Georg Friedrich Haas – An Opera Trilogy

GEORG FRIEDRICH

HAAS An Opera Trilogy

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/Georg Friedrich Haas/ Table of Contents THOMAS (2013) ………………………………………………….pg. 2 OPERA WITH LIBRETTO BY HÄNDL KLAUS

BLUTHAUS (2010 – 2011 / 2014) ….….…………………..pg. 4 OPERA WITH LIBRETTO BY HÄNDL KLAUS

KOMA (2015 – 2016 / 2018) ………………..……………….pg. 6 OPERA WITH LIBRETTO BY HÄNDL KLAUS

INTRODUCTION

Georg Friedrich Haas undoubtedly is, and has long been, one of the

most outstanding and innovative composers of our day. Among his works in the Ricordi catalogue are three chamber operas with texts by Händl Klaus – Thomas, Bluthaus and Koma – all of which had their premieres at the Schwetzing Festival and attracted widespread attention. In 2014, Haas undertook a revision of Bluthaus (Bloodhouse) for the Vienna Festival – only this version may now be performed. Koma (Coma) exists in two versions: the 2016 original and a new version from 2018 (commissioned by the Klagenfurt Municipal Theatre). In the original, there are also purely spoken roles; in the Klagenfurt version, only sung parts. Each of the three operas is a self-contained work, but they can also be performed in sequence over several days as a trilogy.

Händl Klaus and Georg Friedrich Haas bring contemporary, taboo realities to the stage which are also profoundly human: survival following abuse within a family, linked to a place; undying love that opens up a dying person’s room; love for people who are ill but unreachable, but also referring to ourselves. Haas makes consistent harmonic, melodic and formal use of his musical language’s innovative techniques as a means of music-dramatic expression. He strives for music theatre that seamlessly unifies language, image and sound to clearly and comprehensibly render the story’s content as well as the characters’ emotional abysses.

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/Thomas/

OPERA WITH LIBRETTO BY HÄNDL KLAUS

SINGERS

Thomas baritone – Matthias bass – Michael countertenor – Dr. Dürer countertenor – Dominik tenor – Sister Agnes mezzosoprano/alto – Sister Jasmin soprano – Ms. Fink from the funeral service soprano

ORCHESTRA

zither – 2 guitars – harp – mandolin – accordion – percussion (2 players) – harpsichord

DURATION

ca. 100 minutes

WORLD PREMIERE

Rokokotheater Schwetzingen, Schwetzingen Festival, 24.05.2013

SYNOPSIS

The opera begins before the audience enters. A dying person’s hospital room.

One hears only his – increasingly faltering – breath. Long. Not until Matthias stops breathing does the music commence. Softly. The action of the opera is confined to events in the hospital after the patient’s death. Occupying centre stage is the sorrow of Thomas, the lover left behind. At the end of the opera, the dead man seemingly returns to life. Has a medical miracle occurred – or are we seeing only the hallucinations of a lover who cannot fathom his loved one’s death? The question is left open.

COMPOSER’S NOTE

The first time Händl Klaus told me about his idea for the opera Thomas, I

could already hear the sound of the ensemble in my head: plucked strings, beginning abruptly and dying away rapidly, very dense, in narrow, microtonal intervals. I decided on an unusual scoring: harpsichord, harp, zither, mandolin and two guitars – all tuned microtonally. Later, I added percussion and accordion.

These instruments conjure the most varied associations: the harpsichord is a Baroque continuo instrument, while the harp is part of the Romantic orchestra.

Zither, guitar, mandolin and accordion bring diverse folk connotations. I understand the accordion and zither as having a spiritual background: their kindred instruments, the shō and koto, are heard in Japanese temple music. The microtonally retuned strings allow for a variety of different pitches – I had at my disposal roughly 200 per octave. The percussion instruments I’ve used, sounding

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in juxtaposition or simultaneously, derive from the most diverse traditions. Tamtam and bass drum, güiro and marimba. These different associations neutralize one another to form a globally human sound. The vocal parts are comparatively traditionally composed, and, as always in my music, make extreme demands in intonation, rhythm, facial and body gestures and expressivity. Occasionally, they also call for singing in precisely notated microtonal intervals.

It was a challenge for me to create different worlds with the restricted means of such a specific instrumental combination. In addition, I had to take into account that the instruments could not retain 100% of their tuning during the performance. The music in the second half of the work needed to be resistant to the strings going slightly out of tune.

