Emily Marvosh rehearsing in Hugo Kauder’s “Merlin.”
Don’t mess with this enchantress. She’ll deter you from your mission to save the world. Pus she’s wearing a gown worn by Sigourney Weaver in Snow White: A Tale of Terror
All the seduction is musical, and it takes place Sunday night at the Trinity Lutheran Church on Orange at Wall.
Hugo Kauder, photo provided by Hugo Kauder Society.
There the Hugo Kauder Society is mounting the world premier of Hugo Kauder’s never performed opera “Merlin.”
The one-time performance begins at 5 p.m. Ticket and other info are available at the Society’s website.
Conductor Adrian Slywotzky is a new devotee to Kauder; the Merlin project is two years in the making.
If the name Kauder sounds familiar, it’s not because he’s a well-known composer. Although he was prolific and well known in pre-war Austria, the Nazis drove him out. Kauder ended up in New York. Many of compositions languished as he did not regain his pre-war fame.
The Kauder Society’s aim is to reverse that. The New Haven connection is in part that Artspace’s Helen Kauder is a granddaughter.
Merlin trying to keep his mind on the mission.
Every year since the founding in 2002, the society runs a competition for devotees of the music to perform.
The Kauder revival is part of a larger movement among musicians to rescue “lost music,” according to the society’s manager Rona Richter.
The performers in the annual competition must be under 35 and the aim is to help launch new careers and champion new works.
Or in the case of “Merlin,” new/old works.The opera is the most ambitious Kauder programming yet.
Click on the play arrow to hear tenors Sam Levine and Anthony Webb in rehearsal. They’ll be singing in German, but there will be graphically inventive “meta-titles,” to keep you in touch with the story, according to stage director Beth Greenberg, who has many years of experience with the New York City Opera and other institutions.
The titles will not be translations or even abridgements of the German being sung by the characters, but perhaps mood indicators like the word “Evil,” for example.
It’ll be enough to clue the audience in a manner that won’t distract. “It’s a lot of musical information to take in, so I thought to balance the [other[info the audience is taking in,” she said.
In the clip, Merlin (Levine) and his mentor Blassius (Anthony Webb) discuss the perils of letting Vivianne, the silvan seductress, keep Merlin from his true calling: inspiring a future King Arthur to assemble 12 disciple knights around a large table. There, while they enjoy a meal they discuss how to rescue the world from destruction
“Sound familiar?” asked Greenberg, with a wink.
Stage director Greenberg with one of the two robes of the enchantress; the costume coordinator is Soule Golden.
As Vivianne wove her mezzo magic around the tenors, Greenberg showed a reporter what she called “the archeology of costumes.” That is, how beautiful gowns are recycled and re-purposed.
“It’s a thrill,” she said when young performers like Marvosh find themselves inside clothing with labels that just might same “Fleming” or “Domingo,” she said.
Music director and conductor Adrian Slywotzky called Kauder’s music unique. Although he was a contemporary of atonal artists like Arnold Schoenberg, he never abandoned tonality completely.
Among the elements are Gregorian chant both in harmony and rhythmic sensibility Slywotzky said
“It has dissonant moments, but much is very beautiful and accessible and it’s very vivid music.”
The opera, with 6 soloists, a 17-member chorus, and 13-member orchestra, will be performed oratorio-style, with minimum staging that emphasizes the arresting power of the music.
Kauder’s librettist was fellow refugee Rudolph Pannwitz. The lighting designer for Sunday night’s production is the ubiquitous Jamie Burnett.
