Mozart, Henneberg, Schack, Gerl and Schikaneder - The Philosopher's Stone (Der Stein der Weisen, 1790)

(Der Stein der Weisen oder Die Zauberinsel)
Singspiel with music by W.A. Mozart, J.B. Henneberg, B Schack, F.X. Gerl and E. Schikaneder, 1790
Libretto by E Schikaneder; English translation by Barry Millington

Cast 2005

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Synopsis

Act I
The Philosopher's Stone (Der Stein der Weisen) begins in an Arcadian land where the priest Sadik leads a ceremony to the guardian spirit, Astromonte. Sadik’s two foster children, the lovers Nadir and Nadine soon appear with their rustic friends, Lubano and Lubanara, a newly-wed couple. Lubanara’s presence desecrates a ceremony reserved for maidens. The audacious and untamed Lubanara persuaded Lubano to bring her to the sacred ceremony, as she dreams of riding in Astomonte’s flying machines. Lubano warns her of the dangers of displeasing Astromonte and the terrible subterranean spirit Eutifronte. But Lubanara has no fear of spirits. Sadik metes out a mild punishment to them and warns of terrible consequences if there are future incidents. Astromonte’s Genie then arrives in a cloud chariot and presents a cage that contains a magic bird. The bird will identify the most virtuous and innocent maiden by its song, and Astromonte will then take her with him. Sadik and Nadir fear that this will be Nadine. In subsequent comic scenes Lubano locks up his wife; she invokes Eutifronte and the demon comes and frees her; when the husband protests, Eutifronte takes Lubanara into the abyss. Lubano discovers antlers on his head, the sign of cuckoldry, and he is chased by hunters. The ceremony starts and each maiden holds the bird; it remains silent until Nadine holds it. Astromonte descends in his chariot and accepts the sacred offerings. As he is about to leave he hears the bird singing and sees Nadine. He takes them both in his chariot and departs. All implore Astromonte to return Nadine, and Lubano cries out for his Lubanara. In the final chorus they decide to set sail to the magic island to find Nadine.

Act II
Eutifronte causes a storm to wreck the ships as they approach the island, but Nadir and Lubano swim ashore. Eutifronte enlists Nadir’s anger at Astromonte for his own evil purposes, as he narrates his story to the young man: Astromonte and he are brothers, the sons of a powerful sorcerer who imparted his magic to them. Their father discovered the greatest of all secrets, the Philosopher’s Stone. He offered his sons an equal share of his wealth but Astromonte, as the first-born, was to receive the stone. Eutifronte vowed bloody vengeance, and the sorcerer decided that the stone would be given to the more worthy of their sons. At that time the two brothers loved the same princess. She chose Astromonte, and they had a son. Realising that this son may some day receive the stone, Eutifronte ordered that the boy be killed. Soon after learning of her child’s disappearance the princess died of grief. To assuage his unhappiness, his father gave Astromonte a magic bird that would identify the most virtuous maiden. Eutifronte now tells Nadir that he must murder Astromonte in order to rescue this maiden, his own Nadine. Lubano then receives instructions from the Genie: be steadfast, patient and obedient. He is soon tested by Eutifronte’s creatures, who offer him food and drink. Lubanara appears and stops Lubano, telling him of Eutifronte’s evil plans. Before she can warn Nadir, Eutifronte bewitches her so that she can only miaow like a cat. He brings them to a subterranean vault where a magic sword is being forged with the power to kill Astromonte. Declaring that this ceremony is only for men, Lubanara is led outside; the Genie arrives and rescues her. Nadir takes the sword and a magic bow with lethal arrows and sets out to Astromonte’s palace. When he hears the bird, Nadir accidently kills Nadine. Nadine’s corpse is brought before Nadir, who is rescued by the Genie before he is overcome by despair. Eutifronte now puts Lubano in a birdcage; he tricks Nadir into believing it an illusion, hoping Nadir will kill his friend. Suddenly Astromonte appears disguised as an old man and holding the bird. He asks for Eutifronte’s sword, promising Nadir that Nadine will return, along with Sadik and all his companions he believed were dead. He reveals that Nadir is Astromonte’s son, who was saved after Eutifronte’s spirits threw him into the sea. Eutifronte appears and tries to persuade Nadir that Astromonte is the enemy, but Nadir gives the sword to the old man. He is awarded the Philosopher’s Stone which brings Nadine back to life, and Astromonte removes his disguise. Eutifronte curses them and sinks with his spirits down into the abyss. The scene is then transformed into a splendid temple; all are reunited as they sing of the marriage of Nadir and Nadine.

