Jakob Lenz (opera)
Encyclopedia
Jakob Lenz is a one act chamber opera
by Wolfgang Rihm
, written 1977-78 after the novella Lenz
by Georg Büchner
in turn based on an incident in the life of the German poet Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz
.
Büchner's extraordinary opening pages describing the mountain landscape and hinting at Lenz's inner state with the single sentence "he did not feel at all tired, only it sometimes annoyed him that he could not walk on his hands instead of his feet" are reduced to a stage direction, but the rest of the libretto roughly follows Büchner's outline.
Chamber opera
Chamber opera is a designation for operas written to be performed with a chamber ensemble rather than a full orchestra.The term and form were invented by Benjamin Britten in the 1940s, when the English Opera Group needed works that could easily be taken on tour and performed in a variety of small...
by Wolfgang Rihm
Wolfgang Rihm
Wolfgang Rihm is a German composer.Rihm is Head of the Institute of Modern Music at the Karlsruhe Conservatory of Music and has been composer in residence at the Lucerne Festival and the Salzburg Festival...
, written 1977-78 after the novella Lenz
Lenz
Lenz may refer to:* Lantsch/Lenz, the German name of the place in Grisons, Switzerland* Lenz , literary fragment by Georg Büchner* Lenasia, an Indian township in Gauteng, South Africa* Lenz Military Base, a military base in Lenasia, Gauteng...
by Georg Büchner
Georg Büchner
Karl Georg Büchner was a German dramatist and writer of poetry and prose. He was the brother of physician and philosopher Ludwig Büchner. Büchner's talent is generally held in great esteem in Germany...
in turn based on an incident in the life of the German poet Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz
Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz
Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz was a Baltic German writer of the Sturm und Drang movement.-Life:...
.
Büchner's extraordinary opening pages describing the mountain landscape and hinting at Lenz's inner state with the single sentence "he did not feel at all tired, only it sometimes annoyed him that he could not walk on his hands instead of his feet" are reduced to a stage direction, but the rest of the libretto roughly follows Büchner's outline.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast, 8 March 1979 (Conductor: Klauspeter Seibel) |
|---|---|---|
| Lenz Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz was a Baltic German writer of the Sturm und Drang movement.-Life:... |
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... |
Richard Salter |
| Pastor Oberlin | bass | Ude Krekow |
| Kauffman | 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... |
Peter Haage |
| Chorus of six solo voices (2 sopranos, 2 altos, 2 basses) | ||
Instrumentation
- 2 oboes, bass clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, 3 celli, harpsichord and percussion.