SEASONS IN HELL - A Life Of Rimbaud, Opera In Two Acts

Harold Blumenfeld

About this work:
SEASONS IN HELL – A LIFE OF RIMBAUD: Opera in Two Acts, Libretto Charles Kondek. Premiere February 1996, University of Cincinnati College Conservatory Philharmonia, Gerhard Samuel, conductor; Malcolm Fraser, stage director. Five full houses. Action moves fluidly between Marseille, Charleville, Paris, Brussels, Yemen, Ethiopia. Recording: Albany Records, TROY 262/63 complete, with libretto, notes... 18-minute DVD Video, scenes from premiere, available from composer, blumenf@wustl.edu ***REVIEWS Premiere greeted with exceptional press. **"Dense, discordant, layered, intelligent, exotic, erotic; there is life, lyricism and edge in the score." - Cincinnati Enquirer, Feb 10, 1996. **"The opera is a powerful one; strongly dramatic, musically effective." - American Record Guide, May-June 1996. ** "'Seasons' crackles with excitement. Blumenfeld's music illumines his subject uncompromisingly, but with gestures that draw the listener into the drama." - Cincinnati Post, Feb 9, 1996. Similar reviews in "Opera News" and "Opera"(UK)... >Fformer Pub: MMB Music, now closed. Published by COMPOSER: blumenf@wustl.edu orchestral score: $220. vocal score: $110. libretto: $4.95. [video: 18' scenes from premiere, VHS or CD: $25]... ON THE OPERA--- Dual life of literature's teen-age prodigy, Arthur Rimbaud, told in cinematic double chronology - backwards, forwards - interlacing his magical, precarious youth, his relationship with Verlaine, renunciation of poetry at 19; and a disillusioning, ultimately fatal pursuit of fortune in Africa as trader, gun-runner for Ethiopian king... **Note of admonition: Because of intersecting time lines, forward and reverse chronology, fluent cinematic movement between European and African locations throughout opera, listener will lose bearings. Staged performance makes times, places clear. Libretto, however, does not normally 'announce' times, places. These only understood through context. Listener is referred to: GUIDE TO SOUND BITES shown below. Best, he will listen with LIBRETTO in hand. SOUND BITES on this SITE taken "live" from matinee performance 10 Feb 1996, with Michael Kavalhuna, Craig Phillips as Young, Older Rimbauds; Timothy Swaim as Verlaine. In addition to 20-minute Sound Bite outlined below, many sample PAGES OF SCORE available here... Complete Albany recording of opera [TROY 262/63] made of 9 Feb 1996 evening performance... RIMBAUD conveyed by three singers - YOUNG RIMBAUD, OLDER RIMBAUD by Baritones, his reverb-miked Madonna-like MUSE by Mezzo [spatially singing lines from his poetry in French at key points throughout English-language opera]... Fellow poete maudit PAUL VERLAINE, ten years Rinbaud's senior, sung by tenor. FULL CAST listed further down. THE ACTION: RIMBAUD has died in Marseille hospital. He arises from death-bed, his entire life unfolding before him. We see him sweeping academic awards in his region at 14; then, at 16, penning masterpiece - "Drunken Boat" [Bateau ivre] - and formulating his concept of 'voyance' - "a purposeful, reasoned derangement of all the senses". To penetrate the Ineffable, the Unknown... Sending poems to VERLAINE in Paris, is invited to join him. VERLAINE, 26, recently married, becomes obsessed with handsome, uncouth provincial... Act One ends in Imaginary Orgy with RIMBAUD presiding over "young Satans consecrating their five senses to the seven sins." This finale ushered in by his MUSE singing mysterious lines on choked in-breath, to background of wildly ornate viola-playing modeled after Abyssinian krar music, this accompanied with strange emissions from piano, harp, soft percussion... As RIMBAUD, Icarus-like, rises on wings of wax to tempt fate, there is explosion, he is hurled to earth, falling into rescuing arms of VERLAINE. Disintegration, curtain ending Act One... As opera procedes, there continues wild two-year relationship with VERLAINE laced with debauchery, violence. Ending with a drunken VERLAINE shooting RIMBAUD in wrist. VERLAINE is incarcerated... RIMBAUD, 19, locks himself up in family barn, pens his harrowing "Season in Hell" at end of which he programs his utter renunciation of literature, amputating poetry from himself in favor of life of action - pursuit of fortune in Africa... After ten feverish years on camelback, horseback, his right knee swells... He is litter-borne across Ethiopia to port by