Duration: full evening
Text by Peter Hacks
Place and time: Greece, in Omphale’s Gardens, in horrible dreariness, in the ancient world matriarchy’s times

Characters: Heracles (baritone) - Iphicles, his Brother (tenor) - Alcaios, his Son (bass) - Tyrrhenos, his Son (tenor) - Laomedon, his Son (bass) - Agelaos, his Son (baritone) - Daphnis (tenor) - Lityerses, a Monster (soprano) - Omphale, Queen of Lydia (soprano) - Malis, her Confidant (alto) - Pimplea, Daphnis’ Lover (soprano)

The libretto focuses on the reversal of the sexes in both sexual and social relationships. Omphale and Heracles, the central characters, are each initially paragons of the traditional male and female ideals: Omphale is lovely, sensitive, intelligent, practical, but not strong enough to protect her realm effectively against two monsters. This is why she retreats into her palace and buys herself a slave, Heracles. He, an athletically built young man of divine provenance, stands out for his courage and strength, which are unlimited in spite of the fact that Apollo has temporarily condemned him to live as a slave. Omphale and Heracles fall in love and, as a sign of their mutual devotion, they exchange roles: Heracles wears women’s clothing and does chores such as sewing and weaving - which understandably provokes a great deal of amazement and incomprehension. It is not until an attack is imminent that Heracles accepts his masculine virtues and sets off to fight Lityrses, killing him. When Omphale bears him three children, the two return to their original roles.


CD (excerpts):
Uta Priew (soprano), Horst Lunow (baritone), Gudrun Fischer (soprano), Harald Neukirch (tenor), Annemarie Queck (alto), Peter Lawow (tenor), Volker Schunke (baritone), Opernchor des Deutschen Nationaltheaters Weimar, Staatskapelle Weimar, cond. Lothar Seyfarth
CD BMG 74321 73541 2


Bibliography:

Hacks, Peter: Omphale. Versuch über das Libretto, in: Oper, Berlin 1975.
Schneider, Frank: Bewußte Musikalisierung von Oper. Bemerkungen zum Partiturbild der Oper „Omphale“, in: Theater der Zeit 11/1976.
Schwinger, Eckart: Omphale oder das konträre Autorenpaar, in: Musica 6/1976.
Seipt, Angelus: Zum Libretto von Omphale, in: Programmheft der Oper der Stadt Köln zur Inszenierung 1979.