Peer Gynt (opera)

Peer Gynt
Opera by Werner Egk
LibrettistWerner Egk
LanguageGerman
Based onPeer Gynt
by Henrik Ibsen
Premiere
24 November 1938 (1938-11-24)

Peer Gynt is a 1938 opera by Werner Egk to a libretto after the play Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen. The premiere took place on 24 November 1938 at the Berlin State Opera where Egk was the conductor at the time.[1]

The opera was controversial in the Nazi press. This criticism was quashed when Adolf Hitler, an attendee at the performance, allegedly approved of the work.[2] Despite Stravinsky-like music, the premiere met the approval of Joseph Goebbels and Adolf Hitler, although Hermann Göring raged against it, and that approval has since tainted both the opera and composer.[3] The opera was performed in seven German cities until 1944 and even in Czech in Prague and in Paris.[4]

Roles

  • Peer Gynt (baritone)
  • Solveig (soprano)
  • Aase, Peer Gynt's mother (contralto)
  • Ingrid (soprano)
  • Mads, Ingrid's fiancé (tenor)
  • The Old Man (king of the trolls) (tenor)
  • Redhaired Woman (his daughter) (soprano)
  • The President (bass)
  • Three Merchants (tenor, baritone, bass)
  • Three Black Birds (sopranos)
  • An Stranger (bass)
  • Farmer Haegstad (bass)
  • The Blacksmith (baritone)
  • The Vogt (tenor)
  • The Vogt's Wife (mezzo-soprano)
  • An Old Man (tenor)
  • A Court Troll (soprano)
  • A Little Troll (soprano)
  • A Waiter (tenor)
  • Six Officials at the Troll Court
  • Wedding Guests, Trolls, Ship Crew, Negroes, Whores, et al.

Recording

References

  1. ^ The Oxford Dictionary of Music ISBN 0199578540 ed. Michael Kennedy, Tim Rutherford-Johnson, Joyce Kennedy (2013) p. 256: "operas: Columbus (1933 radio, 1942 stage); Die Zaubergeige (1935, rev. 1954); Peer Gynt (1938); Circe (1945, rev. 1966 as 17 Tage und 4 Minuten); Irische Legende (after Yeats, 1955, rev. 1970); Der Revisor (after Gogol's The Government Inspector, 1957); Die Verlobung in San Domingo (1963)."
  2. ^ McCredie, Andrew D. (2001). "Egk [Mayer], Werner (Joseph)". Grove Music Online (8th ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.08615. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0.
  3. ^ Walter, Michael [in German] (1995). Hitler in der Oper. Deutsches Musikleben 1919–1945 (in German). J. B. Metzler. pp. 175ff. ISBN 978-3476013231.
  4. ^ Walter 1995, p. 176.