''Das Märchen von der schönen Lilie'' (''The Fairy Tale of the Beautiful Lily''), Op. 55, is an opera in two acts by Giselher Klebe, with a

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

by Lore Klebe, based on Goethe's

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...

Das Märchen The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily (German title: ''Märchen'' or ''Das Märchen'') is a fairy tale by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe published in 1795 in Friedrich Schiller's German magazine '' Die Horen'' (The Horae). It concludes Goethe's nove ...

''. On a commission by the SWR for the Schwetzingen Festival, it was premiered on 15 May 1969 at the Schlosstheater Schwetzingen, staged by Oscar Fritz Schuh and conducted by Hans Zender. The opera was published by

Bärenreiter Bärenreiter (Bärenreiter-Verlag) is a German classical music publishing house based in Kassel. The firm was founded by Karl Vötterle (1903–1975) in Augsburg in 1923, and moved to Kassel in 1927, where it still has its headquarters; it also ...

History

Klebe composed the opera on a commission of the broadcaster Südwestrundfunk for the opening of the Schwetzingen Festival. He based the opera on classical literature, as also in some of his earlier operas such as '' Die Räuber'' after Schiller (1957), ''

Die tödlichen Wünsche ' (''The Deadly Wishes''), Op. 27, is an opera by Giselher Klebe who also wrote the libretto based on ''La Peau de chagrin'' by Honoré de Balzac. It consists of fifteen lyrical scenes in three acts. It premiered on 14 June 1959 at the Deutsche ...

'' after Balzac (1959) and ''

Alkmene In Greek mythology, Alcmene () or Alcmena (; Ancient Greek: Ἀλκμήνη or Doric Greek: Ἀλκμάνα, Latin: Alcumena means "strong in wrath") was the wife of Amphitryon by whom she bore two children, Iphicles and Laonome. She is best known ...

'' after Kleist (1961). His wife, Lore Klebe, wrote the

based on the

'', part of the

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...

''Unterhaltungen deutscher Ausgewanderten'' by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Schwetzingen Schlosstheater Blick zur Bühne 1

''Das Märchen von der schönen Lilie'' premiered on 15 May 1969 at the Schlosstheater Schwetzingen. The night before, Marianne Hoppe recited Goethe's ''Märchen''. The opera production of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein was directed by Oscar Fritz Schuh on a stage designed by Heinrich Wendel, and conducted by Hans Zender. The opera was published by

. The first performance in the German Democratic Republic was staged in Weimar in 1988, where Goethe had written his text.

Theme

Goethe titled his art fairy tale like the genre, ''Märchen'', indicating that it was a typical example of the genre in symbolic purity (''in symbolischer Reinheit''). He characterised it as at the same time significant and without specific meaning ("zugleich bedeutend and deutungslos"). Hugo von Hofmannsthal described it as an uninterpretable inner music of beautiful images and life contexts ("eine undeutbare innere Musik aus schönen Bildern und Lebensbezügen"), in other words: an abstract art.

Roles

Music

Klebe's music is scored for soloists and a chamber orchestra of 30 players, including

alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E, smaller than the B tenor ...

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orche ...

and two pianos. Instruments in the low register dominate: there are a basset clarinet and three

bassoon The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuo ...

s but no violins. Klebe used

leitmotif A leitmotif or leitmotiv () is a "short, recurring musical phrase" associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical concepts of ''idée fixe'' or ''motto-theme''. The spelling ''leitmotif'' is an anglici ...

s, chord motifs, twelve-tone tone rows and

chromaticism Chromaticism is a compositional technique interspersing the primary diatonic scale, diatonic pitch (music), pitches and chord (music), chords with other pitches of the chromatic scale. In simple terms, within each octave, diatonic music uses o ...

. The music has been described as boldly turning backwards in music history and full of esoteric, beautiful sound.

References

External links

''Das Märchen von der schönen Lilie''
in ''Opening Night! Opera & Oratorio Premieres'', stanford.edu

Operone {{DEFAULTSORT:Marchen von der schonen Lilie, Das Operas based on works by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe German-language operas Operas by Giselher Klebe Operas 1969 operas