FULL Der verlorene Vater (Helmer) Hamburg 2022
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Der verlorene Vater
- Composer: Helmer Benjamin
- Libretto: Jari Niesner, based on Fyodor Dostoevsky Libretto Text, Libretto Index
- Venue & Opera Company: Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, Germany
- Recorded: July 2022
- Type: Staged Opera Live
- Singers: Javid Wunsch, Taras Semenov, Marcia Lemke-Kern, Tom Kessler, Chun-Kai Hsu
- Conductor: Constantin Schiffner
- Orchestra: Instrumental Ensemble
- Stage Director: Jari Niesner
- Stage Designer: Iris Holstein
- Costume Designer: Caroline Packenius
Information about the Recording
- Published by: Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg
- Date Published: 2022
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: nosubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s famous text “The Grand Inquisitor” serves as the material for a microtonal chamber opera in six scenes. In his wide-ranging epic story The Brothers Karamazov (1880), from which the text comes, the writer strives for a comprehensive social picture of the Tsarist Empire in the 19th century. The chapter in question centers on a fictional story in which Jesus returns at the time of the Spanish Inquisition and is to be burned as a heretic. The encounter between the Grand Inquisitor and Jesus can also be understood as a generational conflict. In view of the political developments of the past decade, the material seems more topical than ever.
In our adaptation, Jesus is transformed into the father of a family of four. When the older son Kaspar learns that his father, who is a musician, has turned down a lucrative contract with a label, he is deeply outraged and upset. After his mother finally leaves his father and frustrated by his simple and apparently indifferent life, he slips into despair and the drug milieu. These events, which from today’s point of view took place about 25 years ago, form the inner story of the chamber opera. The background story tells of the sudden return of the father, who wants to visit his family after a long ban. Will reconciliation succeed after a long time?