Orango

Libretto by Alexei Tolstoy and Alexander Starchakov (R)

The opera fragment ‘Orango’ by Dmitri Shostakovich, which was unexpectedly discovered in 2004, attracted the interest of the crème de le crème of top international performers. None other than the Finnish composer and star conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen premiered the piece for soloists, choir and orchestra in Los Angeles in 2011. Peter Sellars was the director at the time. Further performances have since taken place in London and Stockholm.
On 13 May 2018, the German premiere of ‘Orango’ was performed at the Staatstheater Darmstadt. Will Humburg conducted the ensemble and the opera choir of the Staatstheater Darmstadt in a semi-staged performance.
Orango’ is the prologue to a comic opera whose existence was completely unknown until 2004. The piano reduction manuscript of ‘Orango’ was found in the Glinka Museum in Moscow by the archivist Olga Digonskaya, who later also discovered the complete libretto.
On behalf of Irina Shostakovich, the composer's widow, the British musicologist and Shostakovich expert Gerard McBurney finally reconstructed the score from the piano score.
The opera fragment was written in 1932 after Shostakovich, together with the librettists Alexei Tolstoy and Alexander Starchakov, received an opera commission from the Bolshoi Theatre for the 15th anniversary of the October Revolution. As the librettists did not deliver their texts on time, the project was abandoned during its development phase. It is also possible that the Soviet authorities had strong reservations about the libretto. As can be seen from the libretto, Shostakovich and his librettists had obviously planned a large-scale opera consisting of a prologue and three acts. The opera was to be set in France at the time of the First World War. Orango, a hybrid creature - half ape, half human - that had emerged from a scientific experiment by a French biologist, was to take centre stage.
The 40-minute prologue takes us to a show in Moscow, where a prima ballerina first demonstrates her skills in front of foreign guests and then, as a sensation, Orango the ape is presented, who has mastered human abilities. During the performance, Orango surprisingly attacks the audience member Susanna. It turns out that she is the daughter of the French biologist who created Orango and is also present at the performance ... (Helmut Peters)