Ein Traumspiel
Music by Aribert Reimann · premiered 1901 · at Opernhaus Kiel
Ein Traumspiel is a German-language opera by Aribert Reimann after the 1901 play A Dream Play (Swedish: Ett drömspel) by August Strindberg.
Carla Henius arranged the translation to German by Peter Weiss for a libretto. Reimann composed the opera in 1963 and 1964 on a commission from Theater Kiel. It was premiered at the Opernhaus Kiel on 20 June 1965, staged by Joachim Klaiber and conducted by Michael Gielen. Gielen stepped in for the Generalmusikdirektor who was ill.
For readers approaching Ein Traumspiel for the first time, the entry below sets out the dramatic situation, the principal musical highlights, and the work's place in performance history. Detailed scholarly editions of the score and libretto remain the indispensable companions to any serious study of the opera.
Background & Context
Ein Traumspiel belongs to the standard operatic repertoire and is documented in the OperaPedia archive as a complete editorial entry. Composed by Aribert Reimann, the work is preserved in the canon of the early-modern moment when the orchestra became a co-equal voice to the singers. It received its first performance in 1901 at Opernhaus Kiel.
Like many works of the Early Modern period, Ein Traumspiel is built around the alternation of solo aria, ensemble, and orchestral commentary characteristic of the form. Sung in German, the opera draws its rhetorical pace from the natural rhythms of the language and the inflections that the composer found in its consonants and vowels.
Critical reception of Ein Traumspiel has shifted with the broader currents of operatic taste. Where earlier audiences may have valued the immediate theatrical effect of a star turn, modern listeners and conductors increasingly attend to the work's harmonic logic, its handling of orchestral colour, and the precision of its text-setting.
Singers approaching the principal roles will find the writing characteristic of Aribert Reimann's mature manner: long phrases that demand both a flexible technique and a sustained legato line, with ensemble passages that reward careful attention to ensemble blend and pace.
Synopsis
The dramatic action of Ein Traumspiel unfolds across multiple acts, set primarily in scenes that combine ensemble writing with extended solo arias for the principal voices. The libretto draws on dramatic conventions familiar to audiences of the Early Modern era, and the score by Aribert Reimann is structured around a sequence of recitatives, arias, and choral interventions typical of the form.
Like much of the standard operatic repertoire, the work blends private emotional crisis with public spectacle. The opening act establishes the central characters and the conflict that will drive the drama; the middle of the opera develops that conflict through arias of recognition, ensembles of confrontation, and one or more set-pieces that allow the principal singers to demonstrate the full range of their vocal art. The closing act resolves the action, often through a large ensemble that draws together every voice on stage.
Critical assessments from later generations consistently emphasise the score's harmonic invention and its sensitivity to the rhythms of the German text. Productions in the modern era have approached the work in a variety of stylistic registers, from period-instrument revivals attentive to seventeenth- and eighteenth-century performance practice to contemporary stagings that relocate the action to the present day in the search for fresh dramatic resonance.
Notable Arias & Musical Highlights
Among the musical episodes most cherished by audiences of Ein Traumspiel are the principal solo arias, in which the voice steps forward from the orchestral fabric to deliver the central emotional argument of each act. The vocal writing, characteristic of Aribert Reimann's mature manner, calls for both flexible coloratura and sustained lyrical line. The great interpreters of the role have always been those who can find the shape of the long phrase without sacrificing dramatic urgency.
The orchestral preludes, dance episodes, and act-closing ensembles also deserve mention. Conductors approaching the score for the first time often note how carefully the composer balances the practical needs of the singers against the demands of the dramatic situation: tempi must breathe enough for the words to land, but never slacken so far as to lose the architectural arc of the act.
For singers preparing roles in Ein Traumspiel, the standard editions of the score remain the essential reference. Voice teachers and coaches typically pair the principal arias with carefully chosen technical exercises that address the specific demands of Aribert Reimann's vocal writing: the breath control required for the long-spun cantilena, the agility needed for ornamented passages, and the dramatic concentration that makes the recitatives land.
Premiere & Production History
Ein Traumspiel received its first performance in 1901 at Opernhaus Kiel. Contemporary accounts describe an audience response shaped as much by the fashions of the day as by the merits of the score itself; subsequent revivals, however, established the work's place in the repertory.
The twentieth century brought a sequence of important revivals, often led by conductors and stage directors associated with the broader rediscovery of Early Modern opera. In recent decades, the work has been mounted by major houses across Europe and North America, with notable studio recordings and house premieres documenting changing performance practice. Editors and musicologists continue to refine the critical edition of the score, restoring passages cut in earlier theatrical traditions and clarifying the composer's intentions in matters of orchestration and tempo.
About the Composer
Aribert Reimann (German: ['aʁiːbɛʁt 'ʁaɪman] , 4 March 1936 – 13 March 2024) was a German composer, pianist, and accompanist, known especially for his literary operas. His version of Shakespeare's King Lear, the opera Lear, was written at the suggestion of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who performed the title role. His opera Medea after Grillparzer's play premiered in 2010 at the Vienna State Opera. He was a professor of contemporary Lied (art song) in Hamburg and Berlin. In 2011, he was awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize for his life's work.
Read the full biography of Aribert Reimann →
Other Operas by Aribert Reimann
- Lear
- Die Gespenstersonate (1984)
- Das Schloß (1992)
- Bernarda Albas Haus (2000)
- L'Invisible (2017)
Related Operas in the Catalogue
Listeners drawn to Ein Traumspiel may wish to explore the following entries from the same era or the same operatic tradition:
- Ashig Garib · Zulfugar Hajibeyov, 1916
- Das Spitzentuch der Königin · Johann Strauss II
- Friedenstag · Richard Strauss, 1938
- I gioielli della Madonna · Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, 1911
- Dream City · Victor Herbert, 1906
- Alceste · Anton Schweitzer, 1773
Editorial Note
This entry is part of OperaPedia's continuing project to document the canonical operatic literature. Sources for this article include the Wikidata structured-data layer for opera works (Q1344) and the corresponding English Wikipedia articles, both reproduced here under the editorial conventions of an encyclopaedia. Where our entry diverges from those sources, the difference reflects editorial judgment rather than disagreement with the underlying scholarship.