List of operas by Krenek

Last updated April 19, 2019

This is a list of the operas of the Austrian-born (later American) composer Ernst Krenek (1900–1991).

Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in Central Europe comprising 9 federated states. Its capital, largest city and one of nine states is Vienna. Austria has an area of 83,879 km² (32,386 sq mi), a population of nearly 9 million people and a nominal GDP of $477 billion. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The terrain is highly mountainous, lying within the Alps; only 32% of the country is below 500 m (1,640 ft), and its highest point is 3,798 m (12,461 ft). The majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects as their native language, and German in its standard form is the country's official language. Other regional languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slovene.

Ernst Krenek was an Austrian, later American, composer of Czech origin. He explored atonality and other modern styles and wrote a number of books, including Music Here and Now (1939), a study of Johannes Ockeghem (1953), and Horizons Circled: Reflections on my Music (1974). Krenek wrote two pieces using the pseudonym Thornton Winsloe.

Opus	Title	Genre	Subdivisions	Libretto	Composition	Première date	Place, theatre
14	ZwingburgDie Zwingburg	szenische Kantate	1 act	DemuthFritz Demuth and Franz Werfel	1922	1924-10-2020 October 1924	Berlin, Staatsoper
17	Sprung Der Sprung über den Schatten	komische Oper	3 acts	composer	1923	1924-06-099 June 1924	Frankfurt Opera
21	Orpheus und Eurydike	Schauspiel	3 acts	Kokoschka Oskar Kokoschka	1923	1926-11-2727 November 1926	Kassel, Staatstheater
36	Bluff	musikalische Komödie	3 acts	LevetzowCarl von Levetzow, after George Gribble	1924-25
45	Jonny spielt auf		2 acts	composer	1925	1927-02-1010 February 1927	Leipzig, Opera
49	Diktator Der Diktator	tragische Oper	1 act	composer	1926	1928-05-066 May 1928	Wiesbaden, Staatstheater
50	geheime Das geheime Königreich	Märchenoper	1 act	composer	1926-27	1928-05-066 May 1928	Wiesbaden, Staatstheater
55	Schwergewicht, oder Die Ehre der Nation	burleske Operette	1 act	composer		1927-11-055 November 1927	Cologne, Opera
60	Leben des Orest	grosse Oper	5 acts	composer	1928-29	1930-01-1919 January 1930	Leipzig, Neues Theater
66	Kehraus um St Stephan	Satire mit musik	2 acts	composer	1930	1990-12-066 December 1990	Vienna, Ronacher
73	Karl V	Bühnenwerk mit Musik	2 parts	composer	1931-33	1938-06-22first version: 22 June 1938; second version: 11 May 1958	Prague, Neues Deutsches Theater; Düsseldorf, Deutsche Oper am Rhein
77	Cefalo e Procri	fable	prologue and 3 scenes	KüfferleRinaldo Küfferle		1934-09-1515 September 1934	Venice, Teatro Goldoni
90	Tarquin	drama with music	2 parts	LaveryEmmet Lavery	1940-41	1950-07-1616 July 1950	Keulen, Städtische Bühnen
111	What Price Confidence?	komische Kammeroper	9 scenes	composer	1945-46	1962-05-2222 May 1962	Saarbrücken, Stadttheater
125	Dark Waters		1 act	composer	1950	1951-05-022 May 1951	Los Angeles, Bovard Auditorium
144	Pallas Athene weint		prologue and 3 acts	composer	1952-55	1955-10-1717 October 1955	Hamburg, Staatsoper
153	Bell The Bell Tower		1 act	composer, after Herman Melville	1955-56	1957-03-1717 March 1957	Urbana, Illinois, Lincoln Hall Theatre
179	Ausgerechnet und verspielt	Spieloper	1 act	composer		1962-07-2525 July 1962	Vienna, ORF
186	goldeneDer goldene Bock (Chrysomallos)		4 acts	composer	1962-63	1964-06-1616 June 1964	Hamburg, Staatsoper
192	ZauberspiegelDer Zauberspiegel	television opera	14 scenes	composer	1963-66	1967-09-066 September 1967	Munich, Bayerischer Rundfunk
206	Sardakai, oder Das kommt davon		11 scenes	composer	1967-69	1970-06-2727 June 1970	Hamburg, Staatsoper
217	Flaschenpost vom Paradies oder Der englische Ausflug	television opera		composer	1973	1974-03-088 March 1974	Vienna, ORF

Related Research Articles

Charles V may refer to:

Jonny spielt auf is a German-language opera with words and music by Austrian composer Ernst Krenek about a jazz violinist. The work typified the cultural freedom of the 'golden era' of the Weimar Republic.

Karl V. is an opera, described as a Bühnenwerk mit Musik by Ernst Krenek, his opus 73. The German libretto is by the composer.

