The second violinist

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Opera dates
Title: The second violinist
Shape: "An opera"
Original language: English
Music: Donnacha Dennehy
Libretto : Enda Walsh
Premiere: July 26, 2017
Place of premiere: Black Box Theater, Galway
Playing time: approx. 1 ¼ hours
Place and time of the action: present
people

The Second Violinist is a one- act opera by Donnacha Dennehy (music) with a libretto by Enda Walsh . The premiere took place on July 26th 2017 at the Black Box Theater in Galway, Ireland .

action

The protagonist of the opera is Martin, a musician in his early 40s who plays second fiddle in an ensemble. It's a mute role. Martin lives alone in his neglected apartment and obviously has serious psychological problems. He hardly practices on the violin any more, does not respond to phone calls from his friends and colleagues, and passes the time with a brutal video game. The incoming calls on his answering machine can be heard over the loudspeaker. After a while, three more people appear in the apartment: the married couple Amy and Matthew and Amy's girlfriend Hannah. Martin is constantly watching her, but he is invisible to her. As the opera progresses, it gradually becomes clear that these are Martin's memories and that Matthew is his former self. Amy and Matthew's marriage was unhappy from the start. After Matthew discovered that Amy and Hannah were intimate, he murdered them. At the same time, in the present, Martin is starting a virtual friendship with the girl "Scarlett38" via a dating platform on which he had registered with incorrect data. The text messages and Martin's replies to them appear in the form of video projections. Both are enthusiastic about the music of Carlo Gesualdo and are interested in birds. A personal encounter only takes place at the end of the opera.

Table of contents

At the beginning of the opera, Martin climbs out of the orchestra pit with his violin and walks across the stage and a walkway to his apartment. The violin case is in poor condition and is only held together by a rubber band. His phone's mailbox answers on the way. Martin listens to some messages from his friend Sean, which he immediately deletes without answering. Further messages come from an Angela who got his number from his agent Eamon and wants to hire him for an appearance. Martin also deletes these messages. When he got home, he turns on the television, gets a bottle of wine and puts food in the microwave. The mailbox plays a message from his colleague Dáithí, who complains about Martin's poor sample preparation. Martin opens his page on the Tinder dating platform . There he calls himself Carlo and has given his age as 33 years. He changes his information to “Opera composer. Violin virtuoso. Wealthy. Single. ”Then he erases the text and writes“ Alive. Violinist. Eats. Alone. “Angela answers the answering machine again. Martin pulls the plug. Then he gives his interests on Tinder with “Carlo Gesualdo. Master chef. Birdwatching in Ireland. ”. It's getting dark. Martin looks expectantly into the room.

There are now three other people in Martin's living room: the couple Amy and Matthew and Amy's girlfriend Hannah. Martin watches them, but does not change his behavior. He is invisible to others. Amy and Hannah went to college together. You and Matthew have been married nearly five years now. Hannah traveled a lot and therefore not at her wedding. The three talk about irrelevant things.

Martin is alone in his bedroom again. His phone answers with a pizzeria advertisement. Martin writes "STOP" to unsubscribe. An alarm clock goes off. It's time for his rehearsal. Sean answers the answering machine. Martin leaves the apartment with the violin and gets on a bus. His colleague Niamh calls to remind him of the agreed playing instructions that he ignored during the last rehearsal. Eamon tries to win him over to Angela's commitment. “Scarlett38”, who, like him, is in love with Gesualdo, reports on the dating platform. They chat for a while. Martin, who had given his account “Second Violinist”, gives you his real name: “Matthew”. On the bus, he notices a young woman and points her to his phone.

An invisible choir can be heard singing during Martin's rehearsal. In the apartment, Amy stands with a wine glass in her hand and thinks about her life (Aria: "From inside I can hear their voices outside"). Meanwhile, Hannah and Matthew are flirting. Martin stands in the orchestra pit with a sandwich and listens to Amy. The music stops and Martin freezes, lost in thought, for a while until his phone rings and Amy asks about him again. In the background you can hear the voices of his colleagues Niamh and Dáithí, who are so dissatisfied with Martin that they want to look for a replacement. Sean asks to be called back. Martin gets up to go home. When he receives another phone call and another contact attempt from Angela, he angrily smashes his phone. The voices of his colleagues now sound concerned. You remember Martin's wedding to Amy, which he had celebrated like a funeral.

When Martin arrives home, Amy, Matthew and Hannah are sitting in the kitchen with wine. Martin also takes a glass and sits down at the table unnoticed by them. He is apparently compelled to listen to their conversation in which they remember the experiences of their youth. Amy leaves the apartment to get some wine from the garage. Meanwhile, Matthew shows Hannah her wedding album. Martin receives a chat message from Scarlett38 and tells her that he is reminiscing. Matthew tells Hannah that he actually wanted a much smaller wedding party and didn't like the food either. The guests had spoken so loudly that he could no longer hear Gesualdo's music. Amy comes back with the wine. Martin receives another concerned phone message from Sean. Again he doesn't answer, but leaves the apartment with a bottle of wine.

Martin watches a young woman at a party. He's drunk and about 12 to 15 years older than her. Amy and Hannah kiss in the living room. When the woman goes to the toilet, Martin follows her and tries to speak to her. She yells at him, slaps him in the face and goes back to her friends. Martin leaves the washroom and is now in his living room, where Matthew, Amy and Hannah play Twister . Martin opens a trapdoor to the attic and climbs up a folding ladder. Matthew is rude to Amy and flirts with Hannah. Martin climbs down dirty and apparently smeared with blood, goes into the bathroom and takes a shower. Amy sits down on the toilet next to it, staring at her phone. Meanwhile, Matthew tries to kiss Hannah, but she angrily stops him. Amy puts her phone on the sink and leaves the bathroom. Matthew picks up the phone while Martin gets his clothes out of the bedroom and dresses in an adjoining room. Scarlett38 and SecondViolinist talk about the swallow's migration via the chat system. Martin admits that he feels lonely and suggests a meeting at which he wants to play her Gesualdo. After an unsuccessful attempt to repair his violin case, he leaves the apartment with a violin and bow.

