Robert Schumann / Bela Bartok / Alexander Zemlinsky

Women's love and death

CLICK in – debatte: Introduction 45 minutes before the performance

THREE MASTERPIECES - TWO CENTURIES - ONE NARRATIVE

WOMEN'S LOVE AND LIFE
Eight songs for voice and piano op. 42 (1840)
Composition: Robert Schumann
Libretto: Adelbert von Chamisso

BLUEBEARD'S CASTLE
Opera in one act (1918)
Composition: Béla Bartók
Libretto: Béla Balázs

A FLORENTINE TRAGEDY
Opera in one act (1917)
Composition: Alexander Zemlinsky
Libretto: Alexander Zemlinsky after Oscar Wilde's poem of the same name
poem of the same name in the translation by Max Meyerfeld

Times change, but the place doesn't. Tobias Kratzer, director of Frauenliebe und -sterben, combines masterpieces by three composers and wraps them in a narrative that resembles a great family epic. In the process, the supposed individual fates become panoramas of the customs and morals of our past and present. Robert Schumann's song cycle Frauenliebe und -leben (Women's Love and Life) - 1840 depicts the fate of countless women: first love, marriage, marriage, birth and finally death. The feelings of the nameless protagonist revolve around the needs of her husband, who becomes more and more distant from her. A generation later, the current master of the house, Duke Bluebeard, brings home a new wife: Judith. The two are magically attracted to each other - she fascinated by the mysterious stranger, he by her splendor. But little by little, Judith discovers Bluebeard's past life and the abysses that lurk there. And another leap in time: in the Florentine tragedy, we see a completely new marriage structure - bourgeois, but thoroughly liberal. When Simone catches his wife Bianca having an affair with the young Guido, he forgives her. But traditional gender roles increasingly dominate. The ménage à trois escalates. In short: do people desire the same in all times? Where are the differences?

Musical direction: Karina Canellakis
Production: Tobias Kratzer
Stage and costumes: Rainer Sellmaier
Video: Manuel Braun
Lighting: Michael Bauer
Dramaturgy: Henriette von Schnakenburg

Eight songs for voice and piano op. 42 (1840) / Opera in one act (1918) / Opera in one act (1917)
Texts by: Adelbert von Chamisso / Béla Balázs / Alexander Zemlinsky after Oscar

In German and Hungarian language
Supported by the Foundation for the Promotion of the Hamburg State Opera Co-operation with Den Norske Opera Oslo