Neues vom Tage

Paul Hindemith
Operas Mörder, Hoffnung der Frauen (1921) Das Nusch-Nuschi (1921) Sancta Susanna (1922) Cardillac (1926) Hin und zurück (1927) Neues vom Tage (1929) Lehrstück (1929) Mathis der Maler (1938) Die Harmonie der Welt (1957) The Long Christmas Dinner (1963)
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Neues vom Tage (News of the Day) is an opera (lustige Oper) in three parts by Paul Hindemith, with a German libretto by Marcellus Schiffer.

The opera is a satire of modern life, celebrity and marriage, involving parodies of both Puccini's music and Berlin cabaret. The opera became notorious for a scene with a naked soprano (Laura) singing in the bath about the wonders of modern plumbing, though Hindemith replaced her with the tenor (Hermann) in the revised version.

Performance history

It was first performed on 8 June 1929, at the Kroll Opera House, Berlin, under the musical direction of Otto Klemperer. Hindemith revised the opera, changing the text and adding a little new music, for the Teatro San Carlo, Naples on 7 April 1954. The United States premiere of the work was at the Santa Fe Opera in 1961.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, 8 June 1929 (Conductor: Otto Klemperer)	Revised version, 7 April 1954 (Conductor: Paul Hindemith)
Laura	soprano	Grete Stückgold	Mercedes Fortunati
Eduard, Laura's husband	baritone		Giuseppe Valdengo
Hermann, a professional co-respondent	tenor	Erik Wirkl	Gino Sinimberghi
Herr M	tenor	Arthur Cavara	Alessandro Pellegrini
Frau M	mezzo-soprano	Sabine Kalter	Adamo
Baron d'Houdoux, an entrepreneur	bass	Deszö Ernster	Giuseppe Modesti
Frau Pick, a newspaper reporter	contralto		Myriam Pirazzini
Uli	bass	Fritz Krenn	Coriolano Jorio
Hotel director	bass		Gerardo Gaudiosi
Room maid	soprano
Guide	bass		Plinio Clabassi
Head waiter	tenor
Registrar	bass		Giovanni Amodeo
First manager	tenor		Nino Adami
Second manager	tenor		Silvio Santarelli
Third manager	tenor		Gianni Avolanti
Fourth manager	tenor		Piero De Palma
Fifth manager	bass		Aldo Terrosi

Recordings

Hindemith: Neues vom Tage - WDR Rundfunkorchester Köln

• Conductor: Jan Latham-König
• Principal singers: Elisabeth Werres (Laura), Claudio Nicolai, (Eduard), Ronald Pries (Hermann) / Horst Hiestermann (Herr M), Martina Borst (Frau M), Oscar Garcia de Gracia (Hotel director), Arwed Sandner (registrar) / Celso Antunes (1st manager; head waiter), Wolf Geuer (2nd manager), Thomas Donecker (3rd manager), Christoph Scheeben (4th manager; guide), Dieter Gillessen (5th manager), Heribert Feckler: bass (6th manager), Sabine Bitter (room maid)
• Recording date: 1987
• Label: WERGO - 28 61922 (CD)

References

• Amadeus Almanac, accessed 20 August 2008 (1929 premiere)
• Amadeus Almanac, accessed 20 August 2008 (1954 revision)
• Skelton, Geoffrey (1992), 'Neues vom Tage' in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ed. Stanley Sadie (London) ISBN 0-333-73432-7

External links

• Page about the Aachen production in 2000