Die schwarze Maske is an opera by composer Krzysztof Penderecki

Krzysztof Penderecki

Krzysztof Penderecki , born November 23, 1933 in Dębica) is a Polish composer and conductor. His 1960 avant-garde Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima for string orchestra brought him to international attention, and this success was followed by acclaim for his choral St. Luke Passion. Both these...

 using a German libretto by the composer and Harry Kupfer

Harry Kupfer

Harry Kupfer is a German opera director. He studied theatre in Leipzig and directed his first opera, Antonín Dvořák's Rusalka, in 1958....

 which is based on a 1928 play by Gerhart Hauptmann

Gerhart Hauptmann

Gerhart Hauptmann was a German dramatist and novelist who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1912.-Life and work:...

. The opera premiered at the Salzburg Festival

Salzburg Festival

The Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...

 on 15 August 1986, after which there were productions mounted at the Vienna State Opera

Vienna State Opera

The Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...

 and the Great Theatre, Warsaw during the following opera season. The work had its United States premiere on July 30, 1988 at the Santa Fe Opera

Santa Fe Opera

The Santa Fe Opera is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe in the U.S. state of New Mexico, headquartered on a former guest ranch of .-General history:...

 with a cast that included Mark Lundberg

Mark Lundberg

Mark Lundberg was an American opera singer who had an active international career from the 1980s up until his sudden death in 2008...

.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast
Arabella	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...
Benigna	soprano
Daga	soprano
Rosa Sacchi	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...	Marjana Lipovšek Marjana Lipovšek Marjana Lipovšek is an opera and concert singer. The daughter of composer Marijan Lipovšek, she was born on December 3, 1946 in Ljubljana, Slovenia....
Gräfin Laura Hüttenwächter	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...
Doktor Knoblochzer	bass
François Tortebat	bass
Graf Ebbo Hüttenwächter	bass
Hadank	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...	Heinz Zednik Heinz Zednik Heinz Zednik is an Austrian operatic tenor, closely associated with the character tenor roles of Wagner such as Mime and Loge and David...
Jedidja Potter	tenor
Löwel Perl	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...
Plebanus Wendt	bass
Roberto Dedo	baritone
Schedel	tenor
Silvanus Schuller	tenor