When Matthias dies, the interval D-A flat is heard, doubled at several different octaves with microtonal shadings – this interval signifies “death” in my personal musical semantics. When Dr. Dürer coldly removes the life-support machines from the dead body, a static overtone chord is heard, inspired by the constant humming of electrical equipment. When the nurses wash the dead man – meticulously, every square centimetre of his body – their voices merge lovingly into the shifting overtone chords as they pay final homage to the body of the deceased. When Thomas spends the night alone with the dead man, I quote from Gluck’s opera Orfeo ed Euridice (“Che farò senza Euridice?”) in quarter- and sixthtone displacements. When Frau Fuchs attempts to seduce Thomas alongside his loved one’s corpse (she isn’t amoral, only hopelessly egocentric), Dr. Dürer’s overtone chord is heard again, but the instruments have gone slightly out of tune in the meantime: the sound vibrates and is full of life. When Matthias rises from the dead and speaks, his voice is embedded in close-meshed microtonal clusters.

Händl Klaus has written a text filled with spirituality. Even the names are related to Christian traditions. Thomas initially doesn’t believe in the resurrection.

Michael, the nurse – like the archangel – stands knowingly and lovingly between the worlds of the dead and the living. And Matthias is both apostle and evangelist.

Thomas enacts love, real existing love, without grandly emotional words. At the end, the (unrealizable?) utopia comes to pass on stage, with the loved one simply seated there again, with nothing more to do than eat minestrone together. (This, however, is – as so often in Händl Klaus’s texts – brimming with symbols of passion.)

My operas are fundamentally written from the perspective of one individual.

Everything is, in a sense, heard through the “spectacles” or “filter” of this person’s perception. Here that person – obviously – is Thomas.

— Georg Friedrich Haas

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/Bluthaus/

(BLOODHOUSE) OPERA WITH LIBRETTO BY HÄNDL KLAUS

SINGERS

Nadja Albrecht, daughter soprano – Natascha Albrecht, mother mezzosoprano – Axel, friend, estate agent countertenor – Werner Albrecht, father baritone – 3 boys, Meinhard, Jeremais and Lukas Maleta soprano

ACTORS

Ms. Reinisch from the bank – Irene, in training – Mr. And Mrs. Schwarzer, neighbours – Ms. Beikirch, Mr. Fuchs, Ms. Hallosch, Mr. Hubacher, Mr. Maleta, Mrs. And Mr. Dr. Rahmani, Mrs. And Mr. Stachl, Mr. Dr. Strickner, interested buyers

ORCHESTRA

1 (also picc).1.2 (in B.).contraforte – 3.1 (in C).2.0 – 2perc – 2.0.1.5.2

DURATION

ca. 100 minutes

WORLD PREMIERE

Original Version: Rokokotheater Schwetzingen, Schwetzingen Festival, 29.04.2011 Revised Version: Theater an der Wien, Wiener Festwochen 21.05.2014

SYNOPSIS

A

house in the country, “deep in the south of Lower Austria.” Abuse. The father has perpetrated it. The mother knew about it – but instead of helping her child, she stabbed the father to death and committed suicide. Nadja Albrecht’s life has been poisoned by her memories. Whatever she does (in the opera she tries to sell this “bloodhouse”), her mind falters and the ghosts of the past press their way to the surface. An estate agent, Axel, brings prospective buyers, who at first are interested in the house. But then her dear neighbours intervene. Slowly and sadistically, they divulge the house’s horrid past. Nadja is met not with pity but with hatred. Only the agent stands by her. Left alone with Axel, she plunges into a sexual adventure with him, but it comes to grief because her dead father looms as a third party. Nadja decides to confront the terrible truth. She turns away some tardy but serious prospective buyers, smashes the windows, packs away her memorabilia in a trunk and a wardrobe, shuts off the water and electricity, and asks the agent to lock the house doors from the outside.

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COMPOSER’S NOTE

Nadja sings. The dead parents sing. The people interested in buying the house

– or who pretend to be interested – speak. The estate agent does something inbetween.

In my opinion, Händl Klaus has created in Axel one of the finest characters in the history of opera. He starts out as a slimy businessman. When his potential customers turn against Nadja, he defends and demonstrates solidarity with her.

