War

War is a state of armed conflict between societies. It is generally characterized by extreme collective aggression, destruction, and usually high mortality. The set of techniques and actions used to conduct war is known as warfare. An absence of war is usually called "peace". Total war is warfare that is not restricted to purely legitimate military targets, and can result in massive civilian or other non-combatant casualties.

While some scholars see war as a universal and ancestral aspect of human nature, others argue that it is only a result of specific socio-cultural or ecological circumstances.

In 2013 war resulted in 31,000 deaths down from 72,000 deaths in 1990. The deadliest war in history, in terms of the cumulative number of deaths since its start, is the Second World War, from 1939 to 1945, with 60–85 million deaths, followed by the Mongol conquests which was greater than 41 million. Proportionally speaking, the most destructive war in modern history is the War of the Triple Alliance, which took the lives of over 60% of Paraguay's population, according to Steven Pinker. In 2003, Richard Smalley identified war as the sixth (of ten) biggest problem facing humanity for the next fifty years. War usually results in significant deterioration of infrastructure and the ecosystem, a decrease in social spending, famine, large-scale emigration from the war zone, and often the mistreatment of prisoners of war or civilians. Another byproduct of some wars is the prevalence of propaganda by some or all parties in the conflict, and increased revenues by weapons manufacturers.

Es war einmal

Es war einmal (Once upon a time) is a fairy-tale opera in a prologue and three acts by the Austrian composer Alexander von Zemlinsky. Its libretto, an adaptation of M. Von Borch's German translation of the fairy-tale play Der var engang by the Danish author Holger Drachmann, was written by Maximilian Singer.

Performance history

The opera was first performed on 22 January 1900 at the Vienna State Opera conducted by Gustav Mahler with Selma Kurz and Erik Schmedes in the principal roles. The successful premiere resulted in a run of twelve performances. It was revived in Mannheim in May 1912 (with Zemlinsky's former pupil Artur Bodanzky conducting), and in October 1912 at the Neues Deutsches Theater in Prague (conducted by the composer).

Roles

Recordings

In 1990 the German record label Capriccio released the world premiere recording: a June 1987 recording from Danish Radio with Hans Graf conducting the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. The principal roles were sung by Eva Johansson (Princess), Kurt Westi (Prince), Per-Arne Wahlgren (Kaspar) and Aage Haugland (King). This performance was the first one since the Prague staging of 1912.