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Historical notes on The Philosopher's Stone by David Buch

When the actor, singer, playwright and composer Emanuel Schikaneder assumed the artistic management of the Theater auf der Wieden in suburban Vienna in the summer of 1789, he initiated a new direction for his company. To attract a large audience he commissioned a series of fairy-tale singspiels based on the popular writing of Christoph Martin Wieland. To accommodate the pressing schedule of new singspiels, he employed a team approach to the musical composition, and to improve the quality of the performance, he hired a skilled music director and several new virtuoso singers.

The first fairy-tale opera at this theatre, Oberon, King of the Elves (November 1789), used a libretto adapted by Karl Ludwig Giesecke, a member of the company. Schikaneder himself wrote the subsequent fairy-tale librettos, turning to Wieland’s Dschinnistan collection when he wrote Der Stein der Weisen (The Philosopher’s Stone, September 1790), followed by Der wohltätige Derwisch (The Beneficent Dervish) and The Magic Flute, both in 1791.

The collaborative approach to musical composition was first discussed in 1794, in an anonymous Viennese article titled ‘Über den Stand der Musik in Wien’. Citing Benedikt Schack and Franz Xaver Gerl’s collaborations, the author notes that ‘with the…..Beneficent Dervish and with The Philosopher’s Stone, several individuals composed them at the same time; one works on these operettas like one builds a house; and it cannot be denied that this is the very best way when an opera has to be created in a short amount of time.’

Mozart had been acquainted with Schikaneder since 1780, and his association with the Theater auf der Wieden certainly antedated Schikaneder’s arrival in 1789. Mozart’s sister-in-law, Josefa Hofer (née Weber), was already singing in the company under its previous manager. Schikaneder brought in Schack and Gerl, two skilled composers and leading singers, both with connections to the Mozart family in Salzburg. Schack quickly became a close friend who sought out Mozart’s advice in composition.

Sometime in the late spring or early summer of 1790 Mozart participated in the composition of the music for the new ‘heroic-comic opera’ in two acts, The Philosopher’s Stone, based on the tale ‘Nadir und Nadine’ from Dschinnistan. The other composers included the new Kapellmeister, Johann Baptist Henneberg, Schack, Gerl and Schikaneder. The evidence for Mozart’s involvement is compelling: a score of the cat duet, mostly in Mozart’s handwriting, survives in Paris. This duet comes from the original performing score. Mozart’s name also appears in two contemporary Viennese manuscript copies of the score now in Hamburg and Berlin (the Frankfurt copy indicates no composers) as well as in other contemporary sources. Besides the cat duet there are two additional segments attributed to Mozart in the Hamburg manuscript, brief but skilful duets in the second-act finale. While these attributions have no corroborating source, they appear to be in the hand of the chief music copyist, Kasper Weiss. Weiss’s attributions are further strengthened by the fact that he indicated five composers who were active in this theatre during this brief period of time (1790-91), and he correctly indicated the one attribution that can be verified, that of the cat duet. Michael Lorenz’s research has demonstrated that he was on intimate terms with Gerl, Schack and Schikaneder. The very modesty of the other Mozart attributions argues for their authenticity: had this been an attempt simply to capitalise on Mozart’s fame, his name would most likely not have been confined to such brief episodes so late in the second act. Finally, the forensic evidence of the paper and handwriting, analysed by musicologist Dexter Edge, provides further support for the attributions.

Just one year after The Philosopher’s Stone, the same playwright, singers and actors created parallel roles in The Magic Flute: Schack (Astromonte) sang Tamino, Gerl (Eutifronte) Sarastro, Urban Schikaneder (Sadik) was the first priest, Kistler (Nadir) the second priest, Anna Gottlieb (Nadine) Pamina, Emanuel Schikaneder (Lubano) Papageno, Barbara Gerl (Lubanara) Papagena. The same Kapellmeister, Henneberg, led the orchestra from the piano. The surprising number of textual and musical parallels between these two operas (and between The Beneficent Dervish and The Magic Flute) establish an intimate link in this series of fairy-tale operas. The parallels also provide an important insight into Mozart’s use of pre-existing musical materials and his interest in fairy-tale opera well over a year before The Magic Flute.

