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'''''The Baden-Baden Lesson on Consent''''' ({{lang-de|Badener Lehrstück vom Einverständnis}}) is a ''[[Lehrstücke|Lehrstück]]'' by the German dramatist [[Bertolt Brecht]], written in collaboration with [[Slatan Dudow]] and [[Elisabeth Hauptmann]].<ref>Brecht (1997, 22)</ref> Under the title ''Lehrstück'' it was first performed with music by [[Paul Hindemith]] as part of the [[Donaueschingen Festival|Baden-Baden festival]] on 28 July [[1929 in literature#New drama|1929]], at the Stadthalle, [[Baden-Baden]], directed by Brecht, with costumes by [[Heinz Porep]].<ref>Willett (1967, 35) and (1997, 22, 326).</ref>
'''''The Baden-Baden Lesson on Consent''''' ({{lang-de|Badener Lehrstück vom Einverständnis}}) is a ''[[Lehrstücke|Lehrstück]]'' by the German dramatist [[Bertolt Brecht]], written in collaboration with [[Slatan Dudow]] and [[Elisabeth Hauptmann]].<ref>Brecht (1997, 22)</ref> Under the title ''Lehrstück'' it was first performed with music by [[Paul Hindemith]] as part of the [[Donaueschingen Festival|Baden-Baden festival]] on 28 July [[1929 in literature#New drama|1929]], at the Stadthalle, [[Baden-Baden]], directed by Brecht, with costumes by [[Heinz Porep]].<ref>Willett (1967, 35) and (1997, 22, 326).</ref>


Brecht's programme note described the work as unfinished and as the "product of various theories of a musical, dramatic and political nature aiming at the [[collective]] practice of the arts".<ref>Willett (1997, 325).</ref> The 50-minute piece was conceived as a multi-media performance, including scenes of physical knockabout [[clown]]ing, [[Choir|choral]] sections and a short [[film]] by Carl Koch, ''Dance of Death'', featuring [[Valeska Gert]] (Mrs Peachum in [[Georg Wilhelm Pabst|G. W. Pabst's]] 1931 film ''[[The Threepenny Opera (1931 film)|The Threepenny Opera]]''), which Brecht described as "one of the performers".<ref>Willett (1997, 325–326) and (1964, 80), and [http://www.schott-music.com/shop/9/show,192754.html Schott Music website, accessed 21 January 2008]. See also ([http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valeska_Gert German Wiki page] on [[Valeska Gert]].)</ref>
Brecht's programme note described the work as unfinished and as the "product of various theories of a musical, dramatic and political nature aiming at the [[collective]] practice of the arts".<ref>Willett (1997, 325).</ref> The 50-minute piece was conceived as a multi-media performance, including scenes of physical knockabout [[clown]]ing, [[Choir|choral]] sections and a short film, ''Dance of Death'' by [[Valeska Gert]], which Brecht described as "one of the performers".<ref>Willett (1997, 325–326) and Brecht (1964, 80), and [http://www.schott-music.com/shop/9/show,192754.html Schott Music website, accessed 21 January 2008]. See also ([http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valeska_Gert German Wiki page] on [[Valeska Gert]], who also played Mrs Peachum in [[Georg Wilhelm Pabst|G. W. Pabst's]] 1931 film adaptation of ''[[The Threepenny Opera (1931 film)|The Threepenny Opera]]''.</ref>


