Leporello Contemporary
Opera
Newsletter
Nr. 19
April 2013
World Première Performances In April 2013, 7 new operas will be performed. Bernd Wilden has already composed the children opera Snow Queen after Hans Christian Andersen. Nostra Culpa is Latvian composer Eugene Birman’s first attempt to dramatic composing. Since Writing to Vermeer in 1999, Michel van der Aa has composed five other operas, including After Life in 2006. Philip Glass is a very prolific stage composer : his previous opera, The Perfect American has just been performed in Madrid last January. Kamran Ince’s first opera Judgment of Midas is the result of ten years of work. Anno Schreier has already composed 5 stage works, including Die Stadt der Blinden in 2011 and Mörder Kaspar Brand in 2012. Qudsja Zaher is Paweł Szymański’s first opera.
Bernd Wilden : Pit und Paula, Frisch versalzen Opera for children Kiel, Theater Kiel (Werftpark) April 5, 2013
with Rahel Brede, Mae Dettenborn, Anna Götze, Lara Pansegrau, Bogna Bernagiewicz, Hanna Laackmann. Conducted by Michael Nündel. Directed by Nele Tippelmann. A king wants to divide his kingdom. He asks his three daughters who love him most. The first two try to please him, but the third tells him that she loves him like salt. When the kingdom runs out of salt, Paula leaves her father to find a magic bag of salt.
Eugene Birman : Nostra Culpa Financial Opera (15 minutes) Libretto : Scott Diel Tallinn, House of the Brotherhood of Black Heads April 7, 2013
with mezzo Iris Oja Conducted by Risto Joost concert performance. This short opera is based on a Twitter fight between Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves and American Nobel-Prize laureate in Economy Paul Krugman. The debate was about Ilves’ attempts to reform Estonia’s economy.
more on p. 2
DVD Kyong Mee Choi : The Eternal Tao, Ravello, RR 7866 with JulieAnn Zavala, Brad Jungwirth, Samantha Stein, Allison Hull, Jeff Jablonski. Based upon Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, the ‘multimedia opera’ seeks to examine the ‘great truths’, notably those of virtue, integrity, and universal humanity. Recorded live in Chicago on October 22, 2010. Conducted by Michael Lewanski. Directed by the composer. more on p. 3
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World Première Performances Michel van der Aa : Sunken Garden Multimedia opera (100 minutes) Libretto : David Mitchell London, Barbican (English National Opera) April 12, 2013
with Roderick Williams, Katherine Manley, Claron McFadden, Jonathan McGovern. Orchestra : 4 winds, 1 keyboard, 1 percussion, 20 strings, with soundtrack, 2D and 3D film. Conducted by André de Ridder. Directed by the composer. The opera tells a multi-layered story of a missing person and those who are searching for him, exploring hoax and dark truth. What connects the disappearance of a software engineer, a neurotic film-maker and a gullible patroness of the arts ?
Kamran Ince : Judgment of Midas
Philip Glass : Spuren der Verirrten Opera in 3 acts Libretto : Rainer Mennicken, after Peter Handke, in German Linz, Musiktheater am Volksgarten April 12, 2013
with Lutz Zeidler, Bram de Beul, Sophy Ribrault, Pedro Velázquez Díaz, Karen Robertson, Gotho Griesmeier. Conducted by Dennis Russell Davies. Directed by David Pountney. The work is described by the composer as a ‘panorama of the human condition, but in a very Beckett point of view, with social and political commentary.”
