Kurt Weill
He who says yes (The Yes-Sayer)
Short instrumentation: 1 0 1 0 - 0 0 0 0 - perc(2), harm, plucked instr, pno(2), alto sax, vln.I, vln.II, vc, cb
Duration: 35'
Übersetzer: Elisabeth Hauptmann, H. M. Potts, Luigi Rognoni, Arthur Waley
Libretto von: Bertolt Brecht
Choir: SATB
Roles:
Der Knabe
Tenor oder Knabenstimme
Die Mutter
Mezzosopran
Der Lehrer
Bariton
3 Studenten: 2 Tenöre
1 Bariton
Instrumentation details:
flute (ad lib.)
clarinet in Bb (ad lib.)
alto saxophone in Eb (ad lib.)
1st piano
2nd piano
harmonium
percussion (ad lib.)
plucked instrument ad lib. (guitar, bjo, lute)
violin I
violin II
violoncello
contrabass
Weill - Der Jasager
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Kurt Weill
Weill: Der Jasager (The Yes-Sayer)Type: Klavierauszug
Language: Englisch (Großbritannien)
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Work introduction
The school opera Der Jasager goes back to the Japanese fable Tanikô, a play from the centuries-old Nôh theatre. A shortened English version of the Noh play was translated into German by Elisabeth Hauptmann and made its way to Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht. Weill composed Der Jasager in the first half of 1930, pausing only for the turbulent première of Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny on 9 March 1930. The term ‘school opera’ gave Weill a number of possibilities for combining the concepts of ‘education’ and ‘opera’: the opera teaches the composer – or a whole new generation of composers – to approach the operatic genre in a new way. But it is also a question of re-training the process of operatic performance, with the end goal of staging the work so naturally and simply that children become the ideal performers. And finally, Weill also considered ‘school operas’ as meant for use in schools: ‘it is thus essential that a piece for schools should give children the opportunity to learn something, beyond the joy of making music.’ (Weill)