Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern
| Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern | |
|---|---|
| Opera by Helmut Lachenmann | |
Lachenmann in 2017 | |
| Librettist | Lachenmann |
| Language | German |
| Based on |
|
| Premiere | 26 January 1997 |
Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern (The girl with the matches), subtitled Musik mit Bildern (Music with images) is an opera in two parts by Helmut Lachenmann. He also wrote the libretto based on Andersen's fairy tale "The Little Match Girl", and added texts by Leonardo da Vinci, Gudrun Ensslin, Ernst Toller and Friedrich Nietzsche. It was premiered at the Hamburg State Opera on 26 January 1997.
History
Helmut Lachenmann mentioned the Andersen's fairy tale "The Little Match Girl" in 1975 in his Donaueschingen self portrait, telling his publisher that he planned to make it a scenic work.[1] After talks beginning in 1985, he received a commission from Peter Ruzicka, Intendant of the Hamburg State Opera, with a premiere date planned for 9 February 1992 and Axel Manthey as stage director.[2]
The work was premiered, after several delays,[3] on 26 January 1997, conducted by Lothar Zagrosek[2] and staged by Achim Freyer who also designed the scene.[4] The production was successful with the audience and most of the critics. All further performances were sold out.[2] It was chosen by the critics from Opernwelt as both the world premiere of the year and production of the year, with addition votes for conductor and stage director.[5]
Text
Lachenmann used text addition to focus on different aspects of Andersen's fairy tale. One of them is force, both the icy coldness as a force of nature, and the indifference to helplessness and misery as a social force. Lachenmann saw Ensslin as a distorted variant of the girl, who used force and fire. The text by da Vinci added a broader perspective to the situation.[6] The other texts added political and philosophical aspects.[1]
Music
Lachenmann's music is not a traditional opera. It has no instructions for scenic representation of the fairy tale. Two sopranos, in connected music, represent the girl but do not have to act. Rudolf Maschka compared the work to a Passion visualised on stage. It is reminiscent of a Passion in its narration with added reflections in a bipartite form.[2] Lachenmann used the voices like instruments.[7] The text is divided, sung by the two sopranos and four choral quartets. It is split into syllables and even letter sounds and thus mostly impossible to understand. The vocal technique is extended and included different sounds of breathing,[1] creating a "musical semantic of freezing".[2]
Recordings
- 29/30 Januar 1997 – Lothar Zagrosek (cond.), Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg, Choir of the Hamburg State Opera, Anna Karger, Andrea K. Schlehwein (sopranoes), live recording[8]: 8048
- 5–8 July 2001 – Lothar Zagrosek (cond.), Staatsorchester Stuttgart, Choir of the Staatstheater Stuttgart, Elizabeth Keusch, Sarah Leonard, Salome Kammer (speaker), Yukiko Sugawara and Tomoko Hemmi (piano), Mayumi Miyata (Shō), studio recording, Kairos S 0012282KAI (2 CDs).[8]: 8048 [9]
- July 2002 – Sylvain Cambreling (cond), SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart, instrumental ensemble, Experimentalstudio der Heinrich-Knobel-Stiftung des SWR Eiko Morikawa, Nicole Tibbels (sopranoes), Lachenmann (speaker), Yukiko Sugawara and Tomoko Hemmi (piano), Mayumi Miyata (Shō), studio recording from Konzerthaus Freiburg, Tokyo version 2000, ECM 4761283 (2 CDs), ECM New Series 1858-59[8]: 8050 [10][11]
References
- ^ a b c Fridemann Leipold: Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern. In: Attila Csampai, Dietmar Holland: Opernführer. E-Book. Rombach, Freiburg im Breisgau 2015, ISBN 978-3-7930-6025-3, pp. 1444–1450.
- ^ a b c d e Rudolf Maschka: Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern. In: Rudolf Kloiber, Wulf Konold, Robert Maschka: Handbuch der Oper. 14., grundlegend überarbeitete Auflage. Bärenreiter, Kassel und Metzler, Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-3-7618-2323-1, pp. 362–366.
- ^ Matthias Heilmann: Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern. In: András Batta: Opera. Komponisten, Werke, Interpreten. h.f.ullmann, Königswinter 2009, ISBN 978-3-8331-2048-0, pp 276–277.
- ^ Frank Hilberg: Die erste Oper des 21. Jahrhunderts? Helmut Lachenmanns Oper "Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern". In: Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, April 1997, pp. 14–23 (JSTOR 23986531).
- ^ Stephan Mösch: Bilanz – Aufführungen, Künstler, Stücke und Medien des Jahres. In: Opernwelt Jahrbuch 1997, p. 6&ff.
- ^ Klänge sind Naturereignisse. Auszüge aus einem Gespräch des Komponisten mit Klaus Zehelein und Hans Thomalla. In: Beilage zur CD Kairos S 0012282KAI, pp. 11–13.
- ^ Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern. In: Harenberg Opernführer. 4. Auflage. Meyers Lexikonverlag, 2003, ISBN 3-411-76107-5, pp. 450–451.
- ^ a b c Helmut Lachenmann. In: Andreas Ommer: Verzeichnis aller Operngesamtaufnahmen (= Zeno.org. vol 20). Directmedia, Berlin 2005.
- ^ liner notes CD Kairos S 0012282KAI.
- ^ Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern Breitkopf & Härtel, retrieved 19 December 2019.
- ^ Arnold Whittall: Contemporary German Music. Lachenmann, Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern [CD Reviews]. In: Tempo 59 (2005), p. 67, JSTOR 3878783.
Further reading
- Daniel Ender: Lachenmann: "Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern". Eine Klang-Bild-Installation, Salzburger Festspiele (ÖE 30. 8.) In: Österreichische Musikzeitschrift, vol. 57, 8–9 (2002), doi:10.7767/omz.2002.57.89.49, pp. 49–52
- Matteo Nanni, Matthias Schmidt (eds.): Helmut Lachenmann: Musik mit Bildern? Fink, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-7705-5340-2.
- Barbara Zuber: Die doppelte ästhetische Differenz und noch einmal die Frage: Was heißt "Musik mit Bildern"? Zu Helmut Lachenmanns "Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern." In: Matteo Nanni, Matthias Schmidt (eds.): Helmut Lachenmann: Musik mit Bildern! Eikones, Nationaler Forschungsschwerpunkt Bildkritik an der Universität Basel, München 2013. doi:10.30965/9783846753408_009