Hans Gál
Das Lied der Nacht

Un pays exhorte Lianora, l'orpheline héritière, à se marier après la mort du roi. Lianora, cependant, ne veut pas de ce mariage, et l'entrée au monastère apparaît comme la seule issue.
Mais alors, nuit après nuit, la voix d'un homme dont le chant de nostalgie semble d'autant plus fascinant, et dont personne ne sait rien de l'origine des sons, ni de l'identité du chanteur habillé de noir et masqué.
La chanson crée de plus en plus un lien d'amourentre de Lianora et l'étranger mystérieux qui ose se rapprocher du Palais Royal. Une nuit, Tancrède, le cousin de Lianora pénètre dans la chambre de la princesse.
Le chanteur étranger sauve Lianora de Tancrede, saisissant de violence possessive. Le lendemain, elle annonce aux peuple que le chanteur est son mari.
Quand l'étranger, Ciullo, batelier de Lianora, ôte son masque, il se révèle être un homme simple du peuple. Offensée, Lianora reprend ses vœux.
Trop tard, et c'est seulement quand, devant elle, Ciullo perd la vie, qu'elle entend la chanson de l'amour.
Le chant de la nuit a connu une première enthousiaste au théâtre de Wroclaw le 24 avril 1926.
Avec le poète Karl Michael von Levetzow, Hans Gál a créé une narration poétique et musicalement colorée d'un royaume mythique de Sicile, qui, selon le temps, a trouvé des profondeurs psychologiques dans la parole et la musique et explore.
Le compositeur et musicologue autrichien Hans Gál (1890 – 1987) est l'un des artistes socialistes «Juifs» et «dégénérés» du XXe siècle. La plupart des œuvres de l'artiste jadis très bien connu et très estimé sont oubliées aujourd'hui.
Le chant de la nuit n'a jamais été joué à nouveau après 1930, un enregistrement de l'œuvre n'est pas disponible.
Pour la première fois depuis 1920, Masha Pörzgen l'œuvre est mise en scèneau théâtre Osnabrück (April 2017), - Opéra et théâtre musical contemporain présentant des raretés et des œuvres d'un intérêt particulier.
La direction musicale est assurée par Andreas Hotz, qui déjà dans les dernières saisons a fourni des redécouverts acclamés à des œuvres injustement oubliées. Das Lied der Nacht – Theater Osnabrück – 5 May 2017 (Link to promotional video -mp4- : https://vimeo.com/215983662)

Broadcast Recording

Remote

1. http://www.mediafire.com/file/jcx4hc3k1cl32hl/1_Gal_Lied_der_Nacht_Akt_1.mp3
2. http://www.mediafire.com/file/58q8ie2e8421k1b/2_Gal_Lieder_der_Nacht_Zwischenspiel.mp3 (Intermède)
3. http://www.mediafire.com/file/ggx1obqyk9l87jb/3_Gal_Lied_der_Nacht_Akt_2.mp3
4. http://www.mediafire.com/file/66d73wcbo9oussc/4_Gal_Lied_der_Nacht_Akt_3.mp3

Local (D:/Musiques/Ma musique/GalHans/Lied der Nacht/)

1. 1_Gal_Lied_der_Nacht_Akt_1.mp3
2. 2_Gal_Lieder_der_Nacht_Zwischenspiel.mp3 (Intermède)
3. 3_Gal_Lied_der_Nacht_Akt_2.mp3
4. 4_Gal_Lied_der_Nacht_Akt_3.mp3

Lianora - Lina Liu
The Princess-Abbess - Gritt Gnauck
Hämone - Susann Vent-Wunderlich
Tancred - Rhys Jenkins
Ciullo/The Nameless Singer - Ferdinand von Bothmer
The Chancellor - José Gallisa

Opera Chorus & Extra Chorus of Theater Osnabrück
Osnabruck Symphony Orchestra
Chef d'orchestre : Andreas Hotz
Réalisation : Masha Pörzgen
Scène et costumes : Frank Fellmann Chef des Chœurs : Markus Lafleur
Dramaturgie : Ulrike Schumann

