Der goldene Drache
Opera by Péter Eötvös
The composer in 2011
LibrettistRoland Schimmelpfennig
LanguageGerman
Based onSchimmelpfennig's play of the same name
Premiere
29 June 2014 (2014-06-29)
Bockenheimer Depot, by Oper Frankfurt

Der goldene Drache (The Golden Dragon) is an opera by Hungarian composer Péter Eötvös to a libretto by Roland Schimmelpfennig, based on his play of the same name. It premiered on 29 June 2014 at the Bockenheimer Depot in Frankfurt, conducted by the composer.

History

Eötvös composed the opera in 2013/14 on a commission by ensemble modern and the Oper Frankfurt, his ninth opera.[1] He had written operas on literary plots before, beginning with his first in 1998, Tri sestry (Three Sisters) after Anton Chekhov's play.[2] The German libretto by Schimmelpfennig is based on his play of the same name. The play had premiered five years earlier at the Akademietheater in Vienna, staged by the author,[2] and was awarded the Mülheimer Dramatikerpreis of 2010. Schimmelpfenig and Eötvös chose 21 short scenes from the play's 48[3] "disparate snapshots".[4] The opera premiered on 29 June 2014 in Frankfurt's Bockenheimer Depot, conducted by the composer.[5] It was staged by Elisabeth Stöppler, with stage design by Hermann Feuchter and costumes by Nicole Pleuler. The composer revised the opera in 2015.[4] The Frankfurt production was then shown at the Bregenz Festival in August 2015.[1] The UK premiere was toured by Music Theatre Wales in 2017, during which time it was banned from the stage of the Hackney Empire for alleged "yellowface" racism.[6]

Roles

The five singers required for a performance all perform several of the 18 roles, switching gender, age and culture.[2][4][5] Their voices are amplified.[4][5] The duration is given as 1 1/2 hours.[3]

RolesVoice typePremiere cast, 29 June 2014
Conductor: Péter Eötvös[4]
Young woman / The little ChinesesopranoKateryna Kasper
Woman over 60 / Old cook / granddaughter / Ant / Hans / Chinese mothermezzo-sopranoHedwig Fassbender
Young man / young Asian / waitress / grandfather / Cricket / Chinese aunttenorSimon Bode
Man over 60 / old Asian / Eve (dark-brown stewardess) / granddaughter's friend / Chinese fathertenorHans-Jürgen Lazar
Man / Asian / Inga (the blonde stewardess) / Chinese unclebaritoneHolger Falk

Plot and music

The story begins in a Chinese restaurant, where a cook, the Little Chinese, suffers from toothache. As an illegal immigrant, he avoids seeing a dentist. [3] When the tooth is extracted unprofessionally in the kitchen, he bleeds to death. A stewardess finds the tooth in her bowl of soup and takes it on a trip to China.[3]

The story is both tragic and comic, absurd, grotesque and enigmatic. The music adds even more dimensions, revealing connections and psychological aspects.[3] It uses parlando style for many scenes, but reserves a final monologue of farewell to the Little Chinese.[3]

Instrumentation

The instrumentation calls for:

References

  1. 1 2 "Der goldene Drache / Musiktheater (2014) von Peter Eötvös" (in German). Bregenz Festival. 2015. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 Lange, Joachim (30 June 2014). "Wenn der Zahn aber nun ein Loch hat" (in German). Die Deutsche Bühne. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Decker-Bönniger, Ursula (4 July 2014). "Das politische Musiktheater lebt! / Der goldene Drache (UA)" (in German). Online Musik Magazin. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Der goldene Drache". Schott. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  5. 1 2 3 Jungheinrich, Hans-Klaus (30 June 2014). "Peter Eötvös: Der goldene Drache in Frankfurt / Aus der Bistroküche nach Utopia" (in German). Frankfurter Rundschau. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  6. ↑ "Hackney Empire pulls out of Chinese takeaway opera over all-white cast". the Guardian. 12 October 2017.
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