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24-450: Schnittke worked on this opera for twelve years (1983–94). The work was twice interrupted by his work on another opera Life with an Idiot (1990) and by his second stroke in 1991. His Faust Cantata (1983), famous for its tango sung through the microphone by the Devil with the mocking comments on the cruel death of Faust, became the third act of the opera. When premiered in 1995, the opera

48-754: A Dentist (1965) Commissar (1967) The Glass Harmonica (1968) Sport, Sport, Sport (1970) Belorussian Station (1971) You and Me (1971) The Seagull (1972) Autumn (1974) Agony (1975) How Czar Peter the Great Married Off His Moor (1976) The Ascent (1977) Story of an Unknown Actor (1977) Father Sergius (1978) Little Tragedies (1979) Air Crew (1980) Farewell (1983) The Story of Voyages (1983) Dead Souls (1984) A Step (1988) Presence (1992) The Master and Margarita (1994) Related articles Curse of

72-894: A Russian libretto by Viktor Erofeyev . Written as an allegory of oppression under the Soviet Union , the opera was first performed at Het Muziektheater , Amsterdam, on 13 April 1992. Roles [ edit ] Roles, voice types, premiere cast Role Voice type Premiere cast, 13 April 1992 Conductor: Mstislav Rostropovich I baritone Dale Duesing /Romain Bischoff Wife soprano Teresa Ringholz Vova tenor Howard Haskin Guard bass Leonid Zimnenko Marcel Proust baritone Robbin Leggate Synopsis [ edit ] Act 1 As

96-511: A punishment for not working hard enough, "I" is forced by the authorities to live with an idiot. He chooses Vova from a lunatic asylum. Vova is only capable of speaking a single word: "Ech". Act 2 At first Vova behaves well but then he suddenly begins to make a nuisance of himself, including tearing up I's wife's copy of the works of Marcel Proust . I and his wife go to live in another room and Vova calms down. I's wife falls in love with Vova and becomes pregnant by him. Then Vova and I turn on

120-465: A solid coloratura technique, a capacity for patter singing and ripe tonal qualities if they are to be brought off to maximum effect. They are usually the blustering antagonist of the hero/heroine or the comic-relief fool in bel canto operas. English equivalent: dramatic bass Basso profondo (lyric low bass) is the lowest bass voice type. According to J. B. Steane in Voices, Singers & Critics ,

144-859: A wide variation in range and quality of bass singers. Parts for basses have included notes as low as the B-flat two octaves and a tone below middle C (B ♭ 1 ), for example in Gustav Mahler 's Symphony No. 2 and the Rachmaninov 's All-Night Vigil , A below that in Frederik Magle 's symphonic suite Cantabile , G below that (e.g. Measure 76 of Ne otverzhi mene by Pavel Chesnokov ) or F below those in Kheruvimskaya pesn (Song of Cherubim) by Krzysztof Penderecki . Many basso profondos have trouble reaching those notes, and

168-485: Is a higher, more lyrical voice. It is produced using a more Italianate vocal production, and possesses a faster vibrato, than its closest Germanic/Anglo-Saxon equivalent, the bass-baritone . Hoher Bass or "high bass" or often a dramatic bass-baritone . Jugendlicher Bass (juvenile bass) denotes the role of a young man sung by a bass, regardless of the age of the singer. Buffo , literally "funny", basses are lyrical roles that demand from their practitioners

192-483: The Soviet Union Hidden categories: Articles with Italian-language sources (it) Articles containing Russian-language text Bass (voice type) A bass is a type of classical male singing voice and has the lowest vocal range of all voice types . According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera , a bass is typically classified as having a vocal range extending from around

216-528: The aria "Fra l'ombre e gl'orrori" in Handel's serenata Aci, Galatea e Polifemo , Polifemo reaches an A 4 . Within the bass voice type category are seven generally recognized subcategories: basso cantante (singing bass), hoher bass (high bass), jugendlicher bass (juvenile bass), basso buffo ("funny" bass), Schwerer Spielbass (dramatic bass), lyric bass, and dramatic basso profondo (low bass). Basso cantante means "singing bass". Basso cantante

240-409: The audience to Dr. Johann Faustus, ‘the widely famed magician and necromancer’. The scene shows his first meeting with the devil, Mephistopheles. Faustus agrees to sign with his blood the contract to gain knowledge and power and to give in return his soul to the devil after some years. Act 2. Faust asks the devil to find him a wife, but Mephistopheles offers him ‘a woman for the bed’ instead. Faust asks

264-434: The bass-baritone, comic bass, lyric bass, and dramatic bass. The German Fach system offers further distinctions: Spielbass (Bassbuffo), Schwerer Spielbass (Schwerer Bassbuffo), Charakterbass (Bassbariton), and Seriöser Bass. These classification systems can overlap. Rare is the performer who embodies a single Fach without also touching repertoire from another category. Cultural influence and individual variation create

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288-527: The basso profondo voice "derives from a method of tone-production that eliminates the more Italian quick vibrato. In its place is a kind of tonal solidity, a wall-like front, which may nevertheless prove susceptible to the other kind of vibrato, the slow beat or dreaded wobble." English equivalent: dramatic low bass. Dramatic basso profondo is a powerful basso profondo voice. All of the Gilbert and Sullivan Savoy operas , except Patience and The Yeomen of

312-425: The devil to show him Hell and Paradise. During this journey Faust is mocked by two devils, Mephistopheles and Mephistophila. He is already ready to accept the help of an old Christian man. However Mephistopheles threatens to kill him and forces Faustus to sign a new contract, now with ‘the mighty God, Lucifer’. Only a beautiful vision of Helen of Troy calms his grief. Act 3. Twenty four years later Faustus expects that

