Widmann, Babylon, opening performance of the Internationale Maifestspiele 2022 at Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, curtain call including the composer
Babylon is an opera in seven scenes by Jörg Widmann, with a libretto in German by Peter Sloterdijk. The opera describes life in a multi-religious and multi-cultural metropolis. It was premiered by the Bavarian State Opera, conducted by Kent Nagano, on 27 October 2012.
Background and performance history
The stage work Babylon was written by Jörg Widmann on a commission by the Bavarian State Opera.[a][1] The opera was composed from 2011 to 2012.[2] Librettist and composer were not held to any restrictions.[3] The librettist Peter Sloterdijk[4] describes life in a multi-religious and multi-cultural metropolis,[5] the rise and fall of an empire.[6] His essay God's Zeal, that deals with the three major monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, possibly influenced the libretto.[7]
A revised version of the opera[c] was premiered on 9 March 2019 at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin.[8] Conductor of the new production by Andreas Kriegenburg was Christopher Ward, replacing Daniel Barenboim.[8] In the revision Widmann used live electronics for the first time at the end.[9] The action takes place in a cave-like underground.[10]
The first performance of Widmann's Babylon Suite, a commission of Grafenegg Festival and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, took place on 21 August 2014 in Grafenegg under the direction of Kent Nagano.[17] The Babylon Suite is based on Widmann's opera and incorporates vocal parts into the orchestra.[17]
Reception
The premiere of Babylon was reviewed critically by several newspapers.[6][18][19][20]The New York Times noted that Widmann's hard work received a major forum, that Sloterdijk's libretto is overstuffed and often inscrutable, and the production is extravagant.[4]Die Zeit wrote about an indifferent libretto, a monstrous score and old men's lust (Altherrenerotik),[21]Süddeutsche Zeitung about howling wind players, opulent pictures and strange music.[22]Die Welt wrote: "alphabet soup of sound salad: orgiastic, bombastic" ("Buchstabensuppe an Klangsalat, orgiastisch bombastisch.").[23]Die Deutsche Bühne wrote 2022: "colorful, visually stunning staging".[10]
Die Deutsche Bühne wrote about the 2022 Wiesbaden production: "Wiesbaden made a convincing plea for Widmann's Babylon, but it remains to be seen whether the piece will be suitable for the repertoire."[10]
Music
Babylon is a polystylistic opera.[33] A special musical style is Widmann's version of the Bayerischer Defiliermarsch and Tiroler Holzhackerbuab'n from his composition Dubairische Tänze in Scene III "The New Year Festival".[34] Self-quotation within the opera are Teufel Amor, Con brio, Antiphon and Messe.[35] Another example is a baroque chorale.[10] The work is characterized by cinematic editing techniques and various multimedia layers.[9] Widmann remains on the ground of tonality, but pushes it to the limits of the diatonic.[10] Significant are the colossal chord layers in the manner of Gustav Mahler or Alban Berg.[7] References are made to Strauss's Salome and Mozart’s Magic Flute. [36][37]
"In Front of the Relics of the Walls of a Ruined City"
The Scorpion Man dwells upon the ruins of Babylon, declaring whoever rebuilds this city shall be cursed.[e]
Scene I
"Within the Walls of Babylon" (duration: 45 min)[43]
The soul, a stranger in the Babylonian world, mourns its loneliness for its "brother", Tammu, a Jewish exile. Tammu struggles to convince his feelings of love to the Babylonian goddess Inanna. Inanna succeeds into comforting Tammu and dispelling his doubts, and they fall in love with each other. Inanna, however, gives Tammu a herb that allows him to see the "truth" of Babylon and love in his dreams.
The Euphrates leaves its bed, the flood comes expressed by chaos and confusion.[40] After the flood, The Priest King promises that peace and order will be achieved between heaven and earth through a human sacrifice.
