Phaedra (opera)
Encyclopedia
Phaedra is a 'concert opera
' in two-acts by Hans Werner Henze
. Its first performance was given at the Berlin State Opera
on 6 September 2007. The work is a co-commission and co-production with the Berliner Festspiele
, Théâtre de la Monnaie
, Brussels, Alte Oper
Frankfurt and the Vienna Festival
.
Although Henze announced in 2003 that L'Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe
would be his last opera , it became known during 2006 that in spite of serious illness, he was preparing a new opera based on the classical myth of Phaedra
.
: Morning
I. The Labyrinth
Echoes resound in the ruins of the labyrinth, in the depths of which Theseus
has vanquished the Minotaur. The echoes become the voices of a new story: Phaedra and Hippolyt.
II. Edge of the Forest
Hippolyt has gone hunting. Phaedra, his stepmother, wanders through the dawn. In love with her stepson, she is filled with desire and self-loathing. She seeks death. Aphrodite prevents her suicide. Hippolyt's devotion to Artemis fills Aphrodite with jealousy.
III. Thicket
Phaedra finds Hippolyt asleep in a thicket and sings of her love. Hippolyt awakes: Phaedra confesses her feelings. Artemis warns Hippolyt, who pushes Phaedra away. Phaedra's love turns in an instant to hate. Phaedra and Aphrodite find common cause and swear vengeance.
IV. The Snare
Phaedra writes to Theseus, falsely accusing Hippolyt of raping her.
V. Death of Hippolyt
Artemis reports: Theseus believed Phaedra's letter, and asked Poseidon
to help bring about his death. The sea-god made the revived Minotaur rise from the sea and frighten the horses pulling Hippolyt's chariot. The horses shied and threw him to his death. As Artemis sings, a mortally-wounded Hippolyt comes to her and collapses. A trapdoor slams. Phaedra has hanged herself. The Minotaur dances.
Act 2: Evening
I. Do you remember who you were?
Artemis has brought Hippolyt's body to Nemi
in Italy. She brings him back to life and locks him in a cage, giving him a new name: Virbius (Man-Twice). Phaedra, as a bird of the underworld, flutters around the cage, mocking Hippolyt.
II. When will the dead come to you, Hippolyt?
A storm breaks over Nemi. Aphrodite claims Hippolyt for the Underworld. Phaedra and Aphrodite sing of the dead and lure Hippolyt like an animal. Artemis catches him in a net and throws him in a cave.
III. In the Mirror
Hippolyt crouches by a pool in the cave. He sees his reflected image. He does not know who he is. He dreams of a distant garden. Phaedra, as femme fatale, attempts to lure him into the Underworld. Hippolyt, frightened and confused, pushes Phaedra away and rushes from the cave. An earthquake strikes.
IV. King of the Woods
Hippolyt is resurrected as King of the Woods. He moves through the grove of Nemi. What was and what is becoming dissolves in dance.
is by Christian Lehnert and deals in a highly innovative way with the story of Phaedra, whose love for her stepson Hippolytus triggers catastrophe. The first part of the opera tells this legend much as previously retold by Euripides
, Racine
and Sarah Kane
. The second part, however, follows a mythological tradition alluded to by Ovid
. Hippolytus, fatally wounded, is brought back to life by the goddess Artemis, and is given a new life under the name of Virbius. In this new existence, however, he is only able to experience his own consciousness in a fragmentary, kaleidoscopic way.
The first act is rooted in Greece, and Greek myth. The second, composed after Henze's collapse and two-month coma, is set in Nemi, near Henze's home in Italy, and the location of the ancient cult and priesthood of Virbius (which inspired Sir James Frazer to write The Golden Bough
). As the struggles of the goddesses and the identity of Hippolyt become gradually more and more abstract and remote, the wholeness of nature reasserts itself, and the Minotaur, in Henze's words, "proclaims a kind of freedom, the spring comes... into the world and the woods." In its latter stages, the opera seems to abstract itself even from the stage, treading "a metaphysical tightrope between this world and the next, effortlessly invoking a porous divide between the living and the dead. The opera’s end is both transcendental and inconclusive: 'We are all born naked. We press towards mortality and dance,' sings the Minotaur in his final hymn."
ic artist Olafur Eliasson
and produced by Peter Mussbach. Costumes were designed by Bernd Skodzig. Michael Boder conducted the orchestra of Ensemble Modern
. The role of Hippolytus was sung by John Mark Ainsley
(tenor), that of Phaedra by Maria Riccarda Wesseling (mezzo-soprano) and that of Aphrodite by Marlis Petersen
(soprano). The role of the goddess Artemis was sung by the counter-tenor Axel Köhler
, an interesting example both of Henze's fondness for and stylistic affinity with Baroque
conventions (in this case that of the breeches role
) and of his blissfully unconventional approach to gender and sexuality (as its name implies, the tradition of the breeches role is for a woman to play the part of a man).
The concept of a 'concert opera' inspired Eliasson (in his first work for the operatic stage), Mussbach and Skodzig to seek to develop 'a new kind of theatrical evening, reflecting and profoundly questioning the actualities of our way of looking at the world'.
