Der Silbersee
Encyclopedia
Der Silbersee: ein Wintermärchen (The Silver Lake: a Winter's Fairy Tale) is a 'play with music' in three acts by Kurt Weill
to a German
text by Georg Kaiser
, the Stadttheater in Erfurt
and the Stadttheater in Magdeburg
, just three weeks after the Nazi Party's Machtergreifung
on 30 January 1933. The Leipzig production was directed by Detlev Sierck, conducted by Gustav Brecher, and designed by Caspar Neher
. It was the last production of both Weill and Kaiser in the Weimar Republic
before they were forced to emigrate. It was banned on 4 March 1933 by the Nazis after having been performed 16 times.
An abridged version with diminished orchestration was prepared by Boris Blacher and presented as part of the Berlin Festival at the Schlosspark-Theater, in West Berlin
, on 19 September 1955.
At the Holland Festival
at The Hague
on 25 June 1971 a 90-minute concert version was prepared by Jozef Heinzelmann and David Drew
. It included the entire score in its original orchestration, with narration spoken by Lotte Lenya
. The performance was conducted by Gary Bertini
.
The 1975 Berlin Festival in West Berlin on 10 September presented a 50-minute concert version devised by David Drew
for five soloists, chorus and orchestra with no narration or dialogue. Performers included Anja Silja
(soprano) and Günther Reich (baritone), conducted by Gary Bertini
.
On 20 March 1980 in the New York State Theater in New York City
the New York City Opera
presented a free adaptation entitled Silverlake with an English libretto by Hugh Wheeler
and a musically continuous score devised by Lys Simonette. The score incorporated incidental music Weill had composed for the Berlin stage as well as music written for a 1927 production of August Strindberg
's Gustav III, and interpolated the 'Muschel von Margate' (written for Leo Lania's 1928 play Konjunktur) with new lyrics by Wheeler to create a duet for Olim and Severin in act 3. This version also adds Olim to the Lottery Agent's Tango, making it a duet, transfers the 'Ballad of Caesar's Death' from the ingenue
Fennimore to the villainess
Frau von Luber, and adds a role for a dancer representing Hunger. The cast included Joel Grey
(Olim), William Neill (Severin), Elizabeth Hynes (Fennimore), Elaine Bonazzi (Frau von Luber), and Gary Chryst (Hunger). The production was directed by Harold Prince, conducted by Julius Rudel
, and designed by Manuel Lutgenhorst.
First Act
Second Act
Third Act
, though with greater dramatic demands placed on the acting. As in his other works, Weill uses a broad variety of forms (songs, arias, duets, quartets, choruses), musical styles (tango
, funeral march
, waltz
, polka
, foxtrot, march
) and conventions (revenge aria, moritat, Totentanz, and dialogue spoken over elaborate musical accompaniment, i.e., melodrama). The orchestration requires a string section plus 13 other instruments.
The finale, depicting Severin and Olim's journey to the Silbersee through a stormy snowscape that transforms into spring, runs approximately 15 minutes and consists of melodrama, dialogue, instrumental passages, choruses, and an offstage solo.
and placed a ban on the piece on 4 March 1933. The next day, Kaiser was expelled from the Akademie der Künste
, of which he was a member. On 21 March, Silbersee designer and longtime Weill collaborator Caspar Neher
and his wife Erika drove Weill across the border in their car and together they headed for Paris. On 10 May the work with illustrations by Neher
was burned
on the Opera Plaza.
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
to a German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
text by Georg Kaiser
Georg Kaiser
Friedrich Carl Georg Kaiser, called Georg Kaiser, was a German dramatist.-Biography:Kaiser was born at Magdeburg....
Premiere performances
Der Silbersee was premiered on 18 February 1933 simultaneously at the Altes Theater in LeipzigLeipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, the Stadttheater in Erfurt
Erfurt
Erfurt is the capital city of Thuringia and the main city nearest to the geographical centre of Germany, located 100 km SW of Leipzig, 150 km N of Nuremberg and 180 km SE of Hannover. Erfurt Airport can be reached by plane via Munich. It lies in the southern part of the Thuringian...
and the Stadttheater in Magdeburg
Magdeburg
Magdeburg , is the largest city and the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Magdeburg is situated on the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe....
