Esther (opera)
Encyclopedia
Esther is an American opera in 3 acts composed by Hugo Weisgall
, with a libretto by Charles Kondek. Esther was premiered by the New York City Opera
in October 1993. The opera is about Esther’s struggle as she becomes the queen of Persia, and her heroic act of triumphing over the evil Prime Minister Haman
and his plot of exterminating the Jews.
was a Jewish queen of the Persian Empire, the wife of Ahasuerus
(also known as Xerxes I). Today, her story is best known through its telling in Jewish Scriptures and the Old Testament
of the Christian Bible
. As a result of Esther's intervention and influence, Mizrahi Jews lived in the Persian Empire for 2400 years thereafter. Jews established an annual feast, the feast of Purim
, in memory of their deliverance. Weisgall is one of few composers to use the character Esther as a subject, including Palestrina
, Handel
, and Milhaud
.
Esther was Weisgall’s 10th and last opera. It was considered one of his most successful works, along with Six Characters in Search of an Author
, which confirmed his reputation as a major 20th century American composer. Despite the background and sources of the subject, Weisgall composed Esther with no discernible attempt to adapt Persian music or style in his opera. The opera remained post-modernist, with strong Second Viennese School
influence, although not entirely atonal. Weisgall descended from four generations of cantors, including his father, and as a result, absorbed from an early age the musical traditions of the Jews of central Europe as well as the standard opera and song repertory, which influenced the writing for Esther.
, the project came to a halt in 1990. It was resurrected, however, by Christopher Keene
and New York City Opera
for their 50th anniversary celebration in 1993. The company's stunning yet simple production was praised by press across the states. Designed by Jerome Sirlin and lit by Jeff Davis, the premiere was conducted by Joseph Colaneri
and directed by Christopher Mattaliano. A strong cast was led by Lauren Flanigan
in the title role.
The opera was revived to open New York City Opera's 2009 season with Christopher Mattaliano and James Sirlin returning from the artistic team and Lauren Flanigan again singing the role of Esther.
wrote, "The composer's triumph could not have been more complete." The New York Times wrote: "When Weisgall took curtain calls, the ovation was so thunderous, you would have thought that Verdi had risen from the dead."
Despite the enthusiastic reception of the premiere, Esther was not performed again by a major opera company until it opened the New York City Opera
's 2009-10 season.
The story unfolds in Susa
, in ancient Persia. King Xerxes
has banished Queen Vashti
and is looking for a new wife. Esther, a beautiful Jewish maiden, is informed by her uncle Mordecai that she has been summoned to the court harem. Vashti seeks revenge for her banishment by plotting to have Xerxes poisoned. Mordecai
discovers this plot and informs the King.
Haman
, the King’s Prime Minister, and his wife Zeresh plan to exterminate all the Jews in the entire kingdom on the 13th of Adar as retribution for Mordecai’s unwillingness to bow to Haman. Xerxes, completely under Haman’s influence, signs the edict.
Mordecai begs Esther, now the Queen, to ask Xerxes to intercede for the Jewish people, even though the law states that approaching the King unsummoned is a capital offense. When Esther approaches her husband, Xerxes pardons her, and grants her any favor she requests. Esther says she will reveal her wish at a banquet. There, Esther divulges that she is Jewish and demands that Haman and his sons be hanged. Since Xerxes cannot revoke his earlier edict against the Jews, she also asks that the Jews be allowed to defend themselves on the 13th of Adar. The Jews celebrate their survival and their gratitude to Esther.
Redmond, Michael. City Opera Triumphs with Premiere of ‘Esther’. Newark Star. Oct. 11, 1993
Rothstein, Edward. Review/Opera; Esther Lives in Modern Musical Terms. The New York Times. Oct. 11, 1993
Saylor, Bruce. Weisgall, Hugo. Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online.
cats
Hugo Weisgall
Hugo David Weisgall was an American composer and conductor, known chiefly for his opera and vocal music compositions...
, with a libretto by Charles Kondek. Esther was premiered by the New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
in October 1993. The opera is about Esther’s struggle as she becomes the queen of Persia, and her heroic act of triumphing over the evil Prime Minister Haman
Haman
Haman can be a surname which is a corruption of the German Hamann. It is also a biblical surname as described below. It also refers to:*Haman , appears in the Book of Esther and is the main antagonist in the Jewish holiday of Purim....
and his plot of exterminating the Jews.
