Friday, April 3, 2020

43. Opera 9: Satire, ACJ Music Academy


How are you?

Following the last week, I am going to start my 43rd lecture.

I had conducted music lectures at Art Collage JANG in Seoul, South Korea every Saturday from March 2015 to December 2017.

I am going to introduce the lecture by the lecture’s order every Saturday.

Please refer to the following link for my previous lectures.


Today's lecture is five operas featuring “Satire”, which were introduced in “The 43rd ACJ Music Academy” on April 16, 2016.

1. Die Fledermaus (Johann Strauss II)
2. La Dame de Pique (Pyotr Tchaikovsky)
3. Wozzeck (Alban Berg)
4. Die Dreigroschenoper (Kurt Weill)
5. Porgy and Bess (George Gershwin)

1. Die Fledermaus (Johann Strauss II)


Die Fledermaus is a three-act operetta composed by Johann Strauss II and the German libretto was written by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée.

Eisenstein, a male protagonist who lives luxuriously with interest income, is a typical snob who prides himself on going in and out a noble salon. Although he married Rosalinde, who has a good family and a beauty, to raise his poor status, she is also a kind of snob, who despises her husband and likes to play as much as her husband. Another important character is Adele, the maid of the family. She is living dreaming a star in her mind who receives a spotlight although her status is a maid, as a singer or an actress emerges as the most promising job for women. 

Eisenstein assaulted a tax official and was sentenced to eight days’ custody, but thanks to the help by friends who bribed officials, he dresses up in the evening when he has to go to jail and heads for the prom. Meanwhile, his wife Rosalinde enjoys a meeting with an old lover, but the official, who comes to arrest Eisenstein, thinks him as Eisenstein. Then, the official takes him into custody and Rosalinde goes to the same prom without knowing that her husband was there. Meanwhile, the maid Adele, who excused and had permission to go out, disguises herself as an actress and attends the prom. They play in disguise and eventually everything is revealed, but the couple reconcile with laughter, and Adele, who recognized her talents for singing and acting, gets a sponsor and becomes a real actress.

2. La Dame de Pique (Tchaikovsky)


La Dame de Pique is a three-act opera composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Based on a novella of the same name by Alexander Pushkin, the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky wrote a Russian libretto. The theme of the opera mainly depicts the destructive and isolated nature of gambling addiction.

The protagonist, a military officer Herman, who has no fortune and no good background as well as is not a nobility, lives as an outsider without a chance to get promoted in the military. One day, he sees Liza, the granddaughter and heiress of the old Countess, and loves her at first sight. Although he knows that she is engaged with Prince Yeletsky, he confesses passionately his love to her. 

The Countess is a social tycoon, who learned the secrets of the legendary cards in her youth, collected a big fortune from gambling, and earned the nickname “Spade Queen”. Knowing this, Herman attempts to find out the secret of the cards by threatening the Countess with a pistol in a desire to make money and live happily with Liza by gambling. However, the old Countess was so surprised by this intrusion and threat that she collapses and dies on the spot, and Liza is saddened by the thought that Herman approached not because he loves her but because of the secret of the cards.

Liza persuades Herman to go far away and live together, but believing that the ghost of the dead Countess told him the secret of the cards of '3-7-Ace', Herman pushes Liza, and runs to the gambling board, and desperate Liza commits suicide on the river. As the ghost of the dead Countess showed, Herman, who earned big fortune because the cards 3 and 7 were matched, is convinced his good luck against Yeletsky, who was the fiancée of Liza, and bets all his fortune but the last card was not an Ace, but a “Spade Queen” symbolizing death. Herman who lost his reason in despair, commits suicide with a pistol on the spot.

3. Wozzeck (Berg)


Wozzeck is the first opera of Alban Berg, composed between 1914 and 1922. The libretto is based on the drama Woyzeck, which the German playwright Georg Büchner left incomplete at his death.

The background of the story is some watershed around 1820. The soldier, Wozzeck, who is poor in physical condition and has nothing to boast, lives with his lover, Marie, and a child. But since he has not been able to legally marry her because he has no money, he lives under criticism and insults that he is immoral from his military supervisors and those around him. In this situation of life, he shows pathological anxiety and feels fear even when he sees the nature’s beauty. 

After discovering a very unusual psychological disorder in him, the doctor regulates his life and treats him like a marmotte such as making him eat only certain foods and observing his reactions. Wozzeck becomes the subject of the doctor's experiment, taking all kinds of the insults to earn the minimum cost of living to support Marie and his child. However, when Marie is fascinated by a strong and handsome military band commander and falls into his temptation, Wozzeck struggles to get her back and fights with him, but he is just only a laugh of people. Watching Marie and the military band commander dance passionately at the village festival, Wozzeck, who lost his reason, takes Marie to the forest, stabs with a knife and kills her, and then he returns to the village. Then, in the confusion, he goes back to the forest and walks into the water of the swamp to wash his bloody hands, and eventually drowns.

4. Die Dreigroschenoper (Kurt Weill)


The Die Dreigroschenoper is a play by Bertolt Brecht with music by Kurt Weill. It was written between early March and August in 1928, and premiered at Berlin's Theater am Schiffbauerdamm on August 31, 1928.

Mackie Messer is the leader of the gang, and Peachum is the controller of all the beggars in London. Since Police Chief of London Brown, who served in the military with Mackie together in the past, doesn't arrest him. Peachum makes a beggars company and he makes beggars wear outfits causing more sympathy when begging, such as crutches or rags, and earns money every day from the beggars. When Mackie gets married by tempting Polly, the daughter of Peachum, Peachum sends Mackie to prison, but just before the hanging is executed, Brown appears with the letter of pardoning of queen. Mackie escapes from the execution and becomes rather rich.

5. Porgy and Bess (George Gershwin)


Porgy and Bess is an English-language opera of three acts composed by George Gershwin, with a libretto written by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play “Porgy”, itself an adaptation of DuBose Heyward's 1925 novel of the same name. All these works cover the lives of African Americans in Catfish Row, a fictitious village, in Charleston, South Carolina in the early 1920s.

The story is set in the city of Charleston, South Carolina, in the early 1920s. The protagonist, Porgy, is a disabled beggar, who makes a living with selling a soap in the street, and young and charming Bess is Crown's lover, who is a bully on the harbor. One day, when Crown kills a man and is chased by the police, Bess, who has no place to go, finds a refuge from Porgy. Porgy, who has loved Bess, takes care of her, and the two become lovers. 

However, returned Crown laughs at Porgy and tries to kill Bess. Porgy, trying to protect Bess, kills Crown after a fight. Arrested Porgy is released innocent because no one has seen the scene of the murder, and returns to the village with cheers of the people in the town. However, it was after Bess, who thought Porgy will never return, touches the drug again in despair and left for New York, falling into temptation of Sportin' Life, a drug dealer and smuggler. However, Porgy does not lose hope, and again pulls the goat's wagon and goes a long way to find Bess.

You can listen to all the arias selected in this course from following YouTube link.

1. “Mein Herr Marquis”, Die Fledermaus (Johann Strauss II)
2. “Chto nasha zhizn? Igra!”, La Dame de Pique (Pyotr Tchaikovsky)
3. “Wir arme Leut!”, Wozzeck (Alban Berg)
4. “Die Seerauber-Jenny”, Die Dreigroschenoper (Kurt Weill)
5. “Summertime”, Porgy and Bess (George Gershwin)


You can also review this lecture from following media.


Next week, I will lecture 10th and last "Opera" course as my 44th lecture.

Thank you.





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