Admin

Organization

Singer

Tenor

Roberto Ortiz

Le matelot

Baritone

Silke Evers

L'ami

Bass

Ihor Tsarkov

Le beau-père

Kosma Ranuer Kroon

A friend

Stage director

Tomo Sugao

Costume designer

Paul Zoller

Set designer

Dramaturge

Berthold Warnecke

Sound designer

Tobias Heß

Conductor

Enrico Calesso

Mainfranken Theater Würzburg

Orchestra

Philharmonisches Orchester Würzburg

Le pauvre matelot -  (The Poor Sailor)

Würzburg

Germany

A man on his way home from a foreign country. He has done nothing that should be shy of people. At home, his wife has been waiting for her husband, who was believed to be lost, to return home for fifteen years. The father doesn't like the man by his daughter's side. What use is love if you don't have gold legs too? He contemplates the death of his son-in-law. The fact that the neighbor also has an eye on the daughter suits him very well. As if by a miracle, someone who was believed to be lost appears at the door one day. He poses as a friend to the woman who does not recognize him and tells him that her husband will soon be home. The latter had no luck abroad, while he, the friend, had become rich. She gives the stranger shelter and, spurred on by her father, forges a sinister plan ...

At the center of this scenic-musical journey is Darius Milhaud's short opera "The poor sailor". The work is based on a text by the writer, director and painter Jean Cocteau and was premiered in Paris in 1927. Cocteau was the spokesman for the "Groupe des Six" since 1918 , an amalgamation of six French composers, including Milhaud, whose goal was to overcome post-Wagnerian musical drama and Debussy's impressionism, seeking to be close to the present, to popular music and to jazz.

The mostly biting works of the "Six", which revolve around a brief plot, were always created under the sign of collective cooperation and the connection of the most varied of disciplines. Continuing this thought, the evening "The poor sailor" connects to a collage of opera, song and symphony, to a lament about love, hope and the inevitable: "Death is great. We are his laughing mouths." (Rainer Maria Rilke)

Theaterfabrik Blaue Halle

Le pauvre matelot Milhaud

The Poor Sailor

Approved

After the opera film "Der arme Matrose" was shown online for 48 hours in May, there is now a new chance - this time in an atmospheric ambience under the open sky in the Neutorgraben of Marienberg Fortress: The Mainfranken Theater is closed on July 5, 2021 during Festungsflickering Guest.

The plot is quickly told:
a woman has been waiting for her husband, the sailor, to return home for 15 years. When he comes home badly marked on the outside, he is in possession of a valuable pearl necklace. Incognito, he asks for a bed for the night and tells the woman that her husband, who is said to be completely impoverished, is about to return. Warning, spoilers: During the night, the sailor's wife kills the "stranger" and takes the chain to save her husband with this fortune...

The scenic-musical journey "The Poor Sailor" combines opera, symphony and song into a unique cinematic collage. At the center of the story is Darius Milhaud's short opera from 1927. Milhaud's opera only lasts half an hour and does without everything that is usually part of a great opera: arias, ensembles, choirs. In the film adaptation of the Mainfranken Theater, Milhaud's opera was therefore supplemented by a few arias and duets from Ludwig van Beethoven's opera "Fidelio", three Schubert songs and two movements from the 14th symphony by the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich. In this way, the moods and feelings of the protagonists can unfold and the viewer learns more about the inner life of each individual character.

Director Tomo Sugao and stage and costume designer Paul Zoller have ventured into the medium of film for the first time with this project. In cooperation with the Würzburg film artist Steffen Boseckert (mindcore productions), a 75-minute music film was made in the spring of this year. In contrast to well-known cinematic adaptations of classic stage productions, this new type of artistic approach provides a modern, contemporary form of dealing with the genre of opera.

English

The Poor Sailor by Milhaud, From (2021/2021), Directed by Tomo Sugao,, Conductor Enrico Calesso, Theaterfabrik Blaue Halle, Würzburg, Germany

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Ensemble

Programme, About & Synopsis

Videos

Photos

Further reading

Performance Dates & Venues

Venues