Görge the Dreamer

Oper Frankfurt, Opera House, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

All photos (7)

Saturday 9 March 2024

7 PM

Ticket delivery: E-Tickets

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

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You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
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Important Info

Type: Opera

City: Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Starts at: 19:00

Ticket delivery: E-Tickets

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

Can I choose my seats?

Overview

If fairy stories turned into reality … Dream or nightmare?

Vienna experienced major cultural upheaval and change at the turn of the 20th century and Sigmund Freud’s research into dreams and the workings of the subconscious provided inspiration for literature, theatre and music. Görge, the hero in Zemlinsky’s opera, deals with his fears and misfortunes in his dreams too. He lives in a world of books and falls in love with a dream princess, although he’s supposed to marry Grete, a down to earth young woman who wishes he had a firmer grip on reality. But Görge wants to make his fairy story come true and flees, ending up as a drunk in a village where he’s treated like an outsider again. In Gertraud, a known arsonist and witch, Görge finds his princess again. With her he can listen to fairy stories, keep dreams secret and act them out.

The central themes in this opera, rejection and hate of strangers, run like a red thread through Alexander Zemlinsky’s life too: in Vienna he witnessed the first anti-Semetic riots, which were directed against artists too. One of the most prominent victims was court opera director Gustav Mahler, who commissioned this work. His unrequited love for Alma Schindler and his woes poured out in this, his third opera. After Mahler was fired in 1907 the world premiere of the work was unceremoniously scrapped. It wasn’t seen or heard until 1980, as the crowing point of a Zemlinsky renaissance in Nürnberg. While his highly dramatic music brings Wagner, Mahler and Humperdinck to mind, it is original and inspired. Zemlinsky’s score glitters with brilliant ideas and sophisticated harmonies, which lend expressive touches to a story about being an outcast, distorted fairy tale worlds and alternative ways of life.

History

Premiere of this production: 11 October 1980, Nürnberg Opera House

Der Traumgörge (Görge the Dreamer) is an opera in two acts and an epilogue by Austrian composer Alexander Zemlinsky. The libretto was written by Leo Feld. The libretto was written by Leo Feld based on the fairy tale "Vom unsichtbaren Königreiche" by Richard von Volkmann and the poem "Der arme Peter" by Heinrich Heine.

Synopsis

Act 1
Görge, a village youth, is engaged to Grete, a marriage arranged by Grete’s father, the Miller, in order to maintain ownership of the mill, which is Görge’s inheritance. Grete is disconcerted by Görge’s obsession with books and fairy-tales and when her former sweetheart, Hans, returns from military service, she is overjoyed. Hans is dismissive of Grete’s engagement to Görge. Görge recounts the vision he had of a beautiful princess come to him in a dream, much to Grete’s and Hans’s bemusement. Hans leaves disdainfully.

Sitting on the bank of a stream, Görge again falls into reverie and the Dream-Princess appears once more, inviting him to join her in a magical world of beauty and make-believe. Waking from the dream, Görge remembers he is to be married that afternoon but, as the wedding guests begin to arrive, decides he must pursue his dream and flees the village.

Act 2
It is three years later and Görge now lives in a different village with another woman, Gertraud. Gertraud is treated as an outcast by the villagers, some of whom suspect is a witch or in league with the devil. Görge himself is destitute and in a wretched state. However, when the villagers, led by Kaspar, decide to organise a peasants revolt against the landowners, they approach Görge, as the most articulate member of their community, to be their leader. At first, Görge is enthusiastic but, when told he must first forsake Gertraud, refuses to leave her side. Marei, who is attracted to Görge, swears revenge.

Gertraud, deciding she is a burden to Görge, prepares to leave. Görge finally realises he loves her and asks her to be his wife. Marei, discovering them together, leads the villagers in a frenzied charge on the house, setting it ablaze. Görge emerges with Gertraud and, berating the mob, leads her to safety.

Epilogue
It is a year later: Görge has returned with Gertraud to the village of his youth, inherited the mill and established a school, while Gertraud has cared for the poor and needy. The thankful villagers, led by the now-married Hans and Grete, express their gratitude. Görge realises that his dream has been fulfilled in the idyllic life he now shares with Gertraud and the two declare their love in the dusk of early evening.

