LADY MAGNESIA

In the organizer's words:

Mieczysław Weinberg wrote in all genres and for all genres. As the son of a theater musician who gained his earliest artistic impressions in the theater, he was also familiar with the narrative and dramatic components of music. His vast number of choral works, romances and songs prove his ability to write not only popular music for singing. He showed an interest in literature from childhood. Nevertheless, it was not until he was in his late forties that he ventured onto the big stage. Within twenty years, from 1968 to 1986, he wrote seven operas and an operetta, preceded twenty years earlier by two light-hearted precursors. The one-act opera Lady Magnesia was created in 1975 based on the melodrama Passion, Poison and Petrification by George Bernard Shaw. With its pitch-black humor, it is anything but a typical Weinberg play, whose work otherwise deals with the question of humanity in dark times. What the Irish author intended as a satire on Victorian drama, Weinberg takes as an all-out attack on the entire genre of opera. Trivial guitar riffs characterize the faded glory of nobility; visions of doom in minor-key recitatives with piano accompaniment alternate with macho hunting sounds of the trombone and saxophone garlands full of noble pain. With jazz instrumentation, Weinberg drags the aristocratic personnel down to the ground of trivial everyday life and shows the opera the way of the musical.

The plot:

On a stormy evening, Sir George Fitztollemache wants to kill his sleeping wife Lady Magnesia with a huge dagger. He is driven by raging jealousy; she cheats on him with the house servant Adolphus. The dagger is a gift to her from his mother, he assures the awakening lady. She is surprised: wasn't she promised a fish knife? Then Adolphus appears on the scene and wants to unsuspectingly show off his new tailcoat; however, Adolphus can't take a joke when it comes to mocking his clothes. George prepares drinks for everyone and mixes poison into the one for his rival. While Adolphus is soon writhing in pain and Lady Magnesia promises to love her husband again in the future, the two of them want to undo the murder. Only Plaster can save the servant. The maid Phyllis procures the necessary quantity of the substance, which finally petrifies Adolphus into a statue that spreads its hands over the newly reconciled couple as if in blessing.

Cast

• Musical direction Armando Merino Alcalde
• Staging Theresa Maria Schlichtherle
• Lord George Fitztollemache Simeon Esper
• Lady Magnesia Siobhan Stagg
• Phyllis Natalie Lewis
• Adolphus Bastable John Brancy