The Perfect Fool

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Opera dates
Original title: The Perfect Fool
Shape: Opera in one act
Original language: English
Music: Gustav Holst
Libretto : Gustav Holst
Premiere: May 14, 1923
Place of premiere: Covent Garden , London
Playing time: Around 1 hour
Place and time of the action: in a fairytale land in an imaginary Middle Ages
people

The Perfect Fool op. 39 is a one-act opera for solos, choir and orchestra by Gustav Holst .

Emergence

At the end of the summer of 1919, Holst finished work on the libretto for The Perfect Fool . In the opera, Holst satirizes the operas of Claude Debussy , Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner's Parsifal ; some ideas to The Perfect Fool came from Holst's earlier for the Morley College incurred Opera Opera as She is Wrote .

He had previously asked his student Jane Joseph, but it is unclear whether she started working on the libretto. Holst's friend, the author Clifford Bax , declined the request on the grounds that he was unable to find the material as amusing as Holst. Further final work on the libretto was undertaken in August 1920 at Quarr Abbey on the Isle of Wight . In the further course of the summer a first draft followed, and the next year a first version of the music.

After a student performance of the ballet music by The Perfect Fool in early December 1921 at the Royal College of Music , its public premiere followed in a concert in the Queen's Hall under Albert Coates and the Royal Philharmonic Society .

In October 1922 Holst created a complete score from the draft of the opera with the help of Nora Day, Vally Lasker and Jane Joseph.

The Perfect Fool premiered on May 14, 1923 at the Royal Opera House , Covent Garden under Eugene Goossens and the British National Opera Company . Because of a stay in the USA, Holst was unable to attend the premiere.

action

The opera begins with a ballet of the spirits of fire, water, earth and air .

A mother is with her son, a gate, on the way to the palace of the princess. On the wandering the mother mumbles an old prophecy to herself that her son will win a bride with his glance, kill the enemy with one glance and achieve with a single word what no man was able to do before.

In the palace of the princess, who is looking for a man, an old, wrinkled wizard tries his luck. He wants to look young and beautiful with a magic potion, but the mother of the gate exchanges the magic potion for spring water. The princess has meanwhile cast an eye on the gate.

Now the old wizard conjures up a forest and lets it go up in flames. However, the gate can put out the fire with a single glance. The wizard is amazed and gives up. The princess is now even more impressed by the gate and asks if he would like to marry her. He now manages what no man was able to do before by averting his eyes and saying "No!"

effect

The opera met with a divided response from the audience and critics because of the satirical plot. The musical News & Herald wrote that Holst makes excellent entertainment out of keeping the plot and its details a secret.

A music magazine printed a photo of Holst with the headline “The Perfect Fool” for its review of the opera. In this context, Holst biographer Michael Short suspects that Holst may have wanted to depict his relationship to the genre of opera with The Perfect Fool .

orchestra

The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:

literature

  • Michael Short: Gustav Holst - The Man and his Music , Circaidy Gregory Press (first published by Oxford University Press), 1990, new edition 2014

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Michael Short: Gustav Holst - The Man and his Music , Circaidy Gregory Press (first published by Oxford University Press), 1990, new edition 2014, pp. 111–112
  2. a b c Michael Short: Gustav Holst - The Man and his Music , Circaidy Gregory Press (first published by Oxford University Press), 1990, new edition 2014, pp. 134-139
  3. Michael Short: Gustav Holst - The Man and his Music , Circaidy Gregory Press (first published by Oxford University Press), 1990, new edition 2014, p. 119
  4. Michael Short: Gustav Holst - The Man and his Music , Circaidy Gregory Press (first published by Oxford University Press), 1990, new edition 2014, p. 126
  5. Michael Short: Gustav Holst - The Man and his Music , Circaidy Gregory Press (first published by Oxford University Press), 1990, new edition 2014, p. 129
  6. ^ Franklin Mesa: Opera: An Encyclopedia of World Premieres and Significant Performances, Singers, Composers, Librettists, Arias and Conductors, 1597-2000. McFarland, Jefferson / London 2013, ISBN 978-0-7864-7728-9 , p. 209 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  7. Michael Short: Gustav Holst - The Man and his Music , Circaidy Gregory Press (first published by Oxford University Press), 1990, new edition 2014, p. 135
  8. ^ A b Michael Short: Gustav Holst - The Man and his Music , Circaidy Gregory Press (first published by Oxford University Press), 1990, new edition 2014, p. 135
  9. Michael Hurd: The Perfect Fool. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater . Volume 3: Works. Henze - Massine. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-492-02413-0 , pp. 97-98.