Along with its companion, the [[radio play]] ''[[The Flight across the Ocean|Lindbergh's Flight]]'', the piece was offered as an example of a new [[genre]], "the teaching-play or ''Lehrstück''", in which the traditional division between actor and audience is abolished; the piece is intended for its participants only.<ref>Willett (1997, 330) and Mueller (1994). The final chorus of ''Lindbergh's Flight'' appears at the beginning of ''The Baden-Baden Lesson on Consent''. See Willett (1967, 134).</ref> "Cruelty, violence and death" are explored by the play, which "broaches the subject of complicity between the helper and the forces of power and violence."<ref>Mueller (1994, 85).</ref> The action concerns a wrecked flight crew being brought to terms with their non-existence. While the pilot complains that he must not die, the others accept that their significance lies in being anonymous parts of a larger whole.
Along with its companion, the [[radio play]] ''[[The Flight across the Ocean|Lindbergh's Flight]]'', the piece was offered as an example of a new [[genre]], "the teaching-play or ''Lehrstück''", in which the traditional division between actor and audience is abolished; the piece is intended for its participants only.<ref>Willett (1997, 330) and Mueller (1994). The final chorus of ''Lindbergh's Flight'' appears at the beginning of ''The Baden-Baden Lesson on Consent''. See Willett (1967, 134).</ref> "Cruelty, violence and death" are explored by the play, which "broaches the subject of complicity between the helper and the forces of power and violence."<ref>Mueller (1994, 85).</ref> The action concerns a wrecked flight crew being brought to terms with their non-existence. While the pilot complains that he must not die, the others accept that their significance lies in being anonymous parts of a larger whole.

Revision as of 16:41, 22 January 2009

Template:Hindemith operas The Baden-Baden Lesson on Consent (Template:Lang-de) is a Lehrstück by the German dramatist Bertolt Brecht, written in collaboration with Slatan Dudow and Elisabeth Hauptmann.[1] Under the title Lehrstück it was first performed with music by Paul Hindemith as part of the Baden-Baden festival on 28 July 1929, at the Stadthalle, Baden-Baden, directed by Brecht, with costumes by Heinz Porep.[2]

Brecht's programme note described the work as unfinished and as the "product of various theories of a musical, dramatic and political nature aiming at the collective practice of the arts".[3] The 50-minute piece was conceived as a multi-media performance, including scenes of physical knockabout clowning, choral sections and a short film, Dance of Death by Valeska Gert, which Brecht described as "one of the performers".[4]

Along with its companion, the radio play Lindbergh's Flight, the piece was offered as an example of a new genre, "the teaching-play or Lehrstück", in which the traditional division between actor and audience is abolished; the piece is intended for its participants only.[5] "Cruelty, violence and death" are explored by the play, which "broaches the subject of complicity between the helper and the forces of power and violence."[6] The action concerns a wrecked flight crew being brought to terms with their non-existence. While the pilot complains that he must not die, the others accept that their significance lies in being anonymous parts of a larger whole.

A grotesque clown scene, in which the first clown, called Smith, is violently dismembered by his two friends in an attempt to alleviate his pain, caused spectators at the Baden-Baden festival to riot, according to the actor who played Smith; the playwright Gerhardt Hauptmann walked out.[7] This clown scene was later reworked by Heiner Müller in his Heartplay (1981).[8] Despite the controversy, the production was a critical success.[9] Performances in Vienna, Munich, Mainz, Dresden, Breslau and Frankfurt followed.[10] Schott Music published Lehrstück the same year with Hindemith's score.

Disagreement between Brecht and Hindemith

Brecht and Hindemith could not agree on the piece's final form. One disagreement concerned the suitability of the clown scene.[11] Hindemith thought that the scene played better without music and that with neither clowns nor film "the piece is beautiful and has the effect of an old classic."[12] Brecht for his part objected to Hindemith's particular conception of Gemeinschaftsmusik (or communal music written for amateurs), in which the work restricts itself to teaching music and encouraging the pleasures of playing.[13] Brecht's conception of the Lehrstück form, in contrast, included an additional process in which the participants engage with the ideas contained in the piece.[14] Criticising Hindemith's purely aesthetic approach, Brecht wrote that "the cellist in the orchestra, father of a numerous family, now began to play not from philosophical conviction but for pleasure. The culinary principle was saved."[15] Each dug in his heels and after a 1934 radio broadcast in Brussels neither allowed performances of the other's version. After Brecht's death, the work was revived in 1958, when a production opened on 14 May in New York.[16]

