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Although Luigi Dallapiccola’s one-act opera Il prigioniero (The Prisoner) was composed in 1949, the questions it raises about faith, love, hope and freedom are of enduring relevance. On 26 April, a production of the opera opens at Stuttgart Opera under the direction of Andrea Breth, performed by the Staatorchester Stuttgart and conductor Franck Ollu, and with set design by Martin Zehetgruber. The production was co-produced with Theatre La Monnaie / De Munt in Brussels and was premiered there in January this year.

Il prigioniero is set during the 16th century Spanish Inquisition, and tells the story of a political prisoner who, the night before his execution, feels a sense of hope when the guard addresses him as “Fratello” meaning “brother”. The guard then leaves the prisoner’s cell door open, allowing him to escape. However, the prisoner’s passage through the dungeon does not lead him to freedom, but instead into the arms of the Grand Inquisitor himself. The prisoner then understands that the illusion of freedom was his final torture before his execution.

Luigi Dallapiccola – Il prigioniero: Hope as last torture

Dallapiccola began work on his second opera Il prigioniero in 1944, in response to the fascism prevalent during the Second World War. The music for the opera is based on three twelve-tone series, associated with the words "prayer", "hope" and "freedom" in turn, making him the first Italian composer to employ Schönberg's twelve-tone technique. Dallapiccola also wrote the libretto for the opera using La torture par l'espérance ("Torture by Hope") by the French author Philippe-Auguste Villiers de L'Isle Adam and La légende d'Ulenspiegel e Lamme Goedzak ("The Legend of Tyll Ulenspiegel and Lamm Goedzak") by Charles de Coster as a base for the text. Il prigioniero is considered one of the most important Italian operas of the mid-20th century.

 “Hope, my brother, hope with total fervor,
hope while you suffer,
hope every hour of the day…
you must live for hope”
- The jailer, 2. scene

Further performances of the opera will follow on 29 April, 21 & 26 May, 9, 16 & 25 June in Stuttgart, following by a production at Semperoper Dresden from 30 June 2018.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAidX2qjOq0&feature=youtu.be[/embed]

• Luigi Dallapiccola - profil


• Il prigioniero - work details


• Stuttgart Opera

 

photo: Köln Opera / Paul Leclaire

Paul Hindemith’s first full-length opera Cardillac was one of the most popular stage works of the 1920s. On 21 April, the Landestheater Salzburg will premiere a new production by Amélie Niemeyer, with the Mozarteum Orchestra performing under the direction of Robin Davis and stage design by Stefanie Seitz.

Hindemith had been searching for a suitable opera text for a long time before he came across his ideal source in E.T.A. Hoffmann’s novella Mademoiselle de Scudéri, and engaged Ferdinand Lion as librettist to adapt the text. The music of Cardillac often creates a sense of callous detachment, yet Hindemith subtly connects his music with the libretto. He interprets the word-sound ratio in a completely new, factual and objective way, which is why Cardillac is often considered a major work of the New Objectivity movement. Another distinctive feature of the composition is Hindemith’s use of baroque forms, such as fugues and passacaglias.

Paul Hindemith - Cardillac: A murderer in Paris

Hindemith was immediately drawn to the character of Cardillac, a brilliant goldsmith in seventeenth-century Paris who is so proud of his creations that he begins murdering his customers to reclaim his work. In psychology, an artist's pathological inability to part with his works is now recognised as a mental disorder, named ‘Cardillac syndrome’ after Hoffman’s novella. The syndrome recognises artists perceive the loss of their work, which they have personally and emotionally invested in, as a loss of part of their identity. At the end of the opera, Cardillac confesses to the murders but without remorse, and is lynched for his crimes. Even as he dies he reaches for a necklace, which he kisses.

"This done, I felt a peace, a contentment in my soul like never before. The ghost was gone and Satan’s voice was silent. Now that I know my dark desires, I have to give in, or perish!"
– Cardillac's confession

Following the opening night at the Landestheater Salzburg, Cardillac will receive five further performances from 29 April to 15 May, and Opera di Firenze will also stage the opera under the direction of Fabio Luisi from 5 to 15 May. From 4 to 30 May, a production of Hindemith’s comic opera Neues vom Tage will be performed at the Mecklenburgische Staatstheater in Schwerin under the direction of Gabriel Venzago.

