Orpheus und Eurydike
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| Operas by Ernst Krenek |
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Orpheus und Eurydike (1926) |
Orpheus und Eurydike (Orpheus and Eurydice) is a play by Oskar Kokoschka, begun during his convalescence from wounds received on the Ukrainian front in 1915 and premiered in 1921, one year before Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus appeared. In 1923 he let it be known that he was looking for a composer to write incidental music and was approached by Ernst Krenek. They quickly decided that the work should become an opera and Krenek received carte blanche to adapt the German play, condensing it by a third in the process.[1] In this new form it premiered as Krenek's opus 21 in Kassel at the Staatstheater on 27 November, 1926.
Kokoschka's expressionist, psychological treatment of the Orpheus myth, marked by his passion for Alma Mahler, appealed to Krenek who set the work to an atonal score.
[edit] Roles
- Orpheus (tenor)
- Eurydike (soprano)
- Psyche (soprano)
- Drunk (bass)
- Soldier (baritone)
- Sailor (tenor)
- Fool (baritone)
[edit] Sources and footnotes
Orpheus und Eurydike by Charlotte Purkis, in 'The New Grove Dictionary of Opera', ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1992) ISBN 0-333-73432-7
- ^ At one point Krenek sought help from Erdmann, who gave up. John L. Stewart: Ernst Krenek: The Man and His Music UCP 1991 pp.74-6. The UE page (below) claims Franz Werfel was the editor!
- see also:
- Ernst Krenek, Oskar Kokoschka und die Geschichte von Orpheus und Eurydike ed. Jürg Stenzl (Argus 2005)
- Orpheus und Eurydike: Der antike Sagenstoff in den Opern von Darius Milhaud und Ernst Krenek Hans Knoch (Gustav Bosse Verlag 1977)
