Sancta Susanna is an early opera by Paul Hindemith in one act, with a German libretto by August Stramm. Composed over a two week period in January/February 1921, its premiere was on 26 March 1922, at Opernhaus, Frankfurt.
The work is his third and final in a triptych of expressionist influenced one-act operas - the previous two being Mörder, Hoffnung der Frauen op. 12 (1921), and Das Nusch-Nuschi op. 20 (1921) - and much like the previous works, ...
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Sancta Susanna is an early opera by Paul Hindemith in one act, with a German libretto by August Stramm. Composed over a two week period in January/February 1921, its premiere was on 26 March 1922, at Opernhaus, Frankfurt.
The work is his third and final in a triptych of expressionist influenced one-act operas - the previous two being Mörder, Hoffnung der Frauen op. 12 (1921), and Das Nusch-Nuschi op. 20 (1921) - and much like the previous works, scandalised Frankfurt’s concert going public, affording the young composer heightened critical attention and notoriety.
Sancta Susanna examines the relationship between celibacy and lust in Christianity, depicting the descent of a nunnery into sexual frenzy. Hindemith, around this time in his career has often been regarded, ‘a twenty-four-year-old dabbling in the realm of German expressionism’, and although it cannot be described as a fully fledged work of expressionism, the opera undoubtedly shows a significant reflexivity on the composer’s...
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