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Critical Edition of Kurt Weill’s Zaubernacht Premieres in Stuttgart

Sep. 15, 2010

Earlier this month the Stuttgart Music Festival premiered the critical edition of Kurt Weill’s Zaubernacht (Magic Night)—the first performance of Weill’s original score since the composer’s parts and piano manuscript were miraculously rediscovered in 2006, after being lost for over 45 years. The Stuttgart production of Zaubernacht, a children’s pantomime written by Weill when he was just 22, was directed by noted contemporary choreographer Nina Kurzeja, and the score was performed by the Arte Ensemble Hannover. German music and drama critic Horst Koegler wrote of the performance:

Want to get rid of the prayer wheel litanies of the annual ‘Nutcracker’ ritual? There is some help for you! It is called Zaubernacht and proved to be one of the top events of the recent Stuttgart Music Festival, where it scored a unanimous success…. I enjoyed most of all Weill’s music, its joyous, infectious melodies and sprightly bounces. It is marvelously orchestrated, transparent, even lucid, and certainly eminently danceable, with its jaunty rhythms definitely tickling one’s soles, if not some other parts of the body. Definitely recommended for replacing the hackneyed ‘Nutcracker’ routine!

Based on a scenario by Wladimir Boritsch, Zaubernacht is an hour-long stage work scored for solo soprano and an imaginative nine-piece ensemble consisting of flute, bassoon, percussion, piano and five string players. The plot involves two children falling asleep in their bedroom. At midnight a Toy Fairy appears and awakens all the toys with her song, and the action unfolds from there, as the toys interact with the dreaming children in a series of follies and dances.

The full score of Zaubernacht, accompanied by critical report, is available as part of the Kurt Weill Edition.

Visit www.kwf.org for more on Kurt Weill and his music.

Order the Kurt Weill Edition of Zaubernacht by contacting kwe@eamdllc.com.

Kurt Weill
Zaubernacht (1922)
Kurt Weill Edition (Series I, Volume 0) edited by Elmar Juchem and Andrew Kuster
children's pantomime for solo soprano and chamber orchestra
fl(pic).bsn.perc.pno.str-qnt(vn.1-2,vla.,vc.,db.)
60'

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