1.5.2009
Yesterday we had a
performance of Ludwig Tieck's story Die schöne Magelone and
Johannes Brahms's setting of the poems from that text (15 Romanzen,
op. 33) — a celebration of chivalric love (and Romantic art).
Tieck's text was read by the actress Birgit Bücker, and the
compositions were interspersed at their original locations. The largest part
had the baritone, Simon Schnorr. He was most convincing in the stronger, more
forceful passages; he also nicely supplemented the music with gestures and
facial expressions. The two pieces in the voice of female characters
(Magelone and Zulima) were performed by Sarah Alexandra Hudarew
(mezzo-soprano). The singers were competently accompanied by Xiayi Jiang at
the piano.
More adequate lighting conditions would have improved the event (the
faces of the singers were in the shadow all the time), and perhaps
the seating for the performers could have been arranged more
efficiently. Whenever the reading of a passage was finished and
the next musical piece should have started, the singer had to walk
over the entire stage from the left where his seat was to the right
of the piano from where he was performing. (And after the piece he
went back.)
With a twist typical for the Romantic's view of the universe, Tieck's
text has the name of Magelone in it's title, although is actually mostly
the story of Peter of Provence, the young knight, her lover. His adventures
make up most of the plot; the development and fate of his love is in the
center, and it's he who is initiated in the various forms of love by
encountering them one-by-one during his journey (beginning with his parents
and their caring, proceeding to the romantic secret relationship with
Magelone at her father's court, then via distress and longing after
their separation, and the exotic, more sensual and seductive elements
in the Zulima substory, ending with Peter's mature finding back to Magelone
and their reunion). Also in line with Romanticism is a tendency to have
irrational forces drive much of the plot and the decisions that
the characters make. (For instance, Peter's refusal to respond to the
advances of the Sultan' daughter is effected by a dream, not any
firmness of character or purpose he might have; his parents are
comforted by an extreme coincidence which they take, implausibly, as
a sign from heaven, etc.) Brahms counterbalances this atmosphere of
miracle and Märchen by adding dramatic depth and more plausible
temperamental sketches. Having both, Tieck's prose and Brahms's compositions,
brought together into one performance makes for an enjoyable evening,
and ultimately, I think, a more appreciable work of art than leaving them
separated.