Anno Schreier : Wunderland
Opera in 2 acts (120 minutes) Libretto : Miriam Seidel Milwaukee (WI), Helene Zelazo Center for the Arts April 12, 2013
Musiktheater (70 minutes) Libretto : Alexander Janse, after Lewis Carroll Würzburg, Mainfranken Theater (Kammerspiel) April 18, 2013
Semi-staged performance. With 25 instrumentalists (including five visiting Turkish instrumentalists), six soloists and an 8-member choir. In the ruins of ancient Sardis, two modern lovers fall into the past and a grand mythical music contest. They learn to hear each other anew through Pan versus Apollo, wild versus reason, woman versus man.
with Silke Evers, Sonja Koppelhuber, Daniel Fiolka Conducted by Alexis Agrafiotis Directed by Sabine Sterken. The classic story of Alice following the White Rabbit into Wonderland. She meets the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, the Cheshire Cat and the vengeful Queen. more on p. 3
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World Première Performances Paweł Szymański : Qudsja Zaher
Opera in 2 acts with a prologue (120 minutes) Libretto : Maciej J. Drygas (in Polish) Warsaw, Polish National Opera (Teatr Wielki) April 20, 2013
with Olga Pasiecznik or Katarzyna Trylnik, Adrzej Niemirski and Damian Konieczek Conducted by Wojciech Michiewski Directed by Eimuntas Nekrošius This is the first Polish eschatological opera with an after-life plot. The libretto paints an underwater netherworld, a harbor of the forgotten drowned humans. The Afghan woman Qudsja, who has offered her life for a group of refugees, is waiting for a promise of eternity in such a limbo – pierced by the atonal sobbing of the dead and the tough recitatives of the guardians of childhood memories. But before she is granted eternity she will discover her fate in the story of a Viking tribe woman from a thousand years ago.
In my collection Below are listed parts of my collection. There will be more in the next issues.
1) Program books : - Peter Androsch : Spiegelgrund, Vienna, January 25, 2013 - Alois Bröder : Die Frauen der Toten, Erfurt, February 2, 2013 - Douglas J. Cuomo : Doubt, St. Paul (Minnesota Opera), January 26, 2013 (PDF) - Michel Fourgon : Lolo Ferrari, Rouen, March 8, 2013 - Nolan Gasser : The Secret Garden, San Francisco, March 1, 2013 (PDF) - Christian Jost : Heart Sutra, Taipei, March 2, 2013 (PDF) - Benoît Mernier : La Dispute, Bruxelles, March 5, 2013 - Helmut Oehring : Sehnsuchtmeer oder vom fliegenden Holländer, Düsseldorf, March 8, 2013 - Priit Pajusaar : The Prince and the Pauper, Tallinn, January 26, 2013 - Torsten Rasch : Die Herzogin von Malfi, Chemnitz, March 23, 2013 - Ludger Vollmer : Lola rennt, Regensburg, February 28, 2013 (PDF) - Lin Wang : Oh, wie schön ist Panama, Berlin, January 26, 2013
2) Libretti : - Hans Werner Henze / Edward Bond, We Come to the River, Mainz : B. Schott’s Söhne, 1976, 78 p. - Hans Werner Henze / Edward Bond, Wir erreichen den Fluss, Mainz : B. Schott’s Söhne, 1976, 78 p. - Benoît Mernier / Ursel Herrmann and Joël Lauwers, La Dispute, Brussels : La Monnaie, 2013, 51 p.
3) Full scores : - Hans Werner Henze, Pollicino, Mainz : Schott Musik, 1980, 246 p. - Hans Werner Henze, We come to the River, Mainz : Schott Musik, 1976, 574 p.
4) DVD : Claude Vivier : Dreams of a Marco Polo, Opus Arte, OA 0943 D with Claron McFadden, Tomoko Makuuchi, Marion van den Akker, Lani Poulson. The two parts of this opera, Kopernikus and Marco Polo, are like shadow and light., a ritual conceived as an emotional experience, a celebration of life and death. Recorded in Amsterdam in June 2004. Conducted by Reinbert de Leeuw. Directed by Pierre Audi.
5) Books : - Hans-Klaus Jungheinrich (ed.), Im Laufe der Zeit - Kontinuität und Veränderung bei Hans Werner Henze, Mainz : Schott Musik International, 2002, 104 p. - Hans-Klaus Jungheinrich (ed.), Was noch kommt…: Der Komponist Matthias Pintscher, Mainz : Schott Musik International, 2004, 93 p.
