Olaf Schubert Live - So!

Place: Bruges, Belgium, called the Dead City (die tote Stadt) for its pious gloom Time: End of 19th century Background: Paul lives in his house in Bruges where his young wife, Marie, had died some years before. The gothic image of the city with its long abandoned waterways, churches and cloisters provides a mystical background to the opera, with its themes of past memories and images of afterlife. Paul has not come to terms with the reality of her death. He keeps a Kirche des Gewesenen (Temple of the Past) in her honor, a locked room including keepsakes, including photographs, a lute, and a lock of her hair. Until the action of the opera begins, no one had been in the room except him and his housekeeper Brigitta. Brigitta and Paul's friend Frank are concerned about his continuing obsession with his dead wife's memory and in particular his fetishism about her hair, which he had removed and kept. Structure: The opera is in three acts, each divided into a prelude and scenes. Act 1 (in six scenes) Brigitta is showing the locked room to Frank, an old friend of Paul's, who is in Bruges on a visit. She explains that only the day before, Paul had unexpectedly announced the room could be open again. Paul arrives, excitedly insisting that Marie still lives. He tells Frank that the day before he met a woman on the streets of Bruges who exactly resembles Marie (indeed, Paul wants to believe she is Marie resurrected) and has invited her back to his home. Frank leaves, promising to return shortly. The woman, whose name is Marietta, appears for her rendezvous with Paul. She is in Bruges as a dancer in an opera company performing Meyerbeer's Robert le diable, in which she plays the part of Helena. She invites him to come to the theatre to see her dance. Without explaining his motivation, he gives her a scarf to put on and a lute, recreating a photograph of Marie. He asks her to sing a song that Marie used to sing (Lute Song, "Glück, das mir verblieb" – Happiness with me remains), joining in on the second verse, which ends with the words Glaub, es gibt ein Auferstehen (believe, there is a resurrection). They hear some of her opera company colleagues pass by in the street. Marietta wants to go wave at them but Paul stops her, fearing scandal if the neighbors should see her in his rooms. She dances for him ("O Tanz, o Rausch") – Oh dance, oh bliss), but breaks off with the excuse that she must leave for rehearsal, hinting that he might seek and find her again. Paul meanwhile is driven into a state of extreme anxiety. Torn between his loyalty to Marie and his interest in Marietta he collapses into a chair and begins to hallucinate. He sees Marie's ghost step out of her portrait. She urges him to admit he is tempted by the other woman. Act 2 (in four scenes) From this point in the story until almost the end of the opera, the events are all part of a vision taking place in Paul's mind. It is a moonlit evening. Paul is standing alongside a canal, outside the solitary house where Marietta lives. The door is locked. He has given in to his passion for her, though he views it as a sin. A group of nuns passes, among whom is Brigitta dressed as a novice. She tells Paul that she has left him because of his sin and passes on. Frank appears, and Paul realizes that they are rivals for Marietta's affection when Frank shows him he has the key to her house. Paul seizes the key from him and Frank passes on. Paul retreats to watch from a distance as boats come down the canal, bearing members of the opera company, among them Viktorin (the stage manager), Fritz (the Pierrot), Count Albert (a wealthy hanger-on) as well as others who all come off the boats. Viktorin sings a serenade to the still unseen Marietta. Marietta herself then appears and explains that she missed the rehearsal because she was not in the mood for it and had slipped away. She flirts with the Count, and it is suggested may be having an affair with Gaston. At her request, Fritz sings a nostalgic song ("Mein Sehnen, mein Wähnen" – My yearnings, my fantasies). Marietta proposes that they rehearse the notorious ballet from Robert le diable in which nuns rise seductively from their graves, with herself as the head nun Helena. As they begin the enactment, Paul can bear it no longer and comes out of hiding to confront the group. Marietta defuses the situation by sending the others away. They have a tense quarrel during which Marietta finally realizes that Paul's obsession with her stems from her resemblance to his dead wife. She insists that he love her for herself; they go together to Paul's house where she intends to break the hold of the dead Marie. Act 3 (in three scenes) Paul's vision continues. Back in his house, where he and Marietta have spent the night, it is the morning of a religious festival, the Procession of the Holy Blood which is held on Ascension Day in Bruges. Paul watches the festival procession from a window in the Temple of the Past, but does not want Marietta alongside him for fear someone outside should see them together. Marietta confronts Marie, suggesting she leave. In his anxiety Paul imagines the procession is passing through the room. Marietta is increasingly impatient and starts to taunt him by dancing seductively while stroking his dead wife's hair. In a rage, Paul grabs the lock of hair and strangles Marietta with it. Staring at her dead body, he exclaims "Now she is exactly like Marie." Paul awakens from his vision and as he recognizes the real world around him, he is astonished that Marietta's body is nowhere to be found. Brigitta enters and informs him that Marietta has come back to pick up her umbrella which she left at the house when she departed just a few minutes earlier. Marietta enters, retrieves her umbrella and departs just as Frank returns as he had promised in Act I. Paul tells Frank he will not see Marietta again. Frank announces he is leaving Bruges, and asks if Paul will come too, to which he replies, "I will try". The opera ends with Paul's reprise of "Glück, das mir verblieb", with the last words now "Here, there is no resurrection". He realises that through his dream it is time to leave Marie and move on. Paul gives the room a farewell glance as the curtain falls. ^ Korngold 1921a. ^ Schott 1921. ^ Mourby 2013.