336-433: The devil will take his soul. He informs his students, and they ask him to repent to be saved. The prayers of Faustus are in vain. Mephistopheles appears and singing the mocking couplets, fiercely destroys him into pieces. The students attend his room on the next morning and watch his remains. The chorus tells the audience to learn the moral of this story, to be sober and resist evil. Life with an Idiot From Misplaced Pages,

360-558: The first movement of his choral work Rejoice in the Lamb ) that center far higher than the bass tessitura as implied by the clef. The Harvard Dictionary of Music defines the range as being from the E below low C to middle C (i.e. E 2 –C 4 ). In SATB four-part mixed chorus, the bass is the lowest vocal range, below the tenor , alto , and soprano . Voices are subdivided into first bass and second bass with no distinction being made between bass and baritone voices, in contrast to

384-479: The 💕 Life with an Idiot Opera by Alfred Schnittke Native title Жизнь с идиотом Librettist Viktor Erofeyev Premiere 13 April 1992  ( 1992-04-13 ) Het Muziektheater , Amsterdam Life with an Idiot (Russian: Жизнь с идиотом , romanized:  Zhizn s idiotom ) is an opera by the Russian composer Alfred Schnittke to

408-458: The lowest note in the standard bass repertoire is D 2 , sung by the character Osmin in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail , but few roles fall below F 2 . Although Osmin's note is the lowest 'demanded' in the operatic repertoire, lower notes are heard, both written and unwritten: for example, it is traditional for basses to interpolate a low C in the duet "Ich gehe doch rathe ich dir" in

432-559: The ninth Polystylism [REDACTED] Category Portal : [REDACTED] Opera Authority control databases [REDACTED] International VIAF National Germany United States Other MusicBrainz work BRAHMS Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Life_with_an_Idiot&oldid=1254293424 " Categories : Operas by Alfred Schnittke 1992 operas Operas Russian-language operas Works about

456-548: The same opera; in Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier , Baron Ochs has an optional C 2 ("Mein lieber Hippolyte"). The high extreme: a few bass roles in the standard repertoire call for a high F ♯ or G (F ♯ 4 and G 4 , the one above middle C), but few roles go over F 4 . In the operatic bass repertoire, the highest notes are a G ♯ 4 (The Barber in The Nose by Shostakovich) and, in

480-455: The second E below middle C to the E above middle C (i.e., E 2 –E 4 ). Its tessitura , or comfortable range, is normally defined by the outermost lines of the bass clef . Categories of bass voices vary according to national style and classification system. Italians favour subdividing basses into the basso cantante (singing bass), basso buffo (comical bass), or the dramatic basso profondo (deep bass). The American system identifies

504-510: The three-fold (tenor–baritone–bass) categorization of solo voices. The exception is in arrangements for male choir (TTBB) and barbershop quartets (TLBB), which sometimes label the lowest two parts baritone and bass. Bass has the lowest vocal range of all voice types , with the lowest tessitura . The low extreme for basses is generally C 2 (two Cs below middle C). Some extreme bass singers, referred to as basso profondos and oktavists , are able to reach much lower than this. Within opera ,

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528-539: The use of them in works by Slavic composers has led to the colloquial term "Russian bass" for an exceptionally deep-ranged basso profondo who can easily sing these notes. Some traditional Russian religious music calls for A 2 (110 Hz ) drone singing, which is doubled by A 1 (55 Hz) in the rare occasion that a choir includes singers who can produce this very low human voice pitch. Many British composers such as Benjamin Britten have written parts for bass (such as

552-1677: The wife. Vova kills her and I becomes an idiot. Recordings [ edit ] Life with an Idiot (live recording of premiere cast), Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Rostropovich (Sony) References [ edit ] ^ Penguin Guide to Opera on Compact Discs . Penguin. 1993. p. 382. ^ Casaglia, Gherardo (2005). " Life with an Idiot ,   13 April 1992" . L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia (in Italian) . Further reading [ edit ] The Viking Opera Guide , ed. Amanda Holden (Viking, 1993). Del Teatro (in Italian). v t e Alfred Schnittke List of compositions Stage works Historia von D. Johann Fausten Life with an Idiot Orchestral music Symphony No. 0 Symphony No. 1 Symphony No. 2 ( St. Florian ) Symphony No. 3 Symphony No. 4 Symphony No. 5 (Concerto Grosso No. 4) Symphony No. 6 Symphony No. 7 Symphony No. 8 Symphony No. 9 In Memoriam... Concertante Concerto Grosso No. 1 Concerto Grosso No. 3 Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra Viola Concerto Violin Concerto No. 4 Chamber music Piano Quintet Vocal music Nagasaki Collaborations Requiem of Reconciliation Film scores Introduction to Life (1963) Adventures of

576-640: Was performed in an abridged version; it has never been performed or recorded complete. Premiered in Hamburg, 22 June 1995. Director: John Dew, Hamburg State Opera, Conductor: Gerd Albrecht Published by Hans Sikorski (Hamburg) also mixed chorus; silent roles; ballet ; orchestra 3.3.3.3/4.4.4.1/ , 5 percussion players, organ , 2 synthesisers , electric guitar , bass guitar , and also old instruments such as Zwerchpfeif (long military flute ), crumhorn , lute and zither . Time and Place: Early 16th century, Germany Act 1. The chorus and narrator introduce

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