While Martin is away, Angela calls. She finally wants to see if he accepts the engagement. He refuses with coarse words (played over loudspeakers). Sean answers again. He is deeply concerned that he has not been able to reach Amy for a long time. Another advertisement for the pizzeria appears. Martin gets on the bus, calls the pizzeria and complains angrily that his opt-out was ignored.

Hannah sleeps on the sofa in the apartment. Beside her, Amy ponders the unfulfilled dreams of her life and her longing for true love (aria: "The life we ​​dreamed had pictures"). She looks in the direction of the adjoining room where Matthew is. He is just about to connect Amy's phone to his computer. A video clip recorded by Amy herself shows the intimate relationship between Amy and Hannah.

On the way to the concert hall, Martin receives an angry call from Eamon, who urgently asks for a conversation. Martin climbs into the orchestra pit. A video shows the performance in which Martin is participating.

Suddenly Martin is at the computer in the next room of his apartment. He storms out of the room and murders Amy (only hinted at in the video). While Martin thinks about what has happened, Scarlett38 answers to ask for directions. They meet in the forest. Scarlett is only fourteen years old and is afraid of Martin.

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The composer Dennehy pointed out that the subtext amplified by the music was just as important to him as the text itself. An essential part of his composition are "deconstructed and rebuilt sounds" of Carlo Gesualdo's music . These form the basis of the overtone textures, which bloom increasingly in the course of the opera and create a tension between the almost ecstatic brilliance of the score and the brutal reality of the plot (“These strains even inform the flowering overtone textures that become ever more radiant than the opera proceeds, creating a friction between the almost ecstatic luminosity of the score and the brutal reality of the plot. "). Gesualdo's life itself shows this contrast between his yearning music and the murder of his wife and his lover. This act parallels Martin's murder of Amy and her friend.

Dennehy used motifs from Gesualdo's motet Tristis anima mea , the second part of which the choir sings almost in the original version. A special feature is the use of a bass viol . It shapes the orchestral setting throughout and stands out particularly in Amy's second aria (“The life we ​​dreamed had pictures”).

The superimposition of past and present and the splitting of the characters into several time levels is typical of Enda Walsh's works. The video projections represent a central part of the opera, which is sung not even half the time. Tension is created by electronically amplified sounds, the microtonal intervals derived from the overtone series and the instrumentation of drums and string staccatos .

Toner Quinn described the opera's harmonic tonal language in his review in the Irish Journal of Music as follows: “Tar-like chords in the middle register, chalk-on-blackboard clusters of syncopated notes in the upper register; highlighted by individual notes at the top of the tone scale of an instrument "(" tar-like chords in the middle; chalk-on-blackboard clusters of syncopated notes in the upper register; punctuated by outlying notes further out at the very top of an instrument's range "). The vocal lines return repeatedly at certain intervals , similar to a leitmotif .

Instrumental line-up

The opera's instrumental ensemble consists of 14 players:

The music makes heavy use of micro- intervals derived from the overtone series. The bass viol therefore needs two additional frets in order to be able to produce the necessary tones.

Work history

Donnacha Dennehy's opera The Second Violinist was written in 2016/2017 for Landmark Productions and the Wide Open Opera for the Galway International Arts Festival. The libretto was written by the Irish playwright Enda Walsh , who also directed the premiere. This took place in co-production with the Irish National Opera on July 26th 2017 at the Black Box Theater in Galway, Ireland . The design was by David Sheppard and Helen Atkinson (sound), the costumes by Joan O'Clery, the lighting by Adam Silverman and the video clips by Jack Phelan. The Wide Open Opera Chorus and the Crash Ensemble played under the musical direction of Ryan McAdams. Aaron Monaghan (Martin), Sharon Carty (Amy), Márie Flavin (Hannah) and Benedict Nelson (Matthew) sang and played.

In October 2017 there was a second series of performances at the O'Reilly Theater in Dublin.

The production was awarded the Fedora Generali Prize for Opera 2017, endowed with € 150,000. A video recording was made available on the Internet in 2018 as part of the OperaVision Internet platform.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Composers note on Music Sales Classical, accessed February 11, 2018.
  2. ↑ Plot of the opera on OperaVision, accessed on February 11, 2018.
  3. ↑ Interview with singer Sharon Carty at OperaVision, accessed on February 11, 2018.
  4. ↑ Helen Meany: The Second Violinist review - Enda Walsh's fairytale opera is dark but dazzles. Review. In The Guardian on July 28, 2017, retrieved February 11, 2018.
  5. ↑ Toner Quinn: From Crisis to Combustion. Review. In: The Journal of Music on August 8, 2017, accessed February 11, 2018.
  6. ↑ Score of the opera, p. 3.
  7. ↑ Score of the opera, p. 4.
  8. ↑ Performances | The Second Violinist on thesecondviolinst.ie, accessed February 10, 2018.
  9. ^ Aoife Kelly: Enda Walsh directed opera The Second Violinist wins € 150,000 Fedora - Generali Prize for Opera 2017. In: Independent.ie of June 5, 2017, accessed on February 10, 2018.
  10. ^ The Second Violinist , accessed February 11, 2018.