Background
EstherEsther
Esther , born Hadassah, is the eponymous heroine of the Biblical Book of Esther.According to the Bible, she was a Jewish queen of the Persian king Ahasuerus...
was a Jewish queen of the Persian Empire, the wife of Ahasuerus
Ahasuerus
Ahasuerus is a name used several times in the Hebrew Bible, as well as related legends and Apocrypha. This name is applied in the Hebrew Scriptures to three rulers...
(also known as Xerxes I). Today, her story is best known through its telling in Jewish Scriptures and the Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
of the Christian Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
. As a result of Esther's intervention and influence, Mizrahi Jews lived in the Persian Empire for 2400 years thereafter. Jews established an annual feast, the feast of Purim
Purim
Purim is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people in the ancient Persian Empire from destruction in the wake of a plot by Haman, a story recorded in the Biblical Book of Esther .Purim is celebrated annually according to the Hebrew calendar on the 14th...
, in memory of their deliverance. Weisgall is one of few composers to use the character Esther as a subject, including Palestrina
Palestrina
Palestrina is an ancient city and comune with a population of about 18,000, in Lazio, c. 35 km east of Rome...
, Handel
HANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
, and Milhaud
Milhaud
Milhaud is a commune in the Gard department in southern France.-Population:-References:*...
.
Esther was Weisgall’s 10th and last opera. It was considered one of his most successful works, along with Six Characters in Search of an Author
Six Characters in Search of an Author (opera)
Six Characters in Search of an Author is an opera in three acts by composer Hugo Weisgall. The work uses an English libretto by Denis Johnston that is based on the play of the same name by Luigi Pirandello. The opera was commissioned by the New York City Opera under the leadership Julius Rudel...
, which confirmed his reputation as a major 20th century American composer. Despite the background and sources of the subject, Weisgall composed Esther with no discernible attempt to adapt Persian music or style in his opera. The opera remained post-modernist, with strong Second Viennese School
Second Viennese School
The Second Viennese School is the group of composers that comprised Arnold Schoenberg and his pupils and close associates in early 20th century Vienna, where he lived and taught, sporadically, between 1903 and 1925...
influence, although not entirely atonal. Weisgall descended from four generations of cantors, including his father, and as a result, absorbed from an early age the musical traditions of the Jews of central Europe as well as the standard opera and song repertory, which influenced the writing for Esther.
Premiere
Although Weisgall's Esther was originally commissioned by the San Francisco OperaSan Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera is an American opera company, based in San Francisco, California.It was founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola and is the second largest opera company in North America...
, the project came to a halt in 1990. It was resurrected, however, by Christopher Keene
Christopher Keene
Christopher Keene was an American conductor.Born in Berkeley, California, Keene studied at the University of California, Berkeley. Associated with the Spoleto Festival from 1968 , he was co-founder of the Spoleto Festival USA, where he was Music Director from 1977 to 1980...
and New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
for their 50th anniversary celebration in 1993. The company's stunning yet simple production was praised by press across the states. Designed by Jerome Sirlin and lit by Jeff Davis, the premiere was conducted by Joseph Colaneri
Joseph Colaneri
Joseph Colaneri is an American conductor. From 1987-1998 he was a conductor with the New York City Opera. He has been a member of the conducting staff at the Metropolitan Opera since 1998, and as of 2009 has conducted a total of 35 performances for the company. He is currently the Director of the...
and directed by Christopher Mattaliano. A strong cast was led by Lauren Flanigan
Lauren Flanigan
Lauren Flanigan is an American operatic soprano who has had an active international career since the 1980s. She has enjoyed a particularly fruitful partnership with the New York City Opera, appearing with the company almost every year since 1990...
in the title role.
The opera was revived to open New York City Opera's 2009 season with Christopher Mattaliano and James Sirlin returning from the artistic team and Lauren Flanigan again singing the role of Esther.
Reception
By all counts, the premiere of Esther was a great success. Both critical and audience reaction favored the new opera, performed as one of a festival of American operas. New York Times critic Edward RothsteinEdward Rothstein
Edward Rothstein is a critic and a composer.Rothstein holds a B.A. from Yale University , an M.A. in English literature from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. from the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago...
wrote, "The composer's triumph could not have been more complete." The New York Times wrote: "When Weisgall took curtain calls, the ovation was so thunderous, you would have thought that Verdi had risen from the dead."