, just three weeks after the Nazi Party's Machtergreifung
Machtergreifung
Machtergreifung is a German word meaning "seizure of power". It is normally used specifically to refer to the Nazi takeover of power in the democratic Weimar Republic on 30 January 1933, the day Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, turning it into the Nazi German dictatorship.-Term:The...
on 30 January 1933. The Leipzig production was directed by Detlev Sierck, conducted by Gustav Brecher, and designed by Caspar Neher
Caspar Neher
Caspar Neher was an Austrian-German scenographer and librettist, known principally for his career-long working relationship with Bertolt Brecht.Neher was born in Augsburg...
. It was the last production of both Weill and Kaiser in the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
before they were forced to emigrate. It was banned on 4 March 1933 by the Nazis after having been performed 16 times.
Performance history
A complete performance of Der Silbersee runs about three hours, consisting of roughly equal parts of dialogue and music. The long and complex play requires skilled actors, but the vocal demands of Weill's score require trained singers. The difficulty in reconciling these needs make successful performance of the piece difficult, and modern productions have consisted mostly of abridged concert versions and adaptations.An abridged version with diminished orchestration was prepared by Boris Blacher and presented as part of the Berlin Festival at the Schlosspark-Theater, in West Berlin
West Berlin
West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...
, on 19 September 1955.
At the Holland Festival
Holland Festival
The Holland Festival is The Netherlands' oldest and largest performing arts festival, and takes place every June in Amsterdam. It comprises theater, music, opera and modern dance. In recent years, multimedia, visual arts, film and architecture were added to the festival roster...
at The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
on 25 June 1971 a 90-minute concert version was prepared by Jozef Heinzelmann and David Drew
David Drew (writer)
David Drew was a British journalist on music, particularly known for his work on Kurt Weill. He published the authoritative catalogue of Weill's music, Kurt Weill: A Handbook and, in German, edited and annotated a collection of Weill's writings, Kurt Weill: Ausgewählte Schriften, and a symposium...
. It included the entire score in its original orchestration, with narration spoken by Lotte Lenya
Lotte Lenya
Lotte Lenya was an Austrian singer, diseuse, and actress. In the German-speaking and classical music world she is best remembered for her performances of the songs of her husband, Kurt Weill. In English-language film she is remembered for her Academy Award-nominated role in The Roman Spring of Mrs...
. The performance was conducted by Gary Bertini
Gary Bertini
Gary Bertini was an Israeli conductor.-Biography:Gary Bertini was born Shloyme Golergant in Bricheva, Bessarabia, then in Romania, now in Donduşeni District, Moldova. His father, K. A. Bertini , was a poet and translator of the Russian and Yiddish Gary Bertini (Hebrew: גארי ברתיני) (born 1 May...
.
The 1975 Berlin Festival in West Berlin on 10 September presented a 50-minute concert version devised by David Drew
David Drew (writer)
David Drew was a British journalist on music, particularly known for his work on Kurt Weill. He published the authoritative catalogue of Weill's music, Kurt Weill: A Handbook and, in German, edited and annotated a collection of Weill's writings, Kurt Weill: Ausgewählte Schriften, and a symposium...
for five soloists, chorus and orchestra with no narration or dialogue. Performers included Anja Silja
Anja Silja
Anja Silja Regina Langwagen, , born April 17, 1940, in Berlin, is a German soprano who is known for her great abilities as a singing-actress and for the vastness of her repertoire....
(soprano) and Günther Reich (baritone), conducted by Gary Bertini
Gary Bertini
Gary Bertini was an Israeli conductor.-Biography:Gary Bertini was born Shloyme Golergant in Bricheva, Bessarabia, then in Romania, now in Donduşeni District, Moldova. His father, K. A. Bertini , was a poet and translator of the Russian and Yiddish Gary Bertini (Hebrew: גארי ברתיני) (born 1 May...
.