Orpheus und Eurydike is an opera by Ernst Krenek. The German text is based on a play by Oskar Kokoschka. Kokoschka began writing his play during his convalescence and it premiered in 1921, one year before Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus appeared. In 1923 he let it be known that he was looking for a composer to write incidental music. Kokoschka's expressionist, psychological treatment of the Orpheus myth, marked by his passion for Alma Mahler, appealed to Krenek so he approached Kokoschka.

<i>Schwergewicht</i> opera by Ernst Krenek

Schwergewicht, oder Die Ehre der Nation is a burleske Operette with text and music by Ernst Krenek, his Op. 55 and the third of his 1928 one-acters. This satirical skit was provoked by the German ambassador's comment that sports heroes – and not artists – were the true ambassadors of nations, and the title character Ochsenschwanz ("oxtail") is a reference to the boxer Max Schmeling.

Der Diktator is a tragic opera in one act with words and music by Ernst Krenek, his Op. 49 and the first of three one-acters which premiered on 6 May 1928 in Wiesbaden as part of the Festspiele Wiesbaden. The score is inscribed with the date of completion, 28 August 1926.

Leben des Orest is a grand opera in five acts with words and music both by Ernst Krenek. It is his Op. 60 and the first of his own libretti with an antique setting. The score is inscribed with the dates of composition: 8 August 1928 – 13 May 1929, and includes indications of recommended cuts made for the first production. It premiered at the Neues Theater in Leipzig on 19 January 1930, and opened at the Kroll Opera House in Berlin in early March of the same year.

Tarquin is a chamber opera by Ernst Krenek to an English libretto by Emmet Lavery. Written in 1940, it is Krenek's only unpublished opera, though a premiere in German translation took place in 1950 in Cologne.

What Price Confidence? is a chamber opera in nine scenes with music and libretto by Ernst Krenek, his Op. 111. This "little drawing room comedy" is set in London at the turn of the 20th century, and features a protagonist not unlike Max in Jonny spielt auf, as the author points out in a preface; it owes something to Melville as well, as do his next two operas.

The Bell Tower is a chamber opera in one act by Ernst Krenek, his Op. 153. The English libretto by the composer was inspired by the novella story by Herman Melville, the events only mysteriously hinted at in the story becoming a point of departure for the explicit dramatic action of Krenek's piece. It was commissioned by the Fromm Foundation and written in 1955–56, receiving its premiere on 17 March 1957 at the University of Illinois.

Cefalo e Procri is a chamber opera in three scenes and a prologue by Ernst Krenek, his Op. 77, begun in 1933 and finished on 3 August 1934. The Italian libretto by Rinaldo Küfferle was commissioned by Universal Edition for the third Venice Festival. The half-hour work was revived at the Gran Teatro La Fenice in Venice in October 2017 as part of a short double-bill with a setting of the 'Lamento di Procri' by Silvia Colasanti, conducted by Tito Ceccherini.

Zeitoper was a short-lived genre of opera associated with Weimar Germany. It is not known when or by whom the term was coined, but by 1928 Kurt Weill was able to complain that it was more a slogan than a description. Like opera buffa it used contemporary settings and characters, comic or at least satiric plots and aimed at musical accessibility. Two distinguishing characteristics are a tendency to incorporate modern technology and frequent allusions to popular music, especially jazz. This last, more than any social satire, earned the suspicion of the political right and ensured that it would not survive into the Nazi era.

Krenek may refer to:

Jörg Dürmüller is a Swiss classical tenor in concert and opera.

Gladys Mercedes Nordenstrom was an American composer.

Sardakai, Op. 206, is a 1969 comic opera in two acts by Ernst Krenek which premiered in Hamburg in 1970. The "lightweight, fluffy farce", as Krenek described it, dealt with a Così fan tutte inspired scenario on the fictional South Seas island of Migo Migo. Krenek's libretto was intended to poke fun at both left and right wing "sacred cows". The premiere was a catastrophe, attributed by some contemporary and subsequent commentators to the Hamburg Opera director's decision to commission Krenek, who was living in California, to write his own libretto which proved to be out of touch with both the prevailing mood in Germany, and the situation at the Hamburg Opera.

Der Sprung über den Schatten is a 1924 opera by Ernst Krenek. The work parodied expressionism and psychoanalysis, and prefigured Jonny spielt auf in including jazz elements.

Das geheime Königreich is an opera in one act with words and music by Ernst Krenek, his Op. 50 and the second of three one-acters which premiered on 6 May 1928 at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden as part of the Mai-Festwoche Wiesbaden. It is subtitled Märchenoper in 1 Akt and has been called a satirical fairy-tale opera.

Ronald Hamilton is an American tenor who was born in Hamilton, Ohio, to a musical family. He began studying medicine first, but then opted for singing.

References

Sources

Purkis, Charlotte (1992b). "Krenek, Ernst". The New Grove Dictionary of Opera , ed. Stanley Sadie, 4 vols. London: Macmillan Press. ISBN 0-333-73432-7

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