Despite the enthusiastic reception of the premiere, Esther was not performed again by a major opera company until it opened the New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
's 2009-10 season.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast, 8 October 1993 (Conductor: Joseph Colaneri Joseph Colaneri Joseph Colaneri is an American conductor. From 1987-1998 he was a conductor with the New York City Opera. He has been a member of the conducting staff at the Metropolitan Opera since 1998, and as of 2009 has conducted a total of 35 performances for the company. He is currently the Director of the... ) |
|---|---|---|
| Esther | soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody... |
Lauren Flanigan Lauren Flanigan Lauren Flanigan is an American operatic soprano who has had an active international career since the 1980s. She has enjoyed a particularly fruitful partnership with the New York City Opera, appearing with the company almost every year since 1990... |
| Gravedigger | bass Bass (voice type) A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C... |
John Calvin West |
| Mordecai | baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or... |
Joseph Corteggiano |
| Bigthan | tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2... |
James Russell |
| Teresh | bass Bass (voice type) A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C... |
Boyd Schlaefer |
| Servant | tenor | Steven Raiford |
| Vashti | mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above... |
Robynne Redmon |
| Haman | Tenor | Allan Glassman |
| Xerxes | baritone | Eugene Perry |
| Hegai | countertenor Countertenor A countertenor is a male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of a contralto, mezzo-soprano, or a soprano, usually through use of falsetto, or far more rarely than normal, modal voice. A pre-pubescent male who has this ability is called a treble... |
Thomas Mark Fallon |
| Reader | tenor | Michael Lockley |
| Zeresh | mezzo-soprano | Joyce Castle Joyce Castle Joyce Castle is an American mezzo-soprano who has had an active opera career for the last four decades. She earned degrees in music from The University of Kansas and the Eastman School of Music. She made her professional opera debut in 1970 at the San Francisco Opera as Siebel in Charles Gounod's... |
Synopsis
(3 Acts, 12 Scenes)The story unfolds in Susa
Susa
Susa was an ancient city of the Elamite, Persian and Parthian empires of Iran. It is located in the lower Zagros Mountains about east of the Tigris River, between the Karkheh and Dez Rivers....
, in ancient Persia. King Xerxes
Xerxes I of Persia
Xerxes I of Persia , Ḫšayāršā, ), also known as Xerxes the Great, was the fifth king of kings of the Achaemenid Empire.-Youth and rise to power:...
has banished Queen Vashti
Vashti
Queen Vashti is the first wife of King Ahasuerus in the Book of Esther, a book included in the Hebrew Bible and read on the Jewish holiday of Purim. She is banished for her refusal to appear at the king's banquet, and Esther is chosen to succeed her as queen. In the Midrash, Vashti is described...
and is looking for a new wife. Esther, a beautiful Jewish maiden, is informed by her uncle Mordecai that she has been summoned to the court harem. Vashti seeks revenge for her banishment by plotting to have Xerxes poisoned. Mordecai
Mordecai
Mordecai or Mordechai is one of the main personalities in the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible. He was the son of Jair, of the tribe of Benjamin.-Biblical account:...
discovers this plot and informs the King.
Haman
Haman
Haman can be a surname which is a corruption of the German Hamann. It is also a biblical surname as described below. It also refers to:*Haman , appears in the Book of Esther and is the main antagonist in the Jewish holiday of Purim....
, the King’s Prime Minister, and his wife Zeresh plan to exterminate all the Jews in the entire kingdom on the 13th of Adar as retribution for Mordecai’s unwillingness to bow to Haman. Xerxes, completely under Haman’s influence, signs the edict.
Mordecai begs Esther, now the Queen, to ask Xerxes to intercede for the Jewish people, even though the law states that approaching the King unsummoned is a capital offense. When Esther approaches her husband, Xerxes pardons her, and grants her any favor she requests. Esther says she will reveal her wish at a banquet. There, Esther divulges that she is Jewish and demands that Haman and his sons be hanged. Since Xerxes cannot revoke his earlier edict against the Jews, she also asks that the Jews be allowed to defend themselves on the 13th of Adar. The Jews celebrate their survival and their gratitude to Esther.
Works cited
Redmond, Michael. City Opera Triumphs with Premiere of ‘Esther’. Newark Star. Oct. 11, 1993
Rothstein, Edward. Review/Opera; Esther Lives in Modern Musical Terms. The New York Times. Oct. 11, 1993
Saylor, Bruce. Weisgall, Hugo. Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online.
cats