World premiere of the opera Walpurgisnacht – Alfred Felder in conversation with Andrea Erny
“One dances, one chats, one cooks, one drinks, one loves; / Now tell me, where can one find something better?”

The Walpurgisnacht scene from Goethe’s Faust inspired not only Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, but also the Winterthur composer Alfred Felder to create a new piece. It is our pleasure and honor to present this commissioned work by the Musikkollegium Winterthur together with the orchestra at its world premiere. Andrea Erny, a member of the board and a contralto, met with the composer in advance of the performance.

Andrea Erny
I would like to know what Walpurgisnacht is and how this composition came about. Why did you decide to write such a large, extensive work? Where did the initial idea come from?

Alfred Felder
It was with the Harmonie concert choir in Zurich. This choir has already performed many of my pieces, commissioned compositions from me and celebrated its 175th anniversary in 2015. A gala concert with the Tonhalle Orchestra was planned for the occasion, and they definitely wanted to sing a world premiere. They asked me if I could write something for this gala concert. Of course, I immediately said yes.
I thought long and hard about what to compose. Mendelssohn’s First Walpurgisnacht was already on the program. So I came up with the idea of setting individual verses from Walpurgis Night from Goethe’s Faust to music. The performance was very successful! The then director of the Musikkollegium was also at the concert and he thought that this piece absolutely had to be performed in Winterthur. But it still needed a bit more work.
I thought about it for a long time. There are many Goethe settings, but somehow I couldn’t find anything suitable. At a meeting with the former director, I said – maybe the devil or Mephisto made me do it [laughs] –: “I’m writing a full-length opera with the text of Walpurgisnacht.” The reaction was euphoric! And so it came about, without me knowing what was in store for me. Then I wrote this composition.

Andrea Erny
Now, so close to the performance – how do you feel about this piece? What does it mean to you?

Alfred Felder
At the very beginning of Walpurgisnacht, Faust sings: “We have entered, it seems, the world of dreams and magic.” And it is precisely this dream and magic world that calls for music, I think. Sounds can be composed to this text that are enchanting, that seem to come from another world – precisely from the world of Walpurgisnacht, from this dream world.
I must stress, though, that a dream world can be just as real as our own. When I dream, I experience the dream as immediate reality. And that is precisely what Walpurgis Night is for me: a dream world that becomes real. This alternation between dream and reality cries out for music. Music can reinforce Goethe’s text, underline feelings and further enhance the expressiveness.

Andrea Erny
Goethe’s Walpurgisnacht is considered one of the most difficult scenes in the entire Faust, precisely because it takes place in a dream world and offers countless possibilities for interpretation. What was it like for you to work with this text? How did you develop the libretto yourself?

Alfred Felder
I am fascinated by the archaic, by the elemental power of nature. This is evident once again right now: spring is coming, everything is sprouting, the tulips are already big, the trees are getting buds. This force of nature fascinates me every year anew. Walpurgisnacht is a spring festival, a thank you to nature for awakening again, for warming us, for allowing everything to flourish in full color. For me, it’s an incredible miracle every year!
I can absolutely understand why people freak out at such a spring festival, dancing uncontrollably and celebrating their joy. Goethe’s Walpurgis Night is set on the Brocken in the Harz Mountains. The witches who travel there have to cover a long distance uphill. On the way, they collect herbs and use them to make an ointment – this is sung about by the women’s choir in the play. This ointment acts like a drug, catapulting them into another world – that’s what Walpurgis Night is all about, all these crazy, intoxicating moments. That’s exactly what I want to express with my music: on the one hand, reverence for nature, and on the other hand, ecstatic joy in it.

Andrea Erny
This exuberant joy surely offers many possibilities for different musical timbres? I assume the text gave you a lot of leeway to experiment.

Alfred Felder
Yes, especially for dances! There are so many types of dance in music: polka, waltz, and much more. I even decided on a mambo – at the end of the piece, in the finale of the third act.
Of course, you might wonder why there is a mambo in a composition for Walpurgisnacht. At first, I had written a completely crazy waltz – with time signature changes and all kinds of rhythmic surprises. But after I finished this waltz, I was looking for a new idea.
Then I read somewhere that “Mambo” is the name of an African priestess who protects women in need. Women prayed to her, and the Mambo dance developed from these rituals. I found this story fitting for Walpurgisnacht, with its dancing witches. In my composition, however, the Mambo is not a traditionally leisurely dance – it is extremely fast, almost wild. It is meant to be rousing and capture the energy of the scene. That explains why a mambo of all things found its way into my Walpurgisnacht.

Andrea Erny
That leads me to the next question: in which tradition of modern music do you see yourself? Modern music is stylistically extremely diverse, especially since the second half of the 20th century. Where do you place yourself?

Alfred Felder
I think there are two main directions in today’s music: one group of composers is always striving to create the latest, the unprecedented. Every work must be completely new, with sounds that have not existed before. The other direction works strongly from tradition.
I’m not particularly interested in either of these trends. I don’t want to obsessively reinvent the wheel, but I don’t work purely from tradition either. My music has developed from the past, but it has its own style.
If I had to describe my music in one word, it would be “tonalization”. Every chord can be assigned to a key – there is always a tonal basis. I like to work with colors: I can darken a timbre by adding notes that don’t actually fit into the key. Just as a painter uses blue to create a dark blue or a light blue, I play with musical colors. Each scene has its own soundscape, often with changing instrumental focuses.
So in a way my music is traditional, but not in the classical sense of D major and A major.

Andrea Erny
To conclude: Walpurgisnacht is an impressive work – both in terms of its scope and its musical design. Would you say that it is your opus summum? Or is it more of a stepping stone to even greater things?

Alfred Felder
No, it is definitely my greatest and most important work. Goethe’s world speaks to me so powerfully on a personal level – this dream world, this crazy world. That’s why this piece is the most significant thing I’ve ever created.
My oratorio Âtesh is also a major work, but Walpurgisnacht is even greater. If you ask me after the performance on April 3 whether I would like to compose another opera like this – I don’t know… What should I say then? [laughs]

Andrea Erny
Then someone would have to write a better text than Faust first, right? – [Both laugh].