De temporum fine comoedia | |
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mystery play by Carl Orff | |
Translation | A Play on the End of Time |
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Premiere |
De temporum fine comoedia (Latin for A Play on the End of Time) is a choral opera-oratorio by 20th-century German composer Carl Orff. His last large work, and a personal one, it took ten years to compile the text (1960 to 1970) and another two years to compose (1969 to 1971); he revised it in 1979 and again in 1981. Orff presents a mystery play summarizing his view of the end of time sung in Ancient Greek, Latin, and a German translation by Wolfgang Schadewaldt. [1] [2] De temporum fine comoedia was recorded before it was premiered. Herbert von Karajan conducted sessions from 16 to 21 July 1973 in a studio in Leverkusen-Wiesdorf, employing three choruses (the Tölzer Knabenchor, the RIAS Kammerchor and the Kölner Rundfunkchor) and the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra. The public and stage premiere took place at the Salzburg Festival a month later, on 20 August, with the same forces and stage direction by August Everding.
Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, 20 August 1973 [3] Conductor: Herbert von Karajan |
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1st Sibyl | soprano | Anna Tomowa-Sintow |
2nd Sibyl | soprano | Colette Lorand |
3rd Sibyl | soprano | Jane Marsh |
4th Sibyl | soprano | Kay Griffel |
5th Sibyl | soprano | Gwendolyn Killebrew |
6th Sibyl | soprano | Kari Løvaas |
7th Sibyl | mezzo-soprano | Heljä Angervo |
8th Sibyl | mezzo-soprano | Sylvia Anderson |
9th Sibyl | mezzo-soprano | Glenys Loulis |
1st Anachoret | tenor | Erik Geisen |
2nd Anachoret | tenor | Hans Wegmann |
3rd Anachoret | baritone | Hans Helm |
4th Anachoret | baritone | Wolfgang Anheisser |
5th Anachoret | baritone | Siegfried Rudolf Frese |
6th Anachoret | baritone | Hermann Patzalt |
7th Anachoret | baritone | Hannes Jokel |
8th Anachoret | bass | Anton Diakov |
9th Anachoret | bass | Boris Carmeli |
Voice | mezzo-soprano | Christa Ludwig |
Voice | tenor | Peter Schreier |
Chorus Leader | bass | Josef Greindl |
Luzifer | spoken | Hartmut Forche |
Prologue | spoken | Rolf Boysen |
This section needs additional citations for verification .(May 2011) |
The opera is in 3 parts, with each part having its own characters. Part 1 involves 9 Sibyls, represented by female singers.
Part 2 involves 9 anchorites, represented by male singers
There is also a children's choir, along with a tenor section that is heard on a magnetic tape.
Part 3 involves the following roles:
There is also a double chorus of sopranos and altos used near the end, as well as two soloists, tenor and contralto, to represent the "Vox Mundana". A children's choir is also used to represent the "Voces caelestes".
The music requires a very unusual, and possibly symmetrical orchestra:
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The percussion section, requiring about 25 to 30 players, consists of:
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The total forces used for the taped sections are
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There is also one spoken part, an echo of one of the sibyls' spoken dialogue, accompanied by wind machine.
The music on the magnetic tape is used in four different places, most notably at the end when Lucifer appears.
The first section is used in part 1, and requires the following instruments:
The second section, also used in part 1 utilizes the following:
The third section is used in part 2:
The fourth and final section is used towards the end of part 3. In Orff's final revision in 1981, this taped section was omitted and instead given to players in the orchestra:
Orff later made extensive revisions to De temporum fine comoedia with many changes in orchestration. In his 1981 revision the following instruments were added:
The following instruments were eliminated:
The modifications to the pre-recorded music consist of the addition of the following:
The omissions consisted of:
In addition to loud percussive passages, there are also as periods of calm piano and straight dialogue. In this culmination of his stage works, Orff almost abandons his diatonicism to chromaticism, which enriches and thickens the musical texture, and octatonicism.
As the play is about to finish, after the destruction of all worldly material, Satan asks for forgiveness and is restored to Angel Lucifer, thus forgiven. The unsettling chromaticism here ends and Bach's Before Thy Throne (Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiermit, BWV 668) strikes up in a canon from the four viols. This canon is pandiatonic and upon its completion, its mirror image is stated (that is the identical material played backward).
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