DIE TOTE STADT (Korngold) Munich 2019 Jonas Kaufmann, Marlis Petersen
In this video
DIE TOTE STADT by Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich, Germany
2019
CAST
Paul: Jonas Kaufmann
Marietta/Erscheinung Mariens: Marlis Petersen
Frank / Fritz: Andrzej Filończyk
Brigitta: Jennifer Johnston
Juliette: Mirjam Mesak
Lucienne: Corinna Scheurle
Gaston / Victorin: Manuel Günther
Graf Albert: Dean Power
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Conductor: Kirill Petrenko
Bayerisches Staatsorchester
Chor und Kinderchor der Bayerischen Staatsoper
Chordirektor: Stellario Fagone
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Stage Director: Simon Stone
Stage Designer: Ralph Myers
Costume Designer: Mel Page
Lighting Designer: Roland Edrich
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Die tote Stadt , Op. 12, is a through-composed opera in three scenes with music by Erich Wolfgang Korngold and a text by Paul Schott , a pseudonym under which Julius Korngold , Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s father, and the composer himself collaborated. The libretto is based on the Symbolist novel Das tote Brügge ( Bruges-la-morte , 1892; German translation: 1903) by Georges Rodenbach (1855–1898). Korngold, considered a ” child prodigy ,” was only 23 years old at the time of the premiere.
Plot
Place and time: Bruges , end of the 19th century
First Act
Paul lives in a room in Bruges which he calls “the church of the past” because everything in it reminds him of his late wife Marie. In a vision, Marie appears to him and explains that the day will come when he will possess her completely again. Brigitta, Paul’s housekeeper, announces the arrival of a veiled woman. Then the dancer Marietta enters the room. Because she looks very similar to Marie, she succeeds in captivating Paul. He gives her his late wife’s lute and a shawl so that Marietta looks even more like her. Marietta sings the aria ” Glück, das mir verblieb” (Fortune that remained with me) with the lute . However, when Marietta accidentally reveals a picture of Marie, Paul is frightened and Marietta leaves the memorial room.
Second Act
Paul has fallen in love with Marietta and is looking for her. She is with her theater group, surrounded by admirers. Paul secretly observes the group rehearsing the resurrection of Hélène from Giacomo Meyerbeer ‘s opera Robert the Devil . Afterwards, she accuses him of only loving her because she resembles his deceased wife.
Third Act
Marietta demands that Paul either love her completely or not at all. She begins to provoke him, and after taking a lock of Mary’s hair from the shrine, Marietta begins to dance in front of Paul. This enrages Paul so much that he strangles Marietta.
Now Paul regains consciousness and realizes that the events of the second and third acts were only a dream. Marietta returns to take the umbrella and roses she forgot at the end of the first act.
He describes his vision to his friend Frank, who advises him to leave the “Church of the Past.” Paul promises to follow his friend’s advice and leave Bruges, the dead city, forever.
Music
In contrast to the avant-garde attitude of the Viennese School around Schoenberg , Berg and Webern , who propagated atonality and later twelve-tone technique, the composer of this opera cultivated a late-Romantic style, influenced by his teacher Alexander von Zemlinsky , Richard Wagner’s chromaticism and leitmotif technique , as well as the orchestration technique of Richard Strauss . [ 4 ] Korngold’s score also shows influences of Puccini’s verismo . The most famous numbers in the opera are the duet between Paul and Marietta “Glück, das mir verblieb” (Marietta’s song) and the rapturously melancholic baritone aria “Mein Sehnen, mein Wähnen”.
Quoted from Wikipedia