In the Penal Colony (opera)

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Philip Glass

In the Penal Colony is a chamber opera in one act and 16 scenes composed by Philip Glass to an English-language libretto by Rudy Wurlitzer. The opera is based on Franz Kafka's German-language short story "In the Penal Colony" and was commissioned by ACT Theatre in Seattle, Washington, where it premiered on 31 August 2000. It has a running time of approximately 80 minutes and is scored for two singers (tenor and bass-baritone) and a string quintet.[1]

Background

Kafka's harrowing story "In the Penal Colony" ("In der Strafkolonie") had previously been adapted as a play by Steven Berkoff in 1969. The choice to use it as the basis for an opera was Glass's, as was the creative team. He and his long-time collaborator and former wife JoAnne Akalaitis had worked on the idea on and off for three years before receiving a formal commission from ACT Theatre in Seattle. Akalaitis worked closely with the librettist, Rudy Wurlitzer, in adapting the story for the musical stage and directed the premiere production. Glass referred to the work as a "pocket opera" and had deliberately chosen the small-scale format of a chamber opera to increase the likelihood that it would be frequently performed.[2][3]

In Kafka's story, only two of the four characters speak, The Officer and The Visitor, whose roles in the opera are assigned to a bass-baritone and tenor respectively. As in the story, The Prisoner (who is about to be executed) and The Guard remain silent.[4] However, Akalaitis added a fifth character for the premiere production, Kafka himself, who serves as a narrator and onlooker.[5] The texts for the narration were chosen by Akalaitis from Kafka's diaries. The opera's music is played by a string quintet. In the original production, they appear as musicians from the penal colony where the story takes place and are costumed as a mixture of soldiers and civilians.[2]

Performance history

Rehearsal for the Swiss premiere of The Penal Colony at the Theater der Künste in Zürich, May 2011

The world premiere performance of the opera on 31 August 2000 at ACT Theatre was a co-production with the Court Theatre in Chicago who would stage it later that year. John Duykers, who had created the role of Mao Tse-tung in Adams's Nixon in China, was The Visitor, and Herbert Perry, who had created the role of Vasco da Gama in Glass's The White Raven was The Officer. Perry's identical twin brother, Eugene, alternated with him in the role. Alan O. Johnson conducted the Metropolitan String Ensemble. The sets were designed by John Conklin, with costumes by Susan Hilferty and lighting by Jennifer Tipton.[5]

The Penal Colony ran at the ACT Theatre until 1 October. The production, directed by JoAnne Akalaitis with the same singers, opened in Chicago at the Court Theatre in December 2000. Its New York City premiere followed in June 2001 when it was performed by the Classic Stage Company.[3] The German premiere was produced in November 2002 by the Berliner Kammeroper (de), directed by Kay Kuntze (de), conducted by Peter Aderhold (de).,[6] The work premiered in France at the Opéra National de Lyon on 23 January 2009.[7] The UK premiere took place at the Linbury Studio Theatre in London's Royal Opera House on 15 September 2010. On that occasion, it was performed in a production by Music Theatre Wales who then took it on tour to several British cites.[8] It was given three performances in May 2011 at the Theater der Künste in Zürich as part of the Philip Glass Festival and had its Australian premiere at the National Institute of Dramatic Art's Parade Playhouse in Sydney on 7 April 2012.[9][10]

After the original Akalaitis production performed in Seattle, Chicago and New York City, subsequent ones have varied in terms of the number of non-speaking roles and the placement of the string ensemble. The Opéra National de Lyon production directed by Richard Brunel, added a second guard to the non-speaking roles.[7] The Music Theatre Wales production directed by Michael McCarthy eliminated the guard's role completely.[11] The Australian production directed by Imara Savage placed the ensemble off-stage and set the action in a hospital-like corridor.[10] None of these later productions used the Kafka narrator.

Roles

Franz Kafka in 1906
Role Voice type Premiere cast, 31 August 2000[5]
(Conductor: Alan O. Johnson)
The Officer bass-baritone Herbert Perry
The Visitor tenor John Duykers
The Guard silent role Steven M. Levine
The Prisoner silent role Matt Seidman
Franz Kafka speaking role Jose Gonzales

Synopsis

Setting: The remote island penal colony of a powerful but unnamed country in 1907[12]

A high-ranking visitor arrives in the penal colony. He was invited there to witness the public execution of a prisoner using a strange machine which had been invented by the former commandant of the colony. The machine slowly carves a description of the condemned man's crimes into his flesh and after hours of excruciating torture eventually kills him. The device is operated by the current officer in charge of the prison who is utterly devoted to the machine and to the memory of the deceased commandant who had invented it. He is disturbed by the machine's state of disrepair and the growing criticism of its use, including criticism from the island's current commandant. He hopes that the visitor will be impressed by the machine and will speak in favour of its "redemptive powers" to the commandant. The visitor is appalled by the machine but sings "It's always risky interfering in other peoples' business [...] I oppose this procedure, but I will not intervene."[3] When the officer realizes that the visitor will not actively support him, he frees the condemned prisoner from the machine and climbs onto it himself, seeking the redemption of a slow and painful death. However, the machine goes haywire, and instead of killing him slowly, kills him almost instantly by piercing his skull. It then self-destructs. In the final scene, the visitor gets onto a boat and leaves the island.

Recording

  • Glass: In the Penal Colony – Michael Bennett (The Visitor), Omar Ebrahim (The Officer); Music Theatre Wales; Michael Rafferty (conductor). Recorded 27–28 October 2010. Label: Orange Mountain OMM0078[13]

References

  1. ↑ Chester Novello. "Philip Glass: In the Penal Colony". Retrieved 27 February 2013.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Akalaitis, Joanne (10 June 2001). "Adapting the Horrors Of a Kafka Story To Suit Glass's Music". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Kinzer, Stephen (6 December 2000). "A Pocket-Size Opera From a Harrowing Kafka Story". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
  4. ↑ In English translations of Kafka's original story, The Visitor is called "The Explorer", The Prisoner is called "The Condemned", and The Guard is called "The Soldier",
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Ehren, Christine (31 August 2000). "Seattle's ACT Goes In the Penal Colony w/ Glass-Akalaitis World Premiere Aug. 31 – Oct. 1". Playbill. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
  6. ↑ "Berliner Kammeroper In the Penal Colony: eine Oper von Philip Glass nach Franz Kafkas Erzählung 'In der Strafkolonie'", Berliner Zeitung, 25 October 2002 (German)
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Opéra National de Lyon (2009). Dans la colonie pénitentiaire (Libretto and notes). Retrieved 27 February 2013 (French).
  8. ↑ Church, Michael (16 September 2010). "In the Penal Colony, Music Theatre Wales, Linbury Theatre". The Independent. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
  9. ↑ Zürcher Kammerorchester (16–22 May 2011). Philip Glass Festival, p. 2. Retrieved 27 February 2013 (German).
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 McCallum, Peter (9 April 2012). "Redemption, through Glass, darkly". The Age. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
  11. ↑ Maddocks, Fiona (19 September 2010). "In the Penal Colony; Don Pasquale; La bohème/Euridice; Chilingirian Quartet". The Observer. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
  12. ↑ Unless otherwise indicated, synopsis based on Opéra National de Lyon (2009) and McCallum (9 April 2012).
  13. ↑ Godfrey, Paul Corfield (12 March 2012). "Recording Review: In the Penal Colony Orange Mountain OMM0078". MusicWeb International. Retrieved 27 February 2012

External links

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