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The Knot Garden
(Der Irrgarten), reduced version
Opera in three acts
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
1(pic).1(ca).1(Ebcl,bcl).1(cbsn)-3.2.2.0-2perc(timp, glsp, vib, metal bar or heavy triangle, tub bells, clash cym, sus cym, tam-t, ten d, jazz kit, 5tempbl, tamb, casts, clav, rattle)-hp.pno(cel).egtr-str(3vn[3.va].va.vc.db)
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), reduced version
Opera in three acts
Text by the composer
German translation by Claus H. Henneberg
Language:
German, English
Edition:
Performance material
Publisher/Label:
Schott Music
Year of composition:
1966 - 1970
Duration:
80 ′
World Premiere:
May 23, 1984 · Bracknell (UK)
Wilde Theatre
Tom Mc Donnell; Christine Botes; Janis Kelly; Marie Angel; Omar Ebrahim; Nigel Robson; Philip Doghan · Conductor: Howard Williams · London Sinfonietta
Original staging: David Freeman
Wilde Theatre
Tom Mc Donnell; Christine Botes; Janis Kelly; Marie Angel; Omar Ebrahim; Nigel Robson; Philip Doghan · Conductor: Howard Williams · London Sinfonietta
Original staging: David Freeman
Commissioned work :
commissioned by the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Series:
Technical Details
Product number:
LSL 4037-02
Performances
The Knot Garden
Conductor: Peter Bergamin
Orchestra: Taschenoper Wien
1998 |
Vienna (Austria) , Taschenoper Wien
The Knot Garden
Conductor: James Lockhart
1994 |
London (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) , London Royal Schools / Royal School of Music
The Knot Garden
Conductor: Philippe Nahon
1994 |
Marne-la-Vallée (France) , ARCAL (à La Ferme du Buisson) — National Premiere
The Knot Garden
Conductor: David Hoose
1991 |
Boston, Massachusetts (United States of America) , Boston University School of Music
The Knot Garden
Conductor: Gerhard Samuel
1990 |
Cincinnati, Ohio (United States of America) , University of Cincinnati College - Conservatory of Music — National Premiere
More from this series
The Knot Garden
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