Das Lied der Nacht ('The song of the night')
Dramatic ballad in three scenes. Text by K.M. von Levetzow, Op.23 (1924-1925)

Soloists: 2 sop,1 alt,1 ten,1 bass; orchestra: 3(picc),2(cor),3(D-cl,bcl),2(cbn); 4,3,3,1; timp; perc; hrp; cel; str.; 2 scenes
Duration: full evening
Publisher: Universal Edition, Vienna, 1926
score and parts available on hire

First performance: Breslau, Apr.1926 (Josef Witt/Berta Ebner-Oswald. Dir. Cortolezis)

Other performances (selection):

Gál, Breslau, May 1926
Seidelmann, Breslau, Aug. 1926
Königsberg, Dec.1926
Balzer, Düsseldorf, Jun.1928
Graz, Oct. 1930 (last performance)

"A great success. For me personally the evening was altogether one of the most powerful operatic experiences ever! Music and poetic conception combined in the happiest fashion."
[Schlesische Tagespost, April 1926, after the first performance]

"One doesn't know whether to emphasise the extraordinary variety and expressive colour in his music, which confronts us in the exposition, or the magnificent musical construction of the second 'Scene', which has rarely been equalled in the operatic literature. Corresponding to this exuberant lyricism in mood and solemnity there is the depth of symphonic ideas, whose working out reveals the hand of the mature practitioner. The harmonic combinations are thoroughly modern, but modern in the best sense; they signify an enrichment of the expressive palette, they are spiritually conceived, they communicate throughout an original experience of beauty... All in all, therefore, the new opera constitutes an enormous advance for the composer, as, alongside the mastery and creativity which we had already admired in the 'Heilige Ente', it opens up for the first time the fullness of his heart. And so it will always be considered the most valid testimony of his talent so far." [Breslauer Zeitung]