Tarquin (opera)

"Tarquin" is a chamber opera by Ernst Krenek to an English libretto by Emmet Lavery. Written in 1940, it is Krenek's only unpublished opera (opus 90), though a premiere in German translation (by M.-C. Schulte-Strathaus & P. Funk rather than the composer) took place in 1950 in Cologne.

Krenek, who was in Switzerland at the time of the Anschluss, escaped to exile in the USA and a teaching position at Vassar College, where Lavery (1902-86) was a newspaper editor in neighboring Poughkeepsie (he would later run for congress and write for Hollywood). The piece was designed for college workshops and used six instruments (violin, clarinet, trumpet, percussion and two pianos) but the twelve-tone music still proved beyond the reach of potential performers; only two scenes were given at Vassar on May 13, 1941.

If the title character in "Der Diktator" and Agamemnon in "Leben des Orest" were inspired by Mussolini, "Tarquin"'s title character can be seen as a caricature of Hitler (albeit with a complicated inner life) as well as a modern incarnation of his namesake Sextus Tarquinius. Lucretia's counterpart is the devout Corinna. A prologue set in 1925 shows them as students, he the protegee of the Archbishop and still using his real name, Marius. The action resumes in an indefinite near future, when Tarquin has made himself dictator and Corinna has ties to a clandestine radio station. He is brought back to God only after tragedy has engulfed them both.

Stewart is harsh in his assessment of the text ("It would be charitable to suppose that Krenek was not yet sufficiently acquainted with English to appreciate the awfulness of such lines." [p224] ) and Krenek may have been embarrassed for another reason, later writing: " It fitted in well to the line of religiously flavored political thinking that I had developed." [ Krenek 1974, p.45] In "Karl V", he had espoused a universal Catholicism as an antidote to fascist nationalism, but later scoffed at the idea of his having converted: "When the assassin is trying the front door lock, it's time to barricade oneself in the attic without asking how leaky the roof may be." [1984 Introduction to the 1933 "Studien zu meinem Bühnenwerk Karl V" in Musik-Konzepte #39-40.]

Tarquin was followed by three more "essays for an American music theatre" to Krenek's own libretti, but his McCarthy opera, Pallas Athene weint, was commissioned by the Hamburg State Opera and his late works were all written for European venues.

Roles

* Marius (baritone)
* Corinna (soprano)
* Cleon (tenor)
* Der Erzbischof (bass)
* Der Kanzler (tenor)
* 4 speaking roles and ensemble

ources and footnotes

*Nils Grosch: "Ideen vom neuen amerikanischen Operntheater": Versuch über Ernst Kreneks Tarquin op. 90" in "Von Jonny zu Jeremia" ed. F. Geiger (PFAU Verlag, Saarbrücken 2001)
*Krenek: "Circling My Horizons" (in "Horizons Circled: Reflections on My Music" Univ. Calif. Press 1974)
*J. Stewart: "Ernst Krenek: The Man and His Music" Univ. Calif. Press 1991
* Claire Taylor-Jay: ‘Ist politische Oper heute noch möglich? Kreneks Der Diktator und Tarquin’, in 'Der zauberhafte, aber schwierige Beruf des Opernschreibens’: Das Musiktheater Ernst Kreneks , ed. Claudia Maurer Zenck (Schliengen: Edition Argus, 2006)

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0491964 Lavery's screen credits]