At the Salzburg Easter Festival, „Thérèse“ by Philipp Maintz to a libretto by Otto Katzameier receives its premiere. A multi-layered plot and its reflection in the music awaits the audience.

Abysses

Emile Zola’s novel Thérèse Raquin is not for the faint hearted. It tells the story of a ruthless crime, of madness and self-destruction. Thérèse and her lover Laurent murder the young woman’s husband. Their love soon turns into a struggle where they tear each other apart, and finally they commit suicide together. In his chamber opera Thérèse Philipp Maintz has chosen the subject matter of a young woman who murders her spouse. The music theatre work was created in an unusual collaboration, for the libretto is the first work by Otto Katzameier, who also sings the baritone role of Laurent.

Following on from Philipp Maintz’s music theatre work Maldoror (2010), which places the shady main character from Lautréamont’s powerfully eloquent poetry at its centre, the opera Thérèse once again deals with profundities: the crime, the destructive relationship, all this recalls “great cinema”, plots which would suit a thriller. It also has cinematic techniques which lead to the special dramaturgy of Otto Katzameier’s libretto, a cinematic structure of 42 scenes, ranging from a few bars to larger, more complex developments.

Thriller as opera

Philipp Maintz describes the genesis of the form of the opera: “It was clear to me from the beginning: if I were to write this opera, I would adopt a different structural approach than my first, Maldoror, which I composed in a very linear fashion from the beginning to the end. In this work I wanted to stretch a net of recognizable emblems which could carry and comment on entire situations, on which the entire music rests. Aribert Reimann once said to me: when two people stand on the stage in a scene and one sings and the other listens, you have to compose what the listener is thinking in the orchestra. And through the leitmotifs, that has resulted in a very clear and inspiring double basis at a stroke.” In conversation on subjects, a thriller as opera and questions of form, Philipp Maintz and Otto Katzameier developed models for the narrative style in their new work: “Otto has been involved in many first performances, is familiar with different formal approaches, and through this he has a keen instinct for what ‘works’ and what doesn’t – he has been an ideal partner for me.”

Thérèse’s line of text is placed at the beginning of the libretto as a motto: “Die Menschen sterben manchmal” [people sometimes die], she finally murmured, “nur für die Überlebenden ist es gefährlich! [it is only dangerous for the survivors]” 

A central theme in the opera is the failure of both protagonists, something which is ever-present in the libretto. The text works with the trick of linking the chronological narrative with the murder scene and the suicide. Philipp Maintz sees a stylistic device in this apparent simultaneity of events which serves to sharpen the narrative style: “It is always obvious how the whole thing is going to end. As on three parallel levels, firstly the chronological narrative, but also the moments of the murder and the suicides, they constantly shed light on each other, this failure always remaining in the consciousness. When I genuinely think musically, I believe that a listener always gets more from what you lay down in the foundation than what he is conscious of at the first moment in the direct sense. Richard Wagner was the first to demonstrate this in the Ring. Our libretto comprises many different individual parts, but which are linked precisely in this way. The music of the opera has four time levels – particular spaces, narrative threads, and the characters each have their own tempo. But these tempi all fit with each other in proportion, that is, you can superimpose them. In this context I use the opportunity to superimpose anticipations, recourses, commentaries which do not belong together and do not even fit with what is being sung. But they begin to respond with a quite particular gravitation to the sung material. The opera begins with a relatively open space on which ‘the things’ are simply presented, a kind of everyday conversation takes place, but beneath these there is already a shadow which becomes increasingly clearly perceptible. Towards the end this becomes a current which, like a bodily mass successively sucks in everything which falls under its influence that previously still had a certain independence. The end is a race against a wall.” 

Timeless language – silent end

Otto Katzameier is one of the most versatile protagonists of new music theatre. The fact that he now brings his wide experience to bear as author of the libretto is an entirely logical step, for he is regarded as a performer who derives the presence and power of his interpretations from a lively interrogation of the role profile; in addition to this he now also works as a director. In his study of the subject matter, Thérèse Raquin turned out to be an ideal subject for an opera for him: “This novel IS an opera! The characters love each other, hate each other, are overjoyed, despair, hatch murder plans, commit murder, founder on the tragedy of their own destiny. To this is added the fact that here we find two characters with whom we can profoundly identify, even if this arc of tension from the ecstasy of love, through hatred and destruction, to double suicide is almost unbearable for the onlookers. I found this subject matter marvellous for Philipp’s music. Despite all its modernity, the writing of his vocal parts is exceptionally cantabile and suited to the voices, and thus, in my opinion, is predestined for an opera plot which shows real, living people in their joys and sorrows within a specific narrative process.”

A language had to be found for the libretto which matches with Zola and at the same time creates an up-to-the-minute drama: “That was a very interesting task. Out of Zola’s descriptions spoken words had to be created, a living language, in fact a libretto. Wherever I could I used the original text, but I had to find my own language as the plot continually intensified, when towards the end all that is left is for the former lovers, mentally and physically abused in the most brutal fashion, to humiliate themselves. One which is neither historicizing nor modernizing, but as timeless as the despair and hatred of two estranged lovers who only find their love again in a wordless joint suicide.

This idea of the melting down and deconstruction of the subject matter also spoke to Philipp immediately, and thus a dialogue between us began which in fact continues even now. It was really exciting to be constantly involved in the development of the composition, and as the partner responsible for the text, to help master the challenges which presented themselves. For example, we talked for a long time about the end, the double suicide. I was fascinated by the fact that Zola dealt with the unexpected and shocking end in just a few lines, quite laconically and austerely. It simply happens, without a word being said. And we wanted to translate this wordlessness in the same way into the opera – no more language, no more sound. The final high point of the opera is – a silent scene!”

Marie Luise Maintz

(from “[t]akte” 1/2019)