| Vincent | |
|---|---|
| Opera by Einojuhani Rautavaara | |
 Vincent van Gogh, the title character, Self-Portrait with Pipe | |
| Librettist | Rautavaara |
| Language | Finnish |
| Premiere | |
Vincent is an opera in three acts by Einojuhani Rautavaara first performed in 1990. The libretto is by the composer, and consists of scenes from the life of the artist Vincent van Gogh, told in retrospect. [1]
Vincent, the composer’s fourth full-length opera, was first performed at the Helsinki Opera House on 17 May 1990. The idea of the piece emerged when Jorma Hynninen, showing a photo of himself to Rautavaara, asked the composer who he looked like. The answer was Van Gogh; Hynninen created the title role, and recorded it the same year. [2] German performances took place in Kiel and Hagen in the following year. [3] Told in flashback, the opera revolves around Vincent’s relationships with the prostitute Maria, his fellow painter Paul Gauguin and his brother Theo. The orchestral preludes are named after three of Van Gogh’s paintings. The score covers both serialism and tonal writing, with colourful orchestration. [1] Rautavaara used some material from the opera in his 6th symphony Vincentiana.
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast, 17 May 1990, (Conductor: Fuat Mansurov) |
|---|---|---|
| Vincent | baritone | Jorma Hynninen |
| Theo | tenor | Matti Heinikari |
| Paul Gauguin | bass | Marko Putkonen |
| Maria Hoornik | mezzo-soprano | Eeva-Liisa Saarinen |
| Gaby | soprano | Sini Rautavaara |
| Rachel | mezzo-soprano | |
| Magdalena | alto | |
| Secretary, Clerk, Artist | mezzo-soprano | |
| Chaplain, Chief Preacher, Aesthete | tenor | |
| Chief Warder, Chief of Police, Critic | baritone | |
| Doctor Rey, Foreman, Professor | bass | |
After an orchestral prelude (Starry Night), the first act opens in the mental hospital of Saint-Rémy, amidst the sounds of the other inmates, along with Doctor Rey, his secretary, the hospital priest and chief guard. Vincent hears voices and his mind is cast back to his childhood. When called to supper Vincent offers twelve other patients his flesh and blood, but they flee, terrified. Vincent recalls his art and his friendship with his brother Theo. Next Vincent has visions of a mining accident in the village of Borinage, followed by other incidents from his childhood, and then Maria Hoornik. After recalling a meeting where Vincent, as a lay preacher, gives a political and religious sermon, and its aftermath, he promises sun and light for those in darkness. The act closes with an extended duet for Theo and Gaby reflecting on spirit and inspiration.
The second act is prefaced by another orchestral section ( Wheatfield with Crows ), and the scene changes to an art exhibition where a professor, an artist, an aesthete and a critic discuss the works. After an argument between Paul and Maria, she tells Vincent to look in the mirror to see lies in his reflection. Vincent smashes the mirror; Maria goes, and the critics turn on Vincent. After they have gone, against Theo’s advice Paul incites Vincent to experience visions, but stops before these go too far. But the room changes into a bordello, with the women as the professionals of the house and the critics providing entertainment. When they all go upstairs, Vincent is prey to feelings of solitude. He paints a door on the wall, and through it, Gaby enters. They begin to dance and others return, and as the waltz becomes more ecstatic Vincent cuts off his ear, as an offering to the sun. The others reject him and a flock of blackbirds circles around him, blocking out the light.
Act 3 (Epilogue) opens with an orchestral prelude ( The Church at Auvers ). Back in the hospital in Saint-Remy Vincent shows his latest painting to Doctor Rey, but the doctor declines, afraid of the ridicule the possession of such a piece would bring. The guard and secretary also refuse but the priest takes it, hoping to sell it to get money for good works. His last monologue moves from disillusion to love for the visions of life, and slowly other voices join in; he finishes praising the sun, summer and life.
Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch post-impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of which date from the last two years of his life. They include landscapes, still lifes, portraits and self-portraits, and are characterised by bold colours and dramatic, impulsive and expressive brushwork that contributed to the foundations of modern art. He was not commercially successful, and his suicide at 37 came after years of mental illness, depression and poverty.
Einojuhani Rautavaara was a Finnish composer of classical music. He is among the most notable Finnish composers since Jean Sibelius (1865–1957).
Portrait of Dr. Gachet is one of the most revered paintings by the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh. It depicts Dr. Paul Gachet, a homeopathic doctor and artist with whom van Gogh resided following a spell in an asylum at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Gachet took care of Van Gogh during the final months of his life. There are two authenticated versions of the portrait, both painted in June 1890 at Auvers-sur-Oise. Both show Gachet sitting at a table and leaning his head on his right arm, but they are easily differentiated in color and style. There is also an etching.
The Starry Night is an oil on canvas painting by Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. Painted in June 1889, it depicts the view from the east-facing window of his asylum room at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, just before sunrise, with the addition of an imaginary village. It has been in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City since 1941, acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest. Widely regarded as Van Gogh's magnum opus, The Starry Night is one of the most recognized paintings in Western art.
The Church at Auvers is an oil painting created by Dutch post-impressionist artist Vincent van Gogh in June 1890 which now hangs in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, France.
