Intermezzo (opera)

  • Hofkapellmeister Robert Storch (baritone )
  • Christine, his wife (Soprano)
  • Franzl, her little son ( child's voice )
  • Anna, the maid (soprano )
  • Baron Lummer (Tenor)
  • Kapellmeister straw (Tenor)
  • Notary (baritone )
  • Wife of the notary (soprano )
  • Commerce ( bass)
  • Judicial Council (baritone )
  • Chamber singer ( bass)

Intermezzo - A bourgeois comedy with symphonic interludes in two acts ( Opus 72, TrV 246) is the eighth opera by Richard Strauss. The libretto was written by the composer himself The premiere took place on November 4, 1924 at the Schauspielhaus place in Dresden.

Genesis

After the completion of the Woman without a Shadow Strauss asked his librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal, 1916 at a "realistic character comedy " as a counterpoint. Hofmannsthal refused and recommended that the playwright and critic Hermann Bahr. As Strauss had an opera with autobiographical traits in mind, Bahr advised the composers to write the libretto under guidance. Strauss created a successful comedy text, the main characters are easy to see when the couple Strauss. He put the score but a longer theoretical introduction above, in which he explained the concept of the opera, Strauss looked at her more than an autobiographical " thriller " or a "stopgap until the next Hofmannsthal ," although he had once expressed the.

Performance history

The premiere took place on 4 November in 1924 in Dresden, the lead was Fritz Busch ( with Lotte Lehmann as Christine ). In the audience, the opera was due to the autobiographical " revelations " a great success, by the critics, it was for the same reason very ungraciously treated (Paul Hindemith made ​​here, interestingly, an exception). After the decay of the "Sensation" was the great chagrin of the composer quickly quiet around the opera, even today Intermezzo is played only occasionally, such as in 2008 at the Zurich Opera in a production directed by Jens- Daniel Herzog, conducted by Peter Schneider.

Orchestra

  • 2 large flutes ( II piccolo ), 2 oboes ( II also English horn ), 2 clarinets ( II bass clarinet ), 2 bassoons
  • 3 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba
  • Timpani, bass drum, drums, cymbals, triangle
  • Harp, piano, harmonium
  • 12 first violins, 12 second violins, violas, 8, 6 cellos, 4 double basses.

Action

Stage: The villa of Hofkapellmeister stork; Toboggan run on Grundlsee; Show in Vienna; Prater in Vienna

Act I

The famous composer and Kapellmeister stork must be a commitment to Vienna. The travel arrangements lead to - obviously usual - friction with his harassing him caring wife Christine. After his departure Christine learns the Baron Lummer, whom she goes overboard while sledding. She wants her husband a letter of recommendation for the young man who would like to study, write, Lummer has but from angry when he asks for money. Completely enraged she gets when the post brings the slippery letter from a certain " Kitty Meier " to her husband. Christine wants the separation and sent her husband a telegram to Vienna - "We are divorced forever! "

Second Act

Vienna - Stork in Skat. Christine's telegram arrives. Storch, who has just taken his wife still in the men's round protection is stunned, but suspects after some time the confusion. Kapellmeister straw, the "Known " by Kitty Meier and actual recipient of the letter must explain the error. The Storch family - the couple laugh about their "best " marriage.

Music

Strauss explained the aim of his work in his preface to the score: word intelligibility. The voices are in the foreground, the orchestra assisted only. Strauss wanted to create a "German Parlando ". The rapid succession of scenes of the play is connected by numerous interludes in which the action is musically initiated or continued ( for example, the " shuffling cards " by the piano before Skatszene ). Opera on a grand scale there is only in the final. Ulrich Schreiber keeps the original score for one of the " aesthetically interesting " and one of the most underrated works of the composer.

Discography

  • GA 1963 ( live); Keilberth; Hanny Steffek (Christine ), Hermann Prey ( Stork), Anny Felbermeyer (Anna ), Ludwig Welther ( chamber singer), Ferry Gruber ( Lummer ), Alfred Poell (notary ); Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera ( Orfeo )
  • GA 1980; Wolfgang Sawallisch; Lucia Popp ( Christine ), Dietrich Fischer- Dieskau ( Stork), Gabriele Fuchs ( Anna ), Kurt Moll ( chamber singer), Adolf Dallapozza ( Lummer ), Klaus Hirte (notary ); Symphony Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (EMI )
414402
de