The Dutch National Opera brings 'Die ersten Menschen' from Rudi Stephan, a compelling work that blends late-Romantic intensity with psychological depth, making it a significant yet long forgotten gem of early 20th-century opera. In the enchanting world of post-Wagnerian opera, it is remarkable to notice that Wagner's influence may have been even greater outside the realm of opera than within it. Perhaps even more than in opera, Richard Wagner left his mark on the world beyond. In film, for example—a medium that did not yet exist during Wagner’s lifetime. Film music would draw directly and extensively from his use of leitmotifs. His influence can be heard in the soundtracks of the 20th and 21st centuries. While 20th-century operas distinguish themselves from Wagner, stepping beyond the boundaries of tonality (Berg, Schoenberg) and embracing extreme dissonance (Ligeti, Penderecki), creating more alienating and unpredictable listening experiences that stray from Wagner’s direct, expressive musical language, film music built upon Wagner's techniques in ways that many modern operas did not. Wagner’s influence on opera after him was, of course, still significant. Where his impact on German opera was undeniable, his influence on Italian opera was even nothing short of revolutionary. In response to Wagner, Italian opera underwent a profound transformation, resulting in fundamental stylistic adaptations. Verdi broke away from traditional number opera in Otello and Falstaff, while Puccini later used leitmotifs to create dramatic unity. Composers such as Pietro Mascagni (Cavalleria rusticana), Ruggero Leoncavallo (Pagliacci), and Umberto Giordano (Andrea Chénier) adopted Wagner’s orchestral richness and continuous musical flow, incorporating them into darker, psychologically charged dramas, influenced by Wagner’s intensity. This led to more through-composed forms, breaking away from rigid aria structures. The world of post-Wagnerian German opera is one of evolution rather than revolution. Composers such as Richard Strauss and Hans Pfitzner refined Wagnerian principles while developing their own styles. Richard Strauss expanded Wagnerian orchestration and chromaticism, with Elektra pushing harmonic tension toward modernism. Hans Pfitzner retained Wagner’s orchestral richness and leitmotifs but blended them with Renaissance polyphony in Palestrina. In the world after Tristan und Isolde, we also encounter names like Franz Schreker and Erich Wolfgang Korngold, who, after a period of being forgotten (canceled by the Nazis), have returned to considerable (Korngold) to moderate (Schreker) prominence. Another composer who was long forgotten is Rudi Stephan. In 1915, Stephan enlisted in the German army. "As long as nothing happens to my head—there are still so many beautiful things in it," he said to his mother upon departure. Ten days after leaving Worms, he was shot in the head by a bullet from a Russian sniper on the Eastern Front. "I can't bear it anymore," were his last words before, in an attempt to escape the horrors of war, he raised his head too far above the trench. A promising composer was tragically taken too soon. Stephan had already composed several orchestral works, as well as pieces for solo violin and ensembles. His opera Die ersten Menschen was his first major work and had just been completed when war broke out in 1914. It premiered posthumously in Frankfurt in 1920. Although a few performances followed, Stephan's name faded into oblivion. However, as a recent rediscovery shows, Die ersten Menschen is a fascinating addition to the early 20th-century opera repertoire. Its late-Romantic style aligns with the musical language of Max Reger and Franz Schreker but possesses enough individuality to suggest that Stephan would have developed in his own, unique direction. The libretto of Die ersten Menschen was written by Otto Borngräber, based on his own play of the same name. That play, an erotic mystery drama, was banned throughout the Kingdom of Bavaria after its first performance in Munich in 1912. Borngräber based the story on the biblical Genesis and the origins of humanity. Transforming biblical drama into opera was nothing new—Richard Strauss had proven its success with Salome (based on a play by Oscar Wilde, which itself was inspired by a short biblical passage). And a potential scandal only helped. (Strauss famously remarked that the “scandal of Salome” earned him a villa in Garmisch.) The opera begins when Adam and Eve have two adult sons, Cain and Abel. The characters are: Adahm (bass-baritone), Chawa (soprano), Kajin (baritone) and Chabel (lyric