Rare performance of Mangold's Tanhäuser

Konzertchor Darmstadt

Monday, October 27, 2014

We would like to draw your attention to a performance in Darmstadt of Tanhäuser by – not Wagner – Carl Amand Mangold. The RISM database has records for a copy of the manuscript in Berlin (RISM ID no. 456014917) and an aria (RISM ID no. 464122202) in Mangold’s hand. The press release was kindly provided by the Konzertchor Darmstadt.

The romantic opera Tanhäuser by Hofkapellmeister Carl Amand Mangold (1813-1889) will once again be staged—for the first time in over 150 years. The Konzertchor Darmstadt, under the direction of Wolfgang Seeliger, will perform the opera on 2 November 2014. Mangold, a contemporary of Richard Wagner, set his version of the Tanhäuser legend to music at the same time as Wagner. Mangold completed his work in January 1843, only one week after Wagner. In the eyes of posterity, the opera, about a knight and minnesinger, was unjustly—as the Konzertchor will show in this onetime performance—nearly completely overshadowed by his disproportionately more famous colleague.

In 2006, Wolfgang Seeliger and the Konzertchor Darmstadt prepared the first concert performance of this work since 1850. Seeliger carefully edited the music based on the original music manuscripts and created modern editions of a score and performance material. This original Darmstadt composition, which is important for the city’s musical history and is also of musicological interest due to its close connection to the Wagner opera of the same name, is now being brought back to the birthplace of the composer by the Konzertchor Darmstadt. At this performance, the Beethoven Akademie Orchester Krakauand the Eduard-von-Winterstein-Theater Annaberg-Buchholzwill also be playing.

Dr. Ingolf Huhn’s visually exciting direction, with set design by Tilo Staudte, whisks the audience away to the Middle Ages, when the libretto by the Austrian writer Eduard Duller is set. The rousing story follows the fate of the minnesinger Tanhäuser who, plagued by his sins, is saved from eternal damnation by the pure love of Innigis.

The opera will begin at 5 PM at the darmstadtium Darmstadt. A free introduction will be given at 4 PM.

Images: Portrait of Carl Amand Mangold and scenes from the opera. All images courtesy of the Konzertchor Darmstadt.

Category: Rediscovered