On 20 March 1980 in the New York State Theater in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
the New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
presented a free adaptation entitled Silverlake with an English libretto by Hugh Wheeler
Hugh Wheeler
Hugh Callingham Wheeler was an English-born playwright, screenwriter, librettist, poet, and translator. He resided in the United States from 1934 until his death and became a naturalized citizen in 1942. He had attended London University.Under the noms de plume Patrick Quentin, Q...
and a musically continuous score devised by Lys Simonette. The score incorporated incidental music Weill had composed for the Berlin stage as well as music written for a 1927 production of August Strindberg
August Strindberg
Johan August Strindberg was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg's career spanned four decades, during which time he wrote over 60 plays and more than 30 works of fiction, autobiography,...
's Gustav III, and interpolated the 'Muschel von Margate' (written for Leo Lania's 1928 play Konjunktur) with new lyrics by Wheeler to create a duet for Olim and Severin in act 3. This version also adds Olim to the Lottery Agent's Tango, making it a duet, transfers the 'Ballad of Caesar's Death' from the ingenue
Ingenue (stock character)
See also Disingenuous, which is not quite the antonym that it may seem!The ingénue is a stock character in literature, film, and a role type in the theatre; generally a girl or a young woman who is endearingly innocent and wholesome. Ingenue may also refer to a new young actress or one typecast in...
Fennimore to the villainess
Villain
A villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters...
Frau von Luber, and adds a role for a dancer representing Hunger. The cast included Joel Grey
Joel Grey
Joel Grey is an American stage and screen actor, singer, and dancer, best known for his role as the Master of Ceremonies in both the stage and film adaptation of the Kander & Ebb musical Cabaret. He has won the Academy Award, Tony Award and Golden Globe Award...
(Olim), William Neill (Severin), Elizabeth Hynes (Fennimore), Elaine Bonazzi (Frau von Luber), and Gary Chryst (Hunger). The production was directed by Harold Prince, conducted by Julius Rudel
Julius Rudel
Julius Rudel is an American opera and orchestra conductor who emigrated to the United States from Austria at the age of 17 and studied conducting at the Mannes College of Music in New York City. He then forged a 35-year career with the New York City Opera, from 1944 to 1979, and was the Music...
, and designed by Manuel Lutgenhorst.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, 18 February 1933 (Leipzig) Conductor: Gustav Brecher Director: Detlef Sierck Douglas Sirk Douglas Sirk was a Danish-German film director best known for his work in Hollywood melodramas in the 1950s.-Life and work:... Designer: Caspar Neher Caspar Neher Caspar Neher was an Austrian-German scenographer and librettist, known principally for his career-long working relationship with Bertolt Brecht.Neher was born in Augsburg... |
Premiere cast, 18 February 1933 (Magdeburg) Conductor: Georg Winkler Director: Helmut Götze Designer: Ernst Rufer |
Premiere cast, 18 February 1933 (Erfurt) Conductor: Friedrich Walter Director: Hermann Pfeiffer Designer: Walter Schröter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Severin, thief | 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... |
Alexander Golling | Ernst Busch Ernst Busch (actor) Ernst Busch was a German singer and actor.Busch first rose to prominence as an interpreter of political songs, particularly those of Kurt Tucholsky, in the Berlin Kabarett scene of the 1920s... |
Albert Johannes |
| Olim, police officer | 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... |
Erhard Siedel | Eduard Wandrey | |
| Fennimore, Frau von Luber's niece | 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... |
Gretel Berndt | Elisabeth Lennartz | Sieglinde Riesmann |
| Frau von Luber, Olim's housekeeper | mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above... |
Lina Carstens | Ruth Baldor | |
| Baron Laur, Frau von Luber's friend | tenor | Ernst Satler | ||
| Lottery Lottery A lottery is a form of gambling which involves the drawing of lots for a prize.Lottery is outlawed by some governments, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree of regulation of lottery by governments... agent |
tenor | Albert Garbe | ||
| First gravedigger | baritone | |||
| Second gravedigger | baritone | |||
| First shopgirl | soprano | |||
| Second shopgirl | mezzo-soprano | |||
| First young man | 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... |
|||
