The Eternal Road

The Eternal Road

"The Eternal Road" (or "Der Weg der Verheißung") is an opera-oratorio with spoken dialogue in four acts by Kurt Weill with a libretto (originally in German: "Der Weg der Verheissung" – "The Promised Road"), by Austrian novelist and playwright Franz Werfel and translated into English by Ludwig Lewisohn.

"The Eternal Road" premiered at the Manhattan Opera House on January 7 1937, given a lavish and spectacular production involving 245 actors, and ran for 153 performances. Although it received good reviews, it was not revived for 63 years until it was performed in city of Chemnitz, Germany and then at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City in 1999-2000 (the 100th anniversary of Weill's birth and the 50th of his death). This was partly because of the six hour running time, even after substantial cuts had been made. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D04EEDF1F3DF936A35753C1A9659C8B63&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/W/Weill,%20Kurt 2003 NY Times article by John Rockwell] ]

The piece was conceived by Zionist activist Meyer Weisgal to alert the then-ignorant public to Hitler's persecution of the Jews in 1937 Germany. Weisgal enlisted the help of director Max Reinhardt, who found Weill to compose the music and Werfel to write the libretto. Set in a synagogue where Jews are hide all night as a pogrom rages outside, the story combines Biblical and pre-World War II Jewish history. The rabbi reads from the Torah, leading, in each act, to the exploration and re-enactment of a different Biblical theme. At the conclusion, the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and the deportation of those hiding become one, while the despair of a scattered people is balanced by a messianic voice that speaks of hope for deliverance of the Jews in Zion – (although by 1937 Jews were unable to emigrate from Germany to most countries and were barred from Palestine). [ [http://www.americansymphony.org/dialogues_extensions/98_99season/1st_concert/leon.cfm Article by Leon Botstein at the American Symphony Orchestra website] ] The music evokes cantorial lamentations, classical fugues and showtunes, among other styles. [ [http://www.amazon.com/Kurt-Weill-Eternal-Highlights-American/dp/B0000C508I Review by Edith Eisler at Amazon.com] ]

Roles

Recordings

Naxos CD 8.559402 Karl Dent, James Maddalena, Ted Christopher, Barbara Rearick, Ernst Senff Chor, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Gerard Schwarz, cond. (excerpts performed in English)

Notes

ources

* [http://www.amadeusonline.net/almanacco.php?Start=0&Giorno=7&Mese=01&Anno=1937&Giornata=&Testo=&Parola=Stringa Amadeus Almanac]
* [http://www.kwf.org/pages/works/e8main.html#prod Information from the Kurt Weill Foundation] ]
*Alexander Ringer's "Werfel, Weill, and "The Eternal Road" in "Driven into Paradise: The Musical Migration from Nazi Germany to the United States" ed. Brinkmann & Wolff (UC Press 1999)
*Rogoff, Gordon, "Endless Moan: The Eternal Road at the Brooklyn Academy of Music" in "Theater", Volume 30, Number 3, Fall 2000, pp. 119-23 Duke University Press ( [http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/theater/v030/30.3rogoff.html available online here with subscription] )

External links

* [http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=12181 IBDB entry for the 1937 production]


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