Venue Info

Oper Frankfurt - Frankfurt am Main
Untermainanlage 11

The Oper Frankfurt (Frankfurt Opera) is one of the leading opera companies in Europe, and voted best "Opera house of the year" several times since 1996.

Opera in Frankfurt am Main has a long tradition, with many world premieres such as Franz Schreker's Der ferne Klang in 1912, Fennimore und Gerda by Frederick Delius in 1919, and Carl Orff's Carmina Burana in 1937. Frankfurt's international recognition began in the Gielen Era, 1977 to 1987, when Michael Gielen and stage directors such as Ruth Berghaus collaborated.

A historic opera house from 1880 was destroyed in World War II, and reconstructed as a concert hall, Alte Oper. The present opera house, built in 1963, is under one roof with the stage for drama. The opera orchestra is called Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester. Today's venue for Baroque and contemporary opera is the Bockenheimer Depot, a former tram depot.

Oper Frankfurt is part of the Städtische Bühnen Frankfurt.

Frankfurt's first opera was Johann Theile's Adam und Eva, performed in 1698 by Johann Velten's touring company. The young Goethe's first operas in his home town of Frankfurt were productions by Theobald Marchand's company.

1782 – 1880
Opened in 1782, the Comoedienhaus was the first permanent venue of the Frankfurt Theater (drama and opera). In 1878 German violinist Willy Hess took up the leadership of the Oper Frankfurt. He resigned from that post in 1886 to take up a professorship in the Rotterdam Conservatorium voor Muziek.

1880 – 1944
The first representative opera house of the city was inaugurated in Frankfurt in 1880 at Opernplatz. Under the direction of the first Intendant Emil Claar and the first Kapellmeister Felix Otto Dessoff, the house was opened with Mozart's opera Don Giovanni.

During the 1920s, the opera in Frankfurt had more prominent Jewish singers than any other company in Germany, including the tenor Hermann Schramm, bass Hans Erl (the first King in Schreker's Der Schatzgräber), baritone Richard Breitenfeld and contralto Magda Spiegel, who also toured with Frankfurt Opera performing Wagner in the Netherlands. These singers were forced to leave the opera in June 1933. Orff's Carmina Burana was premiered at Oper Frankfurt in 1937. Jewish members of the opera company among those rounded up at 9 November 1938 at the Festhalle Frankfurt, where Erl sang In diesen Heilgen Hallen, from the Magic Flute for the deportees. Members of Frankfurt Opera were sent to Auschwitz and other camps where they perished.

1945 – 1970s
The opera house was damaged in an air raid in January 1944, and then almost completely destroyed in March. A new house for opera and play was built, completed in 1963 at the Theaterplatz (now Willy-Brandt-Platz). In 1952, Georg Solti became Generalmusikdirektor (GMD) and Intendant of the Oper Frankfurt, where he remained in charge for nine years.

The Gielen Era
From 1977 to 1987, Frankfurt Opera was led by Michael Gielen. This decade became known as the "Gielen Era", notable for the music of a conductor who was also a composer, and directors including Ruth Berghaus and Hans Neuenfels, whose productions of standard works such as Verdi's Aida and Wagner's Ring Cycle were thought-provoking. Operas which received their world premieres at the house were also performed again, including Franz Schreker's Die Gezeichneten.

1987 – present
The stage of the opera house was destroyed by a fire in November 1987. The opera house was rebuilt and opened in April 1991. Many famous singers started their career with the company, including Franz Völker, Edda Moser, Cheryl Studer and Diana Damrau, and many established artists have been engaged there in recent seasons including Christian Gerhaher, whose roles here have included Monteverdi's L'Orfeo and his first Wolfram in Wagner's Tannhäuser, Piotr Beczała in Massenet's Werther and Jan-Hendrik Rootering in Wagner's Parsifal.

Since 2002, Bernd Loebe has served as Intendant of the company. The company's current GMD is Sebastian Weigle, since 2008. Weigle has made commercial recordings of opera with the company for the OEHMS Classics label. He is scheduled to stand down as GMD of Oper Frankfurt at the close of the 2022–2023 season. In October 2021, the company announced the appointment of Thomas Guggeis as the next GMD of the company, effective with the 2023–2024 season, with an initial contract of 5 years.

Oper Frankfurt was voted 1996, 2003, 2015, 2018 and 2020 "Opera House of the Year" by the magazine Opernwelt.