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 Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze is a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life"...
. Its first performance was given at the Berlin State Opera
Berlin State Opera
The Staatsoper Unter den Linden is a German opera company. Its permanent home is the opera house on the Unter den Linden boulevard in the Mitte district of Berlin, which also hosts the Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra.-Early years:...
on 6 September 2007. The work is a co-commission and co-production with the Berliner Festspiele
Berliner Festspiele
The Berliner Festspiele arts center brings together a variety of arts and culture events under one roof each year in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in West Berlin in 1951. Throughout the year, festivals, program series, and individual events enrich the cultural scene of the city...
, Théâtre de la Monnaie
La Monnaie
Le Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie , or the Koninklijke Muntschouwburg is a theatre in Brussels, Belgium....
, Brussels, Alte Oper
Alte Oper
The Alte Oper is a major concert hall and former opera house in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The building was inaugurated in 1880. Many important works have been premiered at the Alte Oper, including Carl Orff's Carmina Burana in 1937....
Frankfurt and the Vienna Festival
Vienna Festival
The Wiener Festwochen is a cultural festival in Vienna that takes place every year for five or six weeks in May and June.The Wiener Festwochen was established in 1951, when Vienna was still occupied by the four Allies...
.
Although Henze announced in 2003 that L'Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe
L'Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe
L'Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe is an opera by Hans Werner Henze with a German libretto by the composer, inspired by Arab and Persian legends...
would be his last opera , it became known during 2006 that in spite of serious illness, he was preparing a new opera based on the classical myth of Phaedra
Phaedra (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Phaedra is the daughter of Minos and Pasiphaë, wife of Theseus and the mother of Demophon of Athens and Acamas. Phaedra's name derives from the Greek word φαιδρός , which meant "bright"....
.
Roles
- Phaedra (mezzo-sopranoMezzo-sopranoA 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...
) - AphroditeAphroditeAphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation.Her Roman equivalent is the goddess .Historically, her cult in Greece was imported from, or influenced by, the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia....
(sopranoSopranoA 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...
) - HippolytHippolytus (mythology)thumb|260px|The Death of Hippolytus, by [[Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema]] .In Greek mythology, Hippolytus was a son of Theseus and either Antiope or Hippolyte...
(tenorTenorThe 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...
) - ArtemisArtemisArtemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Her Roman equivalent is Diana. Some scholars believe that the name and indeed the goddess herself was originally pre-Greek. Homer refers to her as Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron: "Artemis of the wildland, Mistress of Animals"...
(counter-tenor) - MinotaurosMinotaurIn Greek mythology, the Minotaur , as the Greeks imagined him, was a creature with the head of a bull on the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, "part man and part bull"...
(bass-baritoneBass-baritoneA bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the Dutchman in Der fliegende...
)
Synopsis
Act 1I. The Labyrinth
Echoes resound in the ruins of the labyrinth, in the depths of which Theseus
Theseus
For other uses, see Theseus Theseus was the mythical founder-king of Athens, son of Aethra, and fathered by Aegeus and Poseidon, both of whom Aethra had slept with in one night. Theseus was a founder-hero, like Perseus, Cadmus, or Heracles, all of whom battled and overcame foes that were...
has vanquished the Minotaur. The echoes become the voices of a new story: Phaedra and Hippolyt.
II. Edge of the Forest
Hippolyt has gone hunting. Phaedra, his stepmother, wanders through the dawn. In love with her stepson, she is filled with desire and self-loathing. She seeks death. Aphrodite prevents her suicide. Hippolyt's devotion to Artemis fills Aphrodite with jealousy.
III. Thicket
Phaedra finds Hippolyt asleep in a thicket and sings of her love. Hippolyt awakes: Phaedra confesses her feelings. Artemis warns Hippolyt, who pushes Phaedra away. Phaedra's love turns in an instant to hate. Phaedra and Aphrodite find common cause and swear vengeance.
IV. The Snare
Phaedra writes to Theseus, falsely accusing Hippolyt of raping her.
V. Death of Hippolyt
Artemis reports: Theseus believed Phaedra's letter, and asked Poseidon
Poseidon
Poseidon was the god of the sea, and, as "Earth-Shaker," of the earthquakes in Greek mythology. The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon...
to help bring about his death. The sea-god made the revived Minotaur rise from the sea and frighten the horses pulling Hippolyt's chariot. The horses shied and threw him to his death. As Artemis sings, a mortally-wounded Hippolyt comes to her and collapses. A trapdoor slams. Phaedra has hanged herself. The Minotaur dances.
Act 2
I. Do you remember who you were?
Artemis has brought Hippolyt's body to Nemi
Nemi
Nemi is a town and comune in the province of Rome , in the Alban Hills overlooking Lake Nemi, a volcanic crater lake. It is 6 km NW of Velletri and about 30 km southeast of Rome....
in Italy. She brings him back to life and locks him in a cage, giving him a new name: Virbius (Man-Twice). Phaedra, as a bird of the underworld, flutters around the cage, mocking Hippolyt.
