Die weiße Rose (opera)

Die weiße Rose (The White Rose) is a chamber opera in one act by composer Udo Zimmermann. The opera tells the story of Hans and Sophie Scholl, a brother and sister in their early twenties, who were guillotined by the Nazis in 1943 for leading Die Weisse Rose, a non-violent resistance group. The opera premiered at the Dresden Conservatory on 17 June 1967 with a German libretto by the composer's brother, Ingo Zimmermann, who is a well known journalist and writer in Germany. The opera was received fairly well but did not spark the interest of a professional production, which the composer had hoped.

Convinced that he could make a production that would achieve more lasting success, he revisited the work in the early 1980s with the intent of dramatically revising the opera. The original opera used a conventional narrative style, and although Zimmermann liked his brother's libretto, he felt that the opera would be better served by a more expressionistic and poetic portrait of the Scholls. Collaborating with a new librettist, Wolfgang Willaschek, the two men decided to remove the linear narrative, cut out all the supporting characters, and concentrate only on the thoughts of Hans and Sophie Scholl in the moments before their death. Willaschek decided to use the Scholls’ own letters and diaries, the pamphlets of the White Rose, the writings of the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer (also executed by the Nazis), and the Bible as sources for the new libretto. The resulting opera became a psychological map of the Scholls’ spiritual journey. Musically, Zimmerman kept some of the music from the original opera, composed some new music, and reorchestrated other parts of the original score. The opera has an approximate running time of 70 minutes.

The revised version of the opera premiered at the Hamburg State Opera on 27 February 1986 and was lauded by the audience and the press. The opera became an international success and has enjoyed performances at many of the world's leading opera houses and with leading orchestras including the Vienna State Opera, Komische Oper Berlin, Zurich Opera, the Salzburg Festival, and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra among many others.

Roles

Cast	Voice type	Premiere of revised opera, 27 February 1986 Conductor: Udo Zimmermann)
Hans Scholl	tenor*See note	Lutz-Michael Harder
Sophie Scholl	soprano	Gabriele Fontana

• Note — The tessitura and range of the role of Hans is such that a number of baritones with good upper extension have also learned and performed the role.

Synopsis

Setting: Munich and parts of Poland

The plot of the opera does not move in a linear fashion but rather proceeds in a series of images, at once metaphorical and disturbingly concrete. There are evocations of the Bavarian mountains where Hans and Sophie loved to hike. There is the sound of children playing to the music of a hurdy-gurdy. There are starker images also: a Jewish prisoner to whom Hans gave some tobacco on his way to the eastern front; a refugee mother dragging the body of her dead child; the frozen corpse of a soldier, “another death recorded on a routine list.” Towards the end, the images are combined: the mountain climb becomes a kind of transfiguration in death; the frozen child returns to life. But the opera ends with the only overt reference to the Scholls’ political activities, as brother and sister shout their desperate challenge to humanity against the insistent march of a gathering army and the cries of a vast mob coming from all around the theater.

And then silence. The echoes of the music die away, but the voices of Hans and Sophie Scholl resonate in the silence.

Recordings

• Die weiße Rose with Udo Zimmermann (conductor), Gabriele Fontana (Sophie) , Lutz-Michael Harder (Hans) and the Instrumentalensemble München. Released on the Orfeo label in 1988.

References

Sources

• F. Hennenberg: Udo Zimmermann: Leidenschaft Musik – Abenteuer Theater: Komponist – Intendant – Dirigent (Bonn, 1992)
• M. Ernst, ed.: Udo Zimmermann: ein Fünfzigjähriger im Spiegelbild von Zeitgenossen: eine Biographie in Zitaten (Leipzig, 1993)