Roles

Role Voice type Premiere Cast, 28 July 1929
(Conductors: Alfons Dressel
and Ernst Wolff)
Pilot tenor Josef Witt
Leader of the chorus bass-baritone Oszkár Kálmán
Speaker Gerda Müller-Scherchen (German Wikipedia page)
Three mechanics, also three clowns (spoken) Theo Lingen (Herr Schmitt), Karl Paulsen, Benno Carlé
Chorus of sages mixed chorus Hugo Holle's madrigal singers

Synopsis

As ultimately published by Brecht, the eleven scenes are:

  1. Report on the flight
  2. The crash
  3. Investigation into whether humans help their kind
  4. Denial of help
  5. Council
  6. Contemplation of death
  7. Reading of the commentary
  8. The examination
  9. Fame & expropriation
  10. Ostracism
  11. Consent

The relation between these and the Lehrstück 'fragment' is complicated. The first two are a simple splitting of Hindemith's #1, but Brecht's #3 is a merging of the original first and second investigations.

Notes

  1. ^ Brecht (1997, 22)
  2. ^ Willett (1967, 35) and (1997, 22, 326).
  3. ^ Willett (1997, 325).
  4. ^ Willett (1997, 325–326) and Brecht (1964, 80), and Schott Music website, accessed 21 January 2008. See also (German Wiki page on Valeska Gert, who also played Mrs Peachum in G. W. Pabst's 1931 film adaptation of The Threepenny Opera.
  5. ^ Willett (1997, 330) and Mueller (1994). The final chorus of Lindbergh's Flight appears at the beginning of The Baden-Baden Lesson on Consent. See Willett (1967, 134).
  6. ^ Mueller (1994, 85).
  7. ^ Schechter (1994, 75–76), Mueller (1994, 84–85), and Esslin (1960, 44).
  8. ^ Müller (1995, 123–125).
  9. ^ Mueller (1994, 84).
  10. ^ Stephan (1982, xiv) and Willett (1967, 35).
  11. ^ Skelton (1992).
  12. ^ Stephan (1982).
  13. ^ Hindemith wrote of composing "music with pedagogical or social tendencies: for amateurs, for children, for radio, mechanical instruments, etc." (1982, 147). See Willett (1967, 128-130) for a description of Gemeinschaftsmusik and the related Gebrauchsmusik (or "applied music"), to which both the Baden-Baden festival in 1929 and the Neue Musik festival in 1930 were devoted.
  14. ^ Willett (1967, 134).
  15. ^ Quoted by Willett (1967, 134-5).
  16. ^ Willett (1967, 35) and Skelton (1992).

Sources

  • Amadeus Almanac, accessed 30 October 2008
  • Brecht, Bertolt. 1964. Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic. Ed. and trans. John Willett. British edition. London: Methuen. ISBN 041338800X. USA edition. New York: Hill and Wang. ISBN 0809031000.
  • ---. 1997. Collected Plays: Three. Ed. John Willett. Bertolt Brecht: Plays, Poetry, Prose Ser. London: Methuen. ISBN 0413704602.
  • Esslin, Martin. 1960. Brecht: The Man and His Work. New York: Doubleday.
  • Hindemith, Paul. 1982. Briefe. Ed. D. Rexroth. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag. ISBN 3596221463.
  • Müller, Heiner. 1995. Theatremachine. Ed. and trans. Marc von Henning. London and Boston: Faber. ISBN 0571175287.
  • Schechter, Joel. 1994. "Brecht's Clowns: Man is Man and After". In Thomson and Sacks (1994, 68–78).
  • Skelton, Geoffrey. 1992. "Lehrstück". The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. Ed. Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0333734327
  • Stephan, Rudolf. 1982. Introduction. In Szenische Versuche (SW I,6). By Paul Hindemith, Rudolf Stephan, Bertolt Brecht, Marcellus Schiffer, and Kurt Weill. Mainz: Schott.
  • Thomson, Peter and Glendyr Sacks, eds. 1994. The Cambridge Companion to Brecht. Cambridge Companions to Literature Ser. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521414466.
  • Willett, John. 1967. The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht: A Study from Eight Aspects. Third rev. ed. London: Methuen, 1977. ISBN 041334360X.
  • ---. 1997. Editorial Notes. In Brecht (1997, 330–332).
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