The Tramway Conductor of Venice - Presentation

Synopsis

Hear music from this piece:

Track 1 | Track 2 | Track 3 | Track 4

The tomcat presents a fairy-tale. 'Once upon a time there was a tramway conductor in Venice,' he starts. 'But there is no tramway in all of Venice,' protests a voice from the audience. Exactly. That is the problem. But a tramway conductor there was indeed.

Senators and tourists, gondolieri and motorboat taxi drivers, they all agree: 'There is no tramway in Venice, nor shall there ever be one.'

Even La Bionda, the sympathetic duck at the labour exchange, has to join their chorus. Is there no hope for the tramway conductor?

He is so advanced with his dream, he has the entire network already planned. When tourists get lost, he is there: 'If Venice already had a tramway, line no. 7 would take you to St Mark's!'

The tomcat is trying hard. He is convinced that animals are the solution. Yes, animals indeed: seahorses who pull a floating tramway through the canals of Venice!

The tomcat and the tramway conductor prepare everything for the triumphal maiden voyage of the floating tramway. But it is not that easy. Senators and gondolieri are mighty enemies.

One day the tramway will ply its way through Venice,

Line No. 7 will run right through to St Mark's!
At the Rialto you have the best connections,
Ticketing is easy, you pay your fare by sections.
Line No. 15, straight to the Arsenal!
Line No. 13, fast to the hospital!
Giudecca and St Michael's will get their tramway line,
A tramway bridge to the Lido, with sights ever so fine!

Instrumentation

Violins (2), viola, cello, double bass, clarinets (2) (one doubling E flat clarinet, one doubling soprano saxophone), bass clarinet (doubling tenor saxophone), horn, trumpet, trombone, percussion, harp.

Composer's note
Mario Wiegand

The buffo genre is a rare bird in today's music theatre, and quite a difficult matter, too. In the music of today, there seems to be little room for jest, satire, irony and deeper meaning. Buffo lives on speed and brevity. It distorts and disarranges everything, even our own position. It allows us to caricature our own selves and the related horror, so that we, in a good sense, may get beside ourselves and laugh.

Any attempt to perform this process within music theatre might be impossible and out of fashion. In spite of this difficulty, or even because of it, this was my challenge. Then I came across The Tramway Conductor of Venice, a libretto that apparently comprised all this. I had found my subject. It gave me immense pleasure to fill these figures with musical life.

I grew up in a modern tradition. To compose this opera, I had to examine my own musical language and develop it further in a new direction. My music works with associations and allusions. There are passages that recall well-known and typical sounds and figures. Still, it is all my own invention. I took great care to have a comprehensible text, to achieve clarity and transparency - aims which can probably never be fully met. All too easily one counterpoint too many slides out of one's pocket or the orchestra turns too loud. The greatest challenge for me is ensembles, singing in parallel - something which only opera has to offer.

Librettist's note
Marec Béla Steffens

Yes, my libretto is too long. I know. Many people have told me so far. What do they all expect? I am writing opera, not aphorism! One day, after retirement, I will write a Russian-style novel, then I will show you what is really long!

However, I have to admit, if the original version of my libretto were set to music, the opera would be as long as one of Richard Wagner's. It would still be slightly funnier than some of Wagner's operas, but I do agree that for my subject such a length would not fit.

Indeed I have already made quite a number of cuts in the scenes now performed. Oh, how much did I cut! In the truest Venetian fashion, my flesh was cut out by the pound.

I know I will have to do the same with the rest of the text. This is painful. But I will get so much in return.

I will get Mario's music! Not the second-hand Puccini that I sang to myself while writing the libretto, but real opera music, made to complement my words!

I am an opera addict. The combination of text and music, of singers and orchestra, of stage action and audience, live, unplugged as they call it today - this is one of the greatest excitements I know. To be an active part of this is like a dream - and is worth the nightmare of doing cuts.

Joint statement
by Mario Wiegand and Marec Béla Steffens

One November day, when Marec Béla Steffens was walking through Venice, it struck him like lightning: what this city needs is a tramway! Immediately he imagined the tramway conductor who strolls through Venice with a conductor's cap and bag.

Marec wrote a fairy-tale about this character, the title story of his second book. When Marec travelled to an opera workshop at the Chamber Opera at Rheinsberg Palace near Berlin, the tramway conductor, this little chap, kept banging at his book cover: 'I want to become an opera character!'

At the workshop Marec met the composer Mario Wiegand. For a long time Mario had been searching for a librettist, just as Marec had been for a composer. It turned out quickly that they liked each other's work very much, and they decided to cooperate on two opera projects, Tomcat, Tell Me a Fairy-tale! for Rheinsberg, and this one for Genesis.

Although Mario lives in Weimar and Marec in Warsaw, they met a couple of times and developed a sense of what the other one needed. The main issue was that Marec was so excited with writing that his libretto became far too long. So he offered Mario first and second degree cuts, and told him he would submit even to the third degree if necessary. While composing, Mario decided which of these offered cuts he would actually take. This exercise has been completed for the excerpt now performed, and will be done for the rest of the text after this performance, because the experience gained from hearing Mario's music will help Marec to proceed further.