Thel (opera)

Thel or The Lamentations of Thel (Russian: Тэль or Жалобы Тэли – Zhaloby Teli) is a chamber opera in four scenes with Prologue by a Russian composer Dmitri N. Smirnov to his own libretto after William Blake. It was composed in 1985-1986, and is in English (also translated into Russian).

The opera was composed during 1985-1986 in Moscow and Ruza. It is a sequel to another Blake opera Tiriel (1985). Libretto was based on the very early poem by Blake The Book of Thel (1789), in which he presented part of his immense mythology. Thel, so-called from the Greek word meaning "desire" or "will", is young girl complaining on her future death. There are points of dialogue between two works. And they are interconnected through the common idea of search for a meaning to life, through the place where the action is set, the Valleys of Har – a creation of Blake’s imagination – and also through the similarity of the music material. In the first instance, however, we are dealing with a dramatic tragedy, an illustration of the forces of evil, which brings death and destruction to the world, whereas in the second we have an intimate and lyrical parable-pastoral.

World Premiere: June 9, 1989, Almeida Theatre, London with subsequent performances on June 10 and 11.

Second staging: May 29, 1993, Ballroom Student’s Union, Keele University, Staffordshire.

Scene I. The daughters of Mne Seraphim are all shepherdesses in the Vales of Har, apart from the youngest, Thel. She spends her time wandering on her own, trying to find the answer to the question that torments her: why does the springtime of life inevitably fade so that all things must end? She meets the Lily of the Valley who tries to comfort her. When Thel remains uncomforted, the Lily sends her on to ask the Cloud.

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