If even the best-informed opera lover is not aware of Rudi Stephan's Die Ersten Menschen, there's a good reason for it, and it has nothing to do with the music. The libretto, based on the "erotic mystery" by Otto Borngräber, merges religiosity with sexuality to an extent that would have made Gabriele D'Annunzio blanch. The plot concerns the twisted dynamics of the Original Family: Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel. Eve is depicted as a nymphomaniac who spends the entire opera in a frenzy of unfulfilled lust, and Adam as her passive ...
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If even the best-informed opera lover is not aware of Rudi Stephan's Die Ersten Menschen, there's a good reason for it, and it has nothing to do with the music. The libretto, based on the "erotic mystery" by Otto Borngräber, merges religiosity with sexuality to an extent that would have made Gabriele D'Annunzio blanch. The plot concerns the twisted dynamics of the Original Family: Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel. Eve is depicted as a nymphomaniac who spends the entire opera in a frenzy of unfulfilled lust, and Adam as her passive, frigid partner. While Cain's arousal in her presence is overt, Abel's is somewhat more sublimated, and although none of this swirling sexual energy gets consummated, it comes way too close for comfort. In any case, the music of the opera has much to commend it, so the best strategy for appreciating it might be to resist the urge to read the libretto and just listen to the music with as little attention to the words as possible. Stephan's post-Wagnerian musical language is...
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