Scene III
"The New Year Festival"
genitalia septets
monkey septet
An orgiastic, carnival-like New Year festival held by the Babylonians and Inanna with Bavarian-Babylonian marches, processions, cabaret numbers, and excesses has begun.[42] The celebration is however interrupted by the Jews and their leader Ezechiel, who considered this a blasphemy. Tammu then begins to question himself of his true belonging.
Scene IV
"At the Waters of Babylon"
The Jews reflect about their religion. Ezekiel has the writer write down his promptings, which deal with the Flood and of which Tammu claims that Ezekiel took over the story from the Babylonians. He writes down that Noah did not sacrifice his son, but animals, in gratitude for surviving. Tammu is selected by the Babylonian Priest King to be sacrificed.
Interlude
"Babylon Idyll, Night Music for Hanging Gardens"
(2012 Munich premiere only, not included in the revised version) The soul addresses to the audience that stars are not just light in the night sky, rather they are twinkling messengers. A solo clarinetist is also seen onstage.
Scene V
"The Feast of the Sacrifice"
Tammu is sacrificed by the Priest King. Upon discovering the sacrifice, Inanna and the Soul vow to rescue Tammu from the underworld.
Scene VI
"Inanna in the Underworld"
Inanna enters the underworld, with all of her jewelry stripped from her, with the underworld porters stating "Also sind sie Gesetze der Gebieterin! (Thus are the laws from our mistress!)". Inanna convinces her sister Death, to release Tammu from the underworld, eventually rescuing Tammu from the underworld.
Once Tammu and Inanna arrive back to Babylon, a new covenant with humankind, based on number seven, replaces the old sacrifice. Inanna and Tammu vow to stay with each other, and the Soul vows that she will remain with Tammu.
Epilogue
"The constellation of the Scorpion"
There are two endings to this opera.
2012, Munich: The scorpion directs its sting on itself, it kills the illusion, to be reborn in its higher form, the eagle.[45]
2019, Berlin, Revised Premiere: The scorpion directs its sting on itself, and two children sing a rhyme.
^Woolfe, Zachary (15 April 2013). "On Clarinet, the Composer". The New York Times. New York. Archived from the original on 22 August 2017. Retrieved 22 August 2017.
^Weber, Mirko (31 October 2012). "Tuttifrutti". Die Zeit (in German). Hamburg. Archived from the original on 6 September 2017. Retrieved 22 August 2017.
^Hablützel, Niklaus (10 March 2019). "Männer, die sich wichtig nehmen". Die Tageszeitung (in German). Berlin. Archived from the original on 11 March 2019. Retrieved 14 March 2019. Premiere in der Staatsoper: Jörg Widmann und Peter Sloterdijk haben ihr Stück "Babylon" überarbeitet, Andreas Kriegenburg hat es inszeniert. Doch was soll ein Regisseur mit dem Getöne dieser Männer anfangen? Gar nichts?
Zuber, Barbara (2013). "Verschiebung und semantische Überschreibung. Der Doppelchor der Juden in Jörg Widmanns Babylon (Bild 5)". In Tadday, Ulrich (ed.). Jörg Widmann, Musik-Konzepte 166 (edition text+kritik) (in German). München: Richard Boorberg Verlag. pp. 55–78. ISBN978-3-86916-355-0.
Widmann, Jörg; Rennicke, Rafael (2012). ""Babylon hat mein komponieren verändert": Jörg Widmann Im Gespräch über seine neue Oper "Babylon"". Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (in German). 173 (6): 8–11. JSTOR23994422.
Widmann, Jörg; Ward, Christopher; Kriegenburg, Andreas; Thor, Harald B.; Hofmann, Tanja; Haerter, Zenta; Reeger, Roman; Staatsoper Unter den Linden (2019). Babylon Oper in 7 Bildern (2012/rev. 2018), Musik von Jörg Widmann, Text von Peter Sloterdijk (in German). Berlin: Staatsoper Unter den Linden. OCLC1301035307.