There is no consensus on Vincent van Gogh's health. His death in 1890 is generally accepted to have been a suicide. Many competing hypotheses have been advanced as to possible medical conditions from which he may have suffered. These include epilepsy, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, sunstroke, acute intermittent porphyria, lead poisoning, Ménière's disease, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, substance use disorder, non suicidal self injury disorder "self-harm", and a possible anxiety disorder.
Sorrowing Old Man is an oil painting by Vincent van Gogh that he made in 1890 in Saint-Rémy de Provence based on an early lithograph. The painting was completed in early May at a time when he was convalescing from a severe relapse in his health some two months before his death, which is generally accepted as a suicide.
Copies by Vincent van Gogh form an important group of paintings executed by Vincent van Gogh between 1887 and early 1890. While at Saint-Paul asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France, where Van Gogh admitted himself, he strived to have subjects during the cold winter months. Seeking to be reinvigorated artistically, Van Gogh did more than 30 copies of works by some of his favorite artists. About twenty-one of the works were copies after, or inspired by, Jean-François Millet. Rather than replicate, Van Gogh sought to translate the subjects and composition through his perspective, color, and technique. Spiritual meaning and emotional comfort were expressed through symbolism and color. His brother Theo van Gogh would call the pieces in the series some of his best work.
The Wheat Field is a series of oil paintings executed by Vincent van Gogh in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. All of them depict the view Van Gogh had from the window of his bedroom on the top floor of the asylum: a field enclosed by stone walls just beneath his window and excluded from normal life by the rear wall of the asylum grounds; beyond this enclosure farm land, accompanied by olive groves and vineyards, ran up to the hills at the foot of the mountain range called Les Alpilles.
This is a list that shows references made to the life and work of Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) in culture.
Dr. Gachet's Garden in Auvers and Marguerite Gachet in the Garden were both painted in 1890 by Vincent van Gogh in the gardens of his homeopathic physician, Dr. Paul Gachet. Both paintings reside at the Musée d'Orsay.
Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Rémy is a collection of paintings that Vincent van Gogh made when he was a self-admitted patient at the Saint-Paul asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, since renamed the Clinique Van Gogh, from May 1889 until May 1890. During much of his stay there he was confined to the grounds of the asylum, and he made paintings of the garden, the enclosed wheat field that he could see outside his room and a few portraits of individuals at the asylum. During his stay at Saint-Paul asylum, Van Gogh experienced periods of illness when he could not paint. When he was able to resume, painting provided solace and meaning for him. Nature seemed especially meaningful to him, trees, the landscape, even caterpillars as representative of the opportunity for transformation and budding flowers symbolizing the cycle of life. One of the more recognizable works of this period is The Irises. Works of the interior of the hospital convey the isolation and sadness that he felt. From the window of his cell he saw an enclosed wheat field, the subject of many paintings made from his room. He was able to make but a few portraits while at Saint-Paul.
Hospital at Arles is the subject of two paintings that Vincent van Gogh made of the hospital in which he stayed in December 1888 and again in January 1889. The hospital is located in Arles in southern France. One of the paintings is of the central garden between four buildings titled Garden of the Hospital in Arles ; the other painting is of a ward within the hospital titled Ward of the Hospital in Arles. Van Gogh also painted a Portrait of Dr. Félix Rey his physician while in the hospital.
The Letters of Vincent van Gogh refers to a collection of 903 surviving letters written (820) or received (83) by Vincent van Gogh. More than 650 of these were from Vincent to his brother Theo. The collection also includes letters van Gogh wrote to his sister Wil and other relatives, as well as between artists such as Paul Gauguin, Anthon van Rappard and Émile Bernard.
Enclosed Field with Peasant is an oil painting by Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh, painted around 12 October 1889. The Size 30 painting, measuring 73 cm × 92 cm, depicts a scene of a ploughed field near the asylum at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, with a lilac bush, a peasant carrying a wheatsheaf, several buildings, and the Alpilles mountains rising behind, with a small patch of sky. Van Gogh considered it a pendant painting to The Reaper executed earlier in 1889. It is currently part of the permanent collection at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
Green Wheat Field with Cypress is an oil-on-canvas painting by Dutch Post-Impressionist Vincent van Gogh. It is held by the National Gallery Prague, displayed at the Veletržní palác in the district of Holešovice, where the painting is known as Zelené obilí.
Houses at Auvers is an oil painting by Vincent van Gogh, painted towards the end of May or beginning of June 1890, shortly after he had moved to Auvers-sur-Oise, a small town northwest of Paris, France.
Rain is an oil-on-canvas painting by Vincent van Gogh, created in 1889, while he was a voluntary patient at an asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. He repeatedly painted the view through the window of his room, depicting the colours and shades of the fields and hills around Saint-Rémy as they appeared at various times of day and in varying weather conditions. Rain measures 73.3 cm × 92.4 cm and is held by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the United States.
Lilac Bush is a May 1889 oil on canvas painting by Vincent van Gogh, produced during his stay in Saint-Rémy. It is now in the Hermitage Museum.
A Turkish language opera of 1956 by Nevit Kodallı, Van Gogh