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Reception and performance history

The Philosopher’s Stone premièred on 11 September 1790 and enjoyed a relatively long period of popularity, at least 24 years (1790-1814). After the first run at the Theater auf der Wieden in 1790, the work was revived there frequently. The opera was mounted in Brno (1794), Prague (1795, in Czech), Frankfurt (1795-6), and in Graz (1796). The Schantor theatre troupe performed the opera in Trieste in June 1799, as did the Albrecht company at the Nationaltheater in Altone in August 1800. There was a run of performances in 1802: a songbook from that production is preserved in Tegenburg. An additional contemporary songbook that attributes the music to Mozart survives in the Bavarian State Library in Munich, but no date or location is indicated. Schikaneder revived Der Stein der Weisen when he returned to Vienna as the director of the Theater an der Wien in 1804. The last known performance of the opera, recently documented by Michael Lorenz, took place in Linz on 28 February 1814.

While no reviews of Wiednertheater performances of The Philosopher’s Stone have survived, the evidence suggests that the opera was highly successful. Shortly after the première, the Lausch music shop advertised vocal numbers in the local newspaper. Schikaneder printed texts of six vocal numbers, along with three copper engravings of staged scenes, in his 1791 Allmanach fur Theaterfreunde. Four independent commentators discussing the Viennese revival of the opera at the Theater an der Wien (1804) recalled that it had been a favourite with the public in past years.

A reviewer of a production of the opera in Altona (1800) praised the music as ‘rich in ideas, true-to-life in its characterisation, and diverse in its expression. The ear will often be gently flattered, the songs are extremely pleasing, and both finales have 'an abundance of ceremonial solemnity'. Listeners today should find this assessment as valid as it was in 1800.

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The discovery of The Philosopher’s Stone

I was not searching for undiscovered Mozart when in 1993 I first heard from Jurgen Neubacher, the manuscript librarian at the Hamburg City and University Library, about the City Theatre Collection. The collection, which had been returned from St Petersburg, had suffered water damage in Russia and was undergoing a lengthy restoration process. At the time I was examining fairy-tale or supernatural opera, the genre to which The Philosopher’s Stone and The Magic Flute both belong. I made a list of opera manuscripts I wanted to look at, and at the top was the score for The Philosopher’s Stone, a fairy-tale opera that was first staged one year before The Magic Flute at Emanuel Schikaneder’s Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna.

When I returned to Hamburg three years later and examined the score, I was surprised to see the names of individual composers written above most of the numbers. That is not what one would expect to see in a theatre copy. Would the famous ‘cat duet’, attributed to Mozart in Kochel’s catalogue, be attributed to Mozart here? It was. As I continued to turn the pages, Mozart’s name appeared for a second time, above the beginning of the second-act finale, yet another ‘cat duet’. Some pages further on, Mozart’s name appeared again above the duet Fort, armer Jüngling, sung by the Tamino-like hero Nadir and a Genie.

Knowing that this might be a valuable discovery, I began searching for independent corroborative evidence to authenticate the attributions. What was there in the Mozart literature? Constanze Mozart mentions on three occasions that Mozart collaborated with the tenor-composer Benedikt Schack, one of the composers of The Philosopher’s Stone. Schack was not in Vienna very long while Mozart lived – only about two and a half years. There are not many operas written by him during this period, so the Stone would be a prime candidate. Michel Noiray located a short essay dating from 1801 by Theophile-Frederic Winkler that states that Mozart wrote ‘plusieurs morceaux in La Pierre philosophale’. There is also a contemporary songbook on whose title-page one reads ‘in Musik gesetzt von Mozart’. Clearly false, but the association is there. But it was the musicologist Dexter Edge that provided the essential clue – he determined that the Hamburg manuscript originated in the Viennese copy shop of Schikaneder’s Theater auf der Wieden – right where the opera was first produced. Since then I have located many of the manuscripts produced by this copy shop and this has helped to establish the lineage of the precious Hamburg score.

© 2000 David J. Buch. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Recent performances

Following Professor Buch's discovery and edition of the Hamburg manuscript, The Philosopher's Stone was performed and recorded by Boston Baroque, conducted by Martin Pearlman, for Telarc (CD-80508). The modern European concert première was at the Hampstead and Highgate Festival on 27 May 2000, given by Collegium Musicum 90 and The New Company, conducted by Harry Bicket, in Barry Millington's translation; this performance was subsequently broadcast on Radio 3. The modern European staged première was at the Theater Augsburg, Germany, on 5 May 2001, conducted by Peter Leonard in a production by Dominik Wilgenbus. Bampton Classical Opera is grateful to David J. Buch for permission to give the first UK staged production.

Who composed what?

Synopsis - Cast - Historical note - Who composed what?
Production and rehearsal photgraphs
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