Erwartung

Erwartung (translation: Expectation) is a one-act opera, with music by Arnold Schoenberg, composed in 1909 to a libretto by Marie Pappenheim. It was not premiered until June 6, 1924, in Prague, conducted by Alexander Zemlinsky with Marie Gutheil-Schoder as the soprano. The work takes the unusual form of a monologue for solo soprano, backed up by a large orchestra. In performance, it lasts for about half an hour. It is often paired with Béla Bartó... more

Erwartung (translation: Expectation) is a one-act opera, with music by Arnold Schoenberg, composed in 1909 to a libretto by Marie Pappenheim. It was not premiered until June 6, 1924, in Prague, conducted by Alexander Zemlinsky with Marie Gutheil-Schoder as the soprano. The work takes the unusual form of a monologue for solo soprano, backed up by a large orchestra. In performance, it lasts for about half an hour. It is often paired with Béla Bartók's opera Duke Bluebeard's Castle, as the two works are generally thought to be similar in character and psychological themes. Schoenberg's succinct description of the work was: "In Erwartung the aim is to represent in slow motion everything that occurs during a single second of maximum spiritual excitement, stretching it out to half an hour." Philip Friedheim has described Erwartung as Schoenberg's "only lengthy work in an athematic style", where no musical material returns once stated over the course of 426 measures. In his analysis of the... less