Katharina von Bora (opera)

Katharina von Bora strives to portray its historical period (1504–52) accurately – conditions within the convent and outside of it; the societal life of Saxony; two of three epidemics of black plague over Europe; the German Peasants' War of 1524–1525 and Luther's attitude towards it; the life of the Luther family in the Black Cloister, where students paid to come and eat; theological debates over Protestant ideas like free will and salvation – the opera touches on all these contemporary realities.

Composer Valcu, a permanent resident of the U.S. as well as of Germany, researched archives for three years before he began this work, spending time in Wittenberg, Grimma, and Torgau, where the action of the opera takes place.

Although von Bora and Luther were not much in love when they married, they grew to love each other.[3] Luther's bachelor lifestyle did not meet von Bora's standards, and she took his domestic affairs in hand.

A sign of the love that grew up between them, Luther's will declared complete trust in Katharina to care for their children, even in the event that she should remarry. This uncommon faith in his wife – not only unconventional, but technically illegal in the sixteenth century – distinguishes this marriage from all the others which we know of at the time.[2]

Because the opera describes von Bora's entire life, many people appear in the performance, some only briefly. Therefore, one singer/actor can assume several roles. Performers may also be brought in from the opera house chorus.

• Stage director: Anne Hagan Bentz
• Choir director: Samuel Barbara
• Choreographer: Rachel Read
• Nun jury: Katherine Leihgaber, Sylvia Ewen, Kathryn Mansell, Lynn Rodemoyer, Samantha Connell, Susan Speer
• Monk chorus for Easter eve celebration: Zachary Balog, Mark Hockenberry, David Osorno, Jeremy Roberts, Joseph Spurio, Charles Wiley, Kendall Williams, Matthew Younger, Matthew Benzenhoefer, John Bonomo, Thomas Ewen
• Dancers: Abbey Arrigo, Alexis Arrigo, Angela Colella, Sarah Jackson, Lauren Faber, Rachel Read, Chris Bezek, Patrick Raymond, Christian Na, James Helwig, Zach Balog, Joseph Spurio
• Student-guitarist: Robert Kushner
• Rehearsal pianist: Marie Libal-Smith

"What sets this work above many others are the absolutely beautiful, soaring, unforgettable melodies. These melodies seem to have been the very essence of the characters that sang them ... I was instantly captivated ... It was vibrant, logically conceived ... The story unfolded at a quick dramatic pace and [in] a quite believable manner ... During the poignant final scene, as Katharina is dying I thought to myself, 'What is this running down my cheeks?' It was tears!"[4]

When Valcu was ready with the concept of his opera, he started to look for a librettist, first in Germany and then in the U.S., but although he found two American writers willing, each of them gave up. Through a circle of common friends in New Castle, PA, the composer then met Bill Zeiger. Zeiger began working on the libretto in June 2013. The work went through many drafts. He completed the current script just in time for the premiere on November 7, 2015. The collaboration between the two was ideal. Valcu uses "spiritual terms of praise" for Zeiger's ability.[5]

Valcu's work can be called a "pop opera" because it combines the deep seriousness of opera with the popular appeal of musical theater. It includes pop voices along with classically trained opera singers and pop instruments among the operatic orchestra. Some of the arias are composed as "songs" – written in a lower register than for classical singers, and conforming to pop music.

Despite its contemporary features, however, Katharina von Bora remains firmly rooted in the classical tradition. In such a work, modern compositional techniques like post-tonal or atonal scales do not intrude; time-proven and period specific tones prevail. In the score, the composer asks expressly that the staging of the work be done traditionally, never in a modern or abstract way. Like all Grand Opera, this opera presents its spectacle through elaborate costumes and sets, a large-scale cast, and an orchestra in a classic, conventional style and is based on historical events. This style excludes from the start ultra-modern musical techniques. The goal of the composer is to bring together in the concert hall opera and pop music lovers, old and young people, women and men alike, people of all religions and confessions.

Although viewers may think of it as a musical, Katharina von Bora is fundamentally a grand opera and not a musical. Classical opera originated in Italy in the late sixteenth century. The modern musical arose in the United States in the late nineteenth century. Both opera and the musical use music, dialogue, acting, make-up, scenery, costumes, dance, and technological effects to produce an impression. In operatic tradition, however, the music is primary; in the musical, words are primary.[6]

In the musical, the orchestra frequently falls silent while characters engage in dialogue on stage. The orchestra punctuates the action, highlights key moments, and provides transition. In opera, however, a halt in the music is rare. The opera achieves its effect through the sustained movement of musical texture.

