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Riccardo Muti Leads the New York Philharmonic in a Performance of Hindemith’s Sancta Susanna

Jun. 05, 2007

Paul Hindemith’s morally contemplative one-act opera Sancta Susanna takes the stage of Avery Fisher Hall in New York with a performance by the New York Philharmonic, led by conductor Riccardo Muti in June. Composed in 1921 on a libretto by August Stramm, Sancta Susanna is one of Hindemith’s early operas, and it examines the delicate moral grounds of the Christian church, portraying a nunnery’s peculiar means of confronting eruptions of latent lust within its ranks.

The opera opens as Susanna prays in front of an altar. Joined in prayer by Sister Klementia, the two nuns encounter two young lovers, and Klementia issues Susanna a cautionary tale about sexuality and Christ: when Klementia was a young nun, she found a fellow nun physically embracing Christ on the cross. The convent’s punished the nun by building her—alive—into the wall behind the altar. As the story proceeds, Susanna develops the same sexual urge, disrobing and attempting physical union with the Christ in front of them, calling out “Build a wall for me.” The other nuns approach and condemn Susanna as Satan.

Not surprisingly, the work immediately courted controversy. Even before its premiere, conductor Fritz Busch, who had premiered Hindemith’s earlier operas, refused to conduct Sancta Susanna on moral grounds. Upon its premiere, contemporary critic, Karl Grunsky wrote that the performance “signifies a desecration of our cultural institutions,” and at a performance in Hamburg, concert-goers were required to pledge in writing not to cause a disturbance during the performance. Even as recently as 1995, performances of the work have attracted criticism from Christian organizations.

At the same time as it has generated controversy, Sancta Susanna has been praised for its technical excellence. In 1930, Marion Scott wrote in Proceedings of the Musical Association that although the contents of his early operas is unquestionably “horrific,” their “musical brilliance is equally certain, and Sancta Susanna is the cleverest of the bunch.”

The New York Philharmonic performances of Sancta Susanna with conductor Riccardo Muti, soprano Tatiana Serjan as Susanna, mezzo-soprano Brigitte Pinter as Klementia and mezzo-soprano Jane Gilbert as the Old nun, run June 7, 8, 9 and 12.

 

Paul Hindemith
Sancta Susanna (1921)
2.2.(+ca).2(e-flat cl, bcl).2(cbn) - 4.2.3.1 - 3perc - cel.hp - str; stage music: 3 fl[2 from the orchestra](pic).org.3gl
Duration: 25'

 

 

For more information on Paul Hindemith and his works, please visit www.schott-music.com.

For more information on the New York Philharmonic’s performances of Sancta Susanna, please visit www.nyphil.org.

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