II. When will the dead come to you, Hippolyt?
A storm breaks over Nemi. Aphrodite claims Hippolyt for the Underworld. Phaedra and Aphrodite sing of the dead and lure Hippolyt like an animal. Artemis catches him in a net and throws him in a cave.
III. In the Mirror
Hippolyt crouches by a pool in the cave. He sees his reflected image. He does not know who he is. He dreams of a distant garden. Phaedra, as femme fatale, attempts to lure him into the Underworld. Hippolyt, frightened and confused, pushes Phaedra away and rushes from the cave. An earthquake strikes.
IV. King of the Woods
Hippolyt is resurrected as King of the Woods. He moves through the grove of Nemi. What was and what is becoming dissolves in dance.
Libretto
The librettoLibretto
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...
is by Christian Lehnert and deals in a highly innovative way with the story of Phaedra, whose love for her stepson Hippolytus triggers catastrophe. The first part of the opera tells this legend much as previously retold by Euripides
Euripides
Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...
, Racine
Jean Racine
Jean Racine , baptismal name Jean-Baptiste Racine , was a French dramatist, one of the "Big Three" of 17th-century France , and one of the most important literary figures in the Western tradition...
and Sarah Kane
Sarah Kane
Sarah Kane was an English playwright. Her plays deal with themes of redemptive love, sexual desire, pain, torture — both physical and psychological — and death. They are characterised by a poetic intensity, pared-down language, exploration of theatrical form and, in her earlier work, the use of...
. The second part, however, follows a mythological tradition alluded to by Ovid
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
. Hippolytus, fatally wounded, is brought back to life by the goddess Artemis, and is given a new life under the name of Virbius. In this new existence, however, he is only able to experience his own consciousness in a fragmentary, kaleidoscopic way.
The first act is rooted in Greece, and Greek myth. The second, composed after Henze's collapse and two-month coma, is set in Nemi, near Henze's home in Italy, and the location of the ancient cult and priesthood of Virbius (which inspired Sir James Frazer to write The Golden Bough
The Golden Bough
The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion is a wide-ranging, comparative study of mythology and religion, written by Scottish anthropologist Sir James George Frazer . It first was published in two volumes in 1890; the third edition, published 1906–15, comprised twelve volumes...
). As the struggles of the goddesses and the identity of Hippolyt become gradually more and more abstract and remote, the wholeness of nature reasserts itself, and the Minotaur, in Henze's words, "proclaims a kind of freedom, the spring comes... into the world and the woods." In its latter stages, the opera seems to abstract itself even from the stage, treading "a metaphysical tightrope between this world and the next, effortlessly invoking a porous divide between the living and the dead. The opera’s end is both transcendental and inconclusive: 'We are all born naked. We press towards mortality and dance,' sings the Minotaur in his final hymn."
First production
The first production was designed by the IcelandIceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
ic artist Olafur Eliasson
Olafur Eliasson
Olafur Eliasson is a Danish-Icelandic artist known for sculptures and large-scale installation art employing elemental materials such as light, water, and air temperature to enhance the viewer’s experience. In 1995 he established Studio Olafur Eliasson in Berlin, a laboratory for spatial research...
and produced by Peter Mussbach. Costumes were designed by Bernd Skodzig. Michael Boder conducted the orchestra of Ensemble Modern
Ensemble Modern
Ensemble Modern is a chamber ensemble dedicated to the music of modern composers. Formed in 1980, the group is based in Frankfurt, Germany and made up variously of about twenty members from numerous countries....
. The role of Hippolytus was sung by John Mark Ainsley
John Mark Ainsley
John Mark Ainsley is an English lyric tenor. Known for his supple voice, Ainsley is particularly admired for his interpretations of baroque music and the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...
(tenor), that of Phaedra by Maria Riccarda Wesseling (mezzo-soprano) and that of Aphrodite by Marlis Petersen
Marlis Petersen
Marlis Petersen is a German coloratura soprano, particularly known for her performances in the title role of Alban Berg's opera Lulu, and as Konstanze in The Abduction from the Seraglio and Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos....
(soprano). The role of the goddess Artemis was sung by the counter-tenor Axel Köhler
Axel Köhler
Axel Köhler is a German countertenor and opera director. He won the Handel Music Prize in 1994.-Sources:*http://www.axelkoehler.com/*http://www.buehnen-halle.de/...
, an interesting example both of Henze's fondness for and stylistic affinity with Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
conventions (in this case that of the breeches role
Breeches role
A breeches role is a role in which an actress appears in male clothing .In opera it also refers to any male character that is sung and acted by a female singer...
) and of his blissfully unconventional approach to gender and sexuality (as its name implies, the tradition of the breeches role is for a woman to play the part of a man).
The concept of a 'concert opera' inspired Eliasson (in his first work for the operatic stage), Mussbach and Skodzig to seek to develop 'a new kind of theatrical evening, reflecting and profoundly questioning the actualities of our way of looking at the world'.