Paging Amnesty International: Paul Bentley And Poul Ruders' Opera Based Upon Kafka's The Trial Subjected To Mechanical Reproduction

Following the success of The Handmaid’s Tale on CD in 2002, Dacapo Records is releasing the world premiere recording of Kafka’s Trial, Poul Ruders’ commission from the new Copenhagen Opera House in 2005. The libretto is by the British dramatist and librettist Paul Bentley. The novel was published in 1925.

Publisher Edition Wilhelm Hansen has prepared a beautiful, interactive web-site for last year's world premiere by the Royal Danish Theater, available here.

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In 1912 Franz Kafka, an insurance clerk based in Prague, met a girl called Felice Bauer based in Berlin and made love to her by letter. When she suggested they get married he dithered. So she sent her best friend Greta Bloch to sort him out. Kafka fell for Greta also, made love to her by letter - and in person. Eventually he did become officially engaged to Felice. His comment: "I felt bound hand and foot like a criminal". He was thirty. Wracked with guilt Greta eventually confessed (some of the truth, not all) to Felice. The two girls put Kafka on trial, produced the evidence (his letters to Greta) and declared the engagement broken. Kafka, humiliated and relieved, went home and started writing The Trial.

Librettist Paul Bentley, February 2005

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CD 1

1. PRELUDE: 13 August 1912 to 1 June 1914

THE TRIAL
2. SCENE 1: Joseph K.’s Lodgings – 1 June – Morning – The Arrest
3. COUNTER-SCENE 1
4. SCENE 2: The Bank – Later That Morning – Two More Surprises
5. COUNTER-SCENE
6. SCENE: 3 K.’s Lodgings – Late That Night – A Talk with Miss Bürstner
7. COUNTER-SCENE
8. SCENE 4: Sunday Morning – A Street, Then an Attic Hall – First Interrogation
9. COUNTER-SCENE 4
10. SCENE 5: A Week Later – K.’s Lodgings – Miss Bürstner Sends a Message
11. COUNTER-SCENE
12. SCENE 6: (Part One) The Bank – Evening – The Flogger and Uncle Albert


CD 2

1. SCENE 6 (Part Two)
2. COUNTER-SCENE
3. SCENE 7: The Same Night – Lawyer Huld and Leni
4. COUNTER-SCENE 7
5. SCENE 8: Autumn – Morning – The Cathedral
6. COUNTER-SCENE
7. SCENE 9: The Bank and Huld’s Place – A Spring Afternoon – Thoughts About The Bank and Lawyer Huld
8. COUNTER-SCENE
9. SCENE 10: Sunset the same Day – Fog – Titorelli
10. COUNTER-SCENE 10
11. SCENE 11: That Night – Lawyer Huld’s Place – Dismissal of Huld
12. COUNTER-SCENE 11
13. SCENE 12: The Bank – 1 June – A Visit to Mother
14. COUNTER-SCENE 12 The Tribunal – 12 July 1914
15. SCENE 13: Moonlight Night – A Quarry – The Execution

Image credit: Dacapo Records.