Word: soldaten
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...Soldaten was conceived in 1958 as a gigantic, multimedia opera designed for Zimmermann's vision of a "theater of the future." The composer projected a vast structure containing twelve stages; all the stages would simultaneously present action set in the past, present or future, thus abolishing the traditional dramatic unities of time and space. But officials of the Cologne Opera, which had commissioned the piece, convinced Zimmermann that his idea was unperformable, so he scaled it down to the proportions of a conventional opera house-though he retained a split-level stage and the use of film...
...seduction and degradation of a middle-class girl, Marie, by a group of soldiers, among others. The opera's connections with Berg's Wozzeck and Lulu are obvious. Wozzeck too is about soldiers and their sordid love lives and has a heroine named Marie; like Die Soldaten, it is constructed in 15 self-contained, even aphoristic, scenes. Lulu-like Die Soldaten, a twelve-tone opera-similarly features a heroine who ends up a common prostitute. Zimmermann deliberately invoked the shade of his illustrious predecessor; the challenge he set himself was to improve upon the originals. That he failed...
...that Die Soldaten lacks arresting moments. The brutal prelude mixes the Dies irae with an orchestral primal scream, propelled by a relentless pounding of timpani that recalls the opening of the Brahms First Symphony. Along the way, several of the ensembles are strikingly crafted, such as a dramatically dilatory but musically effective trio for Marie (Phyllis Hunter), her sister Charlotte (Beverly Morgan) and a haughty but generous countess (RoseMarie Freni). And the final scene, in which civilization explodes in a brilliant burst of light and a final crash of the drums, is chilling...
...given in one sentence: Opera as total theater! In other words: architecture, sculpture, painting, musical theater, spoken theater, ballet, film, microphone, television, tape and sound techniques, electronic music, concrete music, circus, the musical and all forms of motion theater combine to form the phenomenon of pluralistic opera. In my Soldaten I have attempted to take decisive steps in this direction...
...fell far short. Given the present-day disinclination of opera houses to produce untried, experimental and expensive new works, as well as a changing musical aesthetic that now looks upon serialism merely as a compositional tool and not an end in itself, it is unlikely that Die Soldaten will spawn any successors. -By Michael Walsh