Music Theatre since 1990 - Schott Music

Synopsis
Viktor Ullmann composed his setting of Kleist’s popular dramatic comedy in 1942 between his
two operas Der Sturz des Antichrist [The Fall of Antichrist] (1936) and Der Kaiser von Atlantis
[The Emperor of Atlantis] (1943) against the background of an increasingly bleak political situation.
The score was completed only a few weeks prior to Ullmann’s deportation to the concentration
camp Theresienstadt. Nonetheless, these tragic omens appear only to have had an
underlying effect on the humorous and trenchant work. On a superficial level, Ullmann largely
adheres to Kleist’s text (albeit with highly effective abridgements) and concisely relates the
story of the village judge Adam who has to pass judgement on his own misdeed – the broken
pitcher of Marthe – and is ultimately unmasked as the true culprit.
Closer study of the text reveals several passages which can clearly be interpreted as a commentary
on the iniquities of the justice system under the Third Reich. Specifically, the final verse,
written by Ullmann himself, is set in the context of the Nazi’s Volksgerichtshof (People’s Court)
and its henchmen in the red robes of judges, a witty but undisguised warning: ‘Fiat justitia, |
damals wie ebenda: | Richter soll keiner sein, | ist nicht sein Herze rein.’ (Fiat justitia: then as
now, no-one should be a judge if his heart is not pure).
Der zerbrochene Krug
17.02.2008 Los Angeles Opera
Ullmann combines references to18th century opera buffo with the tonal language of his own
time. A harpsichord is alienated by its modernistic plucked chords, in the background a sultry
string cantilena and brass soli clumsily interrupt the emotional operetta-like melodies. Here comedy
is created through the overlapping of perfectly imitated musical fashions. […] Ullmann creates
an ideal comic tempo with his rhythmical sprechgesang: the nimble post-Rossini parlando which is
the motor of numerous German “comic” operas. (Der Tagesspiegel, 21.05.1996)
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