In the musical the words of songs are clearly articulated and understood. In opera, even when words are not understood, the impact of the drama comes home. The onward flow of music in the opera joins together all the action and all the meaning of the work.

Classical opera also typically portrays events on a grand scale, while the musical, though it may be opulent, likes a natural human frame of reference.

Through the magic of theatre, the musical may lure the audience into a fantasy world where anything can happen. Dreams may come true, or almost come true, and deeply stir the emotions of audiences who share and appreciate those dreams. But in the end, they are the dreams of ordinary people. The opera, on the other hand, like Greek epic, envisions not dreams, but the transcendent nobility of human aspirations. It bears a gravitas beyond the range of common human activity. It inspires a sense of fated effects, of actions imbued with fantastic powers. And so the opera attempts to elevate its audience beyond rational boundaries into a heroic realm described and sustained by music.

Katharina von Bora is opera in the classic sense.

Musical associations with the opera's historical time and place permeate its composition. References to the Renaissance and Reformation inevitably appear, notably including folkloric elements from the works of contemporary composer Michael Praetorius. The music of Handel, who arose in Saxony the century after Katharina and Luther, also influences the work.

The orchestra pit for Katharina von Bora contains two separate orchestras; one classical and one pop. They never play separately. When the moment requires a special pop-style color, the composer, who made the whole orchestration, uses both groups of musicians. However, after the premiere, the pop orchestra was concentrated and reduced.

The classical orchestra includes violin I and II, viola, cello, contrabass, two flutes (piccola), two oboes (English horn), two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, four French horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, two percussionists playing bells, tom-tom, triangle, xylophone, vibraphone, and harp.

The scaled-down "pop orchestra" consists of guitar (classical, electric) for solo and harmony, synthesizer, two descant recorders (played by real descant recorder players but whose music is also written in the flautists' notes and in synthesizer notes, to make options available), piano, bass guitar, and drum set.

The vocal register for which Katharina's and especially Luther's music was composed is not strictly the one in which the classical soprano or classical tenor voice sounds the best. In order to accommodate both classical and pop voice styles, these parts are written for voices of a wider range. Even classically trained singers need to have a "pop timbre and color" in their voices.

In Katharina von Bora we can find an infusion of pop style. Many melodic lines and harmonies evoke the simplicity of pop concert songs. Often during the performance, we hear modern rhythms of "light" music. In some songs we feel a strong beat which is very seldom found in classical music where the beat is more discrete and delicate, but clearer. However, the very complex orchestration determines the nature of the opera.

While remaining true to the details of Katharina's life, the opera takes dramatic license in retelling her story in the following ways:

• Nimbschen was not the first cloister where Katharina was brought as a child by her father. Prior to this, she was at the Benedictine cloister in Brehna.[7]
• In the opera, six women escape from the convent. Historically, twelve women participated in this escape.[8]
• The aria for Sophie as well as Bishop Adolf von Anhalt's sickness are inventions.
• In the opera, Katharina's wedding to Luther takes place only once. In reality there were "two wedding meetings"; on June 13, 1525, with a small circle of friends and so by Luther called "Wirtschaft," a more formal wedding and marriage feast which took place on June 27, 1525.[9]
• On stage, Johann, the Elector of Saxony, gives the couple the Black Cloister at their wedding. In reality, although the couple probably lived in the Black Cloister from the time of their marriage, Johann formally gave them the building almost seven years later, on February 4, 1532.[10]
• Luther's final departure on a business journey in 1546 is not real. He actually left Wittenberg for Zulsdorf in 1545, having fallen out with the people of Wittenberg.
• The text of the postal correspondence between Luther and Katharina in 1546 is invented. The letters of Katharina are lost, and we have today only six letters of Luther to Katharina, although it is known that they wrote each other frequently.
• In the opera's final act, Luther says goodbye to all his children. In reality, his boys went with Luther. Only Margarete remained in Wittenberg.[11]
• At the end of the opera, Katharina dies within a few hours of her accident. In reality, she died about two and a half months later from an injury sustained in the accident.[12]

Without any cuts, the entire opera lasts three hours. In six of the twenty numbers, a verse may be cut, which can shorten the running time to two and a half hours.

Originally performed in English, the libretto of this opera has been translated into German by Thomas Mittmann.

• Bowers, Diane V., Ph.D. "To Spite the Devil: Martin Luther and Katharina von Bora's Wedding and Reform and Resistance." Pacific Coast Theological Society, 22 April 2017
• "Local Companies to Present Katharina von Bora, an Original Opera." EllwoodCity.org. 26 October 2015.
• New Castle Lyric Opera Image Gallery