Does the music accommodate this staging?

Question

'Die tote Stadt', Erich Wolfgang Korngold's operatic version of Rodenbach's 'Bruges la morte', is a fascinating work. Per the novel, Paul, who had spent much of the story hallucinating of his beloved dead wife (and confusing that with a real life dancer who resembles her) ends the surreal book by really killing the dancer (Marietta) and then probably himself.

Korngold's father, in his adaptation of the text into libretto for his son, though, changed the ending so that Paul is so jolted by Marietta's attack on his wife (Marie)'s relic that he wakes up from his morbid obsession and resolves to start life anew (you can read Julius Korngold's ending at http://books.google.com/books?id=8RU6AAAAIAAJ&pg=P... ). So while the novel ends in the morbid abyss, the opera's libretto goes:

"Friends, I know I won't see her again.

One dream has destroyed the other;

the cruel dream of reality has vanquished my dear illusion.

The dead send dreams like that to haunt us

when we don't let them rest in peace.

How long shall we mourn for them?

How long must we grief before we are ruined?

What a bitter dilemma!

Joy, descended from above,

fare you well, my faithful love.

Life and death don't merge;

the two hearts must part.

Wait for me in heavenly plain,

on earth, life has no second chance."

Though, the two best stagings of the opera I've seen (by Götz Friedrich and by Inga Levant) don't seem to share Julius K's vision. Would like you to 1st just listen to this clip ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtCJcjAJZRg ) without watching. Then have another go both watching and listening.

>>>Does the music say that Paul walks away to live elsewhere far from the past (contradicted by this staging) or does it say that Paul escapes from living altogether (this staging presents a valid interpretation)?<<<

And, if the latter, which ending do you think the music prefers/go with better (did Erich Wolfgang dissent from his dad)?

Update:

@delicio - Thanks! I love this opera, too.

Just wanted to clarify that staging with Paul's demise isn't necessarily morbid (it'll depend on whether one thinks that living is a blessing or a suffering (hence 'escaping from it' can be seen as 'starting a new life'... in a way - and not that far off in this opera where reality and hallucination blend). In the original novel Paul is really religiously Catholic, so the ending like that is morbid ... in that context). :)

del_icious_manager · Accepted Answer

I love this opera! Korngold's music does NOT suggest the morbid abyss to me. Rather, it resembles the transfiguration episodes in both Richard Strauss's 'Tod und Verklärung' (Death and Transfiguration) and Schoenberg's 'Verklärte Nacht', both of which I suspect the young Korngold knew well. So, I think Erich went along with his father's re-writing of the ending.

I think the staging in the extract you provided is completely at odds with the music.

Alberich · Answer

Terrific question; but one I imagine would require quite a bit of intellectual energy to respond to properly - and the level of which, is beyond my means currently to muster.

     Suggestion: might want to review your "contacts" on this forum, and maybe add a few?  Often outstanding questions like this one, tend to get overlooked, lost in the shuffle as it were: the more contacts one has, the more likelihood they will brought to the attention of others.

                                        Sorry, had nothing more meaningful to offer,

                                                                                              Alberich

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Does the music accommodate this staging?

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