Sacrifice (Opfergang - Immolazione)
dramatic poem by Franz Werfel
composed by Hans Werner Henze
Commissioned by Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Roma
Period of composition 2008-09
Duration 45 minutes
World premiere
World premiere January 10th, 2010
Rom · Parco della Musica · Sala Santa Cecilia
Tenor Ian Bostridge (The White and Well-Groomed Dog)
Bassbaritone Sir John Tomlinson (The Stranger)
Baritone Roberto Valentini (The Police Inspector)
Vocal quartet of the Coro di Santa Cecilia
Piano Sir Antonio Pappano
Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Conductor Sir Antonio Pappano
Comment
At the edge of a city, at midnight, a stray dog from what was evidently a good home encounters a distraught man on the run. It emerges from the latter’s monologues that he has survived a difficult and humiliating period that is none the less shrouded in obscurity. He suffers unspeakably, and everything he says tells of bitterness, loneliness and distress. But we never discover the actual reasons for his pain, only that those reasons still exist. ?Pursued by a posse of policemen, the stranger kills the little dog in his distress and panic. A murderer, he now sinks appreciably from one qualitative level to another. On the one hand, the music ascends (for the ascension of our little dog), while on the other it descends into the unfathomable depths of the stranger’s soul.
Franz Werfel makes it possible for his reader (and also for me, the composer) to read his poem on various levels. I have wanted to set his dramatic poem’ The Sacrifice to music since the early fifties. This dream has now come true thanks to a commission from the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome.
Hans Werner Henze
Cast
The White and Well-Groomed Dog | Tenor |
The Stranger | Bassbariton |
The Police Inspector | Bariton |
Vocal Quartet (also Policemen) | 2 Tenors |
2 Basses |
Instrumentation
2 Flutes | 1° doubling Piccolo 2° doubling Piccolo and Alto Flute |
2 Clarinets | 1° doubling Soprano Saxophone 2° doubling Bass Clarinet |
2 Oboes | 2° doubling Cor Anglais |
Heckelphone | |
2 Bassoons | 2° auch Kontrafagott |
2 Trumpets | |
2 Horns | |
Wagner Tuba | |
2 Trombones | 1° Alto 2° Tenor-Bass |
Timpani | |
Percussion | (4 players) |
I | Vibraphone Glockenspiel Large Gong Large Bongo 5 Tom-toms Matraca |
II | 4 China Gongs Large Tam-tam Chocalho Large Bongo Small Suspended Cymbal Side Drum 2 Chinese Cymbals (small, large) |
III | Chocalho Crotales 2 Chinese Cymbals (small, large) Side Drum Large Suspended Cymbal Large Tam-tam Large Bongo |
IV | Marimba Glockenspiel Side Drum Bass Drum Large Bongo Large Tom-tom Large Chinese Cymbal Large Gong |
Harp | |
Celesta | |
Piano | |
Strings |