Tulifant
| Opera dates | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Tulifant |
| Shape: | Opera in three acts |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Gottfried von One |
| Libretto : | Lotte Ingrisch |
| Literary source: | past and present |
| Premiere: | October 30, 1990 |
| Place of premiere: | Ronacher -Theater, Vienna |
| Playing time: | approx. 1 ¼ hours |
| people | |
|
|
Tulifant is an opera in three acts (Op. 75) by Gottfried von Eine (music) with a libretto by Lotte Ingrisch . It bears the subtitle "fairy tale game about the enchantment and redemption of our planet earth". The world premiere took place on October 30, 1990 at the Ronacher Theater in Vienna .
action
Smaragda was once a beautiful princess, the living green earth itself. In the meantime, however, because of people's belief in progress, she has turned into an ugly old maid. She once had two lovers, the technology-believing Wüsterich and the idealistic nature-friendly Tulifant, who was burned at the stake for his doctrine that the universe is full of living worlds.
first act
Fridolin, Smaragda's son, is looking for his parents. He doesn't know that the old maid is his mother. Wüsterich claims to be his father, but Fridolin cannot believe it, because Smaragda once mentioned that Tulifant was his father. When Wüsterich wreaked havoc on the earth, Fridolin went in search of Tulifant. Smaragda transforms into an earth princess and gives him a magic cloth for protection on the journey. She also allows him three wishes. First of all, he wishes to be a “friend of nature”. Then plant fairies and animal spirits assure him of their help and open a gate.
Second act
In a snow storm, Fridolin becomes disoriented. He meets the old snuffy dinosaur Müff Müff, who, however, does not have the courage to help Fridolin. They argue for a while until the little fur, who speaks in a fantasy language, appears and the three realize that they have to join forces. They continue the journey together. After a while they meet a monster. It is the transformed emeralda that now represents the underworld. Tulifant confronts them in the form of a terrifying fire. Fridolin is not intimidated, but is devoured by the fire. Fortunately, his enchantment prevents worse. Unearthly beings give him a golden horn, just as Tulifant wears one. It becomes his third eye and enables him to see emeralda as a garden of light. Fridolin expresses his second wish: he wants to be her gardener.
Third act
After Smaragda is redeemed, Fridolin and the others now want to defeat the desert empire. However, Fridolin cannot bring himself to destroy him. The desert empire tries to kill Tulifant with a hammer. These two sink "between the worlds". Fridolin mentions his last wish: He asks to become a new Tulifant. Now all people on earth can start a new life.
layout
In formal terms, it is a number opera with four musical numbers in the first act, six numbers in the second and two in the third act. There are arias, duets and ensemble movements. Most of the pieces have fast tempos. The rhythmic structures are significant, but do not seem intrusive. Despite frequent time changes, traditional time forms dominate. In the sense of the basic chamber music character, one dispenses with stronger dynamic effects. The work approaches formally the genre of the Singspiel . The singing voices stand out clearly and there is spoken dialogue. Despite the apparent simplicity and the catchy themes, there are also more differentiated musical details and “tricks”, as one called them. The so-called "death melody" and its overcoming is assigned an important role. The ideal of humanity also has a musical equivalent.
orchestra
The orchestral line-up of the opera has the character of a chamber opera, but still requires 22 players:
- Woodwinds : flute , oboe , clarinet , bassoon
- Brass : horn , two trumpets , trombone , tuba
- Timpani , drums (three players)
- piano
- Electric guitar
- Strings (solo): violin , two violas , two cellos , two double basses
Interpretative notes
One himself called his Tulifant his "green" opera. It treats the struggle between good and evil in a fairytale-symbolist way, but in relation to the present.
The model for the title character is the former Dominican monk Giordano Bruno , who was arrested by the Inquisition in 1592 and burned as a heretic in 1600. Like Tulifant, he worshiped nature, in whose various forms he recognized God. He also developed his ideas based on the teachings of Nicolaus Copernicus and his heliocentric worldview . In the opera, Tulifant represents the life-affirming forces of love and truth. His opponent is the power-hungry desert who believes in the absolute rule of man over nature, glorifies money and progress regardless of loss, and exploits the earth in the process. In the realm of the dead he kindles the fire of hatred in which Tulifant has to suffer. The Tulifant's banished truth is invisible to normal human eyes. Fridolin too can only recognize her through the golden horn as the third eye. As a child, however, he still had direct access to nature and the supernatural. In this way he expresses the right wishes at the right time, which he needs to redeem Tulifant and Smaragda and to break the power of Wüsterich.
Fridolin's mother, Smaragda, stands for the earth and life. It unites becoming and passing, both life-affirming and destructive powers. The present and future are represented by the figures of the dragon Müff Müff and the little Pelzchen. The latter's fantasy language is incomprehensible almost to the end.
