Artist Talk: Doppelganger

ARTIST TALK: DOPPELGANGER

tuesday, september 26, 2023 at 6:00pm veterans room

featuring director Claus Guth

in conversation with pianist Helmut Deutsch

moderated by author and opera director Ian Strasfogel

Production support for Doppelganger is provided by the Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Charitable Foundation and The Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany New York.

Support for Park Avenue Armory’s artistic season has been generously provided by The Thompson Family Foundation, the Charina Endowment Fund, the Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust, The Shubert Foundation, the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, the Marc Haas Foundation, the Prospect Hill Foundation, the Reed Foundation, Wescustogo Foundation, the Leon Levy Foundation, the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, GRoW @ Annenberg, The Emma and Georgina Bloomberg Foundation, the Richenthal Foundation, and the Isak and Rose Weinman Foundation. Additional support has been provided by the Armory’s Artistic Council. Public support is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature as well as the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Cover image by Monika Rittershaus.

2023 SEASON SPONSORS

MEET THE PARTICIPANTS

CLAUS GUTH

Stage director Claus Guth is widely recognized as one of the most esteemed artists of his generation. Born in Frankfurt, he completed his studies in Munich before embarking on a remarkable career. In 1999, Guth achieved international breakthrough status when he directed the world premiere of Luciano Berio’s Cronaca del Luogo at the Salzburg Festival. Guth’s work extends to prominent opera houses, including the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Bayreuth Festival, Zurich Opera, La Scala, Wiener Staatsoper, Staatsoper Berlin, De Nationale Opera, Teatro Real, Opéra National de Paris, Féstival d’Aix-enProvence, Royal Opera House, Bolshoi Theatre, Met Opera, and more. Select directorial credits include: Pelléas et Mélisande, Don Giovanni, Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, Elektra, Der Rosenkavalier, Handel’s Messiah, Schubert’s Lazarus, Monteverdi trilogy, Rodelinda, and Salome. Contemporary opera work includes: Lullaby Experience with Ensemble Moderne; Pascal Dusapin’s Dante and the world premiere of his Il Viaggio (Féstival d’Aix-en-Provence, 2022); Violetter Schnee (Staatsoper Berlin); the world premiere of Chaya Czernowin’s Heart Chamber (Deutsche Oper); and Bluthaus, featuring music by Georg Friedrich Haas (Bayerische Staatsoper). He has earnd two “Faust” prizes, a 2022 Olivier Award for Best Production for his Jenufa at the Royal Opera House, and the 2023 Opera Award for Best Director.

HELMUT DEUTSCH

Helmut Deutsch ranks among the finest, most successful, and in-demand song recital accompanists in the world. He was born in Vienna, where he studied at the Conservatory, Music Academy, and University. He was awarded the Composition Prize of Vienna in 1965 and appointed professor at the age of twenty-four. Although he has performed with leading instrumentalists as a chamber musician, he has concentrated primarily on accompanying in song recitals. At the beginning of his career, he worked with the soprano Irmgard Seefried, but the most important singer of his early years was Hermann Prey, whom he accompanied as a permanent partner for twelve years. Subsequently he has worked with many of the most important recital singers and played in the world’s major music centers. His collaborations with Jonas Kaufmann, Diana Damrau, and Michael Volle are currently among his most important.

IAN STRASFOGEL

Ian Strasfogel is an opera director, impresario, and author who has created over 100 productions of opera and music theater in European and American opera houses and music festivals, including New York City Opera, San Francisco Opera, Washington National Opera, Oper Frankfurt, Netherlands Opera; BAM; the Edinburgh, Tanglewood, and Aspen Music festivals; and the Munich Biennial. Well known for his frequent collaborations with the composers Gyorgi Ligeti, Luciano Berio, Bruno Maderna, Hans Werner Henze, and the visual artist Otto Piene, he has also written numerous plays and scenarios. His recent comic novel, Operaland, received the 2022 North Street Prize for literary fiction.

NEXT IN THE DRILL HALL

MUTANT;DESTRUDO

October 11 – 15

World Premiere, A Park Avenue Armory Commission

Directed by Arca, Mutant;Destrudo congregates her close friends and collaborators around a shared vision of creating space to allow for deconstruction of preconceptions. This ambitious new project is steeped in electronic music sound design to induce various states of embodied physicality and synthesize new ways to mediate both the ego and identity at large. The resulting Armory commission continues her ongoing practice of creating instances which merge all forms of creative practice, reexamining the ritual of the concert as a moment of heightened connection between those present.

THE RITE OF SPRING/COMMON GROUND[S]

November 29 – December 14

New York Premiere

Faithful to Stravinsky’s visceral score, Pina Bausch’s monumental choreography is given a thrilling new life by a specially assembled company of 36 dancers from 14 African countries. Danced on a peatcovered stage, they clash and engage in a wild and poetic struggle of life, ritual, and sacrifice that pays tribute to her unparalleled genius. Rite is paired with a new work created, performed, and inspired by the lives of “mother of contemporary African dance” Germaine Acogny and early member of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch Malou Airuado.This poetic and tender antidote to Rite reflects their shared histories, emotional experiences, and common ground.