Despite their disastrous sexual experience, he stays and, after she has driven away the last interested buyers, becomes a selfless lover.

Nadja is the focal point of the opera. There is no objective reality to be heard or seen, only her subjective perception of this reality. The music attempts to identify itself with Nadja and to develop and transform in parallel with her.

The spoken roles are precisely integrated into the music, but the actors do not speak in notated rhythm; instead, they follow acoustic signals mostly coupled with percussion instruments. These are unusual demands, but by means of this technique, the quality of Händl Klaus’s texts – fragmented into short elements that migrate from one person to the other and gradually develop into rotating whole movements – can have its proper impact.

Subjectively speaking, Bluthaus represents a highly personal coming to terms with my own past. My father never abused me sexually, but my parents abused me emotionally. They were Nazis, and they forced on little Georg their so-called “ethos,” their web of lies, their perverted morality. Later, as an adult, I too – like Nadja – found my memories poisoned. In the figurative sense, Nadja’s story is my story.

Only once in the trilogy did I find myself compelled to intervene a bit in Händl Klaus’s text. In the libretto, Nadja packs away her mementos in a trunk; in the opera she also packs her mother in it. In the libretto, Nadja locks her memories in a wardrobe; in the opera she also locks away her father. Both of them fight back – and are musically overpowered.

Unlike Händl Klaus, I never thought about the possibility that Nadja might later commit suicide. On the contrary. Emptying the “bloodhouse” and packing away the remains, cutting off all access from outside and smashing the window panes to allow fresh air to enter – this I saw as the precondition for leaving the house forever. Provided one confronts the painful truth – like Nadja at the end of the opera.

— Georg Friedrich Haas

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/Koma/

(COMA) OPERA WITH LIBRETTO BY HÄNDL KLAUS

Original Version 2016: SINGERS

Michaela soprano* – Jasmin soprano – Alexander/Mother baritone/countertenor – Michael bass-baritone

ACTORS**

Ms. Dr. Auer – Ms. Dr. Schönbühl – Jonas, caregiver – Nikos, caregiver – Zdravko, caregiver – Barbara, girl (mute)

Definitive Version 2018: SINGERS

Michaela soprano* – Jasmin soprano – Alexander/Mother baritone/countertenor – Michael bass-baritone – Ms. Dr. Auer, Ms. Dr. Schönbühl alto – Jonas, caregiver bass – Nikos, caregiver bass – Zdravko, caregiver bass – Barbara, girl mute

ORCHESTRA

2 (2 also picc).02 (in B).0 – 1.0.2.0 – 2Perc – pf (also cel).acc – 3.0.2.4.3

DURATION

ca. 110 minutes

WORLD PREMIERE

Original Version: Rokokotheater Schwetzingen, Schwetzingen Festival, 27.05.2016 Definitive Version: Stadttheater Klagenfurt, 28.03.2019 * sitting in the audience: She sings only during the darkened sections; during the performance she is not personally identifiable. ** No musical knowledge or proficiency is required of the actors. They must solely be capable of reacting to audible signals as well as willing and able to subordinate their configuration of the passage of time to the work’s demands.

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PERFORMANCE NOTES Substantial portions of the opera are performed in pitch darkness (no light on stage, no light in the orchestra pit, no emergency-exit lights etc.).

These sections must be played from memory, the musicians reacting to one another exclusively through hearing.

Substantial portions of the opera are performed in semi-darkness, in silhouette (only schematic contours are discernible on stage). The orchestra’s music-stand lights are switched on, and the conductor is visible. Only minimal movement on stage; only a few, soft stage noises.

SYNOPSIS

Following a swimming accident, Michaela lies in a vegetative state. At her

bedside are her husband, her daughter who has not spoken since the accident, her sister and her husband, with whom Michaela had a love affair. They speak with Michaela – encouraged by the doctors, they act out key scenes from her life: the antagonistic mother who beat her; the sale of the family home when the children were still small; the death of the cat; Michaela’s failure as a teacher; but acts of love are also brought back. Three caregivers together move and wash the patient’s immobilized body. This opera, too, is related from the perspective of a single person: the comatose Michaela, who, unseen, in the darkness, behind the audience, sings melismas – without words, only tones. Whether or not she will ever emerge from her coma is left open.

