The historical-critical edition of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s oratorio “Elias” has been available in five volumes since 2022, edited by Christian Martin Schmidt. The edition published by Breitkopf & Härtel allows a famous work to be rediscovered in all stages, variants and versions down to the last detail. From Thursday to Saturday, Kirill Petrenko will perform the work with the Berlin Philharmonic for the first time based on the new edition in Berlin; the baritone Christian Gerhaher sings the title role. The FAZ spoke to him about the work, the identity-forming effect of the music and the main character: Elias.
Also because Mendelssohn was slandered anti-Semitically during his lifetime and even more so afterwards, especially by Richard Wagner, there has long been a debate as to whether Elijah should be understood as a Christian or Jewish work. For you, is “Elijah” a work that expresses a religious affiliation with Christianity or Judaism?
For me it's more of a dramatic and aesthetically relevant work that has an artistic context.
Nor do I consider Mendelssohn to be a particularly religiously motivated person, especially not in connection with his work.
I rather see the interesting development from "Paulus" to "Elijah", from a really oratorical work with a narrative and perhaps also interpreting evangelist to a purely dramatic work that is explained by the plot and not by a commentary or a guide through the action.
A specifically Jewish background consists at most in the choice of Elijah, because Elijah has no comparable significance to Judaism in the Christian context.
Mendelssohn rejected the demand of his librettist, Julius Schubring - "Elias must help to transfigure the old covenant into the new, that is its great historical importance" - from. Instead, he stayed close to the biblical original of the Old Testament. So Mendelssohn makes no Christian confession here and deliberately remains open.
Yes, there is a passage in a letter from the father, Abraham Mendelssohn, to his children where he relativizes the meaning of religiosity.
He says that they are Jews from the family and he hopes that the mother and he will continue to be obeyed.
But it is more the relativization of religiosity as part of socialization - and that's how the family converted to Christianity - speaks from his words than a Jewish identity.
Another aspect that makes the work appear so open and multi-perspective is its internationality. It was first performed in Birmingham on August 26, 1846, with Mendelssohn conducting, in English translation. Mendelssohn, who was seriously ill, was no longer able to take part in the first performances of “Elias” in Germany in October (Hamburg) and November 1847 (Berlin). How different are the German and English text versions, their harmony with the music?
I know from my English colleagues that they actually feel this work is English and when they have to sing it in German they say it is a curiosity to sing the work in the German “translation”.
I, on the other hand, see it as a deeply German work that was first conceived in German and only then translated into English.
There is also an anecdote about this: In the German text the choir sings at one point "but the Lord of Israel does not sleep and slumbers", in English it says "sleeps and slumbers not" - one jokes, in most concerts and recordings instead " sleep, sand, slumber, snot” as if to make fun of the lyrics.
But of course that doesn't change the identification of the English, who are poor in romantic oratorios, with this work.
"Elias" also played a major role in the Third Reich - despite or perhaps because of the ban on performances of Mendelssohn's music. Several performances were given in the Jewish Cultural Association in Berlin up until 1937, and a performance could still be organized in the occupied Netherlands in 1941: a work with which one could identify, especially in times of crisis - the work was certainly heard as a Jewish work a German Jew. Is this music strong enough to be able to do that, or is it the subject matter?