Life with an Idiot
Life with an Idiot | |
---|---|
Opera by Alfred Schnittke | |
Native title | Жизнь с идиотом |
Librettist | Viktor Erofeyev |
Premiere | 13 April 1992 (1992-04-13) Het Muziektheater, Amsterdam |
Life with an Idiot (Russian: Жизнь с идиотом, romanized: Zhizn s idiotom) is an opera by the Russian composer Alfred Schnittke to a Russian libretto by Viktor Erofeyev. Written as an allegory of oppression under the Soviet Union,[1] the opera was first performed at Het Muziektheater, Amsterdam, on 13 April 1992.
Roles
Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, 13 April 1992[2] Conductor: Mstislav Rostropovich |
---|---|---|
I | baritone | Dale Duesing/Romain Bischoff |
Wife | soprano | Teresa Ringholz |
Vova | tenor | Howard Haskin |
Guard | bass | Leonid Zimnenko |
Marcel Proust | baritone | Robbin Leggate |
Synopsis
- Act 1
- As a punishment for not working hard enough, "I" is forced by the authorities to live with an idiot. He chooses Vova from a lunatic asylum. Vova is only capable of speaking a single word: "Ech".
- Act 2
- At first Vova behaves well but then he suddenly begins to make a nuisance of himself, including tearing up I's wife's copy of the works of Marcel Proust. I and his wife go to live in another room and Vova calms down. I's wife falls in love with Vova and becomes pregnant by him. Then Vova and I turn on the wife. Vova kills her and I becomes an idiot.
Recordings
- Life with an Idiot (live recording of premiere cast), Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Rostropovich (Sony)
References
Further reading
- The Viking Opera Guide, ed. Amanda Holden (Viking, 1993).
- Del Teatro (in Italian).
- v
- t
- e
Alfred Schnittke
- Historia von D. Johann Fausten
- Life with an Idiot
- Symphony No. 0
- Symphony No. 1
- Symphony No. 2 (St. Florian)
- Symphony No. 3
- Symphony No. 4
- Symphony No. 5 (Concerto Grosso No. 4)
- Symphony No. 6
- Symphony No. 7
- Symphony No. 8
- Symphony No. 9
- In Memoriam...
- Concerto Grosso No. 1
- Concerto Grosso No. 3
- Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra
- Viola Concerto
- Violin Concerto No. 4
- Piano Quintet
- Nagasaki
- Adventures of a Dentist (1965)
- Commissar (1967)
- The Seagull (1972)
- Belorussian Station (1971)
- Agony (1975)
- How Czar Peter the Great Married Off His Moor (1976)
- The Ascent (1977)
- Story of an Unknown Actor (1977)
- Father Sergius (1978)
- Little Tragedies (1979)
- Air Crew (1980)
- Farewell (1983)
- The Story of Voyages (1983)
- Dead Souls (1984)
- The Master and Margarita (1994)
Category