Tagged with 'David Pountney'

Is there justice and retribution? This question is at the heart of Krzysztof Penderecki’s opera The Black Mask (original German title: 'Die schwarze Maske'). On November 22, 2024, David Pountney’s production premieres at Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, performed by the Polish National Opera’s choir and orchestra under the direction of Bassem Akiki.

On 20 May 2018, the Opéra national du Rhin and Orchestre Symphonique de Mulhouse will premiere David Pountney’s new production of Kurt Weill’s ballet chanté The Seven Deadly Sins in Strasbourg. Roland Kluttig will conduct, with choreography by Beate Vollack and stage design by Marie-Jeanne Lecca.

Weill composed The Seven Deadly Sins in 1933 after fleeing from Nazi Germany to Paris. The work was commissioned by Edward James, a wealthy Englishman and patron to the Parisian company “Les Ballets 1933”, which had been newly founded by choreographer George Balanchine.  Weill accepted the commission on the condition that he could compose a ballet with singing - a ballet chanté (sung ballet).

Weill originally intended the libretto to be written by writer Jean Cocteau, but under time pressure he turned to his long-time collaborator Bertolt Brecht, whom he had worked with on Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera (1928) and Weill’s own Mahagonny Songspiel (1927) among others. They completed The Seven Deadly Sins in just two weeks, and on 7 June 1933 it was premiered at the Théâtre des Champs- Élysées. Although reviews of the premiere were mixed, the ballet went on to become one of Weill’s best known works.

Kurt Weill - The Seven Deadly Sins: one divided being

The Seven Deadly Sins tells the story of Anna, who is sent on a seven year journey through North America by her family to earn money for a small house on the Mississippi. The character of Anna is split into two roles: Anna I who is more sensible and pragmatic, and the more emotional Anna II. In each city the Annas face the temptations of the seven deadly sins: pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth, until eventually they give up their dreams and return disillusioned to their family in Louisiana. Musically Weill incorporates popular American musical styles of the 1920s such as the tango, foxtrot and polka to enhance the comedy of Brecht’s text, and create a satire of the moral double standards of any society willing to sacrifice its values for prosperity.

“It’s the usual mess. A small party has formed among the followers of traditional Russian ballet, who of course consider our ballet as containing too little “ballet” or “pure choreography”. As a result, there have been great disruptions in the last few days […] but Balanchine stands between the parties. He has done an excellent job and found a style of representation that is very dance-like, but nevertheless very real.”
- Kurt Weill reporting on rehearsals to Bertolt Brecht

The Seven Deadly Sins will run until 28 May in Strasbourg, after which further performances include the Théâtre municipal de Colmar on 5 June, the Théatre de la Sinne Mulhouse on 13 & 15 June and the Staatstheater Braunschweig on 22 June.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbZXBogKaPI[/embed]

• Kurt Weill – profil


• The Seven Deadly Sins – work details


• Opéra national du Rhin

 

Photo : Staatstheater Braunschweig / Thomas M. Jauk

On 11 November, Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s 1930s opera Simplicius Simplicissimus will be given its UK premiere at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London. The Independent Opera production, directed by Polly Graham with Timothy Redmond conducting the Britten Sinfonia, will use a new English translation by David Poutney.

In three acts, the opera tells the story of a naïve shepherd boy, Simplicius Simplicissimus, during the horrific Thirty Years' War which devastated Germany in the seventeenth century. Simplicius doesn’t understand his father who tries to warn him of the evils of the world, nor his mysterious dreams of a ‘tree of life’. After a series of unfortunate events, such as the destruction of his family farm and his kidnapping, Simplicius retrospectively understands his dream as a metaphor for social injustice.

Hartmann's Simplicius Simpliccissimus - History repeats itself

Hartmann’s work, based on the 1668 novel “Der Abentheurliche Simpliccimus Teutsch” by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, was also shaped by the political circumstances of his present time. Though it was composed in 1934-1935, Simplicius Simplicissimus was not premiered until 1949 since Hartmann’s music was classified as “degenerate Art” by the Nazi regime. A parallel is drawn between the two historically distinct events, and the opera becomes an allegorical outcry against war and tyranny.

I became acquainted with the book and the descriptions of the Thirty Year’s War captured my attention. How current the line seemed to me: “The times are so strange, that nobody knows whether they will get out of it all without losing their life.” Then, as now, the individual was helplessly at the mercy of the devastating brutality of the age, where people were close to losing their souls. There was no hope for salvation, except in the most simple-minded human brought forth against it. – Karl Amadeus Hartmann

Hartmann realises this historic parallel musically by incorporating among others passages of Jewish melodies, creating a complex network of compositional meaning. Also prominent is the use of a German folk melody from the 13th century, put to the words “oh world I must leave you” (“Oh Welt ich muss dich lassen”). Withdrawal from the world is a very important theme in Hartmann’s work, but at the same time, the opera shows its impossibility: reality can be found reflected in Hartmann’s engagement with an older history, and even in Simplicius innocent fantasies.

The Independent Opera’s production of Simplicius Simplissimus will have repeat performances on the 15, 17 and 19 November. Next year the work will be performed in Bremen, Germany from 28 January.

 

• Karl Ama­deus Hart­mann — Pro­file


• Sim­pli­cius Sim­pli­cis­si­mus — Details


• Inde­pen­dent Opera at Sadler’s Wells Lon­don 

 

Photo: Monika Rit­ters­haus, Oper Frank­furt 2009