Der Jasager

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Operas and musicals by
Kurt Weill
Der Protagonist 1926
Mahagonny-Songspiel 1927
Der Zar lässt sich
photographieren		 1928
The Threepenny Opera 1928
Happy End 1929
Der Lindberghflug (with Paul Hindemith) 1929
The Rise and Fall of
the City of Mahagonny		 1930
Der Jasager 1930
Die Bürgschaft 1932
Der Silbersee 1933
The Seven Deadly Sins 1933
Der Kuhhandel 1935
Johnny Johnson 1936
The Eternal Road 1937
Knickerbocker Holiday 1938
Lady in the Dark 1940
One Touch of Venus 1943
The Firebrand of Florence 1945
Street Scene 1946
Down in the Valley 1948
Love Life 1948
Lost in the Stars 1949
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Der Jasager (The Affirmer or He Said Yes) is an opera (specifically a Schuloper or 'school-opera') by Kurt Weill to a German libretto by Bertolt Brecht (after Elisabeth Hauptmann's translation from Arthur Waley's English version of the Japanese Nō drama Taniko).

Its companion piece is Der Neinsager (He Said No ).

Weill also identifies the piece, following Brecht's development of the experimental form, as a Lehrstück, or 'learning-play'.[1]

[edit] Performance history

It was first performed in Berlin by students of the Akademie für Kirchen und Schulmusik at the Zentralinstitut für Erziehung und Unterricht on 23 June 1930 and broadcast simultaneously on the radio. It was successful and there were over 300 performances during the following three years.

Brecht subsequently revised the text twice, the final version, including Der Neinsager, being without music.

[edit] Roles

Role Voice type Premiere Cast,
23 June 1930
(Conductor: Fritz Busch)
The boy treble
The mother mezzo-soprano
The teacher baritone
First student treble or tenor
Second student treble or tenor
Third student treble or baritone

[edit] Sources

[edit] References

  1. ^ Weill says: "In Lindbergh's Flight Bert Brecht and I had the schools in mind for the first time. I am hoping to develop this direction further in my latest play, the 'Lehrstück' He Said Yes. [...] I no longer want to offer 'songs' so much as self-contained musical forms. In the process I want to take over whatever I hitherto found right, like what I once termed the gestic approach to music. The melody must give clear expression to the gest. It is clarity, not lack of clarity that has to prevail in all that the composer wishes to express. And [...] this 'Lehrstück' has to be a fully authentic work of art, not a secondary piece." (Weill 1930, 334).
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The Plays of Bertolt Brecht

Baal • Drums in the Night • The Beggar • A Wedding • Driving Out a Devil • Lux in Tenebris • The Catch • In The Jungle of Cities • Edward II • Man Equals Man • Downfall of the Egotist Johann Fatzer • The Elephant Calf • Little Mahagonny • The Threepenny Opera • The Flight across the Ocean • The Baden-Baden Lesson on Consent • Happy End • The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny • Der Jasager / Der Neinsager • The Decision • Saint Joan of the Stockyards • The Exception and the Rule • The Mother • Kuhle Wampe • The Seven Deadly Sins • Round Heads and Pointed Heads • The Horatians and the Curiatians • Fear and Misery of the Third Reich • Señora Carrar's Rifles • Life of Galileo • How Much Is Your Iron? • Dansen • Mother Courage and Her Children • The Trial of Lucullus • Mr Puntila and his Man Matti • The Good Person of Szechwan • The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui • Hangmen Also Die! • The Visions of Simone Machard • The Duchess of Malfi • Schweyk in the Second World War • The Caucasian Chalk Circle • Antigone • The Days of the Commune • The Tutor • Die Verurteilung des Lukullus • Report from Herrnburg • Coriolanus • Joan of Arc • Turandot • Don Juan • Trumpets and Drums