La Montagne Noire (Der schwarze Berg)

In the organizer's words:

Lyrical drama in four acts and five scenes by Augusta Holmès - Libretto by the composer - In French with German surtitles

A bitter war is raging between Montenegro and Turkey. The Montenegrin warriors Mirko and Aslar return victorious from the last battle. According to an old custom, the two swear eternal loyalty to each other until death and thus become brothers. Nothing now seems to stand in the way of the final victory over the Ottoman troops when Mirko meets the beautiful Turkish woman Yamina. He saves her from death and cannot resist her attraction. Although he is actually engaged to Héléna, he leaves her and at the same time commits treason against Montenegro. Aslar pursues the two in order to restore his brother's honor ...

As a woman, Augusta Holmès found it difficult to establish herself as a composer in Paris throughout her life. As a result, her opera La Montagne Noire quickly fell into oblivion after its premiere in 1895. However, the work impressively demonstrates the special qualities of Holmès, who not only used an opulent late Romantic tonal language in her music, but also wrote the libretto for her work herself. The text was not purely fictionalized by her, rather the composer based it on real, traditional Slavic heroic songs, some of which she used verbatim in her libretto. The characters in the opera have real-life role models, such as the title character Mirko, who is reminiscent of the historical figure of Marko
Kraljević, for example. Marko, a young Serbian warrior who switched to the opposing side as an Ottoman vassal, is revered in Slavic folk song culture to this day.
folk song culture to this day. In this sense, the opera impressively reflects the deconstruction of history and the creation of false hero myths.

• The performance on 10.05.2024 will take place as part of Wagner Cosmos V "Myth and Truth".