KORNGOLD: Das Wunder der Heliane

In the seven years after the triumph of Die tote Stadt, Germany's operatic taste radically changed. Zeitoper ('opera of out ime') arrived, with plots involving ordinary people and everyday events, and music incorporating jazz and popular dance forms. Heliane, with its mystical plot and Expressionist music, was eclipsed by Ernst Krenek's phenomenally successful Jonny spielt auf. It nevertheless rivaled Krenek's work sufficiently for a Viennese cigarette company to bring out two new brands-the working man's 'Jonny" and the more sophisticated 'Heliane".

Synopsis

Heliane, a pure beauty with miraculous powers, is imprisoned by her husband, the prince of a kingdom of darkness, when he suspects her of infidelity with a stranger. To save Heline's honor, the strange kills himself. But Heliane, having declared her love for him, uses her powers to restore the stranger to life. Overcome by jealousy, the prince stabs her. Now, however, the stranger is able, through the power of love, to restore Heliane to life. The people proclaim the miracle of indestructibale love.

Scored for immense forces, Heliane contains some of Korngold's most modernistic music, using a complex harmonic language of constantly shifting tonal centers which occasionally hint at bitonality. The music seems at times closer t the world of cinema than to opera (e.g. the orchestral introduction to Act 3), although Heliane's Act 2 aria, "Ich ging zu ihm", the best known set piece of the opera, is reminiscent of Richard Strauss.

Click HERE to listen to an excerpt from the opera