Max Bruch's oratorio Odysseus (Ulysses in English) for mixed chorus, soloists and orchestra is subtitled "Scenes from the Odyssey" and is based on Homer's epic poem about the return of Ulysses to his homeland of Ithaca. Ulysses was the husband of Penelope and the father of Telemachus. He was known for his intellectual brilliance, cunning, and versatility, and is most famous for his journey home after the decade-long Trojan War, which took him ten eventful years (so he was away from home for 20 long years).
Bruch began working on Odysseus in September 1871. The poet Wilhelm Paul Graff wrote the libretto. Odysseus was Bruch's most successful work in his lifetime (almost like his First Violin Concerto), partly thanks to German unification, which created interest in the theme of love of the homeland. When the work was published, it appeared in French and English translations as well as the original German. Bruch's list of 42 performances of the oratorio includes cities such as New York, Manchester, and Liverpool. The Liverpool performance helped Bruch succeed Julius Benedict as director of the Royal Philharmonic Society in Liverpool in 1880.
Part One
1. Orchestral Introduction 2. Odysseus on Calypso's Island 3. Odysseus in the
Underworld 4. Odysseus and the Sirens 5. The Tempest at Sea
Odysseus finds himself on Calypso's island. He longs for his wife, Queen Penelope, and his home, Ithaca. Hermes, the messenger of the gods, enables Odysseus to escape Calypso's temptations on a raft.
In Hades, Odysseus and his companions lament their fate and are urged to continue their escape by the blind sage Tiresias and the spirit of his mother, Antikleia. With wax in their ears, the men avoid the sirens' song.
On his raft, Odysseus is caught in a storm caused by Poseidon, but is rescued by Leukothea and lands on the island of the Phaeacians.
Part Two
6. Penelope's Lament 7. Nausicaa 8. The Banquet with the Phaiakes 9. Penelope Weaving a Garment 10. The Return 11. Feast in Ithaca 12. Final Chorus
In Ithaca, Penelope mourns the loss of her son Telemachus, who has set out to find his father, Ulysses, and asks the gods to guide Ulysses home safely.
Meanwhile, Odysseus sees Nausicaa, the daughter of the Phaeacian king Alcinous, and her companions dancing and is fascinated by their beauty. Nausicaa invites him and his companions to her father's farm. During the feast, he reveals his identity and tells of the fate he has suffered. The Phaeacians take pity on him and provide him with a ship for the journey home.
Penelope sings at night while tearing up a cloth she has been weaving during the day; she has had to promise to take one of her suitors as her husband when the cloth will be finished. Meanwhile, Odysseus reaches Ithaca; while he sleeps, the Phaeacian sailors bring him ashore. At first he doesn't know where he is. The goddess Athena assures him that he has arrived home and tells him about Penelope's suitors. Odysseus vows revenge on the suitors for harassing Penelope and desecrating the palace. There is general rejoicing in Ithaca, including a tender duet between Odysseus and Penelope.
The classical setting was significant; it represented an alternative mythological universe to the Norse themes of Richard Wagner. In contrast to Wagner's nationalist mysticism, the classical world embodied the hopes of German liberals that the new Germany would become an enlightened, new classical civilization.
Bruch was careful to ensure that his work remained a dramatic piece of choral music and did not venture into the realm of opera. For this reason, Penelope's suitors are not portrayed, and the scene in which Ulysses kills them is omitted. A traditional religious oratorio had contrasting episodes of recitative and arias, but Bruch created a single flowing narrative that did not adhere to this clear distinction.
Despite the general opinion in the 19th century that the oratorio's popularity would last forever, it lasted only until the beginning of the First World War. One reason for its eventual obscurity may be that, for such a heroic and moving subject, the work seems undramatic, sometimes laborious in its setting of the text, and disjointed in its episodes; there is no narrator to link the 12 self-contained sections.
But like Bruch's concertos, symphonies, and chamber music, it is smooth and melodious music, and a pleasure to listen to.
Complete English libretto
Listen to: Le chœur de Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, direction Guilhem Terrail
Ensemble féminin Neska, dirigé par Estelle Béréau (version for chamber orchestra, sung in French).