Work history
Gottfried von Eine wrote his last completed opera Tulifant on behalf of the Theater an der Wien on a libretto by his wife Lotte Ingrisch . The suggestion for this came from Franz Häussler, the commercial director of the United Theater in Vienna . Although one completed the opera in 1984, it did not premiere for several years. One reason for the postponement was the great long-term success of the musical Cats in Vienna, which prevented any further premieres. The director of the State Opera, Claus Helmut Drese , praised the dramaturges in his diary, "who knew how to prevent this opus from being premiered for years" and said: "You develop antibodies against so much prayerful health".
It was finally premiered after the removal of Cats on October 30, 1990 at the Ronacher Theater in Vienna in a production by Elmar Ottenthal . The stage and projections came from Günther Schneider-Siemssen , the costumes from Dietmar Alexander Solt. The United Bühnen Wien ensemble played under the direction of Caspar Richter . Jung Min Lee (Fridolin), Volker Vogel (Wüsterich), Rudolf Mazzola (Müff Müff), Priti Coles (Pelzchen), Manfred Hemm (Tulifant) and Katharina Dau (Smaragda) sang .
According to Kurt Pahlen , the work was received “very cool”, which may have been due to both the text and the music. Some critics apparently had problems understanding and suspected "behind the fairy tale allegiance to our society an unworldly mummification". On the other hand, the music was also rated “consistently positive and friendly” by the critics. Rudolf Klein wrote in the Neue Zurcher Zeitung , to reconcile "unencumbered and uncomplicated Past and Future" and described the opera in the Austrian music magazine as "in content and form original [s], all-round successful [s] works".
Ottenthal's production was also performed at the Aachen Theater on March 7, 1993 . Pamela Pantos (Fridolin), Willy Schell (Wüsterich), Rainer Zaun (Müff Müff), Rachel Robins (Pelzchen), John Cashmore (Tulifant) and Linda Watson (Smaragda) sang here . The Aachen City Orchestra played under the direction of Stefan Lano . There was a guest performance of this production in June 1993 in Hagen as part of the 3rd days of the New Music Theater in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Recordings
- 1990 - Caspar Richter (conductor), Orchestra of the United Stages Vienna, choir ensemble.
Jung Min Lee (Fridolin), Volker Vogel (Wüsterich), Rudolf Mazzola (Müff Müff), Priti Coles (Furry), Manfred Hemm (Tulifant), Katharina Dau (Smaragda).
Live from the Ronacher -Theater Vienna.
Amadeo CD: 435 694 2.
Web links
- Plant data to Tulifant on the basis of MGG with discography at operons
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Konrad Lezak: World premiere of Gottfried von Einem's opera “Tulifant”. In: Österreichische Musikzeitschrift , Volume 45, Issue 10, 1990, pp. 577-579, ISSN 2307-2970 (Online), ISSN 0029-9316 (Print), doi : 10.7767 / omz.1990.45.10.577 (accessed via De Gruyter Online ).
- ↑ a b c network information published by Boosey & Hawkes , accessed on February 12 2018th
- ↑ a b c XII. The last opera: “Tulifant”. on gottfried-von-einem.at, accessed on February 12, 2018.
- ↑ a b T. Reinelt: The revival of the world or the apocalypse does not take place. In: Tulifant. Program booklet of the Aachen Theater , 1993.
- ↑ a b Joachim Reiber: Gottfried von Eine: composer of the hour zero , Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 2017, ISBN 978-3-218-01087-0 , pp. 156–158 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
- ↑ October 30, 1990: "Tulifant". In: L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia ..
- ^ Kurt Pahlen : The new opera lexicon. Seehamer, Weyarn 2000, ISBN 3-934058-58-2 , p. 197.
- ↑ Christoph Schlüren: " Allure of naive spirituality and no recipes" - on the 100th birthday of Gottfried von Eine. In: Neue Musikzeitung from January 24, 2018.
- ↑ Rudolf Klein: "Tulifant" by one and Ingrisch. In: Österreichische Musikzeitschrift , Volume 45, Issue 12, pp. 708 f, ISSN 2307-2970 (online), ISSN 0029-9316 (print), doi : 10.7767 / omz.1990.45.12.708 (accessed via De Gruyter Online).
- ↑ Tulifant. Program booklet of the Aachen Theater , 1993.
- ↑ Jörg Loskill: The third and last chapter “Days of the New Music Theater” in NRW. In: Opernwelt from September 1993, p. 5.
- ↑ Gottfried von One. In: Andreas Ommer: Directory of all complete opera recordings (= Zeno.org . Volume 20). Directmedia, Berlin 2005, p. 4575.