Vielka

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Opera dates
Title: Vielka
Title page of a contemporary piano reduction. Scene from the second act with Jenny Lind in the title role

Title page of a contemporary piano reduction. Scene from the second act with Jenny Lind in the title role

Shape: Opera in three acts
Original language: German
Music: Giacomo Meyerbeer
Libretto : Ludwig Rellstab , Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer
Premiere: February 18, 1847
Place of premiere: Theater an der Wien
people
  • The Duke
  • Count von Aubitz, owner of an estate on the border
  • Lieutenant von Buddenbrogh, aide to the Duke
  • Count von Saldorf, general out of service
  • Therese, his niece
  • Vielka, gypsy, brought up in Saldorf's house
  • Conrad, brought up in Saldorf's house
  • Ferenz, leader of an enemy horsemen
  • Xaver, his son, servant of Count Aubitz
  • Hartmann, steward, servant of Count Aubitz
  • a rider
  • a grenadier sergeant
  • a hussar
  • an artilleryman
  • the spirit of Wanda, Vielka's mother
  • Enemy riders, soldiers of all kinds, sutlers, country folk, servants at Count Aubitz's castle a. s. w. ( Chorus )

Vielka is the thirteenth opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer and an adaptation of his Singspiel Ein Feldlager in Schlesien , the text of which was revised by Ludwig Rellstab and Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer . The first performance took place on February 18, 1847 in the Theater an der Wien in Vienna.

action

Jenny Lind as Vielka

With changed personal names and locations, the plot largely corresponds to that of Ein Feldlager in Schlesien , but ends tragically: Xaver tries to shoot the Duke, but Vielka throws himself in between and is fatally hit.

The locations of the three acts are:

  1. On the estate of Count Saldorf
  2. In a camp
  3. On the estate of Count Aubitz on the border

Work history

Meyerbeer's Singspiel Ein Feldlager in Schlesien has been played with great success since its premiere on December 7, 1844 at the Royal Opera in Berlin with Jenny Lind in the lead role, but has so far been considered unsuitable for international marketing because of its direct links to "Alten Fritz" . When Franz Pokorny , director of the Theater an der Wien , which was in financial and artistic distress, invited Meyerbeer on a visit to Berlin to produce this work (again with Jenny Lind) at his theater, the libretto necessarily had to be adapted to the circumstances there. The librettist Ludwig Rellstab then revised it with the help of the Austrian writer Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer . At first the military praise was reduced to Prussia. The king became a duke, the captain Saldorf a general. Some events that took place in the background in the original version could now be shown to the audience. The second act remained unchanged apart from some textual changes. The third act, on the other hand, was completely rebuilt and had a tragic ending.

Ultimately, there were so many changes that Rellstab no longer wanted to be named as an author and the work was given the new title Vielka . At the end of November 1846, Meyerbeer and Burguis, the secretary of his mother Amalie , sorted the countless scraps of paper with the changes and created a new score. On December 7th, Meyerbeer set off for Vienna, where he was welcomed with several celebrations. Two visits to the police chief and senior censor Josef von Sedlnitzky ensured that the new libretto would not cause any problems. Pokorny also tried to create the best possible conditions for the opera. Among other things, he enlarged the orchestra and the choir.

Jenny Lind as Vielka in the first act

On February 12, 1847, the dress rehearsal was held in front of 300 guests. Since there was no applause after the first act, Franz Grillparzer wrote to Meyerbeer: “A vision and the time of the Seven Years' War seems to me a dangerous combination. In Berlin it probably received allusions to Prussian history and patriotism, connected with the festival and the like. Determining the whole thing justifies a lot… ”He made some suggestions for a changed scene in the third finale to solve the problem. Meyerbeer agrees with his suggestions, whereupon the stage decoration was changed accordingly.

The premiere took place on February 18, 1847 and was a great success. Meyerbeer himself directed the first four and, on imperial orders, the seventh performance on March 8th. He wrote in his diary: The house was "packed to the bone, the performance went splendidly, & the recording was perhaps the most enthusiastic we have ever had". As planned, Jenny Lind played the title role . The other actors were Eduard Jerrmann (The Duke), Herr Starke (Count von Aubitz), Herr Biel (Lieutenant von Buddenbrogh), Josef Staudigl (Count von Saldorf), Louise Bergauer (Therese), Herr Ditt (Conrad), Herr Radl ( Ferenz), Mr. Nolte (Xaver), Mr. Verstl (Hartmann), Mr. Beker (rider), Mr. dalle Aste (grenadier sergeant), Mr. Stazic (hussar) and Mr. Schütky (artilleryman).

Meyerbeer took some numbers of the music in 1854 in his opera L'étoile du nord .

Web links

Commons : Vielka  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Reiner Zimmermann: Giacomo Meyerbeer - A biography based on documents. Translated from the French by Eva Zimmermann. Henschel, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-362-00515-2 , pp. 322-324.
  2. ↑ Heinz Becker , Gudrun Becker (ed.): Giacomo Meyerbeer - correspondence and diaries. Volume 4. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-11-009626-9 , p. 195 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  3. ↑ Information in the libretto.