| Second young man | bass | |||
Act 1
A band of unemployed men who live on the banks of the Silbersee are driven by their hunger and despair to rob a grocery store. Severin is making off with a pineapple when he is shot and wounded by Olim, a provincial policeman. While preparing his official report, Olim's conscience is troubled by the desperation that he imagines has motivated Severin's crime, and he is touched by Severin's unlikely choice of plunder. Thanks to an unexpected lottery win, Olim suddenly acquires a fortune. He destroys his police report of the incident and vows to make amends to Severin. Olim presents himself to the bitter, hospitalized Severin as his benefactor without revealing his true identity.Act 2
Olim has purchased an ancient castle and is attending to Severin's recovery with the help of his housekeeper Frau von Luber and her good-hearted and somewhat mystical niece Fennimore. Frau von Luber is from an old aristocratic family that has fallen on hard times. Sensing that Olim is hiding some secret that she may be able to use to her advantage, she orders Fennimore to spy upon the master and his guest in an attempt to unlock the mystery of their relationship. Meanwhile, Severin is unmoved by Olim's generosity and remains morbidly focused on revenge. At Severin's request, Fennimore delivers a message to his comrades at the Silbersee, who thereby learn his whereabouts and come to the castle, where they recognize Olim as the policeman whose gunshot crippled Severin.Act 3
Frau von Luber now exploits Olim's fear of the furious Severin and manages to acquire both the castle and Olim's fortune. Fennimore foils her aunt's plan to set Severin murderously upon Olim by moving the two men to reconcile. Frau von Luber, now restored to wealth and property, dispossesses Olim and Severin, who set out through the snow to the Silbersee with the intention of drowning themselves. As they journey there, winter turns to spring and the voices of Fennimore and the unseen chorus encourage them to remain true to each other and to mankind by going forward in confidence and hope. When they arrive at the Silbersee, they find it miraculously still frozen solid, and they set out across it as Fennimore's voice is heard singing, "Wer weiter muss, den trägt der Silbersee" (Silverlake will bear whoever must go farther).Musical numbers
- [1a] OuvertureOvertureOverture in music is the term originally applied to the instrumental introduction to an opera...
(Allegro assai) - orchestra
First Act
- 1 'Gräbst du?' – Two gravediggers
- 2 Alla marche funebreFuneral marchA funeral march is a march, usually in a minor key, in a slow "simple duple" metre, imitating the solemn pace of a funeral procession. Some such marches are often considered appropriate for use during funerals and other sombre occasions, the most well-known being that of Chopin...
: 'Wir tragen den Toten zu Grabe' - Two gravediggers, two young men - 3 'Der Bäkker bäckt ums Morgenrot' – Severin, two gravediggers, two young men
- 4 Song der beiden Verkäuferinnen: 'Wir zind Mädchen, die an jedermann verkaufen' - Two shopgirls
- 4a WalzerWaltzThe waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
- orchestra - 5 Choruses
- SostenutoSostenutoIn music, sostenuto is a term from Italian which means "sustained." It occasionally implies a slowing of tempo, though more often it refers to a very legato style in which the notes are performed in a sustained manner beyond their normal values....
- orchestra - 'Olim! Tut es dir nicht leid?' - chorus
- 'Jetzt bist du auf dem Wege' - chorus
- 'Wenn die nicht schiltst' - chorus
- 'Immer weiter dringen' - chorus
- 'Noch hast du has Geld nicht' - chorus
- Sostenuto
- 6 Song von der Krone des Gewinns: 'Was zahlen Sie für einen Rat?' - Lottery agent
- 6a Choruses
- 'Olim! was willst du tun?' - chorus
- 'Olim! Willst du Vergessen? - chorus
- 'Du hast dich zum Aufbruch entschlossen' - chorus
- Nachspiel - orchestra
- [7a] Melodrama - Severin
- 7 'Was soll ich essen in der Morgenfrühe?' – Severin, Olim
Second Act
- [8a] Moderato assai - orchestra
- 8 Fennimores Lied: 'Ich bin eine arme Verwandte' - Fennimore
- 9 Ballade von CäsarsJulius CaesarGaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
Tod: 'RomAncient RomeAncient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
hiess eine Stadt' - Fennimore - 10 Allegro moderato - orchestra [Fennimore's dance]
- 11 Rache-Arie: 'Erst trifft dich die Kugel' - Severin
- 12 Silbersee-Duett: 'Auf jener Strasse' - Severin, Fennimore
- 12a Choral reprise of 11
Third Act
- 13 Allegro assai - orchestra (shortened reprise of 1a)
- 14 OdysseusOdysseusOdysseus or Ulysses was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....
