Photo: Peter Schwing
Hamburg, 1973, Kurt Horres dir.
Steffens, Walter
Under Milk Wood (1968/72)
Opera
Libretto based on the play by Dylan Thomas; German text by Erich Fried (E,G)
Scoring
colS,3lyrS,2M,A,T,lyrT,heldenT,2buffoT,5Bar,BBar,B,2buffoB,speaking roles,mimes; chorus; children’s chorus; taped voices; ballet;
2(II=picc,afl).2.corA.2(II=bcl).asax.2-4.3.3.1-timp.perc-2harps-org-accordion-elec.gtr-strings-tape;
On-stage:asax-pft-accordion-elec.gtr-drums-db.
Abbreviations (PDF).
Territory
This work is available from Boosey & Hawkes for the world.
World Premiere
5/10/1973
Staatsoper, Hamburg
Conductor: Marek Janowski
Company: Hamburgische Staatsoper
Roles
| CAPTAIN CAT | Bass |
| REVEREND ELI JENKINS | Buffo Tenor |
| MOG EDWARDS, cloth merchant | Heldentenor |
| MISS PRICE, lady's tailor, his bride | Coloratura Soprano |
| MR. WALDO, barber and ne'er-do-well | Bass Baritone |
| MRS. OGMORE-PRITCHARD | Mezzo Soprano |
| MR. OGMORE | Tenor |
| SINDBAD THE SAILOR | Lyric Tenor |
| 3rd DROWNED PERSON | Buffo Tenor |
| MR. PRITCHARD | Buffo Bass |
| 4th DROWNED PERSON | Baritone |
| MR. PUGH | Baritone |
| MRS. PUGH | Contralto |
| MR. BEYNON, butcher | Buffo Bass |
| MR. CHERRY OWEN | Baritone |
| MRS. CHERRY OWEN | Lyric Soprano |
| WILLY NILLY | Baritone |
| 5th DROWNED PERSON | Baritone |
| POLLY CARTER | Mezzo Soprano |
| ROSIE PROBERT | Lyric soprano |
| GOSSAMER BEYNON | Lyric soprano |
| several speaking roles |
Time and Place
A day and a night in the Welsh fishing village Llareggub
Synopsis A play, an impression for voices, an entertainment from obscurity – a play about the small town where I live, just simple and warm and comic, with much movement and changing moods so that in varied ways, through images and language, descriptions and dialogue, evocation and parody, one gradually comes to know the town as if one lived there oneself... All the cranks, whose eccentricities are briefly sketched impressionistically, they are all in their way normal and good people; the narrator (compere and chronicler, sort of conscience, a guardian angel) and the poet-priest do not judge, nor condemn – they only explain and make everything strangely simple and simply strange. Dylan Thomas
Moods
Comic, Poetic
Subjects
Relationships, Society
