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composer: Detlev Mueller-Siemens
librettist: Detlev Mueller-Siemens
author of original text: Walter Hasenclever

Oper in zwei Akten

nach dem gleichnamigen Schauspiel von Walter Hasenclever
Text eingerichtet vom Komponisten

Commissioned work: Auftragswerk des Nationaltheaters Mannheim
Orchestra instrumentation: 3 (alle auch Picc.) · 3 (3. auch Engl. Hr.) · 3 (3. auch Bassklar.) · 3 (2. u. 3. auch Kfg.) - 4 · 2 · 3 · 1 - P. S. (Glsp. · Xyl. · Vibr. · Röhrengl. · 2 Beck. · Tamt. [sehr t.] · 3 Bong. · kl. Tr. · 4 Tomt. · 2 Cong. · gr. Tr. · Mar. · Clav. · Woodbl. · 4 Tempelbl. · Lotosfl. · Metallplatte) (3 Spieler) - Str. - Auf der Bühne: Es-Klar. - Klav. - Kb.
Cast of characters: Alexander · Bariton - der Mörder · Sprechrolle - der Kopf / der Gast · Charaktertenor - der Trinker / der Arzt · Bassbariton (Charakterrolle) - der Helfer · Sprechrolle, evtl. Schauspieler - Lissi · dramatischer Koloratursopran - die Wahrsagerin / die Mutter · Alt - der Jüngling · dramatischer Tenor - das Mädchen · lyrischer Sopran - der alte Kellner · Bariton - das Bettelmädchen · Sopran - der Bankier / der Staatsanwalt · Charaktertenor - der Präsident · Sprechrolle, evtl. Schauspieler - drei Huren · Soprane - vier Sprecher - Bettler, Krankenschwester, drei Schläger · Sprechrollen - die Vermummten, die Taubstummen · Statisten - die Herren, die Schatten, die Geschworenen · gem. Chor
Publisher: Ars-Viva-Verlag GmbH
Duration: 120' 0''
Year of composition: 1989/1990
Language: German
Material on hire

"A murdered victim climbs out of the grave … He travels through the world carrying his head, presented to him by his murderer, seeking atonement as a doppelgänger in place of the murderer until he finds eternal peace." This is Walter Hasenclever’s summary of the plot for his expressionistic drama Die Menschen. Birth, death, power, oppression, law, murder, fear and loneliness – Detlev Müller-Siemens was drawn to the spareness of the text, which often reveals only a hint of the plot. In his own adaptation, however, he eliminates Hasenclever’s intended theme of redemption and the occasionally theosophical colouring of the work. The music conjures up an atmosphere of permanent violence, both latent and direct, in which events simply occur – non-psychologically, factually, drastically, directly and grotesquely. In contrast, there are phases of repose and peace in which the music primarily develops in a linear and seemingly weightless fashion. The composer characterised his work as a "vertiginous panopticon in which dreamlike images rush past, burst explosively in the light and sink back into darkness."

Die Menschen (1994)

Detlev Mueller-Siemens

Die Menschen

Basler Sinfonie-Orchester, Chor des Theaters Basel, Waltraud Danner, Anton Diakov, Birgit Eger, Thomas Hardegger, Mark Holland, Madeleine Jalbert, Doug Jones, Marianne Larsen, Gillian MacDonald, Michael McGrath, Jeppe Mydtskov, Jelena Overmann, Claude Pia, Guy Renard, Gerolf Scheder, Thomas Stache, Birgid Steinberger, Jürgen Stössinger, Andrea Trauboth, Dorothea Unger
WERGO WER-62532

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