-Arie: 'Wie Odysseus an den Mast des Schiffes' - Severin - 15 TotentanzDanse MacabreDance of Death, also variously called Danse Macabre , Danza de la Muerte , Dansa de la Mort , Danza Macabra , Dança da Morte , Totentanz , Dodendans , is an artistic genre of late-medieval allegory on the universality of death: no matter one's...
- orchestra - 15a SchlaraffenlandCockaigneCockaigne or Cockayne is a medieval mythical land of plenty, an imaginary place of extreme luxury and ease where physical comforts and pleasures are always immediately at hand and where the harshness of medieval peasant life does not exist...
-Song: 'Es wächst uns in den Mund der Wein' - Frau von Luber, Baron Laur - 16 Finale
- Andantino - orchestra
- 'Ir sollt den Weg nicht finden' - chorus
- Allegretto - orchestra
- 'Alles, was ist, ist Beginnen' - Fennimore's voice, chorus
Music
The theatrical form of Der Silbersee is difficult to classify and most closely resembles a singspielSingspiel
A Singspiel is a form of German-language music drama, now regarded as a genre of opera...
, though with greater dramatic demands placed on the acting. As in his other works, Weill uses a broad variety of forms (songs, arias, duets, quartets, choruses), musical styles (tango
Tango music
Tango is a style of ballroom dance music in 2/4 or 4/4 time that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay . It is traditionally played by a sextet, known as the orquesta típica, which includes two violins, piano, double bass, and two bandoneons...
, funeral march
Funeral march
A funeral march is a march, usually in a minor key, in a slow "simple duple" metre, imitating the solemn pace of a funeral procession. Some such marches are often considered appropriate for use during funerals and other sombre occasions, the most well-known being that of Chopin...
, waltz
Waltz
The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
, polka
Polka
The polka is a Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia...
, foxtrot, march
March (music)
A march, as a musical genre, is a piece of music with a strong regular rhythm which in origin was expressly written for marching to and most frequently performed by a military band. In mood, marches range from the moving death march in Wagner's Götterdämmerung to the brisk military marches of John...
) and conventions (revenge aria, moritat, Totentanz, and dialogue spoken over elaborate musical accompaniment, i.e., melodrama). The orchestration requires a string section plus 13 other instruments.
The finale, depicting Severin and Olim's journey to the Silbersee through a stormy snowscape that transforms into spring, runs approximately 15 minutes and consists of melodrama, dialogue, instrumental passages, choruses, and an offstage solo.
Reception and consequences
As a result of the work's questioning of genre limitations, the Nazis labeled it Entartete MusikDegenerate music
Degenerate music was a label applied in the 1930s by the Nazi government in Germany to certain forms of music that it considered to be harmful or decadent. The Nazi government's concern for degenerate music was a part of its larger and more well-known campaign against degenerate art...
and placed a ban on the piece on 4 March 1933. The next day, Kaiser was expelled from the Akademie der Künste
Akademie der Künste
The Akademie der Künste, Berlin is an arts institution in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in 1696 by Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg as the Prussian Academy of Arts, an academic institution where members could meet and discuss and share ideas...
, of which he was a member. On 21 March, Silbersee designer and longtime Weill collaborator Caspar Neher
Caspar Neher
Caspar Neher was an Austrian-German scenographer and librettist, known principally for his career-long working relationship with Bertolt Brecht.Neher was born in Augsburg...
and his wife Erika drove Weill across the border in their car and together they headed for Paris. On 10 May the work with illustrations by Neher
Caspar Neher
Caspar Neher was an Austrian-German scenographer and librettist, known principally for his career-long working relationship with Bertolt Brecht.Neher was born in Augsburg...
was burned
Nazi book burnings
The Nazi book burnings were a campaign conducted by the authorities of Nazi Germany to ceremonially burn all books in Germany which did not correspond with Nazi ideology.-The book-burning campaign:...
on the Opera Plaza.
Recordings
- 2 audiosamples at the universal edition (MP3MP3MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
, ~1,5 MBMegabyteThe megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
each)