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Radames

Chamber opera
Idea and libretto by Peter eötvös
Edition: Performance material

Product Details

Description

SYNOPSIS


A rehearsal of the opera Aida is in progress: due to large-scale cost reductions in the orchestral budget, only three musicians are available. The conductor has to direct from the keyboard (or an electric piano). He lives off his income as a pianist in a coffee bar. There is only one counter tenor remaining in the ensemble, a leftover from the Baroque opera craze of the late 20th century. He is able to take both the part of Aida sung falsetto and Radames in his normal vocal range – ideal casting! In contrast, the directors are over-represented: following the amalgamation of the opera house and dramatic theatre, the directors of both houses are available. These are joined by a film director, as the funds for the opera are being financed by a parallel film production. The scene involving the death of Radames is currently in rehearsal and all three directors are attempting to work with the singer at the same time. The singer breaks down under the pressure and simultaneously the operation of the entire opera house collapses. In essence, a death scene in which the actor dies and the actor of the actor dies while he is acting out death: the death of death. Opera dies - is in fact already dead. The film dies - but the directors survive and write their memoirs … (Source: Cultural Centre, Herne, 2005)


COMMENTARY


Eötvös compiled his libretto from texts by the Hungarian film directors András Jeles and László Najmányi (for the role of the theatre director), the German composer and radio editor Manfred Niehaus (for the film director and interlude), quotations from Antonio Ghislanzoni’s libretto for ‘Aida’ and original musical performance instructions by Giuseppe Verdi. In the first performance of the original version, the ensemble consisted of a tonally unorthodox group of instruments: a fragile and exotic Japanese shakuhachi, a sousaphone (an instrument traditionally used in wind bands) and electronic organ. In 1997, Eötvös undertook a revision and new instrumentation of the work. The new version scored for soprano saxophone, horn, tuba and E-piano (Clavinova) was intended to facilitate the performance of the work and also fulfilled the intention of making the music sound deliberately ‘cheap’. These instruments also represent the only surviving remnants of the classical opera orchestra. The three directors transform the topic of ‘directing’ into senseless absurdity: the opera director articulates herself exclusively in cascades of Italian performance instructions originating from the score of ‘Aida’ and the film director comments the action of Radames/Aida with clichés from English film vocabulary. The theatre director is the only singer of this trio: unaccompanied by the orchestra, he loses himself in pseudo intellectual verbiage which has nothing whatsoever to do with the concrete situations in rehearsal. Radames/Aida is at the mercy of all three as a mere plaything and projection space: a voice with Baroque character going down a wrong turning in the direction of bel canto.

Orchestral Cast

Sopransax. · Hr. · Tb. - E-Piano (Clavinova, gespielt vom Dirigenten)

Cast

Schauspieler (Radames-Aida) · Kontratenor - Opernregisseurin · Mezzo (Sprechgesang) - Theaterregisseur · Tenor - Filmregisseur · Bass-Bariton (Sprechgesang) - Dirigent und Repetitor (dirigiert und spielt E-Piano)

More Information

Title:
Radames
Chamber opera
Idea and libretto by Peter eötvös
based on texts by András Jeles, László Najmányi, Manfred Niehaus und Antonio Ghislanzoni
English text version by Gregory Vajda
Language:
German, English, Italian
Edition:
Performance material
Publisher/Label:
Schott Music
Year of composition:
1975 (1997)
Duration:
35 ′
World Premiere:
March 5, 1976 · Köln (D)
WDR Musik-Theater Festival 1976
Conductor: Peter Eötvös
Original staging: Peter Eötvös

December 29, 1997 · Budapest (H)
Castle Theatre
Conductor: Gregory Vajda
Original staging: Péter Halász · Costumes: Sári Gerlóczy; Domokos Moldován · Set design: Zsolt Csengery
Organizer: Budapest Chamber Opera
(scenic)
World Premiere (Revision) (world première of the revised version)

Technical Details

Product number:
LS 5004-01

Performances

Set Ascending Direction
  • Radames
    Conductor: Leo Siberski
    Orchestra: Clara-Schumann-Philharmoniker Plauen-Zwickau
    May 21, 2022 | Plauen (Germany) , Theater, kleine Bühne
  • Radames
    Conductor: Leo Siberski
    Orchestra: Clara-Schumann-Philharmoniker Plauen-Zwickau
    May 8, 2022 | Plauen (Germany) , Theater, kleine Bühne
  • Radames
    Conductor: Leo Siberski
    Orchestra: Clara-Schumann-Philharmoniker Plauen-Zwickau
    April 19, 2022 | Plauen (Germany) , Theater, kleine Bühne
  • Radames
    Conductor: Leo Siberski
    Orchestra: Clara-Schumann-Philharmoniker Plauen-Zwickau
    April 18, 2022 | Plauen (Germany) , Theater, kleine Bühne
  • Radames
    Conductor: Leo Siberski
    Orchestra: Clara-Schumann-Philharmoniker Plauen-Zwickau
    March 30, 2022 | Plauen (Germany) , Theater, kleine Bühne
  • Set Ascending Direction

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