Der Stein der Weisen
Der Stein der Weisen, oder die Zauberinsel (German for The Philosopher's Stone, or the Enchanted Isle) is a singspiel in two acts, jointly composed by Johann Baptist Henneberg, Benedikt Schack, Franz Xaver Gerl, Emanuel Schikaneder, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1790. The libretto was written by Schikaneder.[1]
Composition
[edit]Der Stein der Weisen was composed using a "team approach" in which each composer contributed individual sections of the piece. All five wrote parts of act 2, and all except Mozart wrote parts of act 1. Henneberg composed the work's overture. Schikaneder wrote the libretto for the entire piece.[2] The text is based on a fairy tale from Christoph Martin Wieland's Dschinnistan, published in the late 1780s.[3]
All five were later involved in The Magic Flute: Mozart as composer, Schikaneder as librettist, impresario and performer (Papageno), Henneberg as conductor, and Schack and Gerl as performers (respectively Tamino and Sarastro).[4] Der Stein der Weisen may have provided a model for that work, as the two have a similar structure and source.[3]
Reception and study
[edit]The work was initially popular, but was largely absent from the standard repertoire for the two centuries after 1814. American musicologist David Buch announced the discovery of a Viennese score with attributions to all five composers.[5] This was taken by some to indicate that Der Stein der Weisen was a previously unknown Mozart work, although in fact only a duet ("Nun, liebes Weibchen",[6] known as the "cat duet") and two sections of the act 2 finale were attributed to him.[2]
The autograph of "Nun, liebes Weibchen" (K. 625/592a) is held by the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris; the rest of the original score is lost. The work is known from a ca. 1795 copy.[3]
Performances
[edit]The singspiel was premiered on 11 September 1790 in the Theater auf der Wieden, conducted by Henneberg. It was first recorded by the Boston Baroque in 1999.[2][6]
After the successful world premiere the opera was performed over 24 years without interruption, the last performance was on 28 February 1814 in Linz/Austria [7]
Performances after discovery of the manuscript and re-publication by Buch in 1998 include:
- 2000: Hampstead and Highgate Festival[8]
- 2001: Augsburg[9]
- July 2001: Bampton Classical Opera in an English translation by Barry Millington[10]
- 2001: Pepperdine University[11]
- 2003: Combattimento Consort Amsterdam[12]
- 2006: Astoria Music Festival[citation needed]
- 2006: Haus für Mozart, Salzburg[citation needed]
- 2006: Garsington Opera Festival 2006[13]
- September 2010: Orchester Musikkollegium Winterthur / Zurich Opera House[14][15]
- June 2018: Tyrolean State Theatre, Innsbruck[16]
- December 2022: Augsburg, in concert[17]
References
[edit]- ^ Oestreich, James (2 November 1998). "All ears on an opera recently linked to Mozart". The New York Times.
- ^ a b c "Celebrating Mozart". Fanfaire. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
- ^ a b c Keefe, Simon, ed. (2004). The Cambridge Companion to Mozart. Cambridge Companions to Music (reprinted ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 163–167. ISBN 9780521001922.
- ^ "Der Stein der Weisen / Boston Baroque". ArkivMusic. Archived from the original on 14 July 2020. Retrieved 6 August 2013.
- ^ Buch, David, ed. (2007). Der Stein der Weisen. A-R Editions. ISBN 9780895796165. OCLC 181102930.
- ^ a b Rushton, Julian (2006). Mozart. Oxford University Press. p. 208. ISBN 9780199726912.
- ^ Ulli (20 September 2005). "Die Zauberinsel oder: Der Stein der Weisen [z.T. Mozart]". Tamino Klassikforum (in German).[better source needed]
- ^ Website Highgate Festival[failed verification]
- ^ Jan Schleusener: "Ein Fingerabdruck Mozarts: Der Stein der Weisen", Die Welt, 8 May 2001 Retrieved 18 September 2018. (in German)
- ^ "The Philosopher's Stone", Bampton Classical Opera
- ^ Website Pepperdine University[failed verification]
- ^ Video on YouTube, Piotr Micinski (bass), Renate Arends (soprano), Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, Jan Willem de Vriend conducting[better source needed]
- ^ George Hall: "Der Stein der Weisen review at Garsington Oxfordshire", The Stage, 6 July 2006 Retrieved 18 September 2018.
- ^ "Winterthur: Der Stein der Weisen, 05.09.2010" by Kaspar Sannemann, 6 September 2010, Oper Aktuell (in German)
- ^ "Der Stein der Weisen oder Die Zauberinsel", performance details and reviews, website of the director, Felix Breisach (in German)
- ^ Udo Pacolt: "Innsbruck/ Tiroler Landestheater: Der Stein der Weisen von Mozart und vier weiteren Komponisten", Online Merker, 23 June 2018 (in German) Retrieved 18 September 2018.
- ^ "Quantensprung mit Mozart" by Klaus Kalchschmied, 11 December 2022, Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German)
External links
[edit]- "Nun, liebes Weibchen, ziehst mit mir": Score in the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe
- "Nun, liebes Weibchen": Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
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