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Mikheil Sheshaberidze

David Alegret

Antonio

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Angelo

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Manuela Uhl

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Sonja Gornik

Maria Miró

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Ante Jerkunica

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Das Liebesverbot

Madryt

Hiszpania

Teatro Real

Das Liebesverbot (The Ban on Love) is an opera composed by the young Richard Wagner, still in the process of finding his own musical language. After finishing The Fairies, his first completed opera, which was never performed, Wagner was able to present his second one on March 29, 1836 in Magdeburg, but this would be the only performance of the opera in his lifetime. The première was a complete disaster: some of the singers had not learned their parts, and the second night was cancelled when the prima donna’s husband attacked one of the tenors in a fit of jealousy. Wagner gave up further attempts to stage the opera and consigned it to oblivion, describing it as a “sin of my youth”

With such a history it is hardly surprising that Das Liebesverbot has been unfairly considered a minor work by the great German composer. However, this unknown piece is interesting for many reasons. The Ban on Love is an opera that challenges many of our assumptions about Wagner’s music and it is certainly a far cry from its typical density and depth. This work is the young Wagner’s equivalent to Goethe’s Italian Journey: an exaltation of the warm south, sunshine, playfulness, sex, and hedonism.

For the text of the opera, Wagner decided to adapt Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, a play which was then rarely performed because it was regarded as immoral. Making substantial changes to the original plot, the composer presented a stinging critique of the puritanism of contemporary German society.

Wagner moves the action to Sicily, where the Regent is Friedrich, a rigid German ruler who is unable to understand the joie de vivre of the locals. He decides to discipline them by banning Carnival, brothels, cabarets, and love outside marriage.

The musical influences on the work are quite clear. Wagner, reacting against the “pedantry” and “erudition” around him, celebrates and pays homage to the virtues of Italian music with frenetic rhythms, vibrant, powerful melodies full of character, a certain interest in repetition and simple harmonies. His admiration for composers like Bellini and Rossini can be seen in moments that are almost direct quotes of Il barbiere di Siviglia or Guillaume Tell. There is also a strong French influence in the format of the comic opera and the most characteristic grand operas of the period, such as La Muette de Portici, by Auber, and Robert le Diable, by Meyerbeer.

Another interesting point to note is that the score of this opera already hints at Wagner’s future work. There is a great deal of Lohengrin in it, and the character of Ponzio Pilato is clearly a forerunner of Mime. The Ban on Love is also the first time that Wagner used the leitmotif technique structurally, especially the theme of the ban on love decreed by Friedrich This recurs throughout the work, alternating between solemn and ironic.

In short, this is a little-known but interesting work which is well worth discovering. It provides considerable insight into the development of the mature Richard Wagner. To commemorate the 4th Centenary of the death of Shakespeare, it would be hard to find a more appropriate piece.

From the Teatro Real de Madrid: "Das Liebesverbot" (The Ban on Love) by Richard Wagner (1813-1883). Conductor: Ivor Bolton - Stage director: Kasper Holten. With Christopher Maltman (Friedrich, governor of Sicily), Peter Lodahl (Luzio, a young nobleman), Ilker Arcayürek (Claudio, a young nobleman), David Alegret (Antonio), David Jerusalem (Angelo), Manuela Uhl (Isabella), Maria Miró (Mariana, novice in a monastery). Wagner wrote his early work freely according to Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure"; it was premiered in 1836 in Magdeburg. Palermo’s governor Friedrich has forbidden all amorous adventures for carnival. The young nobleman Claudio is condemned to death because his beloved is pregnant. Claudio's sister, the novice Isabella, tries to save him by approving a secret union with the governor. Friedrich's double moral standard is unmasked; the people rise against the ban on love - Happy End

In 1997, the Teatro Real—whose construction was commissioned in 1850 by Queen Isabella was returned to its 19th-century luster and reputation for musical excellence, with Madrid’s symphonic orchestra and choir there in permanent residence. Under the baton of Ivor Bolton, they present Das Liebesverbot, Wagner’s early two-act opera in a staging by Kasper Holten.

“...music oft hath such a charm to make bad good, and good provoke to harm” warns Duke Vincentio in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. The 21-year-old Wagner ignored these cautionary words setting the celebrated play to a score that mixes the styles of Donizetti and German Singspiel with that of his own developing artistic voice. Laced with echoes of later works like Tannhäuser, Das Liebesverbot is a testament to the young genius’ early musical efforts and hard work that would soon bear fruit beyond his wildest dreams.

A youthful indiscretion? The maestro himself banished his comic opera from Bayreuth's Green Hill. Yet in Madrid, Kasper Holten finds a new perspective on the work. He stages it as a young composer's search for his own style - loud, bright, defiant and rebellious. Perhaps the young Wagner was closer to the old Wagner than the composer was willing to admit...

In the city of Palermo,fun turns into bitter seriousness.Upon the king's departure,aGerman royal governor is set to discipline locals through joy-forsaking rules and cruel death penalties.This comic two-act opera-one of Wagner's earliest works–is an expression of the overpowering force of love, lust and joie de vivre,which no laws can tame.Watch Isabella as she struggles to free her brother and her city fromapuritanical ruling,in the new co-production of the Royal Theater Madrid,the Royal Opera House Covent Garden of London and the Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires.

Das Liebesverbot Wagner,Richard

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