tenor). Adahm has grown with creation and is no longer the attractive young man Chawa once fell for. "But then the time came. I just grew on and out of me grew man," he sings. He plunges fully into farming and animal husbandry, while Chawa remains stuck in a phase dominated by primary, hormonal drifts. In the opera, she acts like a sensual, horny woman who feels trapped in her circumstances. Chabel experiences a revelation in which he discovers a higher power, bigger and older than Adahm, and names this being God. Thus, religion is born: the evolution from Homo Sapiens to Homo Religiosus. He demands a sacrifice and the construction of a temple (the sacrifice takes place by slitting the throat of a toy rabbit, embellished with stage blood). Chawa briefly finds meaning in this, but soon realizes that her situation remains unchanged. Adahm embraces Chabel’s religious vision but remains distant from Chawa. Kajin, on the other hand, fiercely resists. He does not desire a god but a wild, untamed woman. When Chawa mistakes her son Chabel for the young Adahm in the dark, and Chabel is drawn to her, the situation escalates. Kajin, who has long desired his mother, sees in her the wild woman he craves. When Chabel is once again favored, Kajin loses control: he kills his brother and has sex with his mother. Chawa’s desires are unintentionally fulfilled, but the death of her favorite son overshadows everything. This tragedy brings Chawa and Adahm back together; they essentially begin humanity anew. Kajin is banished to the forest, where he continues his search for a woman. Director Calixto Bieito focuses entirely on the sexual tensions and neuroses of Chawa and her sons. Bieito more often seeks extremes in his productions and often this flattens the richness and versatility of the source material. This is also the case here. Perhaps surprisingly, I found his Parsifal in Germany some years ago - in which he set the grail knights in a post-apocalyptic world, like a kind of Parsifal episode of The Walking Dead, one of the few productions in which his approach really worked (perhaps because he really went all-out there). The action largely takes place around a table, the stage for conflict and desires. Initially, the table is laden with fruits and flowers, but as the drama progresses, the scene becomes increasingly chaotic. (“Don’t play with your food,” is what your parents always said—but the first humans don’t care.) Annette Dasch shines as Chawa, a woman driven by lust and frustration. Her acting, as always expressive, and singing make her a perfect fit for the role. She moves seductively across the table, while Adahm, played by bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen, remains stoic, focusing on his work—on his laptop. Ketelsen convincingly portrays the distant father, while his sons, initially dressed neatly in tuxedos, slowly lose control. Leigh Melrose as Kajin masterfully brings the role of the rejected child to life. In the Bible, his sacrifice is refused, while Chabel's is accepted. In the opera, it is the parents' stated preference for the gentle Chabel that drives him to anger. Along with dreamy and unworldly acting, John Osborn's impressive, lyrical singing makes him a perfectly cast Chabel. As far as I am concerned, the standout in a very strongly cast performance. That performance takes place on the front stage, with the orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Kwamé Ryan, placed behind a translucent cloth on the back stage. Die ersten Menschen is a fascinating opera that digs deep into human instincts and the primal history of humanity. The drama of the opera deliciously chafes against the drama of the daily news - a drama that is cold, unpleasant and disturbing - and slowly massages it away with a music whose tingling chromaticism, while certainly not shunning the grand gesture, has a pleasing sense of understatement. Music, art must be about something, always, and all the way now, it must have substance, it must be the real thing. And Stephan's opera has that. An opera that besides offering titillating, full-blooded drama has the added drama of a composer who saw the promise of everything he had left in him broken in the bud. Die ersten Menschen, Rudi Stephan / Dutch National Opera, Amsterdam, 24 January 2025 Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor: Kwamé Ryan Director: Calixto Bieito Adahm:Kyle Ketelsen Chawa: Annette Dasch Kajin:Leigh Melrose Chabel:John Osborn - Wouter de Moor
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January 2025
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