Immediately after the 33-year-old Hans Gál made his breakthrough with his opera Die heilige Ente in Düsseldorf in 1923, he began work on a successor, creating a ‘dramatic ballad in three scenes’ to a text by the poet Karl Michael von Levetzow.
Das Lied der Nacht was premiered in Breslau (now Polish Wrocław) in 1926 and was soon taken up by several further theatres, before the Nazis’ rise to power sent Gál into exile and his music into obscurity.
The opera had lain unperformed for the best part of 90 years until is was dredged up from the archives to be revived this spring by the enterprising Theater Osnabrück in time to mark the 30th anniversary of the composer’s death.
It is also being revived in a semi-staging at this year’s Edinburgh Festival, so one might claim that its time has come.
It is certainly an interesting work, both musically and dramatically, and while it might not have emerged as a long-lost masterpiece to set alongside the works of Schreker and Zemlinsky from the same decade,
there’s enough of substance to make one hope it doesn’t get forgotten again after this initial burst of exposure.

Musically, Das Lied impresses with its fluidity more than for striking originality – Gál obviously knew his Strauss and Mahler and steered their languages to his own uses without coming up with ideas that linger long in the mind.
At its best, in the dark, gloomy harmonies of the scene with the Abbess for instance, it’s powerful and full of resonance, but one longed for something more striking for the ‘Lied’ itself, the mysterious song sung by the ‘Nameless Singer’ that so enraptures the Crown Princess, Lianora
– its most potent feature is its harp accompaniment. But there’s a rather impressive Act II prelude to compensate
– a piece of textural ingenuity and harmonic rapture that would make an attractive concert item in itself – and throughout Gál is particularly adroit at letting his vocal lines cut through the often busy orchestral writing.

On the face of it, the story is simple: the orphaned Princess Lianora is refusing to name her husband so that Sicily may gain a king – she is more attracted to the Nameless Singer than to her bullish suitor, Tancred, and would much rather enter her aunt’s convent in any case.
But this being the work of a post-Freudian Viennese, the opera is very much an exploration of the psychology of growing up, something drawn out in Mascha Pörzgen’s perceptive staging.
With the death of her father, Lianora is catapulted into adulthood before she is ready, with the need to choose a husband to maintain the island’s political stability.
She is also a woman in a world where men call the shots – as princess she has obligations that fall under the power of the aged Chancellor and Tancred’s macho strutting.
What follows drifts into the world of dreams – is the seductiveness of the Nameless Singer a figment of her unconscious desire for escape? A way of subconsciously avoiding reality by projecting her fantasies on to her favourite gondolier, Ciullo, who turns out to be singer?
We are left to ponder what’s real and what imagined – entrances and exits are often ambiguously made from within the scenery and in Act I the ‘Stony’ Abbess emerges as a giant figure from what one presumed to be the Princess’s wardrobe.
Watery images abound, too, in keeping with the theme of the Singer’s lament, and add to the sense of subconscious being explored.
Gál’s score had sweep and pace in the hands of Osnabrück’s charismatic GMD Andreas Hotz, and while the orchestral playing had sheen and power, it would be good to hear what a really top-notch ensemble could make of this music.
Lana Liu was highly effective as Lianora, with focused projection and a communicative way with the words; Susann Vent-Wunderlich as her maid/confidante Hämone was also impressive.
Gritt Gnauck, a mezzo familiar from the Detmold ensemble, made an imposing Abbess, bringing a touch of the Klytemnestras to her vocal portrayal, and Ferdinand von Bothmer sung valiantly as the Nameless Singer and Ciullo,
with just a touch of insecurity in his tenor at moments of heightened tension. Rhys Jenkins was a solid Tancred, José Gallisa a robust Chancellor and the chorus sang with particular focus and dramatic edge.

