her own doll and that Elizabeth had nothing to do with it - but Hale insists on taking Elizabeth for an examination. John struggles to hold back a burst of anger. He tells Mary to tell the truth in court, even if this should bring his relationship with Abigail to the public. In no case should Elizabeth be in danger because of him.
Third act
First picture
Abigail tries to persuade John Proctor to leave Elizabeth and work with her to complete the sacred work of clearing the city of the witches. Proctor firmly refuses. In return, he asks Abigail to retract her false accusations. She replies that Elizabeth's fate is now in his hands.
Second picture
The witch trial begins with Judge Danforth's proclamation that through him God will free the country from the witch plague. After the opening, Giles Corey first accuses Thomas Putnam of making false accusations out of greed for his neighbor's country. Since Corey refuses to give the names of his witnesses, Danforth has him thrown into dungeon and tortured. Corey gets violent against Putnam, who he blames for the arrest of his wife and Rebecca Nurse.
Next, John Proctor presents a statement to Mary Warren that the alleged witchcraft was just a girls game. Abigail had taken it seriously in order to get his wife Elisabeth out of the way because he had a relationship with her. Elizabeth is brought in to confirm his statement. However, she believes she must protect her husband and rejects claims that he was in a relationship with Abigail. Abigail also denies and in return accuses Mary of witchcraft. Mary loses her temper and accuses Proctor of being the devil who made her testify. Those present turn angrily at Proctor.
Fourth act
After months in prison, Tituba and Sarah Good went crazy. They sing about the devil and his broken promises. Abigail bribed the guard to allow Proctor to escape. But Proctor rejects freedom and its love. Abigail runs away crying.
Hale, Samuel and Betty Parris try to get Danforth to postpone the morning executions of Proctor and Rebecca Nurse. They point out that these are very respected in Salem and their death could cause an uproar. Danforth indignantly rejects the request. But he allows Elizabeth to try to get her husband to confess. If John does that, he will be released.
John Proctor is shown in and left alone with his wife. She tells him that Giles Corey died under torture without making a statement. But many others would have confessed and thus saved their lives. John is ready to confess, but fears that she will then think he is a liar. She replies that he was convicted on the basis of her own lie. He happily exclaims that he wants to make the wrong confession.
Danforth, Hale, and Parris are relieved by Proctor's confession for different reasons. Parris tries to get Rebecca, who is already on her way to the gallows, to do the same. But she doesn't want to burden her soul with a lie. John is asked to sign his confession so that it can be shown to the city. But Proctor, who in no way wants to dishonor his family name, tears up the document. Danforth furiously orders him and Rebecca to be taken to execution. Hale begs Elizabeth to persuade her husband to give in - but she refuses: “John has found his name and his virtue. God forbid I take this from him. "
Work history
Emergence
The opera was commissioned by the New York City Opera and funded by the Ford Foundation. Because of the private funding of the American opera houses, such composition commissions were often awarded to promote contemporary American opera life. Such works therefore had to be written for the public and often had well-known literary sources or themes from American history as their content. It is unclear whether Ward himself or the Opera House suggested the subject.
The libretto and composition were completed in less than a year with the advice of Arthur Miller.
Performance history
The Crucible premiered at New York City Opera in 1961 under Julius Riedel . She received critical acclaim and won both the Pulitzer Prize for Music and the New York Music Critics Circle Citation Prize in 1962 . Among other things, the reviews praised the fact that Ward had created "harmonious, technically brilliant, disciplined music" in the sense of neo-romanticism in the style of the late Richard Strauss , in which the "voices are more important than the orchestra". The work is one of the most frequently performed operas by an American composer worldwide.
The European premiere took place in 1963 with Robert Ward as conductor at the Staatstheater Wiesbaden and received sharp negative criticism. Many reviewers complained that Ward's musical language was rather morality-like and had nothing to do with new music. The failure is said to have been due to the poor German translation of the libretto.
Therefore, the second performance in Germany only took place in 2015 at the Braunschweig State Theater with Peter Bording as John Proctor and Anne Schuldt as Elizabeth, but in the original English version. The film director Hugh Hudson made his debut as an opera director.
Recordings
- 1962 (studio): Emerson Buckley (conductor), orchestra and choir of the New York City Opera . Chester Ludgin (John Proctor), Frances Bible (Elizabeth Proctor), Patricia Brooks (Abigail Williams), Jack DeLon (Judge Danforth). Albany CD: TROY025-26-2 (2 CD).
- July 11, 1998 (live from Central City): John Moriaty (conductor), Central City Opera Orchestra. Grant Youngblood (John Proctor), Kristine Jepson (Elizabeth Proctor), Diane Alexander (Abigail Williams), Adam Klein (Judge Danforth).
- November 2008 (video; production by Dicapo Opera New York; live from the “Opera Competition and Festival with Mezzo Television” in Szeged): Pacien Mazzagatti (conductor), John Farrell (stage), Sándor Daróczi (costumes), Pannon Philharmonic Orchestra. Zeffin Quinn Hollis (John Proctor), Lisa Chavez (Elizabeth Proctor), Marie-Adeline Henry (Abigail Williams), Michael Bracegirdle (Judge Danforth). A recording was shown on Mezzo TV .
literature
- Robert Paul Kolt: Robert Ward's The Crucible: Creating an American Musical Nationalism. Scarecrow Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-8108-6350-7 .
- Robert L. Larsen: A Study and Comparison of Samual Barber's "Vanessa", Robert Ward's "The Crucible", and Gunther Schuller's "The Visitation". MM thesis. Indiana University, Bloomington 1971.
Web links
- Work data for The Crucible based on MGG with discography at Operone
- Work information and table of contents (English) on dramonline.org
- Work information and table of contents (English) on operalively.com
- Video of a performance by the University of British Columbia on YouTube (audio only for the first act)
Individual evidence
- ^ Ulrich Schreiber : Opera guide for advanced learners. The 20th century III. Eastern and Northern Europe, branch lines on the main route, intercontinental distribution. Bärenreiter, Kassel 2006, ISBN 3-7618-1859-9 , p. 545.
- ^ A b c Robert Ward: The Crucible , accessed October 9, 2016.
- ↑ Work information and table of contents (English) on operalively.com
- ↑ a b c d Braunschweig State Theater: Hexenjagd , program booklet, 2015.
- ^ A b Robert Paul Kolt: Robert Ward's The Crucible: Creating an American Musical Nationalism. Scarecrow Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-8108-6350-7 .
- ^ DIE ZEIT: Miller's Witch Hunt as an opera , accessed on October 8, 2016.
- ↑ Robert Ward. In: Andreas Ommer: Directory of all opera complete recordings. Zeno.org , Volume 20, p. 23797.
- ↑ Robert Ward. In: Andreas Ommer: Directory of all opera complete recordings. Zeno.org , Volume 20, p. 23799.
- ↑ Robert Ward: The Crucible ( memento of November 2, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) at the Armel Opera Festival 2008, accessed on October 10, 2016.
- ↑ Concours et festival international d'Opéra de Szeged (Hongrie) Mezzo, du 5 au 17 novembre 2008 (French) on classiquenews.com, accessed on October 10, 2016.