About the work
Chamber opera (originally designated a "monodrama") by Wolfgang Rihm, setting the complete text of Johann Wolfgang Goethe's 1778 Sturm-und-Drang monodrama of the same name. Rihm wrote the score for soprano Mojca Erdmann; it premiered on 2 May 2009 at the Schlosstheater Schwetzingen, directed by Hans Neuenfels, with the SWR Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Plot
Lasting close to 70 minutes, the opera shows the goddess's daughter Proserpina shortly after her abduction by Pluto, lamenting and disoriented in the underworld. A women's chorus comments on her plight while the outer plot barely advances – the focus lies on the title character's introspection.
Cultural significance
The trade journal "Opernwelt" named "Proserpina" premiere of the year 2009. The work belongs to a series of monodramas with which Rihm, from the 2000s onward, has reworked older literary texts for the stage – here a text by Goethe for the first time.