Paul Hindemith: Cardillac
29 Jan 2008; 02, 05, 12, 16 Feb 2008
Paris, Opéra Bastille
Conductor Kazushi Ono
Producer André Engel
Sets Nicky Rieti
Costumes Chantal de La Coste Messelière
Lighting André Diot
Choreographer Frédérique Chauveaux, Françoise Grès
Dramaturge Dominique Muller
Chorus master Peter Burian ~
Cardillac Franz Grundheber
Die Tochter Angela Denoke
Der Offizier Christopher Ventris
Die Dame Hannah Esther Minutillo
Der Kavalier Charles Workman
Der Goldhändler Roland Bracht
Der Anführer der Prévoté David Bizic
Synopsis: In 17th century Paris, the goldsmith Cardillac is revered for his amazing works of art. Meanwhile, his daughter is conflicted between her love for an Officer and her devotion to her father. The city is in a panic however, for there is a murderer loose. It seems that anyone who buys an object from Cardillac mysteriously gets murdered. Unbeknownst to the general population, Cardillac himself is the murderer. After the Officer buys a gold chain from Cardillac, Cardillac attempts to murder him, but instead, the Officer lives. The Officer identifies his assailant as Cardillac's assistant. Torn by guilt however, Cardillac reveals that his in fact the murderer and is killed by the Paris mob.
Paul Hindemith (November 16, 1895 - December 28, 1963) was a German composer, violist, teacher, theorist and conductor.
Born in Hanau, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child. He entered the Hochsche Konservatorium in Frankfurt am Main where he studied conducting, composition and violin under Arnold Mendelssohn and Bernhard Sekles, supporting himself by playing in dance bands and musical-comedy outfits. He led the Frankfurt Opera orchestra from 1915 to 1923 and played in the Rebner string quartet in 1921 in which he played second violin, and later the viola. In 1929 he founded the Amar Quartet, playing viola, and extensively toured Europe.
In 1922, some of his pieces were heard in the International Society for Contemporary Music festival at Salzburg, which first brought him to the attention of an international audience. The following year, he began to work as an organizer of the Donaueschingen Festival, where he programmed works by several avant garde composers, including Anton Webern and Arnold Schoenberg. From 1927 he taught composition at the Berliner Hochschule für Musik in Berlin and in the 1930s he made several visits to Ankara where he led the task of reorganizing Turkish music education. Towards the end of the 1930s, he made several tours of America as a viola and viola d'amore soloist.
Despite protests from the conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, his music was condemned as "degenerate" by the Nazis, and in 1940 he emigrated to the USA. At the same time that he was codifying his musical language, his teaching began to be affected by his theories. At this time he taught primarily at Yale University where he had such notable pupils as Lukas Foss, Norman Dello Joio, Harold Shapero, and Ruth Schonthal. During this time he also held the Charles Eliot Norton Chair at Harvard, from which the book A Composer's World was extracted. He became an American citizen in 1946, but returned to Europe in 1953, living in Zürich and teaching at the University there. Towards the end of his life he began to conduct more. He was awarded the Balzan Prize in 1962.
Hindemith died in Frankfurt am Main from acute pancreatitis.
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