Amharric-chanting bearers, sails to Marseille... His stern MOTHER, adoring SISTER present, cancerous leg is amputated... Infection unstaunched, half an agonizing year later, barely 37, he perishes. The Rimbaud Myth is born... In four short years, RIMBAUD produced what became a revolution in all literature. Still today there is annual new biography, monthly new study attempting to come to grips with this Zenith-like, ineffable phenomenon... OPERA'S LEADING ROLES: YOUNG, OLDER RIMBAUDS: baritones;... MME. RIMBAUD, mother: alto;... ISABELLE, sister: soprano;... VERLAINE: tenor;... VOICE of MUSE, electronically enhanced: soprano... Supporting Roles-- MATHILDE, Verlaine's wife, soprano, doubling as English Girl;... MME MAUTE, Mathilde's mother: mezzo, doubling as Mother Superior;.... ETHIOPIAN GIRL, Rimbaud's mistress: soprano;... DJAMI, his servant: bass;... Ethiopian PORTER (off): ornate tenor;... ALFRED BARDEY, coffee trader, tenor, doubling as Awards Speaker, Editor Gavoty;....WRITERS, COMMUNARDS.... Small choral groups on/off.... Several dancers among Act One Finale Orgiasts... ORCHESTRA: min 47 players:... Full woodwinds, including alternates (piccolos, alto fl, Eng hrn, bass cl, alto & sop sax, cbn).... Brasses: 3 hrns, tpt, bass tromb, tuba... Amplified piano and celesta, harp... Five percussion, spatially arranged...Strings [min.]: 8 vln, 6 vla, 5 vc, 3 cb...[Spatial perc in 3 groups: two players LEFT; two players RIGHT; CENTER perc: 1 player. Right and Left groups may be placed on platforms to sides of stage, with Center percussion to center rear or above on tower.] SOUND BITE: 20 minutes: 7 continuous sections, governable by viewer. The first five outlined here, the two final scenes being self-explanatory. [1]. mid-1873, Paris, 3'20":--- RIMBAUD, VERLAINE; MUSE ..R: "It began with disgust, and ends..in a riot of perfumes.." ..V: "Ends? What do you mean?" ....argument, violence. V shoots R in wrist..MUSE:"Ma vie est usee"... [2]. 1889, Harrar, Ethiopia, ca 1'30" OLDER RIMBAUD, servant DJAMI: DJ: "How old?"... R: "When we first met, seventeen. Nineteen when he shot me."..[The following Love Scene is skipped.] On to: [3].late 1873, Roche, Fr., Family farm. 3'05": RIMBAUD, MOTHER: R: "Do not come near me! I smell scorched!"-- Mme R:"Again the barn? Another night of screams.."... R envisions a life in Africa: "Beyond the shores, to the kingdom of the children of Ham.."... [4]. 1880, Aden. Marketplace. 2'50".. OLDER RIMB, BARDEY [coffee merchant]; MUSE.Bardey hires Rimbaud, with possibility of his setting up branch of firm in Harar, Ethiopia: BARDEY: "Six francs a day...Be careful of the women, there's a lot of syphilis around"... MUSE: "Je dois enterrer mon imagination et mes souvenirs.." Parts 5, 6 & 7: Late 1873. Roche, before barn door: YOUNG RIMBAUD reminisces, "Oh, the clear, transparent lucid song of new sorrow...." He envisions "endless shores teeming with white, joyous nations.." He opens barn door, giving 'birth' to his next self as OLDER RIMBAUD appears... Final moments: Metaphorical Reconciliation of the two Rimbauds: TRIO with Muse joining in with lines from "Le Bateau ivre" in French and English by the two Rimbauds; Then Older Rimbaud, alone, reflects.
Year composed: 1996
Duration: 01:45:40
Ensemble type: Opera/Theater:Opera, More than One Act, with Chorus
Instrumentation: 1 Alto Flute, 1 Oboe, 1 Contrabassoon, 3 Horn in F, 1 Trumpet, 5 Percussion (General), 1 Celesta, 8 Violin, 6 Viola, 5 Cello, 2 Double bass, 1 Harp, ,4 Soprano soloist(s), ,2 Mezzo-Soprano soloist(s), ,2 Alto soloist(s), ,3 Tenor soloist(s), ,2 Baritone soloist(s), ,2 Bass soloist(s), 4 S, 4 A, 4 T, 4 B, 2 Prerecorded Sound (Tape/CD/Other)
Instrumentation notes: Orchestra with as few as 47 players, this including 5 percussion. Instrumentation given above is FALSE: CORRECT INSTRUMENTATION: 3 fl (incl piccolos, alto fl); oboe (incl Eng Horn); 2 cl (incl Eb cl), bass cl; alto & soprano sax; 2 bns, 3 horns, tpt in C, bass tromb, tuba; 5 perc; piano & celesta, harp; strings 8-6-5-3 min. Tapist required. Strings expanded for large venues. Lower strings predominate throughout. Open-top grand piano calling for special effects requiring amplification. Five spatially arranged percussionists governing some 50 instruments. 2 left, 2 right, 1 center. TAPIST circulates sound of MUSE from stage to all parts of auditorium; creates sonic explosions ending Act One Orgy finale.

Harold Blumenfeld's profile »