Chaya Czernowin (1957)

Zaïde / Adama (2004 -2005)

complement to Mozart's unfinished opera


stage work

  • General information
    • Composition date: 2004 - 2005
    • Duration: 2 h 10 mn
    • Publisher: Schott
    • Commission: Salzburger Festspiele
Detailed formation
  • soloists: solo soprano [Zaide] , 2 solo tenors [Gomatz ; Sultan Soliman] , 2 solo bass voices [Allazim ; Osmin] , speaking voice [Zaram, capitaine de la garde] , solo contralto [ Adama] , solo baritone [Mann] , solo bass voice [Vater]
  • ensemble of vocal soloists(4 solo tenor [esclaves]), men's choir à 5 voix [gardes]
  • 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, strings, flute (also piccolo, bass flute), 2 clarinets (also 2 Eb clarinets, 2 bass clarinets), trombone (also bass trombone), 2 percussionists, violin, viola, 2 cellos, 2 double basses

Premiere information

  • Date: 17 August 2006
    Location:

    Autriche, Salzburg, Landestheater, Salzburger Festspiele 2006


    Performers:

    Mojca Erdmann : soprano, Topi Lehtipuu : ténor, John Mark Ainsley : ténor, Johan Reuter : baryton, Renato Girolami : baryton, Noa Frenkel : alto, Yaron Windmüller : baryton, Andreas Fischer : basse, Ivor Bolton, Johannes Kalitzke : direction, Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, Österreichisches Ensemble für Neue Musik, mise en scène : Claus Guth, costumes : Christian Schmidt, décors et performance scénique : Christian Schmidt.

Observations

Détail de l'orchestration :

  • Mozart, Zaïde : 2.2.0.2 - 2.2.0.0 - timb. - cordes ;
  • Czernowin, Adama : deuxième chef d'orchestre requis, 1 (aussi picc. et fl. basse).0.2 (aussi en mi b et basses).0 - 0.0.1 (aussi trombone basse).0 - 2 perc. - cordes 1.0.1.2.2.

Détail des voix :

  • Mozart, Zaïde : Zaïde : soprano, Gomatz : ténor, Allazim : basse, Sultan Soliman: ténor, Osmin : basse, 4 esclaves : ténors, Zaram : chef des gardes : rôle parlé, les gardes : voix d'hommes.
  • Czernowin, Adama : Frau : contralto, Mann : baryton, Vater : basse, cinq voix d'hommes. Toutes les voix d'Adama sont légèrement amplifiées.

Enregistrement : Deutsche Grammophon, 2 dvds NTSC 073 425-2.

Program note

In the year 1779 Mozarts ZAIDE posed the question about the possibilities of a dialogue between the Occident and the Orient. This Singspiel is a kind of tragic version of Die Entführung aus dem Serail which has a happy and merciful ending and once again emphatically invokes the spirit of the Enlightenment. ZAIDE was never completed and exists only as a fragment. The overture, the dialogues and the finale are all missing and the outcome of the story remains unclear. The Israeli composer Chaya Czernowin has reacted to this. In her work ADAMA (Hebrew: adama = earth, adam = man, dam = blood) she composes an independent musical sound space and regards the subject from a contemporary perspective. Whereas ZAIDE describes the conflict between the civilisations using the story of a European couple who are in love and who are held in slavery in an alien Oriental country, the situation as described by Chaya Czernowin is intensified, touches on the question of freedom and imprisonment from a different dimension. The lovers themselves speak two languages and encounter each other as foreigners, as a man from Palestine and an Israeli woman. Adama is therefore not the completion of a Mozart fragment and the overall project ZAIDE / ADAMA is not a closed entirety. Through Adama it is much more a matter of trying to find corresponding and contradictory features in an incomplete historical work. The various musical spheres are interwoven and enter a dialogue. This interplay of sound opens up the possibility of hearing each different musical cosmos with purified ears and of perhaps discovering unforeseen common features.

Schott Music.