• Paul Hindemith– profil


• Cardillac – work details


• Landestheater Salzburg

 

photo: Theater Pforzheim / Sabine Haymann

On 13 April a new chamber edition of Viktor Ullman’s opera The Broken Jug (Der zerbrochene Krug) will premiere at the Cuvilliés-Theater in Munich, performed by the Munich Chamber Orchestra and conductor Karsten Januschke, with staging by Andreas Weirich.

Ullmann composed The Broken Jug, his setting of Heinrich von Kleist’s popular dramatic comedy, in 1942 between his two operas The Fall of Antichrist (1936) and The Emperor of Atlantis (1943). The score was completed only a few weeks prior to Ullmann’s deportation to the concentration camp Theresienstadt, and was considered lost until its rediscovery in the University of Prague music archive by conductor Israel Yinon. In 1996, Yinon conducted the operas first staging at the Dresden Music Festival over 54 years after it was first composed. In 2017 Richard Whilds, repetiteur at the Bavarian State Opera, created a new arrangement with reduced orchestra for the production at Munich’s Cuvilliés Theater. This new chamber version now brings the piece to smaller stages.

The Broken Jug: A hidden indictment of the Nazi Regime

At first glance, Ullmann’s libretto largely adheres to Kleist’s text and thus appears to engage the work of a poet celebrated by the Nazi Party without critique. However, closer study reveals Ullmann’s highly effective abridgements of the comedy’s text, and its hidden function as socio-political commentary. The one-act opera addresses morality and guilt by concisely telling the story of the village judge Adam who has to pass judgement on his own misdeed – the broken pitcher of Marthe – and is ultimately unmasked as the true culprit. The final verse in particular, written by Ullmann himself, is set in the context of the Nazi’s Volksgerichtshof (People’s Court) and is a clear indictment of the iniquities of the justice system under the Third Reich:

“Fiat Justitia: then as now, no-one should be a judge, if his heart is not pure”
- Ullmann in The Broken Jug  

The Munich staging will pair the chamber version of The Broken Jug with Ernst Kreneks tragic opera Der Diktator, with four more performances on 15, 25, 27 and 29 April. In the next edition of the Schott Journal (May – August 2018) we will explore further Chamber opera works.

• Viktor Ullmann - profil


• The Broken Jug - work details


• The Broken Jug - performance information

To celebrate the inauguration of the new Gewandhaus conductor Andris Nelsons and the 275^th anniversary of the orchestra, the Gewandhausorchester will perform the world premiere of Thomas Larcher’s new orchestral work Chiasma in Leipzig on 15 March.

The work was commissioned by the Gewandhausorchester especially for this occasion. Larcher challenged himself to compose a 10 minute piece containing the development of an entire world, which he describes as a ‘compressed microsymphony’. Within this ‘compressed microsymphony’, Larcher shows a world with tenderness, beauty, brutality and futility.

Thomas Larcher – Chiasma: Biology as the model for a compositional method

The title of the work, Chiasma, meaning a “crossing”, is from the Greek letter X (pronounced “ki”). It is defined anatomically as the crossing of the optic nerves in the brain, or within a genetic context as ‘a cross shaped configuration of paired chromatids’. This meaning reminded Larcher of the primordial elements of composition: confrontation, development and synthesis. Likewise with the structure of the piece Chiasma the composer refers to this primal biological principle:

 “This piece develops out of several very simple motifs, quickly evolves in disparate directions through the juxtaposition - 'confrontation' - of these motifs, and achieves a distinct dramatic 'double-peak climax' before collapsing into itself.” – Thomas Larcher

After the two performances in Leipzig, Nelsons and the Gewandhausorchester will tour the work throughout Europe with seven performances between March 15 and May 6, including at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the Philharmonie Paris among others. The UK premiere of Chiasma will be given on 24 May 2019 by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo as part of Larcher’s three concert 'Composer Focus' during Spring 2019.

• Tomas Larcher - profil


• Chiasma - work information


• Chiasma - performance details

On 23 February 2018, Igor Stravinsky’s Circus Polka will be performed by the Orchestre National de Lorraine and conductor Jacques Mercier in the extraordinary venue of the Amnéville Zoo, not far from the French city of Metz.

Circus Polka was commissioned by choreographer George Balanchine from the Barnum & Bailey Circus, who asked Stravinsky to write a short ballet to accompany the circus’ baby-elephant act referenced in the work’s subtitle “For a Young Elephant”. Stravinsky initially composed the work for solo piano, which was then orchestrated for circus band by David Raksin and premiered in 1842 with fifty elephants in Madison Square Gardens, New York. Stravinsky subsequently orchestrated the work himself in a version premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra with the composer conducting at the Sanders Theater, Massachusetts.

