Music Theatre since 1990 - Schott Music

Synopsis
Dieter Schnebel · Photo: Peter Andersen
The principal voice in the musical-dramatic tale is the language of Kleist, in itself already highly
musical in timbre and syntactic structure. […] The novella Das Erdbeben in Chili [The Earthquake
in Chile] forms a quasi recurrent theme. The text is not transformed musically, for example
incorporated in a musical setting, but is presented in musical form: in a particular tempo and
dynamic level and also in a particular tonal colouring. This transformation occurs on the one
hand according to musical criteria, e.g. a serial order of the types of speech and motif-like relationships
on a higher level – on the other hand, psychic moods – ‘atmospheres’ – are conveyed
though musical rhetoric. […] Each individual section has a particular method of performance
in which its innermost content is expressed. Thus in the first section, the text of the tale ‘Der
Todesschuss’ [The Fatal Shot] is spoken hesitatingly
and softly; in the second section, ‘Das Geheimnis’
[The Secret], whispered rapidly, in the following section,
‘Der Skandal’ [The Scandal], sonorously, but in
a sneering tone. Through this manner of expression,
undertones come to the surface and deeper layers of
the text are made accessible. […] The four sections
of the ‘musical action’ depict essential moments of
the novella and also utilise Kleist’s poetry: ‘Tremors’,
‘Night of Love’, ‘Day of Peace’ and ‘Death Orgy’.
These are interludes which act as summaries. Words
and music are combined in the prelude and postlude
in which the subject is the poet himself. Extracts
from Kleist’s letters from his later period run through
the prelude ‘End of Kleist’ and utopian passages
from his wonderful essay ‘On Marionette Theatre’
are quoted throughout the postlude.
(Dieter Schnebel. Source: Hamburg State Opera 1991)
Musically, Schnebel has formed Kleist’s and his two lovers’ journey towards death into an incredibly
compact and disturbingly lurid current of emotion and moods; he creates an utterly contemporary
and ominously threatening atmosphere through the chordal structure and the tense alternation
between the spoken Kleist texts and the screams and panting of the vocalists. Thankfully,
there are also idyllic highlights within this at times operatically lavish musical creation: refined and
alienated “re-visions” of Romanticism and the art of motets, chorales and Carmina Burana.
(Die Welt, 14.04.1991)
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