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Oper Frankfurt Presents Wolfgang Fortner's Opera, In seinem Garten liebt Don Perlimplín Belisa

Mar. 05, 2024

On March 22, Oper Frankfurt will present a new production of Wolfgang Fortner's opera, In seinem Garten liebt Don Perlimplín Belisa, marking the first performance of the work in over thirty years. The production, which runs through April 7, is conducted by Takeshi Moriuchi and directed by Dorothea Kirschbaum.

As in the case of his successful 1956 opera, Bluthochzeit (Blood Wedding), Wolfgang Fortner selected a work by Federico García Lorca for his composition In seinem Garten liebt Don Perlimplín Belisa (In his garden, Don Perlimplín loves Belisa).

In this story, Don Perlimplin has already reached a mature age when he enters into a marriage of convenience with the younger Belisa. It is only Belisa’s adultery which prompts Don Perlimplín’s to fall genuinely in love with her. For her part, Belisa is in love with a mysterious lover who is, following a lost duel, established to have been Don Perlimplín himself. Belisa now has to bury her deceased husband, only then in recognition of true love. Fortner created a specific "characteristic musical sign" for each of the four scenes of his twelve-tone chamber opera: a lyrical Scherzo is followed by a Nocturne, a Duet and a Serenade in which strict formal sections alternate with free formal improvisation.

The Oper Frankfurt notes that Fortner's music, "indulges in seductive sound colors leaving the grotesque and mysterious up in the air, tracing the sensual sides of Lorca’s poetry."


Wolfgang Fortner/Bluthochzeit/Cologne Opera/Ferdinand Leitner, conductor/Gunther Rennert, director

To learn about Wolfgang Fortner, visit schott-music.com.

Wolfgang Fortner
In seinem Garten liebt Don Perlimplín Belisa (1961-63)
opera in four scenes from an erotic picture sheet in the style of a chamber play by Federico García Lorca
German adaptation by Enrique Beck
Don Perlimplín, high lyric baritone - Belisa, high soprano - Marcolfa, Dienerin Don Perlimplíns · alto - Belisas Mutter, coloratura soprano - Erstes Koboldchen, soprano - Zweites Koboldchen · mezzo-soprano
Choir:
  First Act: Chamber choir in the orchestra
  Second Act: Backstage choir
Dancers
1 (pic).1.eh.1.bcl.1.cbn-2.2.1.0-timp-3perc-gtr(also on stage)-hp-cel-str
On stage: fl(cannot be played from the orchestra)-hpd-tonband(whistles; to be played by the performers themselves)
90'

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