Igor Stravinsky – Circus Polka: A Circus act with musical wit

Despite the title of Circus Polka, Stravinsky’s composition contains only two bars featuring a typical polka rhythm, and clearly demonstrates the composer’s penchant for extreme and frequent changes of rhythm. This presumably led to difficulties performing the work with elephants as originally intended, as the animals react sensitively to irregular rhythms. Stravinsky also makes reference to Schubert's Marche militaire No. 1 in D major, a quotation Stravinsky always denied.

Having been performed more than 400 times since its composition, the Circus Polka is a delightful and extremely successful work for Stravinsky.

George Belanchine recounts first proposing the work:

Belanchine: “I want to ask you if would like to make a little ballet together with me.”

Stravinsky: “For whom?”

Belanchine: “For a few elephants.”

Stravinsky: “How old?”

Belanchine: “Very young.”

Stravinsky (after a short break with a serious voice): “Fine. If the elephants are pretty young, I will do this.”

• Igor Stravinsky - profil


• Circus Polka - workdetails


• Circus Polka - information

On February 9 Korngold’s opera Der Ring des Polykrates will be performed in the USA for the first time. The opera will take place in the Winspear Opera House in Dallas, Texas and will be conducted by Emmanuel Villaume.

Written in 1914, Korngold was just seventeen years old when he finished Der Ring des Polykrates. The short comedy opera takes its text from a play by Heinrich Teweles. This one-act work by the then seventeen-year-old composer was premiered to an astonished audience at the Munich Court Theater in 1916 as part of a double bill also including Korngold's next opera, Violanta. The libretto was written by Leo Feld and Julius Korngold, the father of the composer and an esteemed music critic in Vienna.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Der Ring des Polykrates: The parody of an antique text

Teweles’ comedy, on which the opera is based, is a parody on the ancient Greek story of King Polykrates. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, the King’s excessive luck was thought to eventually result in a disastrous end and was therefore advised to throw away whatever he valued most in order to escape a reversal of fortune. The librettist Leo Feld adapted this story to take place in the 18th century. In Korngold’s comedy this excessive luck builds conflict between two spouses: the musician Wilhelm Arndt and his wife. Peter Vogel, a friend of the Saxon court conductor Wilhelm, advises him, just as King Polykrates, to make a sacrifice for retaining his luck. Wilhelm starts an argument with his wife about her former life, but the couple's love is strong enough to overcome all difficulties. In the end, all agree that the sacrifice that has to be offered is Vogel who tried to ruin their happiness. In the 20^th century the humorous one-act-opera was a popular German comic opera and was performed together with Violanta several times.

After the performances of Der Ring des Polykrates in Dallas, his great opera Das Wunder der Heliane can be seen at the Deutsche Oper Berlin as of 18 March.

• Erich Wolfgang Korngold - profil


• Der Ring des Polykrates - workdetails 


• Der Ring des Polykrates - information


• Das Wunder der Heliane - information

On 1 February, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Martyn Brabbins presents Michael Tippett's Symphony in B-flat at City Halls in Glasgow. The performance is the culmination of their multi-season Tippett Symphony cycle.

A predecessor to Symphony No. 1, the Symphony in B-flat was written in 1934 and withdrawn by the composer after only five performances. This will be the first performance of the work in over 80 years, and also the first to incorporate revisions made by the composer after those first few performances. Material for the Symphony has been prepared using a recently discovered manuscript score marked with Tippett’s final revisions to the piece.

"It will be fascinating to hear the early symphony, knowing as we do what a great symphonist Tippett later became.  It is akin to finding that elusive last piece of a jigsaw puzzle, finally revealing the complete picture of Tippett the symphonist." (Martyn Brabbins)

A new recording of Tippett's Symphony Nos. 1 and 2 from the cycle with BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Martyn Brabbins is released this month on Hyperion. A second disc of Symphony Nos. 3 and 4, as well as the Symphony in B-flat will follow later this year.

• Sir Michael Tippett - profile


• Symphony in B-flat - workdetails

On 27 January, Pedro Halffter’s newly published orchestral work Thank You Mr. Joyce will be premiered in Dortmund.

Inspiration for the piece comes from the novel Ulysses by James Joyce and the subtitle of the work, Anamorphosis, represents the stream of consciousness narrative style Joyce used.

Pedro Halffter – Thank you Mr. Joyce: A musical anamorphosis

As a technique used in the visual arts, anamorphosis is where a distorted projection or drawing appears normal when viewed from a particular angle through a mirror or lens. Halffter has transferred this principle to his music, wherein the secret of the music only reveals itself during performance and through the altered perspective of the audience.