Universal Edition - Hans Gál – Das Lied der Nacht
http://www.universaledition.com/performances-and-calendar#work=1814

Hans Gál : Das Lied der Nacht

Reviews

"A great success. For me personally the evening was altogether one of the most powerful operatic experiences ever! Music and poetic conception combined in the happiest fashion. [Schlesische Tagespost, April 1926]"

"One doesn't know whether to emphasise the extraordinary variety and expressive colour in his music, which confronts us in the exposition, or the magnificent musical construction of the second 'Scene', which has rarely been equalled in the operatic literature. Corresponding to this exuberant lyricism in mood and solemnity there is the depth of symphonic ideas, whose working out reveals the hand of the mature practitioner. The harmonic combinations are thoroughly modern, but modern in the best sense; they signify an enrichment of the expressive palette, they are spiritually conceived, they communicate throughout an original experience of beauty... All in all, therefore, the new opera constitutes an enormous advance for the composer, as, alongside the mastery and creativity which we had already admired in the 'Heilige Ente', it opens up for the first time the fullness of his heart. And so it will always be considered the most valid testimony of his talent so far." [Breslauer Zeitung]

"After the success of the Heilige Ente Hans received innumerable manuscripts from poets, writers and those who regarded themselves as such, with suggestions for collaboration on a new opera. Hans was completely uninterested, and barely took the trouble to read the manuscripts. It was not until a few years later that he again became interested in writing an opera, but insisted on having Levetzow as librettist. But where had the fellow gone? A letter to his last known address in Paris remained unanswered. Eventually Hans learned from one of the poet's aristocratic cousins [he was related to Ulrike von Levetzow, the last love of Goethe, and the subject of his Marienbader Elegie] that Levetzow was in Corsica and obtained the address. Levetzow showed a lively interest, and so Hans decided that our holiday would take us to Italy and Corsica. After a few all-too-short days in Venice and Florence we arrived at Livorno from where, once a week, a ship went to Bastia. The crossing over the incredibly blue Mediterranean was uneventful. We had to spend the night in Bastia. Pretty dreadful. We then took the train that went once a day along the coast from Bastia to Ajaccio (Napoleon's birthplace). The train stopped at every little town. In response to our question regarding a certain sanitary facility we received the answer 'Le pays est large.' Arriving at Levetzow's abode we found the place almost deserted. It was a malaria area, and in the summer the inhabitants took their animals to their summer quarters on the nearby mountain plateau. Levetzow couldn't do that, for he and his friend Jean Baptiste literally didn't have a sou in their pockets. Fortunately, J. B. was a Berganzi, belonging to one of the most famous bandit families of the island, and he had credit everywhere.

The pair had got nowhere in Paris and had decided to move to Corsica and live off hunting and fishing. They had bad luck with the hunting; Levetzow thought he had killed a chamois, but it turned out to be the neighbour's goat, the breeding bull, so to speak, of the whole village. And the fishing wasn't right either, as Jean Baptiste didn't like fish soup. I don't know how they managed, but in any case they always had plenty of wine and cigarettes, and through our visit some cash came into circulation again. J. B. did the cooking. Levetzow: 'Tu n'as pas oublié le poivre?' J. B. 'Non, je n'ai pas oublié le poivre.' The first ideas for Das Lied der Nacht were sketched out and discussed, sitting on Levetzow's bed. ...

Hans was horrified by the circumstances of his friend's life and pulled all the strings to get him to return to civilisation. And so a few weeks later Levetzow appeared in Vienna. The director of Universal Edition paid him a monthly honorarium in anticipation of future royalties, my mother bought some pictures from him that he had inherited, so a start was made. He wanted to give language lessons, but it went the same way as with the hunting and fishing in Corsica. Without Jean Baptiste it just wasn't right. One day the latter appeared in Vienna, with a dachshund on a lead. The height difference between the dachshund and Jean Baptise was the same as that between J. B. and Levetzow. Naturally, nothing came of the good resolutions for a bourgeois life, and he eventually had to move in with a nephew on a mortgaged estate in Moravia. There he got into political difficulties and was taken into custody. He died in prison before the case came to court.

He was the only real bohemian that I ever knew." [Private correspondence, 1989.]

