What Price Confidence? (translated as Vertrauenssache) is a chamber opera in nine scenes with music and libretto by Ernst Krenek, his opus 111. This "little drawing room comedy" is set in turn-of-the-century London, and features a protagonist not unlike Max in Jonny spielt auf, as the author points out in a preface; it owes something to Melville as well (specifically "The Confidence Man"), as do his next two operas.
Composed during the winter of ...
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What Price Confidence? (translated as Vertrauenssache) is a chamber opera in nine scenes with music and libretto by Ernst Krenek, his opus 111. This "little drawing room comedy" is set in turn-of-the-century London, and features a protagonist not unlike Max in Jonny spielt auf, as the author points out in a preface; it owes something to Melville as well (specifically "The Confidence Man"), as do his next two operas.
Composed during the winter of 1944-5 in St. Paul, it was Krenek's second attempt at an American opera and employed only four singers and piano. It shared the fate of Tarquin in only reaching a belated premiere in Germany (Saarbrücken, 23 May 1962), but this time Krenek was sufficiently satisfied with his work to publish it with Bärenreiter (BA 4301), remarking that the Met singers who requested a touring piece simply couldn't find time for a hoped-for performance. It is now given fairly often.
Gloria is upbraiding Edwin for his suspicious nature: "You dont even trust...
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