My Age, My Wild Beast, Vocal Cycle on Texts by Osip Mandelstam, Narrator, Tenor and Piano

Meine Zeit, mein Raubtier, Vokalzyklus auf Texte von Ossip Mandelstam

With his opera "The Dead Souls" (based on Gogol) and the ballets "Anna Karenina" (based on Tolstoy), "The Seagull" and "Woman with a Little Dog" (both based on Chekov), Shchedrin has brought classic works of Russian literature onto the musical theatre stage. This song cycle in thirteen parts, which is almost a miniature oratorio, is a work conceived on a smaller scale. The words describe various stages in the life and death of the poet, represented by the tenor voice with piano, while the words spoken by the narrator - personified as Anna Achmatova - and also accompanied by the piano can be understood as a sort of commentary in a musical dialogue. The composer has succeeded in bringing these disparate elements together and unifying them in music that is deeply expressive.

CONTENIDO:

I Preludio
II A body was given to me
what am I do with it
III Biographical information
IV My age, my wild beast
V Recollections of a contemporary
VI The flat
paper-thin silence
VII Help me, o Lord, through this night
VIII Petersburg, I'm not yet ready to die!
IX I cannot hide from this vast chaos
X First arrest
XI Guard my words forever
for their traces of misfortune and smoke
XII Let me go, Voronezh, return me
XIII Lost am I in the skies (Epilog)