New performance of the Martinu´s opera Three wishes or Inconstancy of the Life, H. 175

New performance of the Martinu´s opera Three wishes or Inconstancy of the Life, H. 175, Film-opera in 3 acts with prelude and postlude

in Theatre Rostock http://www.volkstheater-rostock.de
with cooperation of National Theatre Prague
Premiere: 20 January 2007, 7,30 pm, Großes Haus, Das Volkstheater  Rostock, Germany
Additional performances: 24 January, 1 February, 15 February 2007
 
Libretto: Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes
Musical Director: Peter Leonard
Stage Director: Jiri Nekvasil
Scene: Daniel Dvorak
Costumes: Mike Hahne
Choirmasters: Ursula Stigloher / Ronald Monem
Choreografie: Stephan Brauer

Singers: Olaf Lemme, Ines Wilhelm, Christoph Kayser, Lucie Ceralová, Andrea Höcht, Anke Lüder, Bonita Hyman, Franz Mewis, Titus Paspirgilis, Gerhard Stephan, Olaf Plassa
 
“Three Wishes” by Bohuslav Martinů and Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes (co-founder of Paris Dada) is a largely overlooked treasure of 20th century music theatre. The opera was written in 1929 but was only performed for the first time in 1971, in Brno, and since then has been staged in merely four theatres. This simply beggars belief, since the opera would make a welcome addition to the repertoire of medium-sized theatres too. Besides the great dramatic attractiveness still radiating from it some 80 years since its origination, it is also surprisingly topical.
The opera deals with the origination of a fairy-tale film: a fairy fulfils three wishes for a married couple – wealth, youth and love. The film is first being shot on a stage and subsequently is jointly judged both by the performers and the audience. Reality, cinematic fiction and a fairy-tale dream world begin blending and interweaving into a matchless scenic spectacle. This “conjuring with new worlds”, as Ribemont-Dessaignes called it, is underpinned by Bohuslav Martinů’s music and his masterly play with various musical styles of the time, above all, jazz. Bohuslav Martinů and the librettist charm the audience both with absurd humour and deftness of dance, yet without ever slipping into superficiality.
Das Volkstheater Rostock is presenting the opera “Three Wishes” for the first time in the full version under the baton of Peter Leonard, who also conducted the opera’s first German performance back in 1995 at Augsburg’s theatre. The stage director is Jiri Nekvasil.