L'Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe
Music by Hans Werner Henze · libretto by Hans Werner Henze
L'Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe (English: The Hoopoe and the Triumph of Filial Love) is an opera by Hans Werner Henze with a German libretto by the composer, inspired by Arab and Persian legends. This is Henze's 15th, and self-stated final, opera, and the first where he has written his own libretto. The opera was first performed at the Salzburg Festival on 12 August 2003 in a co-production with the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Teatro Real, Madrid, staged by Dieter Dorn, set by Jürgen Rose. For the premiere, the originally scheduled conductor was Christian Thielemann and the original singer scheduled as "The demon" was Ian Bostridge, but in their places, Markus Stenz conducted and John Mark Ainsley sang "The demon". Critics have noted stylistic allusions to the music of Alban Berg and Igor Stravinsky, as well as to the operas Die Entführung aus dem Serail, The Magic Flute, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Tristan und Isolde and Parsifal.
Text from the Wikipedia article "L", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the Composer
Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large oeuvre is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Neoclassicism, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as traditional schools of German composition. In particular, his stage works reflect "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life". Henze was also known for his political convictions. He left Germany for Italy in 1953 because of a perceived intolerance towards his leftist politics and homosexuality. Late in life he lived in the village of Marino in the central Italian region of Lazio, and in his final years still travelled extensively, in…
Text from the Wikipedia article "Hans Werner Henze", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Other Operas by Hans Werner Henze
- Der langwierige Weg in die Wohnung der Natascha Ungeheuer
- Elegy for Young Lovers
- Gisela!
- Boulevard Solitude (1731)
- König Hirsch (1762)
- Der junge Lord (1827)
- Ein Landarzt (1917)
- Der Prinz von Homburg (1926)