A “baroque opera with princely irony” has been announced for Saturday, May 6th in Bayreuth’s Margravial Opera House. The “Musica Bayreuth” evening promises to be a remarkable one in many respects: Because behind the stage work entitled “L’Huomo” (The Man) is none other than Margravine Wilhelmine von Bayreuth (1709 – 1758), the Prussian Princess who ended up in the Franconian provinces because of her parents’ marriage policy. Only to then stir up the small margraviate violently; with their plans for the New Palace, the Opera House and the reconstruction of the Hermitage.
Wilhelmine not only had enormous arrogance, she was also close to enlighteners like Voltaire and was also multi-talented. Culture was her remedy of choice against Bayreuth’s boredom. She established a music and opera culture at the small court that received widespread attention. Also because the princess made music, composed, wrote plays for herself and also directed them.
Wrote the opera libretto: Margravine Wilhelmine von Bayreuth, here in a pastel depiction, attributed to Jean-Étienne Liotard (1745).
(Photo: Wikipedia)
So it’s no wonder that Wilhelmine’s own French-language opera poem “L’Homme” served as the text for “L’Huomo”, Andrea Bernasconi wrote the music. The premiere was in 1754 when Wilhelmine’s brother, Friedrich II, visited Bayreuth. The then not so “old Fritz”, who actually wanted to stop by in Franconia without much fanfare, must have liked the tragic comedy anyway, as his clever sister confronts the courtly audience with ideas of the Enlightenment in an entertaining manner.
The Bayreuth Residence Days and the opening of the Opera House Museum prompted the court opera to be performed again. The project is a co-production of Musica Bayreuth with the Potsdam Sanssouci Music Festival and Bayerischer Rundfunk, and at the same time a research project of the University of Bayreuth. “Ensemble 1700” is directed by Nils Niemann, who specializes in historically informed performance practice, under Dorothee Oberlinger.
This recording, in turn, was important for the work of the Munich artist Christoph Brech, who created a video installation for the staged performances of “L’Huomo” in the Margravial Opera House. He added another level of associative impulses to the narrative, baroque storyline. Above all from the pictorial world of anatomy and astronomy – the two sciences that flourished in parallel during the Enlightenment. “The brain, seat of our mind, leaves the cavity of the skull – emotional and rational elements of the brain become recognizable and wrestle with themselves and with each other,” describes Christoph Brech.
If you want to delve deeper into the subject: the Bavarian Palace Administration has published a new illustrated book on the history of baroque theater and opera culture under Margravine Wilhelmine. The picture booklet entitled “Baroque Theater Worlds – Margravial Opera House Bayreuth: World Heritage & Museum” is now available for 13.90 euros in many museum shops of the Bavarian Palace Administration and via the online shop.
L’ Huomo, Premiere, Sat., May 6th, 7.30 p.m., in the Margravial Opera House Bayreuth, tickets and information under www.musica-bayreuth.de