''Der langwierige Weg in die Wohnung der Natascha Ungeheuer'' (''The Tedious Way to the Place of Natascha Ungeheuer'') is a

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography * Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...

by the German composer

Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large List of compositions by Hans Werner Henze, oeuvre is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Igor Stravinsky, Stravinsky, Mu ...

. It represents one of the most examples of his early

socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

-inspired works.

Overview

Described as a "show for 17", it is a setting of a

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...

based on the poetry collection by the Chilean poet Gaston Salvatore, who had been prominent in the

West German student movement The West German student movement (), sometimes called the 1968 movement in West Germany (), was a left-wing social movement that consisted of mass student protests in West Germany in 1968. Participants in the movement later came to be known as ...

of 1968 in Berlin."''Der langwierige Weg in die Wohnung der Natascha Ungeheuer''"
by Sean Tartaglia, ''The Hidden Repertoire'', 30 October 2015 It features a

baritone A baritone is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the bass (voice type), bass and the tenor voice type, voice-types. It is the most common male voice. The term originates from the ...

soloist, whose demanding role includes

sprechstimme (, "spoken singing") and (, "spoken voice"), more commonly known as speak-singing in English, are expressionist musical vocal techniques between singing and speaking. Though sometimes used interchangeably, is directly related to the operatic re ...

, screeches and spoken passages. He is accompanied by an organist,

jazz band A jazz band (jazz ensemble or jazz combo) is a musical ensemble that plays jazz music. Jazz bands vary in the quantity of its members and the style of jazz that they play but it is common to find a jazz band made up of a rhythm section and a ho ...

and a

chamber ensemble Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...

akin to that used in Schoenberg's '' Pierrot lunaire''. Additionally, a large battery of

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

is used as well as voices and music on tape, representing street noises of Berlin, and brief extracts from Verdi's ''

Aida ''Aida'' (or ''Aïda'', ) is a tragic opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo's Khedivial Opera House and had its première there on 24 De ...

'' and

Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism ...

's Fifth Symphony. The work is an

allegory As a List of narrative techniques, literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a wikt:narrative, narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political signi ...

: Natascha Ungeheuer (in English 'monster', 'ogre', but also a reference to the German painter ) is the "siren of a false

Utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', which describes a fictiona ...

" according to Salvatore. She lures the leftist intellectual into the cosy situation whereby they preach socialist values whilst essentially living the same

bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and Aristocracy (class), aristocracy. They are tradition ...

middle class The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. C ...

lifestyle, identifying with the

proletariat The proletariat (; ) is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian or a . Marxist ph ...

in words only. In a broadly analogous way to the temptation of Christ, Salvatore's hero resists the temptation to go all the way to Natascha's apartment, yet "has not yet discovered his way to the revolution". The work was premièred and broadcast by RAI Radio at the , Rome, on 17 May September 1971 with William Pearson as the soloist and the Gunter Hampel

Free Jazz Free jazz, or free form in the early to mid-1970s, is a style of avant-garde jazz or an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventi ...

Ensemble, the

Philip Jones Brass Ensemble The Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, founded in 1951 by trumpeter Philip Jones (musician), Philip Jones, was one of the first modern classical brass ensembles to be formed. The group played either as a quintet or as a ten-piece, for larger halls. It ...

and the Fires of London along with the percussionist Stomu Yamash'ta under Henze's direction."Work details"
ED 9518 ,

Schott Music Schott Music () is one of the oldest German music publishers. It is also one of the largest music publishing houses in Europe, and is the second-oldest music publisher after Breitkopf & Härtel. The company headquarters of Schott Music were foun ...

, London Recorded voices on tape were those of Dieter Schidor, , Gaston Salvatore and Henze. The first performance in Germany was at the

Deutsche Oper Berlin The Deutsche Oper Berlin is a German opera company located in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin. The resident building is the country's second largest opera house (after Munich's) and also home to the Berlin State Ballet. Since 2004, the ...

later that year. It was met with boos from the audience, which, Henze reflected, "was understandable nthat our portrait of Berlin caused displeasure" amongst the very intellectuals it savaged. The work was recorded soon after for

Deutsche Grammophon Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of ...

with the same forces.

Structure

The work consists of the following segments and lasts about one hour:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Langwierige Weg, Der Operas Chamber operas German-language operas Operas by Hans Werner Henze 1971 operas Operas based on literature

Overview

Structure

References

Further reading

External links