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6) CD : John Adams : The Death of Klinghoffer, Elektra Nonesuch, 7559-79281-2 with James Maddalena, Janice Felty, Thomas Hammons, Sanford Sylvan. First performed in Brussels on March 19, 1991, this opera tells the true story of the hijacking of the passenger liner Achille Lauro by the Palestine Liberation Front. Recorded in Lyon in April and July 1991. Conducted by Kent Nagano Gerald Barry : The Intelligence Park, NMC, D122 with Richard Jackson, Paul Harrhy, Stephen Richardson, Angela Tunstall. First performed in London on July 6, 1990. The composer Robert Paradies, who has lost the power to write, rediscovers it with an Italian singer, the castrato Serafino. Recorded live in London in July 1991. Conducted by Robert Houlihan. John Casken : Golem, Virgin Classics, VCD 7 91204-2 with Adrian Clarke, John Hall, Patricia Rozario, Christopher Robson, Paul Wilson First performed in London, on June 28, 1991. Historical, legendary, religious and fictional sources have been used to create the libretto about this saviour figure. Recorded in Greater London in July 1989. Conducted by Richard Bernas. Beat Furrer : Die Blinden, MGB, CD 6150 with Linda Watson, Patricia Caya, Petra Schuwareck First performed in Vienna on November 25, 1989. The libretto of this chamber opera is based on Maeterlinck’s play, as well as writings by Plato, Hölderlin and Rimbaud. Recorded in Witten in April 1991. Conducted by the composer. Gordon Kerry : Medea, ABC Classics, ABC 476 1927 with Marlyn Quaife, Angela Giblin, Michael C. Smith, David Lemke. First performed in Sydney in 1993. Medea tells the classic mythological story of a magical woman and the man she loves, Jason of the Argonauts. Recorded in Malbourne in May 1993. Conducted by Mark Summerbell. Steve Reich : The Cave, Nonesuch, 79327-2 with Cheryl Bensman Rowe, Marion Beckenstein, James Bassi, Hugo Munday. First performed in 1994. The opera follows the life story of Abraham as it is told in various religious texts, and how it is understood and recounted by individual people Recorded in New York in 1994. Conducted by Paul Hillier. Wolfgang Rihm : Die Eroberung von Mexico, cpo, 999 185-2 with Richard Salter, Renate Behle, Carmen Fuggiss, Susanne Otto First performed in Hamburg on February 9, 1992. With a libretto based on Antonin Artaud, this opera is a symbolic representation of the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs. Live recording of the first performance. Conducted by Ingo Metzmacher. Aulis Sallinen : Kullervo, Ondine, ODE 780-3T with Jorma Hynninen, Eeva-Liisa Saarinen, Matti Salminen, Jorma Silvasti First performed in Los Angeles on February 27, 1992. Inspired by the Kalevala, and Aleksis Kivi’s drama. Unable to find comfort after killing a smith, Kullervo kills himself. Recorded in Helsinki in September 1991. Conducted by Ulf Söderblom. Alfred Schnittke : Life with an Idiot, Sony, S2K 52495 with Dale Duesing, Romain Bischoff, Teresa Ringholz, Howard Haskin First performed in Amsterdam on April 13, 1992. A man guilty of some unidentified crime who is ordered by the party to bring an idiot into his home as punishment. Recorded live in Amsterdam in April 1992. Conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich COWARC holds a collection of more than 6,500 documents published by opera companies since 1989 with information about more than 142,000 performances. A great amount of information has also been gathered on Shakespearean operas from all times and all countries. Leporello is published by COWARC - Contemporary Opera Worldwide Archive and Research Center 29, rue de la Clef, F-75005 Paris Directeur de la publication : Mathias LEHN - Rédacteur en chef : Mathias LEHN contact : Leporello21@orange.fr © COWARC, 2013
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