Die Gezeichneten

Franz Schreker
Operas Flammen (1902) Der ferne Klang (1912) Die Gezeichneten (1918) Der Schatzgräber (1920) Irrelohe (1924)
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Die Gezeichneten (The Branded or The Stigmatized) is an opera in three acts by Franz Schreker with a libretto by the composer.

Composition history

Schreker wrote the libretto in 1911 at the request of Alexander Zemlinsky based on the play Hidalla by German playwright Frank Wedekind.^[1] However, Schreker decided to set the text himself and completed the composition in 1915.

The score is currently published by Universal Edition Vienna.^[2]

Performance history

The Alte Oper in Frankfurt 1880-1945

An expanded concert version of the overture to the opera, entitled Vorspiel zu einem Drama, was performed at the Vienna Musikverein on 8 February 1914 by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Felix Weingartner.^[3]

The complete opera was first performed on 25 April 1918 by the Frankfurt Opera in the Alte Oper, conducted by Ludwig Rottenberg.^[4][5] It established Schreker as the pre-eminent opera composer of his generation and won him the support of Germany's foremost music critic Paul Bekker. Before the composer's music was banned in 1933, due to his Jewish ancestry, a further two dozen productions followed in fifteen different cities in Germany and Austria.^[6] The playbill of the first performance in Vienna, in January 1920, mentions 66 previous performances of the opera in five different opera houses (Frankfurt, Nuremberg, Munich, Dresden and Breslau).^[7]

Conductor Michael Gielen revived the opera at the Frankfurt Opera in 1979.^[8] In the performance, which was recorded, William Cochran appeared as Alviano Salvago, Barry Mora as Tamare, June Card as Carlotta, and Günter Reich as the Duke.^[1]

A major staging took place at the Salzburg Festival in 2005, directed by Nikolaus Lehnhoff and conducted by Kent Nagano with Robert Brubaker (Alviano) and Anne Schwanewilms (Carlotta) in the leading roles, although the opera was heavily cut for this production.

The American premiere was staged at the Los Angeles Opera on 10 April 2010, followed by three more performances.^[9] James Conlon conducted and Robert Brubaker (Alviano), Anja Kampe (Carlotta) and Martin Gantner (Tamare) sang the principal roles. This event was hailed by critics as the first ever performance of a Schreker opera in the Western Hemisphere.^[10]

Also in April 2010 it was performed six times at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo in a production by Graham Vick.^[11]

Roles

Instrumentation

The orchestral score requires:

• 4 flutes (all 4 doubling piccolo), 4 oboes (oboe 4 doubling English horn), 4 clarinets (in A/B-flat, 4 doubling E flat clarinet), bass clarinet in B-flat (doubling basset horn), 2 bassoons, contrabassoon;
• 6 horns in F, 4 trumpets in C (4 doubling bass trumpet), 3 trombones, bass tuba (doubling contrabass tuba);
• timpani, percussion (3 players), 2 harps, celesta, piano;
• strings (violins I, violins II, violas, violoncellos, double basses).^[2]

Synopsis

The opera is set in 16th-century Genoa

Act 1

The young Genoan nobleman Alviano Salviago, hunchbacked and deformed, has renounced the love of women. He wants to donate to the people of Genoa the island paradise called "Elysium" he has created. His friends, a group of dissolute young noblemen, have been using an underground grotto on the island to celebrate orgies with young women abducted from prominent Genoan families, and intervene with Duke Adorno to stop the transfer of ownership. One of them, Count Tamare, has set his sights on Carlotta, daughter of the Podestà. Carlotta rejects him, as she is only interested in Salviago, whose soul she wants to paint.

Act 2

Infuriated by Carlotta's rejection, Tamare swears to Adorno that he will take her by force. He also reveals the secret of the grotto. In order to avoid the consequences of this secret becoming public, Adorno agrees to vetoing the transfer. While Salviago is sitting for Carlotta, she tries to bring out his soul, applying all her female charms. Salviago misinterprets these signs and thinks she is in love with him.

Act 3

The citizens of Genoa take possession of the island. Salviago asks the Podestà for Carlotta's hand in marriage. She evades him, wanders off alone, and in the grotto finally succumbs to Tamare. The Duke accuses Salviago of masterminding the abductions. Salviago, besides himself with worry for Carlotta, leads everyone to the underground grotto. Carlotta lies senseless on a bed, while Tamare prides himself on his conquering abilities. Salviago stabs him. Carlotta awakens, Salviago rushes to her side, but with her dying breath she calls for Tamare. Salviago, completely deranged, stumbles over Tamare's body as he makes his way through the stunned crowd.

Recordings

• In 1995 Decca released a recording made at the Jesus-Christus-Kirche in Berlin-Dahlem in August 1993 / February 1994 as part of their Entartete Musik series, with Lothar Zagrosek conducting the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. The principal roles were sung by Heinz Kruse (Salviago), Elizabeth Connell (Carlotta) and Monte Pederson (Tamare).^[7] This recording was re-issued in August 2012.^[12]

• In 2003 ORFEO released a 1984 live recording from the Salzburger Festspiele, with Gerd Albrecht conducting the Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien.^[13]

References

Notes

Sources

• Batta, András, Opera - Komponisten, Werke, Interpreten Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, 2000, (Dutch translation)
• Hailey, Christopher, Franz Schreker: A cultural biography Cambridge University Press, 1993