Hans Gál's opera Das Lied der Nacht
Saturday 6th May 2017
Radio Broadcast : Deutschlandfunk Kultur

Das Lied der Nacht preview : vimeo.com/215983662
29th April, 5th, 10th, 12th, 14th, 23rd & 25th May 2017
Theater Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Lower Saxony, Germany

Queen Hall

The Story
Set in a mythical 12th Century Sicilian kingdom, Song of the Night, subtitled a "romantic ballad in three scenes", explores the female psyche in a patriarchal society. Leonora, the crown princess, is under extreme pressure to find a husband who will fill the vacant throne as king. Tancred, a swashbuckling knight, is deemed by all to be the most eligible suitor and is confident that he is the chosen one. Leonora, however, abhors the prospect of wedlock and asks her Aunt, the Abbess, to admit her into the convent.
The Abbess challenges Leonora to listen to her heart, to look into the “night within herself”, and to acknowledge the “inner voice before which she has trembled” or risk “turning into stone”, like the Abbess herself.
Leonora, in deep denial, is profoundly unsettled by the Abbess's oracular words and is stirred to the core when her companion, Hämone, jokes that perhaps the “Unknown singer', a disembodied voice heard only by night,
whom no-one has ever really seen, would be the man for her. She realises that His “song of the night” is indeed the nocturnal voice that is making her tremble as it sounds across the waves...

The opera's history
Hans Gál's third opera, Das Lied der Nacht (“Song of the Night'), enjoyed its first performance in Breslau (Wroclow) in 1926, to glowing reviews. There followed performances across Germany and Austria. However Hitler's accession to power and Gál's Jewish ancestry combined to bring this flourishing career to an abrupt end, as his operas, along with all his music, were banned from performance and publication.

Revival
2017 sees a rebirth of this masterpiece, forgotten for 87 years.
Theater Osnabrück in Germany has been staging this opera in April and May 2017 to widespread acclaim ("Fantastische Musik"...)
Now the Hans Gál Society presents this powerful opera at The Queen's Hall in Edinburgh, the city in which Gál spent the latter half of his life, greatly contributing to the Scottish music scene including helping to found the Edinburgh Festival.
This will be the first ever performance of this opera in the UK. This short montage from the recent fully-staged production in Germany gives a taste of the music.

Website : www.hansgal.org

Score : DasLiedDerNacht_UE31394Score.pdf

After the success of the Heilige Ente there followed Gál's third opera, Das Lied der Nacht ('The Song of the Night', Op.23), a romantic drama set in 12th century Sicily, with a Turandot-like plot [the opera was written in 1924-25, was therefore almost simultaneous with Turandot, and had its first performance just one day before Turandot (on the 24th April, 1926)]. It was premièred in Breslau in 1926, and then in Düsseldorf, Königsberg and Graz. This opera, called a 'dramatic ballad', again had a libretto by Levetzow, and it brought further confirmation of Gál's standing as an opera composer. The critic of the Schlesische Tagespost wrote of the first performance:

"A great success. For me personally the evening was altogether one of the most powerful operatic experiences ever! Music and poetic conception combined in the happiest fashion."

In Breslau, where all previous Gál operas had been performed (and in 1924 even a carnival parody under the title Die Heilige Rente: nach der Oper von Gans Egal), das Lied der Nacht was received as a new high point:

"One doesn't know whether to emphasise the extraordinary variety and expressive colour in his music, which confronts us in the exposition, or the magnificent musical construction of the second 'Scene', which has rarely been equalled in the operatic literature. Corresponding to this exuberant lyricism in mood and solemnity there is the depth of symphonic ideas, whose working out reveals the hand of the mature practitioner. The harmonic combinations are thoroughly modern, but modern in the best sense; they signify an enrichment of the expressive palette, they are spiritually conceived, they communicate throughout an original experience of beauty... All in all, therefore, the new opera constitutes an enormous advance for the composer, as, alongside the mastery and creativity which we had already admired in the 'Heilige Ente', it opens up for the first time the fullness of his heart. And so it will always be considered the most valid testimony of his talent so far." [Breslauer Zeitung]

Hanna Gál explained how the collaboration with Levetzow (whose texts had also been set to music by Schönberg in his Op. 1) had come about, and revealed something of the extraordinary character of the librettist:

