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Der Jasager
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Scene from a 1946 performance in Berlin
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Translation
| The Affirmer
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Librettist
| Bertolt Brecht
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Language
| German
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Based on
| N?
drama
Taniko
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Premiere
| 23 June 1930
(
1930-06-23
)
Zentralinstitut fur Erziehung und Unterricht, Berlin
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Der Jasager
(literally
The Yes Sayer
; also translated as
The Affirmer
or
He Said Yes
) is an
opera
(specifically a
Schuloper
or "school-opera") by
Kurt Weill
to a German
libretto
by
Bertolt Brecht
(after
Elisabeth Hauptmann
's translation from
Arthur Waley
's English version of the Japanese
N?
drama
Taniko
).
Its companion piece is
Der Neinsager
(
He Said No
) although Brecht's other text was never set by Weill.
Weill also identifies the piece, following Brecht's development of the experimental form, as a
Lehrstuck
, or "teaching-piece".
[1]
Performance history
[
edit
]
It was first performed in Berlin by students of the Akademie fur Kirchen- und Schulmusik at the Zentralinstitut fur Erziehung und Unterricht on 23 June 1930 and broadcast simultaneously on radio. It was successful and there were over 300 performances during the following three years.
Brecht subsequently revised the text twice, the final version, including
Der Neinsager
, being without music.
Plot
[
edit
]
A teacher leads a hike in the mountains, among the hikers being a young boy whose mother is quite ill. One variant of the story holds that the expedition is a quest for medicine, while another holds that it is in fact a religious pilgrimage. During the expedition the boy falls ill as well. He is asked whether he should be abandoned by his fellow hikers, for which the customary and expected response is yes. In
Der Neinsager
, the boy answers no and suggests instead that a different custom should be introduced, "'the custom that one must think afresh in every new situation"'.
[2]
Roles
[
edit
]
Role
|
Voice type
|
Premiere cast,
23 June 1930
(Conductor: Kurt Drabeck)
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The boy
|
treble
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The mother
|
mezzo-soprano
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The teacher
|
baritone
|
Otto Hopf
|
First student
|
treble or
tenor
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Second student
|
treble or tenor
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Third student
|
treble or baritone
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References
[
edit
]
- ^
Weill says: "In
Lindbergh's Flight
Bert Brecht and I had the schools in mind for the first time. I am hoping to develop this direction further in my latest play, the
Lehrstuck
He Said Yes
. [...] I no longer want to offer 'songs' so much as self-contained musical forms. In the process I want to take over whatever I hitherto found right, like what I once termed the
gestic
approach to music. The melody must give clear expression to the gest. It is clarity, not lack of clarity that has to prevail in all that the composer wishes to express. And [...] this
Lehrstuck
has to be a fully authentic work of art, not a secondary piece." (Weill 1930, p. 334)
- ^
Willett, John (1968).
The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht
. New Directions Books. pp. 37?38.
Sources
[
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]
External links
[
edit
]
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Dramatic
works
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Poems, songs
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Theories and
techniques
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