Royal Palace is a 1925 one-act German-language ballet opera with a female choir in 13 scenes by Kurt Weil to a libretto by Yvan Goll. The premiere was on 2 March 1927 at the Berlin State Opera under the artistic direction of Erich Kleiber.[1]
The orchestral score and thus the original instrumentation was lost during the Nazi era and was reconstructed in 1971 by Noam Sheriff and Gunther Schuller, as a dance drama from a piano reduction with notes on the orchestration.[2]
Cast
Dejanira (dramatic soprano)
The Husband (bass)
Yesterday's Lover (baritone)
Tomorrow's Lover (tenor)
The Young Fisherman (tenor)
The Old Fisherman (bass)
Ladies Choir (backstage)
References
^Jazz & the Germans, Michael J. Budds, 2002, p. 103: "Weill's surrealist collaborations with Ivan Goll – notably Royal Palace – portray the need for the human spirit to ... Although Royal Palace is now considered by some scholars to be a key work in the stage music career of Kurt Weill ..."
^Weill's Musical Theater: Stages of Reform, Stephen Hinton, 2012, p. 85: "In 2000, two productions occurred within weeks of each other, both using the orchestrated version prepared for a performance in 1971 by Gunther Schuller and Noam Sheriff, one fully staged, the other a concert performance"
