Tagged with 'Alan Gilbert'

A sonic refusal and a primal cry: Chaya Czernowin’s NO! is a powerful "Lament for the Innocent". Addressing humanitarian crises with visceral intensity, the work celebrates its French premiere in Paris on February 20, 2026.

On 29 September 2018, a new production of Arnold Schoenberg’s celebrated opera Moses and Aron directed by Calixto Bieito opens at the Semperoper Dresden, with John Tomlinson and Lance Ryan in the title roles of Moses and Aron. Alan Gilbert will conduct, before beginning his new post as principal conductor of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in 2019.



Although Schoenberg wrote the libretto for Moses und Aron in three acts, by 1937 he had completed the score for the first two acts only, leaving the final act without music. Much later, the opera was premiered at the Zurich Opera House by conductor Hans Rosbaud on 6 June 1957 without a third act, which was still in need of music. In the last year of his life Schoenberg abandoned his long-held plan to complete the third act, and suggested it should be performed as spoken libretto instead.

Moses and Aron: Two brothers lead their people

While Moses tends his flock, God appears to him and commands him to tell the people of Israel of God’s will and presence, to free Israel from foreign gods and lead them out of slavery. Moses at first feels incapable of carrying out the order, so his brother Aron is placed in command beside him as better able to convey the message of God to the people of Israel.

Schoenberg depicts the contrasting personalities of the two brothers musically through their style of singing: Moses sings almost exclusively in Sprechgesang, whilst Aron is portrayed through lyrical and expressive bel canto. Despite the prominence of the brothers in the story however, the main role of the opera is arguably assigned to the chorus, who are tasked with conveying the deeper meaning of Moses und Aron to the audience.

Moses und Aron is about the impossibility of finding words or images to make sense of life. This impossibility is at the heart of the opera’s tension, but as you listen to the music your ear becomes accustomed to it. This opera is without fault - like “Wozzeck” or “Salome”, it´s a perfect opera, perfect! - Calixto Bieito

Following the premiere on 29 September, four further performances of Moses und Aron will take place from 3-15 October.

• Arnold Schoenberg - profile


• Moses and und Aron - work details


• Semperoper Dresden

 

 

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© Semperoper Dresden/ Foto: Ludwig Olah

The world premiere of Peter Eötvös’ orchestral work Reading Malevich will take place on 1 September 2018 at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, with Matthias Pintscher conducting the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra. The work was commissioned by Roche Commissions, which is a unique cultural program formed by the healthcare company Roche, the Lucerne Festival and the Lucerne Festival Academy.

The Roche Commissions initiative aims to encourage the composition of musical works that arise from challenging intellectual stimulation, and encourages composers to venture beyond the conventional. For Reading Malevich Eötvös decided to depict Kazimir Malevich’s painting Suprematism No. 56 through music, using the painting as inspiration for the form, density, timbre and structure of his composition.

Peter Eötvös – Reading Malevich: Horizontal & Vertical

Reading Malevich is comprised of two movements titled Horizontal and Vertical, in reference to the angles a spectator would observe in Malevich’s painting. Within these two parts, Eötvös employs specific tone pitches and lengths to correspond with the colours of the painting, and uses the intervals between these pitches to depict the distances between objects in the painting and their proportions. In addition, individual passages within each of the movements refer to prominent visual elements in Malevich’s painting such as ‘The Brown Rectangle’, or ‘The Pale Yellow Shadow Before The Red Rectangle’.

 “With this composition I encountered challenges that I would never have found myself. I was often left searching for a solution, sometimes for weeks. Then, I would realise all over again that the structural planning of this composition was ‘picturesque’ and free.” – Peter Eötvös 

Another of Eötvös’ orchestral works, Per Luciano Berio, will receive its world premiere this week on 29 August 2018 at the Semperoper Dresden, where Peter Eötvös will be Composer in Residence for the new season.

• Peter Eötvös - profile


• Reading Malevich - work details


• Lucerne Festival

 

© photo: Marco Borggreve

 

On 13 November the complete original version of George and Ira Gershwin’s classic opera Porgy and Bess will premiere at La Scala in Milan in an evening dedicated to the memory of conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt, who passed away earlier this year. The production is directed by his brother, Philipp Harnoncourt, and conducted by Alan Gilbert.

The original full-length version of Porgy and Bess more noticeably reveals an influence of the European avant-garde than the more frequently performed 'reduced version' of the opera. In the late 1920s, Gershwin was profoundly impacted when he met the Austrian composer Alban Berg. Gershwin referred to Porgy and Bess as ‘his Wozzeck’, referring to Berg's first opera, and while its more avant-garde passages are often cut, they can be seen to strengthen the dramatic effect of the opera.

Gershwin's Porgy and Bess - And the livin’ is easy…?

Arguably, no other opera has produced so many hits, such as the ever popular Summertime, one of the most recorded songs of all time. Yet the calming lullaby of Summertime at the beginning of Porgy and Bess contrasts starkly with the violent reality of the opera’s setting in Catfish Row, Charleston, South Carolina. In a run-down tenement block dominated by criminals, a crippled beggar, Porgy, attempts to rescue the beautiful Bess from the clutches of her violent lover and the local drug dealer. The opera is based on the novel “Porgy” by Dubose Heyward, who also wrote the libretto.

While the world premiere in 1935 was a success, Porgy and Bess was often criticised for Gershwin's decision to cast African American singers in the main roles. A classically trained musician, Gershwin intended to write a piece that fused traditional form with other musical styles, and shows a great breadth of stylistic diversity. Classical influences, such as a fugue in the opening act, can be heard alongside jazz, ragtime and blues. Gershwin wished Porgy and Bess to be respected as a fully-formed opera, not a Broadway musical, and can therefore be regarded as an attempt to close a stylistic gap that Kurt Weill once described as:

“Metropolitan: the worst example of old fashioned opera on the one side, and musical comedy which tries to be sophisticated and low brow at the same time on the other side. Nothing in between.”

Porgy and Bess will run at La Scala until 23 November, and a production by Sydney Opera will open in Australia on 26 November.

• George Gershwin — Pro­file


• Porgy and Bess — Details


• Tea­tro alla Scala

 

Photo: Lena Obst, Staats­thea­ter Wies­ba­den 2013.