Yolande

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Opera dates
Title: Yolande
Shape: Opera in one act
Original language: French
Music: Albéric Magnard
Libretto : Albéric Magnard
Premiere: December 27, 1892
Place of premiere: Théâtre de la Monnaie Brussels
Playing time: Around 1 hour
Place and time of the action: France, 12th century
people

Yolande is a one-act opera by the French composer Albéric Magnard , who wrote both the libretto and the music. The opera describes the internal and external struggles of its main characters Yolande and Robert for a common fate between despair and anger on the one hand and religious confidence on the other. The work is the first of a total of three operas in Magnard's oeuvre. The original version burned together with its creator in 1914 and was performed again in the reconstructed version in 2018.

action

The action takes place at the time of the Crusades in the 12th century.

1st scene. Yolande mourns her husband, who is missing after a crusade. A report that a ship in his fleet sank in a storm leads them to suspect Robert's death. Her despair moves her in the tension between a longing for death and the hope that Robert, a warrior on the one hand and a tender husband on the other, will come back to her. In her trust in God, she looks confidently into the approaching morning.

2nd scene. Enter Yolande's wet nurse Jeanne. Jeanne sees Yolande's worried face and tearful eyes. Jeanne starts to comfort her. Yolande sings of the change that happened when Roberts entered her life and of their happy wedding. Jeanne encourages her to follow her confidence and faith. Warriors approach; Jeanne is startled. But it turns out that it's his own soldiers who are returning home from the crusade, the soldiers with whom Robert set off.

3rd scene. Robert, believed dead, is part of the returnee. Yolande is overjoyed to see her beloved, but cannot harmonize this happiness with the pain that has passed. While the choir is still cheering for the arrival, she dies. Robert cannot believe her death and calls the chaplain to save her.

4th scene. The chaplain can only confirm Yolande's death and wants to pray with Robert. Jeanne remarks that her luck killed Yolande. Robert is angry with his fate and asks what punishment he will face in the death of Yolande. He is angry, the rest of them flee.

5th scene. Robert suffers. He asks what is going to keep him from dying too.

6th scene. The choir sings of grace in a spherical chorale. Yolande comes to life for a moment. She speaks in a mediator role between God and Roberts. Robert's anger towards God did not cause him to turn away, but his grace allows Robert to have one last earthly contact with Yolande. He should repent of his anger against God. Yolande says goodbye in a final oath of love and promises him that both will see each other again after Robert's death and be united.

7th scene. Robert repents in a process of inner purification and turns to God that he may forgive him. The opera ends with Robert's request that Yolande pray for him.

music

The opera is composed through and follows Wagner's aesthetics in many places , including Anton Bruckner 's in his chorales . Yolande is thus typical of the impressionistic sounds that are far removed from Magnard's work . Polyrhythmic and polyharmonic sections are closely linked to the respective affects of the libretto. The complexity of the music is also reflected in Magnard's orchestration and his high demands on the performing music:

«La partition, qui présente de grandes difficultés d'exécution, a été minutieusement travaillée sous la direction de M. Flon, et tout fait présager une soirée de haute saveur artistique. »

“The score, which is very difficult to execute, has been meticulously worked out. An evening with a high artistic flair awaits under the direction of Mr. Flon and everyone. "

- L'Art Moderne, December 25, 1892

Lars Straehler-Pohl's orchestration from 2018 writes a romantic orchestral apparatus , analogous to the symphonic and the other - at least partially - preserved operas , consisting of flutes , oboes , clarinets (also bass clarinet ), bassoons , horns , trumpets , trombones (also tuba ), as well as strings , percussion and harp .

Work history

Emergence

The work on Yolande can be divided into two sections according to Magnard's dual function as librettist and composer. From September 1888 to March 1889 he worked primarily on the libretto and devoted himself to the composition between March 1890 and October 1891. Parallel to Yolande , his Opus 5, Magnard worked between 1889 and 1890 on his Symphony No. 1, Op.4. The early work is dedicated to the composer and friend Magnard Augustin Savard .

reception

The premiere took place on December 27, 1892 in the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels under the musical direction of Philippe Flon and the direction of Gravier. The work met with a positive response:

«C'est un très pur joyau d'art que cette partition d'Yolande dont le Théâtre de la Monnaie nous offrait mardi la primeur. Joyau ciselé avec amour par un artiste d'une probité rare et d'un goût sûr, à la main déjà expert, à l'esprit mûri par un labeur silencieux et concentré. »

“It is a pure jewel of art, this score by Yolande, which premiered on Tuesday at the Théâtre de la Monnaie. A jewel made with love by an artist of rare honesty and taste; by experts, matured in spirit through quiet and concentrated work. "

- L'Art Moderne, January 1, 1893

Many other performances cannot be proven in the 20th century. In 1914 the fate of the opera, like that of its creator, was sealed. Voices and scores burned together with Magnard on his estate in Baron . The surviving piano reduction forms the basis for the new orchestration by Lars Straehler-Pohl and its world premiere in Berlin in autumn 2018, during which the libretto was translated into German by Bernd Matzner.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Simon-Pierre Perret / Harry Halbreich: Albéric Magnard . Paris 2001.
  2. ^ Yolande à Berlin. Retrieved July 18, 2019 (French).
  3. ↑ a b Yolande en 1892. Retrieved July 18, 2019 .