Kommilitonen!

Kommilitonen!
Opera by Peter Maxwell Davies

The composer in 2012
Librettist David Pountney
Premiere 18 March 2011 (2011-03-18)
Royal Academy of Music, London

Kommilitonen! (Young Blood!, or Student Activists, literally Fellow Students!) is an opera by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. The libretto is by David Pountney, who was also the director of the premiere performances in March 2011.

Genesis

According to Professor Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, the principal of the Royal Academy of Music in London, it was at a lunch to celebrate the appointment of Maxwell Davies to the Academy's staff that a suggestion was made that he might be interested in writing an opera for the students to perform. At first, the composer unequivocally declared that his days of composing opera or musical theatre were over, but he soon changed his mind, with the provisos that:

Pountney's agreeing to write the libretto and direct the opera, and the agreement of the Juilliard School's President, Joseph W. Polisi, to the sharing of the commission, set the project in motion. The premiere, designed by Robert Innes Hopkins and conducted by the Academy's Director of Opera, Jane Glover, took place at the college's Sir Jack Lyons Theatre on 18 March, 2011. The American premiere took place at the Juilliard School in November 2011.

Roles

Role Voice type World Premiere cast,
Royal Academy of Music
18 March 2011
(Conductor: Jane Glover)
American Premiere cast,
Juilliard School
16 November 2011
(Conductor: Anne Manson)
The Oxford Revolution
James Meredith baritone Marcus Farnsworth Will Liverman
Voice of Pokayne baritone Jonathan McGovern Tobias Greenhalgh
Die Weisse Rose
Sophie Scholl soprano Aoife Miskelly Deanna Breiwick
Hans Scholl, her brother baritone Johnny Herford Alexander Hajek
Willi Graf bass-baritone Frederick Long Leo Radosavljevic
Christoph Probst/The Evangelist tenor Andrew Dickinson Noah Baetge
Alexander Schmorell/The Grand Inquisitor bass John-Owen Miley-Read Aubrey Allicock
First Clerk/Prison Guard mezzo-soprano Irina Gheorghiu Laetitia De Beck Spitzer
Second Clerk/Gestapo Officer 1/Janitor baritone Jonathan McGovern Takaoki Onishi, John Brancy
Gestapo Officer 2 baritone Maximilian Führig Tobias Greenhalgh
Soar to Heaven
Li Jingji (Mother) mezzo-soprano Irina Gheorghiu Lacey Jo Benter
Wu Tianshi (Father) baritone Jonathan McGovern Jeongcheol Cha
Wu (Son) mezzo-soprano Katie Bray Wallis Giunta
Li (Daughter) soprano Belinda Williams Heather Engebretson
Two Younger Children sopranos Hannah Bradbury, Annie Rago
Zhou (Red Guard) soprano Ruth Jenkins Karen Vuong
Red Army Officer 1 mezzo-soprano Belinda Williams
Doctor/Red Army Officer 2 mezzo-soprano Laura Kelly
Red Army Officer 3 mezzo-soprano Irina Gheorghiu
Puppets silent Blind Summit Theatre
Chorus of American, German and Chinese students and other citizens

Synopsis

The opera, which has twenty-eight scenes, tells three true stories. One, The Oxford Revolution, is about James Meredith and his struggle to be admitted to the University of Mississippi. The second, Die Weisse Rose, deals with Hans and Sophie Scholl, students at the University of Munich who exposed Nazi atrocities, and the third, Soar to Heaven, depicts students who were forced to denounce their parents during the Cultural Revolution in China. This story is based on part of John Pomfret's book Chinese Lessons.[2] The three stories come together at the end of the opera.

Scenes

Act 1
  1. Last Sortie (The Oxford Revolution)
  2. Stamps (Die Weisse Rose)
  3. Slogans I (Die Weisse Rose)
  4. Wall Painting (Die Weisse Rose)
  5. Slogans II (Soar to Heaven)
  6. My Father (The Oxford Revolution)
  7. Liederabend (Die Weisse Rose)
  8. Denunciation (Soar to Heaven)
  9. Directories (Die Weisse Rose)
  10. Envelopes (Die Weisse Rose)
  11. The First Leaflet (Die Weisse Rose)
  12. The Duplicator (Die Weisse Rose)
  13. The Train (Die Weisse Rose)
  14. Rabbits (The Oxford Revolution)
  15. Eyewitness I (Soar to Heaven)

 
  1. Eyewitness II (Die Weisse Rose)
  2. Wu Comes Home (Soar to Heaven)
  3. Naming of the Guard (Soar to Heaven)
Act 2
  1. Riot (The Oxford Revolution)
  2. The Grand Inquisitor (Die Weisse Rose)
  3. Quingming (Soar to Heaven)
  4. Arrest (Die Weisse Rose)
  5. Party (Soar to Heaven)
  6. Registration (The Oxford Revolution)
  7. Dream
  8. Epilogue
  9. Execution (Die Weisse Rose)
  10. Finale[1]

Instrumentation

The opera requires:

Reception

Some excerpts from reviews in British newspapers, March 2011:

References

  1. 1 2 3 Royal Academy of Music: Kommilitonen! (Young Blood!), Programme for the world première production, March 2011
  2. David Pountney: "I predict a riot", The Guardian, Review section, 5 March, 2011
  3. Andrew Clements. "Kommilitonen! – review". the Guardian.
  4. "Kommilitonen!, Royal Academy of Music, review". Telegraph.co.uk. 22 March 2011.
  5. The Evening Standard full review
  6. "Kommilitonen! Royal Academy of Music, London". Financial Times.
  7. "Theatre, dance, opera and cabaret reviews - The Stage". The Stage.
  8. Reviewed Anna Picard (22 October 2011). "A Magic Flute, Barbican Theatre, London Kommilitonen! Royal". The Independent.
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