Alice in Wonderland (opera)

Alice in Wonderland is an opera by Unsuk Chin, based on the book by Lewis Carroll. The libretto was written by David Henry Hwang and composer.

The premiere of the work opened the Munich Opera Festival on 30 June 2007 and was at the Bavarian State Opera under the direction of Kent Nagano. Directed by Achim Freyer, who was also responsible for set design and lighting, masks and puppets, Nina Weitzner drew responsible. The title role was sung by Sally Matthews; to the other singers included, among other things, Dame Gwyneth Jones and Dietrich Henschel.

As a kind of preliminary study originated in 2004 on behalf of the Los Angeles Opera the song cycle snagS & Snarls for soprano and orchestra.

Description of the work

The librettist remain as to the action, faithful to the original text. An exception prologue and epilogue. These are dismissed as a dream scenes of the real sphere of life which prevails from Carroll's book at the beginning and end.

In Lewis Carroll's stories Chin has less the fairy tale theme - " an illusion to want to see them in fairy tales would be" - as the " twisted logic of one, another ' physical law is based on " fascinated. Chin points out that they are not discovered Alice as a child, but as adults - and by reading Douglas R. Hofstadter's book " Godel, Escher, Bach" in which Alice plays a significant role.

In certain scenes a stylistic pluralism is expressed, which can otherwise hardly encountered in Chin's music. Unsuk Chin points out that this - is musical parodies, and that she has chosen a different musical language of their other works for the opera, since the main role is a child - in correspondence with Lewis Carroll's puns and malapropisms.

The classical instrumentation is extended by a large percussion apparatus, by mandolin and other unusual instruments and electronics. The vocal and instrumental parts place high demands on virtuoso singers and orchestra.

The added dream scenes justifies the composer so that they have a strong relationship with their dreams discovered in the Alice stories, which she describes as "a lot existentiellere experience than anything I have experienced in everyday life," and as a key inspiration for her work as a composer. Lewis Carroll's nonsense is analyzed by her as an attempt " to describe a complex dream state with words", in which " inevitably the [ created ] what we, nonsense ' call, because our language is subjected to a very different logic."

' Alice in Wonderland' was selected at the international critics' poll of the magazine Opera world premiere of the year.

In the Press

"In fact, Chin's first opera is a masterpiece that directly Ravel's magic opera " " anknüpft L' enfant et les sortilèges: How Ravel writes Chin extremely sounded fine, often in chamber music be heard music and has no compunction to use a variety of styles: Gorgeous The sewing machine Baroque of Five - O'- Clock - scene or the six-minute bass clarinet solo of the caterpillar. (.... ) One of the most important operas of the present ( ... ) "( Jörg König village, Rondo )

" Chin's sound world is seductively cavernous, Suggesting not only the magical rabbit hole Alice tumbles down Which so but the psychological crevasses beneath the surface of Carroll 's writing ... (...) Chin ( ... ) Has a knack for binding together seemingly irreconcilable extremes. (...) The wondrous thing is how effortlessly Chin changes pace, from delicacy to grotesquerie, from cutesiness to dementia. Everything flows organically. " (Alex Ross, The New Yorker)

" A finely spun, with sound inventions proliferating, colors and scents of the history of music varied merging score. " (Gerhard Persché, Fono Forum )

"The music is evidence of the superior sonic imagination of the composer, who has left the narrow confines of avant-garde music behind. What she has listed, is the finest most powerful and in not stifling musical plasticity ... Chins synesthetic sense of color and flavor of the music is phenomenal, as their sense of shimmering increases for instrumental surprises and virtuosic special deposits, which again and again with different characters of the story are linked. " ( Wolfgang Schreiber, opera world)

Image carrier

• Unsuk Chin: Alice in Wonderland. Bavarian State Opera. Unitel Classica, 2008.