Die tote Stadt
The Dead City, Opus 12

Opera in Three Acts
Libretto by Paul Schott (pseudonym for Julius and Erich Korngold)
after Georges Rodenbuch's novel Bruges-la-Morte
Composed in 1917-19
Premiered 4 December, 1920, Stadtheater, Hamburg and Opernhaus, Cologne

Paul
Marietta, a dancer
Frank, friend of Paul
Brigitta, Paul's housekeeper
Fritz, the Pierrot

With this work, Korngold reached his operatic zenith. Its portrayal of the psychological damage of excessive mourning struck a chord in the aftermath of the First World War. At the same time its novel structure--much of it is a dream sequence--and memorable music heightened its impact. Korngold played a piano reduction of the score to Puccini on a visit to Vienna in 1920; the maestro considered the work "the strongest hope of new German music". Productions were rapidly mounted throughout Europe and it was the first German opera to be performed at the Metropolitan after the war.

Synopsis

ACT 1: Although Paul is gloomily obsessed with the memory of his dead wife Marie (he preserves a room full of her belongings) he has met the vivacious Marietta and impetuously asks her to visit him. However Mariette leaves when she sees a portrait of Marie and realizes how much she resembles her. Paul is torn by his devotion to Marie and his feelings for Mariette. In a vision Marie bids him "see and understand".
ACT 2: This takes place in Paul's imagination: a fantastic sequence of scenes portraying the loss of his friends, Mariette being serenaded, rising from a coffin, arguing with Paul, realizing her rival is a dead woman and deciding to exorcise her predecessor's ghost.
ACT 3: The dream continues, wiht Mariette eventually desecrating Marie's possessions. Goaded beyond endurance, Paul strangles her with a plait of Marie's hair. When he wakes, the plait is intact and though the memory remains, the mourning is over.

Korngold's Expressionistic opera, with its hallucinatory passages, was advernturous but proved to be a great success; it has remained his most popular opera. As with Violanta, the music throughtout is intense, with Korngold making full use of the vast forces in his scoring. Rather than relying on full-blown melodies to propel the action, he organizes his music around a number of short motifs representing various people, places or other aspects of the story. Many of these motifs include the interval of a perfect fourth (or its inversion, a perfect fifth), which consequently takes on a pivotal role in the musical structure of the entire opera. There are, nevertheless, identifiable arias--notably "Gluck das mir verblieb", sung first by Paul, and the "Pierrotlied", which is a serenade to Mariette performed by one of her admirers.

Click below to listen to excerpts from the opera

"Gluck, das mir verblieb"

"Pierrots Tanzlied"