OPERA SEARCH
Geisterliebe
(Love of Spirits) (1969-70)Libretto by Harald Kunz (G)
S,M,A,T,B; male and female chorus;
3(II,III=picc,III=afl).3(III=corA).2(II=bcl).2(II=dbn)-2.2.2.1-timp(=tamb/Baks).perc(5):xyl/2tgl/tamb/SD/TD/BD/Baks/guiro/sleigh bells/3cym/3tom-t/maracas/3Thai.gong/2hand bell/3gong/ratchet/4tpl.bl/glsp/tam-t-harp-strings
On-stage: 3 Korean Jwago-drums
Abbreviations (PDF)
Bote & Bock
Opernhaus, Kiel
Harro Dicks, director
Conductor: Hans Zender
Company: Bühnen der Landeshauptstadt Kiel
| NARRATOR | Contralto |
| PAN HON-SAN, a young scholar | Tenor |
| SON-LONG, a demon | Bass |
| AH-HSIU, a fox spirit | Soprano |
| LIANG-KUNG, a fox spirit | Mezzo Soprano |
| The audience | female chorus |
| Demons | male chorus |
The love of spirits originates from the idea of the transmigration of souls. The themes are the changing forms of existence, the contrast and the unity of life and death, of mind and instincts. The parable is narrated by a female shaman, who drums herself into an ecstatic trance: two female fox-spirits, incarnations of egocentric libido and altruistic submissive dependence, seduce a young scholar who, enmeshed in the world of rationality, has become estranged from life. The sexual union with the fox-spirits brings to him and them, at first, the complete fulfilment of life but it also leads inexorably to his death.
"Here, demons possess people and people are loved and possessed by demons; but the ones who come to us and woo or seize us, are not incubi or succubi with the wavering horror of the next world, but beings from our world, only hidden in a deeper, darker layer."
Martin Buber
Dramatic