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LIBRETTIST’S NOTE

In Koma we’re working on three levels representing the three levels of

consciousness: total darkness, silhouette and illuminated brightness. Bright is everything that can be reconstructed as conscious memory; left in the shadows are interpretations and personal perceptions about Michaela. Found only in the dark is the pain containing everything that is no more, and this loss spreads throughout the entire text. Not surprisingly, much of the opera operates with this darkness.

— Händl Klaus

COMPOSER’S NOTE

These circumstances are also present in the music, not only because I’ve

never before worked so systematically with darkness in an opera but also because it allows such clear nuances.

In the darkness, an orchestra can be turned into one large instrument like an organ. In semi-darkness, a tense calm prevails, while light repeatedly controls the musical events. As the music-stand lights slowly dim, they extinguish the sound.

At first glance, the orchestra’s task, playing more than half the piece from memory in complete darkness, seems almost intractable. But I have made an effort to compose processes that sound so logical that they can be easily memorized. And there are frequent long pauses for every single instrument, during which the performers can mentally prepare for what is to come.

At the end, the musicians transmit the rhythm of their own breathing into the music, almost like multiplying the breath of the comatose Michaela.

— Georg Friedrich Haas

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/Biographies/ Georg Friedrich Haas (b. 1953 in Graz, Austria) has been associated with Ricordi Berlin since autumn 2016. He has taught at the University of the Arts in Graz (lastly as associate professor) and at the Music Academy in Basel. In 2013 he was appointed professor of music at Columbia University in New York and since then has taught composition there.

Haas feels both rooted in the European tradition and strongly influenced by the aesthetic freedom of American composers like Charles Ives, Harry Partch, John Cage and James Tenney. He also has repeatedly made reference to the musical mysticism of the composers Giacinto Scelsi and Ivan Wyschnegradsky.

In a survey published in the January 2017 issue of the Italian music periodical Classic Voice, 100 named experts were asked to choose “the most beautiful music composed since 2000”. By a wide margin, they awarded first place to Haas.

His wide-ranging output, including numerous works for large orchestra, for chamber orchestra, instrumental concertos, eight operas, ten string quartets, a variety of other chamber music and vocal works etc., is constantly finding new audiences worldwide – and not only at special new music events; his compositions are also reaching a traditionally schooled public. Haas has devoted his work to the utopian ideal (not 100% attainable) of creating a new music that is both expressive and mellifluous – not despite but because of the fact that it is new.

Author and filmmaker

Händl Klaus

(b. 1969 in Rum, Tirol) lives in Port

(Switzerland) and Vienna. In addition to poetry and prose, Klaus also writes theatrical works, which have been performed in the Munich Kammerspiele, Burgtheater Wien, Schauspiel Köln and Hannover, Ruhrtriennale, Salzburg Festival and in the steirischer herbst Festival. His plays Wilde – Mann mit traurigen Augen and Dunkel lockende Welt have been staged under the direction of Sebastian Nübling at the Berliner Theatertreffen and Mülheimer Theatertagen. In 2006, German magazine Theater heute selected him as playwright of the year. After MÄRZ (2008), he presented his second feature film in 2016, Kater (Tomcat).

His diverse range of work has garnered many prizes, including the Robert Walser Prize, Gert Jonke Prize, Feldkircher Poetry Award, Welti Prize, the Silver Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival, and the Teddy Award in the 2016 Berlinale.

The largest part of Händl Klaus’ corpus consists in musical theater. Along with his work with Georg Friedrich Haas, he has also written opera libretti for Häftling von Mab (Music: Eduard Demet), Eine Schneise (Music: Franui), Wüstenbuch and Violetter Schnee (Music: Beat Furrer), Der Mieter (Music: Arnulf Herrmann), Lunea (Music: Heinz Hollinger), Buch Asche, Zum Fleisch and Der Einfluss des Menschen auf den Mond (Music: Klaus Lang), as well as Wilde and Les Bienveillantes/Die Wohlgesinnten (Music: Hèctor Parra).

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Texts by Georg Friedrich Haas and Händl Klaus, Translated by Richard Toop Published by G. Ricordi & Co. Bühnen- und Musikverlag GmbH Part of Universal Music Publishing Classical Stralauer Allee 1, D-10245 Berlin +49 (0) 30 52007-1323 www.ricordi.com Edited by Daniela Brendel, Jascha Zube Editorial assistance: Lena Ottersberg Design: Marie Louise James © Universal Music Publishing Germany, 2019

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