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Orchestral Works by Franz Schreker Performed in Baltimore and Turkey

Oct. 05, 2022

On October 6-9, the Baltimore City Orchestra performed Franz Schreker’s Prelude toDie Gezeichneten (The Stigmatized), under the baton of James Conlon, at Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. 

Die Gezeichneten was originally commissioned by Alexander Zemlinsky, who asked Franz Schreker to write a libretto for him to set to music – a libretto that would tell “the tragedy of the ugly man”. However, Schreker was so taken with the material that he used it as a basis for his own major operatic work. The triumphant success of the premiere established Schreker once and for all as one of the leading operatic composers of the early 20th century. Until being outlawed by the Nazis, this work even went so far as to rival Richard Strauss’s operas. Die Gezeichneten faded into obscurity for many decades and was only rediscovered thanks to a performance in Frankfurt in 1979. This forgotten masterpiece has now assumed its rightful place on the world’s stages and has since been seen more and more often in opera house repertoires.

Although not completed until 1915, Schreker’s opera Die Gezeichneten is a fin de siècle drama in which, alongside moments of decadence, the focus is on the essential contrast between art and life. The opera is based on Frank Wedekind’s play Hidalla oder Sein und Haben and takes place in Renaissance-era Genoa.

Additionally, on October 13, Schreker's Sinfonisches Zwischenspiel aus Der Schatzgräber (Symphonic Interlude from the opera Der Schatzgräbe), was performed by the Borusan Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Patrick Hahn, with percussionist Martin Grubinger, at the Zorlu PSM Turkcell Stage in Turkey.

 

Listen to Franz Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten:

(Die Gezeichneten by Franz Schreker)

To learn more about Franz Schreker, visit universaledition.com.

Franz Schreker
Die Gezeichneten (1911/1913–1915)
opera in 3 acts
4.4.5.3 -6.4.3 1 3perc-2hp-cel-pno-str;
stage music (can be played by the orchestra): pic, 2hn, 3 tpt, timp, 2perc, hp, pno, str(1. 1. 1 .1 .1)
150'

Sinfonisches Zwischenspiel aus Der Schatzgräber (1915-1918)
for orchestra
3.3.3.3-4.3.3.1-timp-6perc-2hp-cel-str
10'

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