Peer Gynt (opera)
Appearance
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Peer Gynt | |
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Opera by Werner Egk | |
Librettist | Werner Egk |
Language | German |
Based on | Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen |
Premiere | 24 November 1938 |
Peer Gynt is a 1938 opera by Werner Egk to a libretto after the play Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen. The premiere took place on 24 November 1938 at the Berlin State Opera where Egk was the conductor at the time.[1]
The opera was controversial in the Nazi press. This criticism was quashed when Adolf Hitler, an attendee at the performance, allegedly approved of the work.[2] Despite Stravinsky-like music, the premiere met the approval of Joseph Goebbels and Adolf Hitler, although Hermann Göring raged against it, and that approval has since tainted both the opera and composer.[3] The opera was performed in seven German cities until 1944 and even in Czech in Prague and in Paris.[4]
Roles
[edit]- Peer Gynt (baritone)
- Solveig (soprano)
- Aase, Peer Gynt's mother (contralto)
- Ingrid (soprano)
- Mads, Ingrid's fiancé (tenor)
- The Old Man (king of the trolls) (tenor)
- Redhaired Woman (his daughter) (soprano)
- The President (bass)
- Three Merchants (tenor, baritone, bass)
- Three Black Birds (sopranos)
- An Stranger (bass)
- Farmer Haegstad (bass)
- The Blacksmith (baritone)
- The Vogt (tenor)
- The Vogt's Wife (mezzo-soprano)
- An Old Man (tenor)
- A Court Troll (soprano)
- A Little Troll (soprano)
- A Waiter (tenor)
- Six Officials at the Troll Court
- Wedding Guests, Trolls, Ship Crew, Negroes, Whores, et al.
Recording
[edit]- Peer Gynt, Wilfried Vorwold (bass), Kari Løvaas (soprano), Norma Sharp (soprano), Cornelia Wulkopf (alto), Janet Perry (soprano), Waldemar Wild (bass). Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Heinz Wallberg, Orfeo Classics 1982
References
[edit]- ^ The Oxford Dictionary of Music ISBN 0199578540 ed. Michael Kennedy, Tim Rutherford-Johnson, Joyce Kennedy (2013) p. 256: "operas: Columbus (1933 radio, 1942 stage); Die Zaubergeige (1935, rev. 1954); Peer Gynt (1938); Circe (1945, rev. 1966 as 17 Tage und 4 Minuten); Irische Legende (after Yeats, 1955, rev. 1970); Der Revisor (after Gogol's The Government Inspector, 1957); Die Verlobung in San Domingo (1963)."
- ^ McCredie, Andrew D. (2001). "Egk [Mayer], Werner (Joseph)". Grove Music Online (8th ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.08615. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0.
- ^ Walter, Michael [in German] (1995). Hitler in der Oper. Deutsches Musikleben 1919–1945 (in German). J. B. Metzler. pp. 175ff. ISBN 978-3476013231.
- ^ Walter 1995, p. 176.