Der Evangelimann
Encyclopedia
Der Evangelimann is an opera
in two acts by the Austria
n composer Wilhelm Kienzl
. The libretto
, by the composer, is based on Leopold Florian Meissner's short story .
and Count Hochberg (then artistic director
of the Berlin Opera), they immediately secured the rights to the premiere. The score was published by Musikverlages Bote & Bock Berlin GmbH, now part of Boosey & Hawkes
.
on 4 May 1895. It was a triumphant success. Within only a few years most German and Austrian opera houses had the work in their repertory. Famous conductors such as Felix Mottl
, Gustav Mahler
, Franz Schalk
and Richard Strauss
gave it their support, and the title role of the Evangelist Mathias was sung by prominent tenors.
Mathias, clerk in the monastery of St. Othmar, is in love with Martha, the foster daughter of the magistrate Friedrich Engel. Mathias’s brother Johannes is jealous of Martha’s affection and starts an intrigue against him. When the magistrate is informed of what is happening between his charge and Mathias, he dismisses the clerk and expels him from the monastery. Martha resists Johannes’s intrusiveness. When Johannes witnesses Martha and Mathias swearing fidelity to each other at the farewell, his jealousy turns into blind hate and he sets the monastery on fire. It is not he, however, but Mathias, who is arrested as the alleged wrongdoer.
Mathias has served a twenty-year sentence and, having been denied re-integration into society, travels the country as an itinerant preacher (this act contains the most popular piece in the opera: , sung by Mathias and a children's chorus). Martha took her life after his imprisonment, Johannes has become rich by dishonest means and lives in Vienna, now a severely ill man. Thirty years after the events at St. Othmar the brothers meet again. Mathias forgives Johannes, who can thus die in peace.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
in two acts by the Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n composer Wilhelm Kienzl
Wilhelm Kienzl
Wilhelm Kienzl was an Austrian composer.-Biography:Kienzl was born in the small, picturesque Upper Austrian town of Waizenkirchen. His family moved to the Styrian capital of Graz in 1860, where he studied the violin under Ignaz Uhl, piano under Johann Buwa, and composition from 1872 under the...
. The libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
, by the composer, is based on Leopold Florian Meissner's short story .
Composition history
Kienzl composed the opera in a relatively short space of time during 1894 in Graz and in the little Austrian town of Vöcklabruck. When he played extracts from the score to conductor Karl MuckKarl Muck
Karl Muck was a German-born conductor of classical music. He based his activities principally in Europe and mostly in opera. His American career comprised two stints at the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He endured a public outcry in 1917 that questioned whether his loyalties lay with Germany or the...
and Count Hochberg (then artistic director
Artistic director
An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company, that handles the organization's artistic direction. He or she is generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogul, since the organization is generally a non-profit organization...
of the Berlin Opera), they immediately secured the rights to the premiere. The score was published by Musikverlages Bote & Bock Berlin GmbH, now part of Boosey & Hawkes
Boosey & Hawkes
Boosey & Hawkes is a British music publisher purported to be the largest specialist classical music publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a major manufacturer of brass, string and wind musical instruments....
.
Performance history
The opera was first performed at the Neues Königliches Opernhaus, BerlinBerlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
on 4 May 1895. It was a triumphant success. Within only a few years most German and Austrian opera houses had the work in their repertory. Famous conductors such as Felix Mottl
Felix Mottl
Felix Josef von Mottl was an Austrian conductor and composer. He was regarded as one of the most brilliant conductors of his day. He composed three operas, of which Agnes Bernauer was the most successful, as well as a string quartet and numerous songs and other music...
, Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
, Franz Schalk
Franz Schalk
Franz Schalk was an Austrian conductor. From 1918 to 1929 he was director of the Vienna State Opera, a post he held jointly with Richard Strauss from 1919 to 1924. Later, Schalk was involved in the establishment of the Salzburg Festival.-Biography:Schalk was born in Vienna, Austria, where he later...
and Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
gave it their support, and the title role of the Evangelist Mathias was sung by prominent tenors.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast 4 May 1895 (Conductor: Karl Muck Karl Muck Karl Muck was a German-born conductor of classical music. He based his activities principally in Europe and mostly in opera. His American career comprised two stints at the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He endured a public outcry in 1917 that questioned whether his loyalties lay with Germany or the... ) |
|---|---|---|
| Friedrich Engel, magistrate in the monastery of St. Othmar | bass Bass (voice type) A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C... |
Josef Mödlinger |
| Martha, his niece and charge | dramatic soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody... |
Bertha Pierson |
| Magdalena, her friend | contralto Contralto Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above... |
Marie Goetze |
| Johannes Freudhofer, school teacher in St. Othmar | baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or... |
Paul Bulss |
| Mathias Freudhofer, his younger brother, clerk in the monastery | dramatic tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2... |
Eloi Sylva |
| Xaver Zitterbart, tailor | buffo tenor | Julius Lieban |
| Anton Schnappauf, gun-smith | buffo bass | Rudolf Krasa |
| Friedrich Aibler, an older citizen | baritone | Hermann Bachmann |
| Aibler's wife | mezzosoprano | |
| Frau Huber | lyric soprano | |
| Hans, a farmer's boy | lyric tenor | |
| Voice of the "skittle boy" | lyric soprano | |
| Voice of the night-watchman | bass | |
| Ragwoman | mezzosoprano | |
| Boy | soprano |
Act 1
- Place and time: the Benedictine monastery St. Othmar in Lower Austria, in the year 1820.
Mathias, clerk in the monastery of St. Othmar, is in love with Martha, the foster daughter of the magistrate Friedrich Engel. Mathias’s brother Johannes is jealous of Martha’s affection and starts an intrigue against him. When the magistrate is informed of what is happening between his charge and Mathias, he dismisses the clerk and expels him from the monastery. Martha resists Johannes’s intrusiveness. When Johannes witnesses Martha and Mathias swearing fidelity to each other at the farewell, his jealousy turns into blind hate and he sets the monastery on fire. It is not he, however, but Mathias, who is arrested as the alleged wrongdoer.
Act 2
- Place and time: Vienna, 1850
Mathias has served a twenty-year sentence and, having been denied re-integration into society, travels the country as an itinerant preacher (this act contains the most popular piece in the opera: , sung by Mathias and a children's chorus). Martha took her life after his imprisonment, Johannes has become rich by dishonest means and lives in Vienna, now a severely ill man. Thirty years after the events at St. Othmar the brothers meet again. Mathias forgives Johannes, who can thus die in peace.
Recordings
- In 1997, EMI ClassicsEMI ClassicsEMI Classics is a record label of EMI, formed in 1990 in order to reduce the need to create country-specific packaging and catalogs for internationally distributed classical music releases....
re-released a recording made in October 1980 in Munich (Bavarian Radio, Studio 1). Lothar ZagrosekLothar ZagrosekLothar Zagrosek is a German conductor. As a youth, he sang in the Regensburg Cathedral choir, including performances as the First Boy in The Magic Flute at the 1954 Salzburg Festival...
conducted the orchestra & chorus of Bavarian Radio Munich and the Tölzer KnabenchorTölzer KnabenchorThe Tölzer Knabenchor is a boys' choir with roots in the Bavarian town of Bad Tölz.The choir group is still led by director and singing master Gerhard Schmidt-Gaden, who founded the choir in 1956 when he was only nineteen years old. The founder was once a student of Carl Orff's and worked with him...
. The principal roles were sung by Kurt MollKurt MollKurt Moll is a German operatic bass, now retired.-Biography:Moll was born in Buir, near Cologne, Germany. As a child, he played the cello and hoped to become a great cellist. He also sang in the school choir, and the conductor encouraged him to concentrate on singing...
(Friedrich), Helen DonathHelen DonathHelen Jeanette Donath is an American soprano with a career spanning fifty years.- Biography :She was born in Corpus Christi, Texas and studied at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi and with Paola Novikova in New York....
(Martha), Ortrun WenkelOrtrun WenkelOrtrun Wenkel is a German operatic contralto. She notably portrayed the roles of Erda and Fricka in the 1983 recording of Richard Wagner's The Ring Cycle which won a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording and which was conducted by Marek Janowski for RCA.-References:...
(Magdalena), Roland Hermann (Johannes) and Siegfried JerusalemSiegfried JerusalemSiegfried Jerusalem is a German operatic tenor. Closely identified with the heldentenor roles of Wagner, he has performed Siegfried, Siegmund, Lohengrin, Parsifal and Tristan to wide acclaim...
(Mathias). - In 2006, German label Capriccio released a DVD recording of a 2005 performance at the Vienna VolksoperVienna VolksoperThe Vienna Volksoper is a major opera house in Vienna, Austria. It gives about three hundred performances of twenty-five productions during an annual season running from September through June....
conducted by Alfred Eschwe.