Hans Gál Die Heilige Ente

[BerlinExpat]

Hans Gál
Concertino für Violine und Streichorchester op. 52
Erez Ofer, Violine
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin
Leitung: Frank Beermann
Produktion: Deutschlandfunk Kultur 2016

7 March 2020 at 19.30 in Deutschlandfunk Kultur

Live from the theatre in Heidelberg

Hans Gál
,,Die heilige Ente – ein Spiel mit Göttern und Menschen"
Oper in einem Vorspiel und drei Akten
Libretto: Karl Michael von Levetzow und Leo Feld

Mandarin – Ipča Ramanović
Li – Carly Owen
Kuli Yang – Winfrid Mikus
Tänzerin – Hye-Sung Na
Gaukler – James Homann
Bonze – Wilfried Staber
Haushofmeister – Joao Terleira
Chor und Extrachor des Theaters und Orchesters Heidelberg
Philharmonisches Orchester Heidelberg
Conductor: Dietger Holm

A moment of carelessness puts poor Kuli Yang in dire straits. During a forbidden look at Li, the mandarin's wife, the duck that he has to deliver to the court is stolen. Yang faces the death penalty, when the gods intervene and swap heads of coolie and mandarin. In this way, Yang manages to save his life, enjoy Li's love and repeal restrictive laws. But when he also wants to abolish the gods, it becomes too colourful for them! They cancel the exchange, but nothing will be as it was before. And where did the duck go?

[eschiss1]

... Ok, I have to answer:
"Into a Marx Brothers movie." (but... vi?)
That said, I'm intrigued. Thankee!

[Sharkkb8]

    very good!

[mikehopf]

C'est un canard!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJMYmBBhU9k

[Gareth Vaughan]

Was it a mandarin duck?

[BerlinExpat]

Some more background information from the publisher:
After Hans Gál achieved a remarkable success with his debut opera The Doctor of Sobeide in Breslau in 1919, the Duesseldorf City Theater was ready four years later to accept the composer's second opera for its premiere. Under the direction of Georg Széll, this three-act opera, which was already recommended by its witty and graceful text, received such a friendly reception that a whole series of German opera stages immediately included it in their programme. Gál's first two operas belong to the cheerful genre. The sacred duck hovers in an atmosphere of humour and irony.
Early in 1925, Hans Gutman wrote on the occasion of the first performance in Berlin: the harmony of this score as well as its timbres show the orchestra as it developed in the course of the 19th century, before being masterly handled by masters such as Strauss and Mahler. Gál also knows how to use the means of this large body of sound, to indicate the exotic milieu of the plot harmoniously through fifths and octaves (the recognized signs of such an environment) and the use of the whole scale, while he knows how to emphasize the fat celebrations of his material through the gong. The score is successful, the vocal melody is not (as so often in post-Wagnerian production) written against the voices.

PS. Sorry I got the wrong duck, it's a sacred and not a holy one. I've therefore amended the subject bar. I guess, Gareth, Mandarins only eat mandarin ducks.

[mikehopf]

This Saturday on Deutschland Radio... coming with a quack and a waddle and a quack:

Opernbühne: Live aus der Oper Heidelberg

Hans Gál
,,Die heilige Ente – ein Spiel mit Göttern und Menschen" Oper in einem Vorspiel und drei Akten
Libretto: Karl Michael von Levetzow und Leo Feld
Mandarin – Ipča Ramanović
Li – Carly Owen Kuli
Yang – Winfrid Mikus
Tänzerin – Hye-Sung Na
Gaukler – James Homann
Bonze – Wilfried Staber
Haushofmeister – Joao Terleira
Chor und Extrachor des Theaters und Orchesters
Heidelberg Philharmonisches Orchester Heidelberg
Leitung: Dietger Holm

[der79sebas]

This opera was a great success in 1923 and has been forgotten for a long time. Since it has not been performed in total after WWII, there exist only two highly unsatisfying (and non commercial) recordings: a 60 min version with piano and a 50 min version for chamber orchestra as children's opera (which it isn't). So, let us all record the radio broadcast and hope that cpo will produce the piece as has been done with Gals "Lied der Nacht".
The weblink for the internet stream is (for recording with the vlc media player):
http://st02.dlf.de/dlf/02/128/mp3/stream.mp3

[Droosbury]

Will someone please record this and make available in the Downloads section? I have wanted to hear this piece ever since I heard about it 30 years ago!
Many thanks in anticipation.

[Wheesht]

SWR radio will re-broadcast the recording on 24 May, 8.03 pm CET.

[DK]

DFK has this available on demand at the moment:
https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/live-aus-heidelberg-oper-von-hans-gal-die-heilige-ente-ein.1091.de.html?dram:article_id=471914

[Wheesht]

That's just an excerpt, due to copyright reasons, of just under 17', though – plus what they broadcast during the intermission.

[Wheesht]

Just a reminder that the broadcast is tomorrow, Sunday 24 May at 20.03 CET on SWR 2 .

[Droosbury]

I'm just wondering if anyone managed to record the Heidleberg performance of this back in the spring? And if so, might they be able to share it?

[Wheesht]

I recorded this broadcast and could try uploading a copy to our downloads section, but I'd need some time to do so - and possibly change it into another format first.