Bluthochzeit


Bluthochzeit is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Fortner. The libretto, also by Fortner, is based on Enrique Beck's German translation of García Lorca's 1933 play Bodas de sangre. It premiered at the Cologne Opera on 8 June 1957.

Composition

Fortner was asked by Karl-Heinz Stroux to write incidental music for a performance of Lorca's play Bodas de sangre in Hamburg in the early 1950s. The composer was impressed by the drama and felt that acting was not enough to "sing the tragedy to an end", and decided to set longer sections to music.
Fortner wrote the opera's libretto himself based on Enrique Beck's German translation of the play. Bluthochzeit, a "literary opera" like Alban Berg's Wozzeck and Lulu, is driven by the action, as the composer comments: "The compulsion of the words drives the music." He scored the work for singing and speaking parts, following the text which is at times in prose, at times in poetry. Fortner used dodecaphony but included traditional Spanish instruments, such as mandolins, castanets, tambourine and guitars. Giselher Klebe noted in an introduction to the performance in Düsseldorf that Fortner, who was exposed to twelve-tone technique rather late in life, used the restriction of its rules to heighten expressiveness.
In 1962 Fortner revised the scores of both Bluthochzeit and his 1954 dramatic scene Der Wald and used both of them in the score for a new opera, In seinem Garten liebt Don Perlimplín Belisa with a libretto based on another play by Garcia Lorca. This new opera premiered on 10 May 1962 at the Cologne Opera.

Roles

RoleVoice typePremiere cast
Conductor: Günter Wand
The Motherdramatic sopranoNathalie Hinsch-Gröndahl
The Bridegroomspeaking voiceWilhelm Otto
The BridesopranoAnny Schlemm
Her Fatherspeaking voiceAlexander Schoedler
LeonardobaritoneErnst Grathwol
His WifecontraltoEmmy Lisken
Her MothercontraltoIrmgard Gerz
The Maidmezzo-sopranoHildegunt Walther
The ChildsopranoAnita Westhoff
Death chanteuseHelga Jenkel
The MoontenorGerhard Nathge
Three woodcuttersspeaking voice-
Girls, young men, guests, neighbour womenchorus-

Performance history

Bluthochzeit premiered at the Cologne Opera on 8 June 1957 in a production directed by Eric Bormann and conducted by Günter Wand. It was the first world premiere to be staged in the rebuilt opera house.
The performance by Stuttgart Opera in 1964 was filmed live and released on DVD in 2005. The opera was chosen to open the Opernhaus Düsseldorf with a performance on 12 October 1986 by the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, conducted by Hans Wallat and staged by Kurt Horres. Bluthochzeit was revived in January 2013 with a new production at the Wuppertal Opera, directed by Christian von Götz and conducted by Hilary Griffiths. A performance of this production was filmed and released on DVD in 2014.

Recordings