The Eternal Road

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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
v • d • e

The Eternal Road (or Der Weg der Verheißung) is an opera-oratorio with spoken dialogue in four acts by Kurt Weill with a libretto (originally in German: Der Weg der Verheissung – The Promised Road), by Austrian novelist and playwright Franz Werfel and translated into English by Ludwig Lewisohn.

The Eternal Road premiered at the Manhattan Opera House on January 7 1937, given a lavish and spectacular production involving 245 actors, and ran for 153 performances. Although it received good reviews, it was not revived for 63 years until it was performed in city of Chemnitz, Germany and then at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City in 1999-2000 (the 100th anniversary of Weill's birth and the 50th of his death). This was partly because of the six hour running time, even after substantial cuts had been made.[1]

The piece was conceived by Zionist activist Meyer Weisgal to alert the then-ignorant public to Hitler's persecution of the Jews in 1937 Germany. Weisgal enlisted the help of director Max Reinhardt, who found Weill to compose the music and Werfel to write the libretto. Set in a synagogue where Jews are hide all night as a pogrom rages outside, the story combines Biblical and pre-World War II Jewish history. The rabbi reads from the Torah, leading, in each act, to the exploration and re-enactment of a different Biblical theme. At the conclusion, the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and the deportation of those hiding become one, while the despair of a scattered people is balanced by a messianic voice that speaks of hope for deliverance of the Jews in Zion – (although by 1937 Jews were unable to emigrate from Germany to most countries and were barred from Palestine).[2] The music evokes cantorial lamentations, classical fugues and showtunes, among other styles.[3]

Contents

[edit] Roles

Role Voice type Premiere Cast,
7 January 1937
(Conductor: - )
Rabbi tenor
Eliezer baritone
White Angel tenor
2 Dark Angels tenor, baritone
Abraham baritone
Jacob tenor
Rachel soprano
Joseph baritone
Moses baritone
Miriam soprano Lotte Lenya
Voice of God baritone
Angel of Death bass
Ruth mezzo-soprano
Boaz baritone
Reaper baritone
Saul baritone
David tenor
Solomon baritone
Chananjah baritone
Jeremiah tenor
Voice of the Angel of the End of Days; Sarah; Isaac; Joseph's Brothers; double chorus, SATB.
Speaking roles: Pious Men, President, Elders, Women, and Boys of the Congregation, The Estranged One and his son, The Adversary, The Timid Soul, The Rich Man, The Watchman, The Youth, The Strange Girl, The Witch of Endor, Bath-Sheba, Uriah, Zedekiah, Pashur

[edit] Recordings

Naxos CD 8.559402 Karl Dent, James Maddalena, Ted Christopher, Barbara Rearick, Ernst Senff Chor, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Gerard Schwarz, cond. (excerpts performed in English)

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ 2003 NY Times article by John Rockwell
  2. ^ Article by Leon Botstein at the American Symphony Orchestra website
  3. ^ Review by Edith Eisler at Amazon.com

[edit] Sources

[edit] External links