PAULA

The opera is made up of 16 scenes in small German towns that combine to create a plot. There are not the classic conflicts here, not the sublimity of the so-called great feelings, but lots of people and everyday occurrences. Christa Weber's text consists primarily of colloquial idioms, idioms and everyday conversation models. The language is slightly dialect-colored (southern German) without depicting a dialect. It is basically a colored high German. This means that it is a prepared everyday language that has been transformed from a natural into an artistic material in this way. The social level of the chosen everyday milieu can be made clearer as well as the typology of the characters can be supported. The selection of the scenes outlines the living space of the chosen characters with street, pub, apartment, shop, but also cemetery. They are structured by the history of a family.

Paula (the title character) is married to Marcel and has one child with him, Liesl. Marcel is a drinker and thief and unable to look after his wife and child and himself. He is certainly not innocent of his unemployment. So the burden of sole responsibility for the existence of the family rests on Paula, which is why she works in a cleaning company and is a reliable force.

The opera begins with a nightly scene: We see Paula and Liesl asleep in their beds, Marcel comes home very drunk from a binge, stumbles into the bedroom and wakes them both up.

The second scene characterizes the hectic life in the small town: We see a very busy street, lots of people who are all walking in one direction in a hurry, determined and rushed.

Paula works hard and is so diligent that she delivers laundry into the night. Meanwhile, Marcel hushed around in bars. He does everything for schnapps for the fun of his drinking buddies: he has had a bald head cut for it, but he is ready to shave off his “sackcloth”.

Thanks to her reliability and efficiency, Paula is allowed to open a branch and run it alone. Marcel feels superfluous and wants to throw himself in front of a train when he is drunk, but he does not succeed because no train can pass by.

The life of this small family takes place in the opera, so to speak, under the constant commentary observation of their bigoted neighbors. Despite, or perhaps because of, his lousy lifestyle, Marcel is popular with the honest bourgeois women as an exotic species. In his vicinity they are surrounded by the pleasant, nefarious aura of forbidden, unseemly life that they would very much like to nibble on, but of course you don't. Paula is viewed with benevolence for her efficiency, especially since she is very customer-friendly. You feel sorry for her because she was beaten with a good-for-nothing by her husband and therefore has to struggle so hard. But, one thinks, she must be glad to have had a man at all, because she has a clubfoot. The fact that Paula affords herself to go to the hairstyle one day is seen as completely inappropriate ("Can you make it beautiful? With that one is lost hops and malt"). Then her hair is so extravagantly modern that she is frightened of herself, becomes a mockery of people and quickly destroys the expensive hairstyle.

At a street festival we see Paula and the women (with their new hairstyles) sitting apart from their husbands. Marcel and his buddies are already a little drunk. As a way to get rich quickly, Marcel sees the possession of a condom machine (the landlord who hangs it up and the tax office can be easily screwed with it). He wants to persuade his buddies to join the business - "I just need start-up capital"). There is a solid argument and finally a mass brawl.

As a result, the badly damaged Marcel later gathers his drinking buddies around his bed. “True friendship only exists among drinking buddies”, and when Marcel is drunk, he even discovers his love for his family.

Paula suffers an attack of suffocation in her branch and is admitted to the hospital. The doctors tell her that she is no longer allowed to work in the cleaning department because of the chemical fumes. Marcel and Liesl visit her. Marcel promises to find a job and to stop drinking for good.

But soon Marcel is beaten out of an inn, very drunk. He stumbles to the street lamp, tries to clutch it, hits the sidewalk and remains motionless.

The funeral that follows is quite a bigoted undertaking. The marching band comes on stage with a solemn march. A church choir sings. Paula's customers and Marcel's drinking buddy Paula hypocritically express their condolences.

And at the end there is a short scene of real calm. Paula puts Liesl to bed with a rare lullaby.

Eia popeia kill the Gäckerli.

It lays no eggs for me and it eats my bread.

Eia popeia kill the Gäckerli.

The music:

Each scene has its own musical character or a clear compositional reference to another scene. In multiple, often laconic musical repetitions, text stereotypes - especially in the case of polyphony - release typical expressions that refer to the given dramatic situation on social issues, on conventions, on individual peculiarities (or the same in different people), etc. The singing voices are mostly performed in a declamatory manner. There are no great vocal forms, no arias, no great cantilenas. The predominant declamatory style does not take place in the recitative that moves freely along the language, but is bound by motivic work. Interval and position of the singing voices characterize expressive values, as do the passages to be spoken on pitches. Well-known songs and hits such as “Rosamunde”, “Schützenliesel”, “In a Polish town” are quoted in the bar scenes and the street festival. In the cemetery there is accordingly “I had a comrade” (instrumental), the chorale “Out of deep need I scream to you” (sung) and “Good night, good night, your pilgrimage is done”.