Die erste Walpurgisnacht

Background#

Goethe wrote this text to be set to music, intending it for his friend Carl Friedrich Zelter, who tried twice, in 1799 and 1812, but did not complete a setting. Mendelssohn, who knew Goethe, first took it up in 1830. The story is about how a prank allows for a local tradition to take place in spite of opposition from an intolerant new regime. The Druids and local heathen would celebrate May Day, but, as a women’s chorus warns, this is now forbidden. The Druid priests counter that those who fear to sacrifice deserve their chains. A comic solution emerges as a Druid watchman suggests a masquerade of the Devil, spirits, and demons to frighten the occupying Christians. The Christians are scared away, and the Druids and heathen are left to celebrate Spring and the Sun. The attractions of this text for Mendelssohn likely were the ghost scene (compare his incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and the triumph (by guile) of an oppressed group in an occupied land, an important Enlightenment idea, as well as one perhaps reflecting the composer’s Jewish background: the final verses of the oratorio emphasize an abstract divinity (“dein Licht”) over a threatened earthly ritual (“den alten Brauch”). According to Melvin Berger, Mendelssohn was raised a Protestant but “was never fully accepted as a Christian by his contemporaries, nor was he ever fully cut off from his Judaic heritage.” Consequently,

Recordings#

• 1952, Igor Markevitch, Vienna Symphony, Wiener Singakademie, Sieglinde Wagner (alto), Anton Dermota (tenor), Otto Edelmann (bass)
• 1969, Frederic Waldman, Musica Aeterna Orchestra & Chorus, Lili Chookasian (alto), Ernst Haefliger (tenor), Hermann Prey (baritone), Raymond Michalski (bass)
• 1974, Kurt Masur, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Rundfunkchor Leipzig, Annelies Burmeister (alto), Eberhard Büchner (tenor), Siegfried Lorenz (baritone), Siegfried Vogel (bass)
• 1978, Christoph von Dohnányi, Vienna Philharmonic, Wiener Singverein, Margarita Lilowa (alto), Horst Laubenthal (tenor), Tom Krause (baritone), Alfred Šramek (bass)
• 1990, Michel Corboz, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Gulbenkian Choir, Brigitte Balleys (alto), Frieder Lang (tenor), Gilles Cachemaille (baritone)
• 1993, Francesco D’Avalos, Philharmonia Orchestra, Philharmonia Chorus, Jean Rigby (alto), Robert Tear (tenor), Anthony Michaels-Moore (baritone), Richard Van Allan (bass)
• 1997, Claus Peter Flor, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and Choir, Jadwiga Rappé (alto), Deon van der Walt (tenor), Anton Scharinger (baritone), Matthias Hölle (bass)
• 2016, Douglas Boyd, Orchester Musikkollegium Winterthur, Zürcher Sing-Akademie, Birgit Remmert (alto), Jörg Dürmüller (tenor), Ruben Drole (baritone), Reinhard Mayr (bass)

External links#

• *“Die erste Walpurgisnacht”, chapter 113 in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Gedichte., Artemis (1949)