Gottfried von Einem
Einem, Gottfried von (Berne, 1918-96, Oberdürnbach, Lower Austria), an Austrian like both his parents, was educated in North Germany (Plön and Ratzeburg), worked for a time at the Berlin Staatsoper and, as musical assistant, at the Bayreuther Festspiele (see Bayreuth) before studying composition under Boris Blacher (1940-1). Blacher, whose oeuvre includes tone poems, oratorios, and ballets based on literary texts, as well as a few operas, among them the ballet opera Preußisches Märchen (1950, based on Der Hauptmann von Köpenick), collaborated in some of Einem's operas. Einem wrote his internationally renowned Dantons Tod (1944-6) while working as composer at the Dresden Staatsoper. Based on Büchner's play (see Dantons Tod), it was first performed under the new director of the Salzburger Festspiele, Herbert von Karajan, and, instantly successful, contributed to the regeneration of the Festival following the National Socialist period. From 1948. Einem was on the Festival board, but his support of Brecht led to a breach with Karajan and the termination of their collaboration (1951), though he remained one of the Festival's artistic advisers from 1953 to 1966. From 1953 he gave lectures for the Vienna Konzerthaus Gesellschaft on whose board he served, and in 1965 he was appointed to the chair of composition at the Musikakademie, from which he retired in 1972. His other operas include Der Prozeß, based on Kafka's novel (see Prozess, Der; libretto by Blacher and H. von Cramer, performed 1953), Der Zerrissene, after Nestroy (see Zerrissene, Der; libretto by Blacher, written 1961-4, performed 1964), Der Besuch der alten Dame, after Dürrenmatt (see Besuch der alten Dame, Der; written 1970, performed in Vienna in 1971 and at Glyndebourne in 1973 and 1974), Kabale und Liebe, after Schiller's domestic tragedy (see Kabale und Liebe; libretto by his wife Lotte Ingrisch and Blacher, performed 1975), and Tulifant, libretto by L. Ingrisch, performed 1990 (a Singspiel in the Viennese tradition concerned with our threatened civilization). Einem's other compositions include orchestral and chamber works and a companion piece to Benjamin Britten's The Prodigal Son, Jesu Hochzeit (1980, a commissioned work with a text by L. Ingrisch), the performance of which is prohibited in Roman Catholic churches. Einem was a moderate experimentalist whose influences include Mahler, Stravinsky, and jazz.
Works like Dantons Tod, after Wozzeck by Alban Berg the second opera reworking Büchner in a new and challenging form, are also known as ‘literary operas’ (Literaturoper); they are conspicuous by their choice of works of literature that were distorted, suppressed, or prohibited by the National Socialists. Arrested by the Gestapo in 1942, Einem served a four-month prison sentence, an experience that is reflected in his Kafka opera. In 1965 he was awarded the Österreichischer Staatspreis. See also Zimmermann, B. A., and Henze, H. W.
