Anyone seen Hindemith’s Dinner for One?
mainDinner for One is Germany’s best Christmas telly treat.
Apparently Hindemith got there first.
His opera, The Long Christmas Dinner, has jut had a rare showing in Chicago.
Review here.
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When I was studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, we did a production of Hindemith’s “The Long Christmas Dinner” together with (as a double-bill) “A Dinner Engagement” by Lennox Berkeley. Both of them delightful pieces!!!
The title of this post is a bit misleading. The revue sketch Dinner for One which is televised every holiday season in Germany was written by the English writer Lauri Wylie. Perhaps Hindemith was aware of it, but probably not so Thornton Wilder, who wrote the play which the composer turned into an opera. However, if any enterprising composer were to take a look at Wylie’s music hall bit it might make a pretty entertaining curtain raiser. There are lot repeated lines and bits of stage business – paging Messers Reich, Glass, Adams . . .
Sylvester, is it not?
“Dinner for One is Germany’s best Christmas telly treat.”
Norman, it’s a New Year’s Eve telly treat, not Christmas.
There was also a rare outing, and indeed recording, for the Hindemith under the baton of Leon Botstein, with the American Symphony Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall a few years ago (2015) – the opera, interestingly, was coupled with the Thornton Wilder play and (the opera) was performed to Wilder’s own libretto. The occasion was recorded and the opera released by Bridge Records. See a news article here (https://www.leonbotstein.com/blog/hindemith-the-long-christmas-dinner).
Declaration of interest – I was peripherally involved with the concert…