The premiere will be conducted by Halffter and can be heard on 27 January at the Konzerthaus Dortmund performed by OZM|Symphony.

• Pedro Halffter - profile


• Thank you Mr. Joyce - workdetail


• Thank you Mr. Joyce - concert detail

2019 marks the 200^th anniversary of the great American author Walt Whitman. Paul Hindemith’s requiem, When lilacs last in the door-yard bloom’d, is a setting of Whitman’s poem of the same name, which will be performed at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg on 18 and 19 January by mezzo-soprano Gerhild Romberger, baritone Matthias Goerne, the RIAS Chamber Choir, the NDR Choir and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra conducted by Christoph Eschenbach.



Composed shortly after he received his American citizenship, the work pays tribute to the country that had welcomed him with open arms after his exile from Germany. It is interesting to note that Hindemith’s admiration for this particular poem stretches back much further: his 1919 song cycle for baritone and piano, 3 Hymnen von Walt Whitman, contains a setting of the ninth verse which he revisits again in 9 English Songs written in early 1940.

Hindemith sets the whole poem in his requiem, which bears the subtitle A Requiem “for those we love” and was composed in 1946 and premiered in New York the same year. The German version, which Hindemith translated himself, was first performed in Perugia in 1948.

Paul Hindemith: A Requiem “for those we love” – A commemoration to the victims of the war

The requiem was commissioned following the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, drawing a historical parallel to Whitman’s poem, itself an elegy written in the wake of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Hindemith included the inscription “for those we love” to extend its scope beyond the immediate occasion to other themes from Whitman’s text including peace and the fraternization of enemies. Hindemith also used musical language to express his profound despair concerning the fate of many Jewish people in Europe during WWII including a quotation of the Jewish melody “Gaza”.

At a young age, landscape, mood, education and personal attachment to things and events may be an important stimulus to artistic work. But I now find that the story of people, events and experiences as well as their interpretation and design by artistic means is not so much connected to these externalities. It depends on how one processes his experiences and not on collecting new ones on the spot ... - Paul Hindemith

The definitive recording of When lilacs last in the door-yard bloom’d features Cornelia Kallisch, Krister St. Hill, the Rundfunkchor Berlin and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin with Lothar Zagrosek.

The new edition of the Schott Journal includes repertoire recommendations for the upcoming bicentenary of both Walt Whitman and Herman Melville in 2019. Download the magazine below to discover more from the “American Romantics”.

• Paul Hindemith - profile


• When lilacs last in the door-yard bloom'd - workdetails


• Schott Journal - Download

The Munich Philharmonic celebrates Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin’s 85^th birthday with a concert performance of his opera The Enchanted Wanderer at the Philharmonie in Munich on 19 and 20 December with conductor Valery Gergiev.

Inspired by Nikolai Leskov’s classic Russian novel of the same title, the complex story details the eventful life of Ivan who after accidentally killing a monk, is captured by Tartars and forced into military service. He resigns himself to certain death as a soldier, however fate intervenes and he becomes a servant to a Prince. Tasked with managing the royal treasury, Ivan falls in love with the gypsy dancer Grusha and courts her using the Prince’s funds. Grusha, in turn, is in love with the Prince, but their affair is short lived and the Prince soon marries another woman. Broken hearted, Grusha meets Ivan on a high cliff edge and deplores him to kill her so she is not tempted to murder the Prince and his new bride. As proof of his love Ivan pushes Grusha into the sea then joins a monastery to atone for his sins.

Rodion Shchedrin – The Enchanted Wanderer: the pull of fate

Shchedrin’s music takes his audience into the heart of old Russia. The Enchanted Wanderer features shepherd’s folk songs, drinking songs and traditional Russian melodies. Each soloist sings multiple roles and the work is well suited to a concert staging.

Some people may find the number of different strands excessive, but the opera genre (albeit for the concert stage) allows me to present Lsekov’s extended and colourful story using sharper contrasts than, say, a symphony would. I hope that the audience will follow the narrative with unflagging interest, be caught up in Leskov’s story, and feel sympathy and compassion for the characters and their fate. – Rodion Shchedrin

Shchedrin’s opera A Christmas Tale will also be performed this month on 23 December in St. Petersburg, and his birthday celebrations continue at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow with a portrait concert.

• Rodion Shchedrin - profile


• The Enchanted Wanderer - workdetails