"After the success of the Heilige Ente Hans received innumerable manuscripts from poets, writers and those who regarded themselves as such, with suggestions for collaboration on a new opera. Hans was completely uninterested, and barely took the trouble to read the manuscripts. It was not until a few years later that he again became interested in writing an opera, but insisted on having Levetzow as librettist. But where had the fellow gone? A letter to his last known address in Paris remained unanswered. Eventually Hans learned from one of the poet's aristocratic cousins [he was related to Ulrike von Levetzow, the last love of Goethe, and the subject of his Marienbader Elegie] that Levetzow was in Corsica and obtained the address. Levetzow showed a lively interest, and so Hans decided that our holiday would take us to Italy and Corsica.

After a few all-too-short days in Venice and Florence we arrived at Livorno from where, once a week, a ship went to Bastia. The crossing over the incredibly blue Mediterranean was uneventful. We had to spend the night in Bastia. Pretty dreadful. We then took the train that went once a day along the coast from Bastia to Ajaccio (Napoleon's birthplace). The train stopped at every little town. In response to our question regarding a certain sanitary facility we received the answer 'Le pays est large.' Arriving at Levetzow's abode we found the place almost deserted. It was a malaria area, and in the summer the inhabitants took their animals to their summer quarters on the nearby mountain plateau. Levetzow couldn't do that, for he and his friend Jean Baptiste literally didn't have a sou in their pockets. Fortunately, J. B. was a Berganzi, belonging to one of the most famous bandit families of the island, and he had credit everywhere.

The pair had got nowhere in Paris and had decided to move to Corsica and live off hunting and fishing. They had bad luck with the hunting; Levetzow thought he had killed a chamois, but it turned out to be the neighbour's goat, the breeding bull, so to speak, of the whole village. And the fishing wasn't right either, as Jean Baptiste didn't like fish soup. I don't know how they managed, but in any case they always had plenty of wine and cigarettes, and through our visit some cash came into circulation again. J. B. did the cooking. Levetzow: 'Tu n'as pas oublié le poivre?' J. B. 'Non, je n'ai pas oublié le poivre.' The first ideas for Das Lied der Nacht were sketched out and discussed, sitting on Levetzow's bed. ...

Hans was horrified by the circumstances of his friend's life and pulled all the strings to get him to return to civilisation. And so a few weeks later Levetzow appeared in Vienna. The director of Universal Edition paid him a monthly honorarium in anticipation of future royalties, my mother bought some pictures from him that he had inherited, so a start was made. He wanted to give language lessons, but it went the same way as with the hunting and fishing in Corsica. Without Jean Baptiste it just wasn't right. One day the latter appeared in Vienna, with a dachshund on a lead. The height difference between the dachshund and Jean Baptise was the same as that between J. B. and Levetzow. Naturally, nothing came of the good resolutions for a bourgeois life, and he eventually had to move in with a nephew on a mortgaged estate in Moravia. There he got into political difficulties and was taken into custody. He died in prison before the case came to court.

He was the only real bohemian that I ever knew." [Private correspondence, 1989.]

Performances

Other performances:

"A great success. For me personally the evening was altogether one of the most powerful operatic experiences ever! Music and poetic conception combined in the happiest fashion."
[Schlesische Tagespost, April 1926, after the first performance]

"One doesn't know whether to emphasise the extraordinary variety and expressive colour in his music, which confronts us in the exposition, or the magnificent musical construction of the second 'Scene', which has rarely been equalled in the operatic literature.
Corresponding to this exuberant lyricism in mood and solemnity there is the depth of symphonic ideas, whose working out reveals the hand of the mature practitioner. The harmonic combinations are thoroughly modern, but modern in the best sense;
they signify an enrichment of the expressive palette, they are spiritually conceived, they communicate throughout an original experience of beauty...
All in all, therefore, the new opera constitutes an enormous advance for the composer, as, alongside the mastery and creativity which we had already admired in the 'Heilige Ente', it opens up for the first time the fullness of his heart.
And so it will always be considered the most valid testimony of his talent so far." [Breslauer Zeitung]

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