Frank Schreker (1878-1934) was an Austrian composer regarded for his time as the equal of Richard Strauss. Der singende Teufel (the Singing Devil) was composed during 1927-28 to a libretto written in 1924. Originally entitled Die Orgel, it is based on a short story by Heinrich von Kleist entitled Die heilige Caecilie oder die Gewalt der Musik: Eine Legende. Set in the Middle Ages it concerns a battle between the forces of Christianity in a monastery and the evil of paganism represented by the mob outside its walls. Schreker's works were banned by the Nazi's in 1933, and fell into obscurity. This work was not well received at it's premiere in 1928, and has only been revived once before by Bielefeld Opera in 1989.

I have to say that some things remain obscure for good reason. As a story and an opera it isn't very good, although Theatre Bonn made an excellent job of trying to present it for a modern audience. Basically Amadeus Herz, son of an organ maker, is asked to repair the monastery organ by the Abbot, Father Kaleidos. Amadeus's father went insane trying to complete it. The pagan mob are assembling outside the walls, and wish to "sacrifice" the virginity of Lilian, Amadeus's fiance, to the knight "Sinbrand von Fraß" in return for the Gods favour in defeating the Christians. Amadeus tries to save her, is captured, but rescued by Kaleidos. He becomes a monk, repairs the organ, and when the mob attack again, the sweet music lulls them into laying down their weapons. However the organ breaks and the mob storm the monastery. Like his father, Amadeus goes mad and flees to the forest with Lilian. When asked to repair a small organ by a travelling pilgrim Amadeus is sent into despair at memories of the past. Lilian burns the monastery and the organ to the ground, freeing Amadeus from his demons.

It was presented using a very simple set, with lots of imagery - the pagans assembled on hills made of piles of old organ music, and in the monastery there were organ pipes descending from the ceiling. The Director had decided to focus a lot on the sexual connotations of the story, and poor Anne-Fleur Werner singing Lilian had to spend a lot of time on stage in her stockings and suspenders fighting off the knight. Dancers were used to depict the battles and emotions, with homoerotic imagery. Kaleidos, apart from looking like a Gestapo Officer, clearly also had lots of repressed frustrations. The opera was sung in German, but the surtitle translation was a little anachronistic - at one point Kaleidos was apparently singing about "spinning" a story! The cast however all made a good fist of it, and musically it was quite interesting. In the Wikipedia entry for Schreker it states that he had "a style characterized by aesthetic plurality (a mixture of Romanticism, Naturalism, Symbolism, Impressionism, Expressionism and Neue Sachlichkeit), timbral experimentation, strategies of extended tonality and conception of total music theatre". Maybe - that is all a little beyond me!

The director's quote from an interview was however more interesting ... "I wanted to find an abstraction to take the story out of the Middle Ages and create a framework in which two forces simply clash. Furthermore, I associate the protagonist Amandus Herz very specifically with Franz Schreker. Schreker, the artist and man with Jewish ancestry, found himself within an intrinsic political conflict of his time. He lived in a world in which he had ultimately lost everything. He went all the way from being a celebrated composer to an expelled, persecuted and forgotten artist. This personal fate touched me deeply". As an approach that worked, and worked very well. I am glad to have seen this, but doubt I will ever see it again.

Streamed on OperaVision via YouTube. Recorded May 2023.