Johannes Maria Staud (*1974) Die Weiden (The Willows)
Opera [solos,mix ch,orch] 2016-2018 Duration: 135' Text: Durs Grünbein
Choir: SATB – 3(A-fl/Picc.B-fl).3(cor ang.musette).3(bassetthn.db-clar).S-sax.T-sax.2.dbl bsn – 4.3.3.1. – timp.perc(4) – hp – pno.xel - str: 14.12.10.8.6. – BM: clar – trp.bsn – perc– harm – vl.va.db – live-electronics
World première: Vienna, Staatsoper, December 8, 2018
Opera in six parts, four passages, one prolog, one prelude, one interlude and an epilogue
Choir: SATB (at least 48 voices, max. divisia 8)
Characters: LEA, a young philosopher (Mezzosoprano) – PETER, a young artist (Baritone) – EDGAR, Peter's old school friend (Tenor) – KITTY, Edgar's lover (Soprano) – KRACHMEYER, composer, friend of Peter's familie (actor) – THE TV REPORTER (actress) – LEA'S MOTHER (Mezzosoprano) – LEA'S FATHER (Tenor) – PETER'S MOTHER (Alt) – PETER'S FATHER (Bass) – THE DEMAGOGIE (Bassbaritone) – FRITZI and FRANTZI, Peter's sistors, twins (high Sopranos) – THE WARNER ON THE SHORE (Tenor) – THE REFUGEE (mute part) – THE UPPER RANGER (Bassbaritone) – A WALKING WATER CORPSE (actress)
“The opera Die Weiden is a journey ‘into the heart of darkness’ on a major river in Central Europe today, which can unquestionably be identified as the Danube. The events are fluctuating between a travel story of two lovers falling out with each other and a surreally distorted observation of the threatening developments today (keywords: enraged citizens, militia, increasing isolation, and brutalization of the social core – and all this despite our burdened history). We achieve this by means of pandemoniac hallucinations on the part of one of the protagonists, as well as by the transformation motif of a man-carp.”
(Johannes Maria Staud)