Le Portrait (russe : Портрет) est un opéra en un acte et huit scènes de Mieczyslaw Weinberg sur un livret d'Alexandre Medvedev d'après la nouvelle Le Portrait de Nikolaï Gogol.
Composé en 1980, il est créé le 20 mai 1983 au Théâtre National de Brno.
L'ouvrage est rejoué en 1992 par l'Opéra de chambre de Moscou, en 2010 au Festival de Bregenz et en avril 2011 à Nancy par l'Orchestre national de Lorraine dans une version en russe.
Un peintre désargenté trouve de la peinture magique qui lui pose un dilemme.
Soit tracer sa propre voie d'artiste sur son seul talent ou s'aider de cette
peinture magique pour devenir riche et célèbre.
Il choisit de devenir riche et
célèbre mais au bout d'un certain temps se rend compte qu'il a fait le mauvais
choix.
Mieczysław Weinberg’s opera in three acts, Portret (The Portrait), will have its Polish premiere on 6 December 2013, at Teatr Wielki (Grand Theatre) in Poznań.
Directed by David Pountney, the current adaptation of
the original Portret (1980) previously
premiered at London's Lowry Theatre and was very well
received. U.K. based Opera North Production’s remake is
now coming to its homeland at the Teatr Wielki stage,
which has made significant historical contributions to
shaping the image of opera in Poland, recently
celebrating its 100th anniversary in the year 2010.
Inspired by Nikolai Gogol’s story of the same name
(1835), Weinberg composed the opera to
a libretto by Aleksander Miedwiediew. The first
performance of Portret was held in 1983
at the National Theatre in Brno, Czech Republic.
Independent on Sunday reviewed Opera North
Production's U.K. adaptation of Portret
as: “Musically subtle and tautly sung.”
Mieczysław Weinberg, also known as Wajnberg in
Polish (1919-1996), was born in to a Jewish family in
Warsaw. He lived and studied in Warsaw until his family
moved to the Soviet Union at the outbreak of war in
1944. Music experts from the former Soviet Union
considered Mieczysław Weinberg as one of the most
interesting composers after his mentor, Dmitri
Shostakovich. Apart from
Alexandre Tansman and Andrzej Panufnik, Weinberg was one of the few Polish
composers in exile, who managed to interest the most
outstanding performers in his music. His compositions
include several dozen symphonies, concerts, choral
pieces, chamber pieces and movie scores. In terms of the
opera, he is the author of as many as seven pieces –
The Passenger (1968), composed to the
libretto based on a short story by Zofia Posmysz,
D’Artagnan in love with the libretto
drawing on Alexandre Dumas’ novel, Well done!,
and other pieces based on the works of Bernard Shaw,
Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Nikolai Gogol.
The upcoming Poznań premiere on 6 December, 19:00 is
sung in Russian with Polish subtitles. The project is
financed by the Ministry of Culture and National
Heritage.
More information on the event.
Edited by E.M., 03/12/2013