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In mythology and literature, twins often represent two halves of the same whole. They often share a deeper bond than that of most siblings or conversely, serve as bitter enemies. Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Gemini (2019), which the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will perform in concerts June 2-4 (with the composer conducting), takes its title from the twin half-brothers of mythology, whose names also have been bestowed upon the two brightest stars in the constellation Gemini (Latin for “twins”).
Over the centuries, many other classical-music composers have explored the concept of twins in their works. Here are a few examples:
Jean-Philippe Rameau, Castor et Pollux (1737): Based on Greco-Roman mythology, the five-act opera explores the fable of the twin half-brothers in love with the same woman. The twin Pollux was sired by Zeus/Jupiter, in the form of a swan, with Leda, who then conceived a mortal son (Castor) with husband Tyndarus, a king of Sparta.
As the opera begins, Castor has died, and Télaïre, in love with Castor but also loved by Pollux, begs the gods (including Pollux) to bring Castor back to life. Though Pollux hesitates, he decides to travel to the underworld and replace Castor because he realizes Télaïre will never return his love. Phébé, who loves Pollux, commits suicide so that they be together for eternity. However, in a twist of fate, the gods intervene by reuniting the brothers in the heavens as the constellation Gemini.
In this recording, released by Harmonia Mundi in 1993, William Christie leads Les Arts Florissants in the 1737 version (Rameau revised the work in 1754, by cutting the prologue, compressing the acts and eliminating many measures of recitative). Tenor Howard Crooks is Castor and bass-baritone Jérôme Corréas is Pollux.
In a review, BBC Music Magazine declared: “The singing, from principals through to chorus, is magnificent. Castor et Pollux may not be Rameau’s most compelling opera but it couldn’t receive a more brilliant or persuasive account.”
Franz Schubert, Die Zwillingsbrüder (1819): The Twin Brothers, the composer’s one-act singspiel, revolves around a case of mistaken identity, compounded by a romantic triangle. Franz Spiess, a one-eyed soldier, returns to his village to claim the hand of Lieschen, promised to him years earlier. The damsel, however, loves the handsome Anton. Meanwhile, Franz’s twin brother, Friedrich — identical to Franz, save for wearing a patch over the opposite eye — arrives and adds a fourth element to the triangle. Complications ensue; yet all’s well that ends well, as Lieschen manages to marry her beloved Anton.
Like most of Schubert’s stage works, Die Zwillingsbrüder largely disappeared after the composer’s death. The work received its New York (and most likely U.S.) premiere in a 1962 student production at Columbia University. In recent decades, it has been revived and recorded by EMI in 1975, Bongiovanni in1997 and Phoenix in 2008.
Writing in 2005 for Musikproduktion Jürgen Höflich, Bradford Robinson observes: “The reviews were appreciative but ambivalent: the leading music journal of the day, the Leipzig Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, was disturbed by a certain tinge of melancholy. ... Today, given the bland uniformity of Vienna’s singspiel fare in the 1820s, it is precisely the work’s gloom that attracts our interest.”
Robinson goes on to add: “Die Zwillingsbrüder, however, has managed to keep a slender toehold in the repertoire. A fine recording by Wolfgang Sawallisch [leading the Bavarian State Opera] on EMI, with the main roles taken by singers of the stature of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau [as both twins], Nicolai Gedda, Helen Donath and Kurt Moll, appeared in 1975.”
Bedrich Smetana, Viola (1874-1884): In William Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night, twins Viola and Sebastian are separated during a shipwreck, and each believes the other to be dead. After washing ashore, Viola disguises herself as a male as a means of protection, but also as a way of keeping her dead brother alive.
Several operas have been based on Twelfth Night, perhaps most notably Czech composer Bedřich Smetana’s Viola, left unfinished at his death in 1884. Other operatic treatments of Twelfth Night consist of Karel Weis’ Blíženci (1892, revised 1917), Ivan Jirko’s Večer tříkrálový (1964) and Jan Klusák’s Dvanáctá noc (1989). In addition, Twelfth Night has inspired overtures by Alexander Campbell Mackenzie (1888), Johan Wagenaar (1928) and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1933).
In this 1982 recording from the Czech label Supraphon, the existing fragment of Viola is paired with Smetana’s The Secret. Zdeněk Košler conducts the Prague National Theatre Orchestra and Chorus, with mezzo soprano Marie Veselá as Viola and mezzo Drahomira Drobková in the trouser role of Sebastian. After Smetana’s orchestration ends, the performance switches to piano accompaniment by Jiří Pokorný.
Richard Wagner, Die Walküre (1870): Act 1 of the second part of Wagner’s Ring cycle centers on the fraternal Volsung twins, Siegmund and Sieglinde, fathered by Wotan and separated in childhood. The action begins with a storm forcing Siegmund to take shelter in a remote hut, home of the villainous Hunding and his wife, Sieglinde.
As the storm rages, Siegmund and Sieglinde, not knowing of their origins, find themselves increasingly attracted to each other. After consummating their ardor, they decide to flee together, with tragic consequences. Musicologists Carolyn Abate and Roger Parker, authors of A History of Opera, suggest that Siegmund and Sieglinde “jolted Wagner to a higher plane in his thinking about motifs in those intricate musical transformations that depict the twins’ increasing passion.”
This 2013 recording features the reigning tenor of his generation, Germany’s Jonas Kaufmann as Siegmund and Anja Kampe as Sieglinde, with Valery Gergiev leading the Mariinsky Orchestra. “Whatever else might be said about this Walküre, it is certainly a distinctive and original interpretation,” writes Gavin Dixon for the site Classical CD Reviews. “We’re still only just over a month into Wagner’s anniversary year, and Gergiev has now raised the bar very high indeed.”
Errollyn Wallen, The Silent Twins (2007): Based on a real-life case, Errollyn Wallen’s chamber opera (with a libretto by April de Angelis) follows the Caribbean-born June and Jennifer Gibbons, ostracized Black children in their Welsh community of the 1960s. To cope with constant bullying, the twins withdraw into a secret world and communicate only with each other. After a series of teenage crimes, they are sent to a mental hospital for more than a decade. Possessed by Jennifer, June calls her sister a “dark shadow,” and Jennifer eventually dies under mysterious circumstances.
In this video produced by New York City-based Catapult Opera, soprano Victoria Okafor is June and mezzo-soprano Briana Hunter is Jennifer. Meanwhile, filmmaker Agnieszka Smoczynska has directed “The Silent Twins” (2022), based on the lives of Gibbons sisters, which will have its premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
