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The Knot Garden
(Der Irrgarten)
Opera in three acts
Perhaps the most concentrated and perfectly accomplished of Michael Tippett’s five operas, the basic impetus remains the protagonists’ overcoming of negative forces and reaching a fuller understanding of who they are. With seven characters, no chorus and set in a garden, The Knot Garden draws strongly on imagery and situations in The Tempest – at one point the players actually take over their Shakespearean counterparts – whilst remaining very much a contemporary drama, with strong American influences.
Edition: Performance material
Series:
The Knot Garden
Product Details
Description
A house, too, can be a battlefield, and a garden a wilderness. The house here belongs to Faber and Thea: middle-class, middle-aged, probably more than middle-income and in a mid-matrimonial rut of mutual laissez-faire. Also in the house is their young ward Flora, to whom Faber has been making sexual advances. And there are visitors. Thea’s sister Denise is taking a break from other distant battlefields, where she is engaged in the struggle against oppression. A black writer, Mel, is here as well with his white lover Dov, a musician: the first homosexual couple to be ‘out’ on the operatic stage. These people’s entanglements – with each other but also, and more importantly, within themselves – have to be addressed, as in Tippett’s first opera. But this time the Mozart model is Così fan tutte, and the lessons of myth are clothed in the language of psychiatry, as practised by Mangus, the Don Alfonso who may not be as much in control as he would hope. In the last act he stages a performance of The Tempest, which comes adrift. Perhaps more has been achieved in the middle act, a swirl of short scenes ending in an exchange of songs between Flora and Dov – an exchange, too, of homages to Schubert and the blues, both held in the magic of this lustrous score. Paul Griffiths
Orchestral Cast
2(both pic).1.ca.2(1.Ebcl,2.bcl).1.cbsn-4.2.3.1-timp.3perc(glsp, xyl, vib, metal bar or heavy triangle, tam-t, cym, sus cym, s.d, ten d, b.d, jazz kit, wdbl, tempbl, tamb, casts, whip, clav, small rattle)-hp.cel.pno.egtr/ehpd-str
Cast
Faber, a civil engineer aged about 35 · robust baritone - Thea, his wife, a gardener · dramatic mezzo - Flora, their ward, an adolescent girl · light high soprano - Denise, Thea's sister, a dedicated Freedom-fighter · dramatic soprano - Mel, a black writer in his late twenties · lyric bass-baritone - Dov, his white friend; a musician · lyric tenor - Mangus, an analyst · high tenor-baritone
More Information
Title:
The Knot Garden
(Der Irrgarten)
Opera in three acts
Text by the composer
German translation by Claus H. Henneberg
Language:
German, English
Edition:
Performance material
Publisher/Label:
Schott Music Ltd., London
Year of composition:
1966 - 1970
Duration:
80 ′
World Premiere:
December 2, 1970 · London (UK)
Royal Opera House
Raimund Herincx; Yvonne Minton/Katherine Pring; Jill Gomez; Josephine Barstow; Thomas Carey; Robert Tear; Thomas Hernsley · Conductor: Sir Colin Davis · The Royal Opera
Original staging: Sir Peter Hall
(scenic)
Royal Opera House
Raimund Herincx; Yvonne Minton/Katherine Pring; Jill Gomez; Josephine Barstow; Thomas Carey; Robert Tear; Thomas Hernsley · Conductor: Sir Colin Davis · The Royal Opera
Original staging: Sir Peter Hall
(scenic)
Commissioned work :
commissioned by the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Series:
Technical Details
Product number:
LSL 4037-01
Performances
The Knot Garden
Conductor: Nicholas Cleobury
December 15, 2011 |
London (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) , National Opera Studio, Wandsworth
The Knot Garden
Conductor: Nicholas Cleobury
December 14, 2011 |
London (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) , National Opera Studio, Wandsworth
The Knot Garden
KlangBogen Wien 2005
Conductor: Walter Kobéra
Orchestra: Amadeus-Ensemble Wien
August 8, 2005 |
Wien (Austria) , Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Atelierhaus (Semper-Depot)
The Knot Garden
KlangBogen Wien 2005
Conductor: Walter Kobéra
Orchestra: Amadeus-Ensemble Wien
August 3, 2005 |
Wien (Austria) , Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Atelierhaus (Semper-Depot)
The Knot Garden
KlangBogen Wien 2005
Conductor: Walter Kobéra
Orchestra: Amadeus-Ensemble Wien
July 28, 2005 |
Wien (Austria) , Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Atelierhaus (Semper-Depot)
More from this series
The Knot Garden
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