Neues vom Tage


Neues vom Tage is a comic opera 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 Kabarett. The opera became notorious for a scene with a naked soprano singing in the bath about the wonders of modern plumbing, though Hindemith replaced her with the tenor in the revised version.
The on-stage nudity particularly aroused the ire of Ernst "Putzi" Hanfstängel, Hitler’s musical advisor, and was later indirectly cited by Joseph Goebbels as evidence that the "degenerate art" of "cultural bolshevist" composers should be excluded from Germany.

Performance history

Neues vom Tage 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 premiere of the work in the United States was at the Santa Fe Opera in 1961.

Roles

Recordings

Hindemith: Neues vom Tage – WDR Rundfunkorchester Köln
  • Conductor: Jan Latham-Koenig
  • Principal singers: Elisabeth Werres, Claudio Nicolai,, Ronald Pries / Horst Hiestermann, Martina Borst, Oscar Garcia de Gracia, Arwed Sandner / Celso Antunes, Wolf Geuer, Thomas Donecker, Christoph Scheeben, Dieter Gillessen, Heribert Feckler: bass, Sabine Bitter
  • Recording date: 1987
  • Label: WERGO – 28 61922