''Stephen Climax'' is an opera in three acts by

Hans Zender Johannes Wolfgang Zender (22 November 1936 – 22 October 2019) was a German conductor and composer. He was the chief conductor of several opera houses, and his compositions, many of them vocal music, have been performed at international festival ...

, who wrote his own

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 ...

based on

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

and

Hugo Ball Hugo Ball (; 22 February 1886 – 14 September 1927) was a German author, poet, and essentially the founder of the Dada movement in European art in Zürich in 1916. Among other accomplishments, he was a pioneer in the development of sound poetry. ...

. It was premiered on 15 June 1986 at the

Oper Frankfurt The Oper Frankfurt (Frankfurt Opera) is a German opera company based in Frankfurt. Opera in Frankfurt am Main has a long tradition, with many world premieres such as Franz Shrek's ''Der ferne Klang'' in 1912, '' Fennimore und Gerda'' by Frede ...

, staged by Alfred Kirchner and conducted by

Peter Hirsch Sir Peter Bernhard Hirsch HonFRMS FRS (born 16 January 1925) is a figure in British materials science who has made fundamental contributions to the application of transmission electron microscopy to metals. Hirsch attended Sloane Grammar S ...

. The opera was published by

Breitkopf & Härtel Breitkopf & Härtel is the world's oldest music publishing house. The firm was founded in 1719 in Leipzig by Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf. The catalogue currently contains over 1,000 composers, 8,000 works and 15,000 music editions or books on ...

. A 1990 production at

La Monnaie The Royal Theatre of La Monnaie (french: Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, italic=no, ; nl, Koninklijke Muntschouwburg, italic=no; both translating as the "Royal Theatre of the Mint") is an opera house in central Brussels, Belgium. The National O ...

in Brussels was recorded.

History

Zender wrote his own libretto, based on two literary sources, Hugo Ball's ''Symeon, der Stylit'' (

Simeon Stylites Simeon Stylites or Symeon the Stylite syc, ܫܡܥܘܢ ܕܐܣܛܘܢܐ ', Koine Greek ', ar, سمعان العمودي ' (c. 390 – 2 September 459) was a Syrian Christian ascetic, who achieved notability by living 37 years on a smal ...

) from his legends of saints, and the

Stephen Dedalus Stephen Dedalus is James Joyce's literary alter ego, appearing as the protagonist and antihero of his first, semi-autobiographic novel of artistic existence ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'' (1916) and an important character in Joyce' ...

episodes from ''

Ulysses Ulysses is one form of the Roman name for Odysseus, a hero in ancient Greek literature. Ulysses may also refer to: People * Ulysses (given name), including a list of people with this name Places in the United States * Ulysses, Kansas * Ulysse ...

'' by James Joyce. Zender worked on the opera from 1976 and again from 1984. ''Stephen Climax'' was premiered on 15 June 1986 at the

, staged by Alfred Kirchner and conducted by

. It was the only world premiere at the Oper Frankfurt during the Gielen era. It was also performed at

in Brussels in 1990 and the

Staatstheater Nürnberg The Staatstheater Nürnberg is a German theatre company in Nuremberg, Bavaria. The theatre is one of four Bavarian state theatres and shows operas, plays, ballets and concerts. History Its main venue, the opera house ("Opernhaus Nürnberg"), i ...

in 1991. The opera was published by

Theme

A main character of the opera is St

, as described in the ''

Acta Sanctorum ''Acta Sanctorum'' (''Acts of the Saints'') is an encyclopedic text in 68 folio volumes of documents examining the lives of Christian saints, in essence a critical hagiography, which is organised according to each saint's feast day. The project w ...

''. Joyce used motifs in his ''Ulysses'' which Zender read in the German translation by

Hans Wollschläger 150px, Signature, 1988 Hans Wollschläger (17 March 1935, in Minden – 19 May 2007, in Bamberg) was a German writer, translator, historian, and editor of German literature. Biography Wollschläger is widely known as the translator of '' Ulysse ...

. His story, as a hermit who lives on a column for decades and is venerated as a saint, is juxtaposed with scenes from the novel by Joyce.

Roles

The action takes place in the

Syrian desert The Syrian Desert ( ar, بادية الشام ''Bādiyat Ash-Shām''), also known as the North Arabian Desert, the Jordanian steppe, or the Badiya, is a region of desert, semi-desert and steppe covering of the Middle East, including parts of sou ...

and in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

at night.

Music

''Stephen Climax'' is scored for soloists, choir, two orchestral groups, stage music and tape playback. The duration is given as 135 minutes, also as 150 minutes.

Recording

In 1992, academy released a CD set with a live performance of the 1990 Brussels production, with

Dale Duesing Dale Duesing (born September 26, 1947) is an American baritone. As an opera singer, he has had an international career spanning five decades. Duesing grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He studied piano throughout childhood, and enrolled at Lawrence ...

as Stephen, Ronald Hamilton as Simeon,

Isoldé Elchlepp Waltraud Isoldé Elchlepp (born 20 May 1942) is a German protest song singer under the pseudonym Dominique, and an operatic mezzo-soprano and soprano who appeared at major German opera houses and festivals including the Bayreuth Festival. She ...

as Bella, and Ellen Shade as Simeon's mother, and conducted by

Sylvain Cambreling Sylvain Cambreling (born 2 July 1948 in Amiens, France) is a French conductor. Biography Trained as a trombone player, Cambreling studied at the Paris Conservatoire. He joined l' Orchestre Symphonique de Lyon (OSL) as a trombonist in 1971. In 19 ...

References

External links

''Stephen Climax''
in ''Opening Night! Opera & Oratorio Premieres'', stanford.edu *

: ''Byzantinisches Christentum: Drei Heiligenleben.'' Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1979, ; new edition, edited by Bernd Wacker: Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2011, * {{authority control Operas based on novels German-language operas Operas 1986 operas Ulysses (novel)