Salieri, Antonio Prima la musica e poi le parole Divertimento teatrale in one act Details Edition no.: BA 8811-90 ISMN: 9790006542826 Editor: Betzwieser, Thomas / La Salvia, Adrian Arranger: Müller, Karl-Heinz / Schellevis, Hans Language(s) of work: German, Italian Language(s) of text: German, English Product format: Piano reduction, Urtext edition Comments: Replaces BA 7698-90 Binding: Paperback Pages / Format: XVI, 199 S. - 27,0 x 19,0 cm A memorable musical competition commissioned by the emperor Joseph II took place on 7 February 1786 as part of a festival in the orangery of the Schönbrunn palace. The Italian court singers and musicians performed Mozart?s Schauspieldirektor whilst Antonio Salieri?s Prima la musica e poi le parole was performed by a German Singspiel ensemble. This charming opera satire belongs to the genre of ?metamelodrama? in which the opera itself becomes the subject of the action. The people who are part of an opera production, for example the writer, composer and prima donna, appear as characters on the stage and are presented in a humorous mirror image. In this ?theatre about theatre? Salieri parodies the music from Giuseppe Sarti?s Giulio Sabino in his insert arias, thus playing on the music which was totally familiar with the audience of that time. By reflecting on the musical-dramatic style of that time and discussing whether ?the word? or ?the music? should take priority, this masterpiece is considered to be a forerunner to Richard Strauss?s Capriccio. This new edition of the score is published as part of OPERA ? Spectrum of European Music Theatre in Separate Editions. There are several alterations regarding the libretto text, stage directions, articulation, ornamentation, etc. which have been incorporated into the newly engraved vocal score. Furthermore, all appendix numbers from the score which concern the quotations from Giuseppe Sarti?s Giulio Sabino have also been incorporated. - Urtext edition based on the historical-critical hybrid edition OPERA-Spectrum of European Music Theatre in Separate Editions edited by Thomas Betzwieser (music edition) and Adrian La Salvia (text edition).- Original Italian libretto with singable German translation- Comprehensive bilingual foreword (Ger/Eng) on the genesis and reception of the work, on metamelodrama and intertextuality- Includes an extensive appendix to the quotations taken from Giuseppe Sarti?s Giulio Sabino- Idiomatic piano reduction

Kammeroper Nr. 2. Par RIHM WOLFGANG. Chamber opera does not mean “little opera.” On the same scale as chamber music is to the symphony, it is rather the other way of talking onstage. The movable apparatus permits sophisticated voice-leading. A large ensemble demands simple conception to achieve the complexity it perhaps intends; this can be formulated more sharply and nuanced in a chamber ensemble. Therefore it is the subject which this type of presentation must sustain – or, better, provoke. Büchner’s Lenz is a description of the conditions within a process of collapse, moments of destruction already occurred but not yet accepted, evident in the points of contact with the environment. And it was those points of contact which Michael Fröhling attempted to reconstruct onstage. Lenz’s distraught state is always the same; only the proximity of the environment to that distraught state grows and ebbs. The musical consequence An hour of extreme chamber music results from this description: always bound for the main character – actually, not a commentary, but the main character himself as a multilayered level of action. Although Lenz acts on many levels – or tries to or believes he is – he has no room to manoeuvre. That is why he is also tightly interwoven in his sonic surroundings; the voices which only he hears are just as much himself as the two men with whom he foregathers (the liberal pragmatist Oberlin and the alert merchant who always “does the right thing” in every situation) – they evoke responses which he deeply desires. Omnipresent Friederike is just as much his inner world as Nature is – Nature, which he can no longer perceive unless it is personified, enlivened or dead. Therefore, the music’s task is both to motivate the “situation” (atmospherically) and to be the psychological constant (via a network of entangled references per se) in an action as it is played out. The compositional process December 1977 to June 1978 – a period identical to the stepwise understanding of an existence as that of Jakob Lenz. Yet the more the historical figure became precisely attendant in my intellect in terms of data and atmosphere, the more it retreated in favour of a cipher of disturbance as I began to understand Lenz. Thence the explanation for the failure of the attempts to approach him – including my attempt to interpret him via musical representation – because, essentially, Lenz himself is the failure. Only the naked stages of that failure remain portrayable, i.e. including the failure of those who wish to “help” Lenz, for example, while Lenz himself is already trapped inextricably in a state of complete destruction. I tried to compose my way into that situation as far as possible; the insistence of several rhythmic and harmonic configurations is the palpable expression of the main character’s ever-recurring rigidity. One sound pervades the entire work. The musical stage For me, this is a place where very magical and very human things take place. In Jakob Lenz, the human aspects often switch to magical ones, since the realism of a self-suasive, unhinged soul takes on surreal traits – or we simply cannot understand that otherwise except as not being real. A character like Jakob Lenz on the stage is complex due to the fact alone that it harbours many stages within itself, and music must represent those constantly present stages. I have tried to do so in the most direct way – by not cleanly separating the musical layers, but keeping them constantly in evidence until they must break forth, each in accord with its own dramaturgy. In an overview, the large form takes on aspects of a rondo, performed in overlapping layers – a type of rondo relief, since perspectives of psychological proximity and distance are indeed formulated musically as atmospheric relations. Above all: the thread on which Jakob Lenz hangs is the current onto the listeners’ hearts. Wolfgang Rihm (January 1979)/ Répertoire / Chant et Piano

Opérette-Bouffe En Un Acte. Par OFFENBACH JACQUES. An opera buffa in one act by Offenbach, in Germany mainly known under the title of 'Salon Pritzelsberger', which has enjoyed continuous popularity since its world premiere in 1860 until the present day. Since original performance materials were lost after the death of the composer, several numbers like the overture and the legendary Trio italien could not be reconstructed in their original instrumentation. Therefore, the access to the autograph of the score granted to the editor Jean-Christophe Keck by the descendants of Offenbach was of inestimable value in order to publish this gem of opera literature in an authentic source-critical edition for the first time. In their variant of the 'Bourgeois Gentleman', Offenbach and his co-author, the Duc de Morny, President of the Ministry of Internal Affairs under Napoleon III, make fun not only of the airs and graces of the nouveaux riches but also of the musical star cult of the 19th century which apparently was hardly any different from that of today…/ Répertoire / Chant et Piano

Opera in tre attiDuring Handel's lifetime Giulio Cesare in Egitto was among his most successful operas. Today it is still one of the most frequently performed, owing to the rich variety of its scenes and its remarkably inventive arias and ensembles, which embellish the underlying affects with virtuoso aplomb.The piano writing contains the musical numbers from the main version and observes the editorial decisions in Zschoch's volume, thereby making it possible to prepare authentic performances of what is perhaps Handel's most popular opera.Vocal score of the main version, based on the Urtext from the â''Halle Handel EditionClear, easy-to-play piano reductionItalian text underlaid with newly revised singable German translationGerman/English preface with information on performance history and editorial principles