The Prince of Homburg (Der Prinz von Homburg)

Hans Werner Henze

Composer of our Time

Commissioned by the Hamburgische Staatsoper

Period of composition 1958-59
New orchestration 1991 1991
Duration 130 minutes

Adapted for music by Ingeborg Bachmann
(English by Fred Bridgham)

In honour of Igor Stravinsky

World premiere 22. May 1960

Hamburg

Staatsoper

Production Helmut Käutner
Stage and costume design Alfred Siercke
Conductor Leopold Ludwig

Uraufführung of the new verison 24. July 1992

München

Bayerische Staatsoper (Cuvilliés- Theater)

Production Nikolaus Lehnhoff
Stage and costume design Gottfried Pilz
Conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch

For the première in Munich I made some revisions to the score which affected the orchestra but not the vocal parts. I had been thinking for some time of eliminating any doubling and bringing out the descriptive nature of the music. I removed some idiosyncratic percussion instruments from the score and made the wind passages more transparent, improving the balance of forces between singing voice and instrument. The conflicts between dream and reality, and freedom and compulsion which are at the forefront of Kleist’s drama, are achieved in this work through the creation of a set of clearly perceptible tensions between a strictly structured serialism (which is also applied to rhythm and dynamics) and the use of free tonality.

Hans Werner Henze

Prinzessin Natalie von Oranien	soprano	niece of the Elector of Brandenburg, chief of a regiment of dragoons
	soprano	1st courtesan
	mezzosoprano	2nd courtesan
	contralto	3rd courtesan
	contralto	Electress
Friedrich Wilhelm	tenore eroico	Elector of Brandenburg
Graf Hohenzollern	tenore lirico	of the Elector’s retinue
Feldmarschall Dörfling	baritono
Prinz Friedrich Artur von Homburg	baritono acuto	general of the cavalry
	baritono	sergeant
Obrist Kottwitz	basso	of the Princess of Orange’s regiment
	tenore	1st officer
	baritono	2nd officer
	basso	3rd officer
	tenore	1st heiduck
	baritono	2nd heiduck
	coro maschile ad lib.	other officers
	personaggi muti	pages, servants, guards, runners, standard bearers, soldiers

Nuova orchestrazione 1991

2 Flauti	2° anche Ottavino e Flauto contralto
1 Oboe
1 Corno inglese
1 Clarinetto
1 Clarinetto basso
2 Fagotti	2° anche Controfagotto

2 Corni
2 Trombe
2 Tromboni

Timpani
Percussione	Triangolo 2 Campanacci Piatti sospesi Piatti a due 3 Tamtam 3 Tomtom Tamburo basco Tamburo militare 2 Casse rullanti (sulla scena ad lib.) Grancassa, Verga Glockenspiel Cam pane tubolari [per 3]
Pianoforte
Arpa
Archi