Tagged with 'Opening'

An impossible love in the midst of an eternal war: with Zaïde / Adama by Chaya Czernowin, Theater Aachen has added an opera to its programme that takes place against the backdrop of the resurgent conflict in the Middle East. The premiere will take place on 27 April 2024 under the direction of Chanmin Chung and Mathis Groß. The director is Ran Chai Bar-zvi.

Two new productions of Viktor Ullmann´s one-act chamber opera The Emperor of Atlantis or Death’s Refusal are opening in Germany this week. On 26 September the opera opens at Landestheater Neustrelitz, and on 27 September Deutsche Oper am Rhein will present a new production at Opernhaus Düsseldorf. With its compact cast of characters and instrumentation, as well as its timeless staggering subject matter, it is the piece of the hour. 

The opera is a parable of a cruel emperor, whose senseless war is claiming many lives. Death puts an end to the chaos by refusing his duty – now, everyone lives for eternity. The king becomes disempowered, but the people long for a release from the pain of life. Only the voluntary death of the emperor can restore death’s original purpose.

Ullmann wrote The Emperor of Atlantis while imprisoned at the Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1943, based on a libretto by Peter Kien, a fellow prisoner. The opera was rehearsed by a chamber ensemble founded with the permission of the SS, but its performance was prohibited after the final rehearsal. Just before his deportation to Auschwitz in 1944, Ullmann handed the score and libretto to a friend who was able to save both manuscripts.

Viktor Ullmann – The Emperor of Atlantis: a theatrical memorial

I composed quite a lot of new music in Theresienstadt, mostly for satisfying the demands of conductors, directors, pianists, singers and thus for the leisure activities in the Ghetto […]. I need to emphasize that my musical work was encouraged and not inhibited by Theresienstadt. We were not merely succumbing to grief at Babylon’s streams, and our cultural will was equal to our will to live; and I am convinced that all those who have attempted to shape reluctant material in either life or art would agree with me. – Viktor Ullmann

There will be two further performances at Landestheater Neustrelitz with the last night being presented on 24 October. In Düsseldorf, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein will run for a further eight performances until 19 November. Several versions and manuscripts of the opera are available that show the work in various stages before and after its censorship. A new Eulenburg study score from Schott (ETP 8067) shows each version together in one edition.

• Viktor Ullmann – composer profile


• Der Kaiser von Atlantis – work details and online score 


• Landestheater Neustrelitz


• Deutsche Oper am Rhein

photo: Deutsche Oper am Rhein / Hans Jörg Michel

On 27 October the opening of the new Anneliese Brost Musikforum Ruhr concert hall in Bochum, Germany, will be celebrated with an inaugural concert featuring the world premiere of Stefan Heucke’s cantata Baruch ata Adonaj. Commissioned by Bochumer Symphoniker, the new 30 minute work for solo baritone, three treble voices, choir and orchestra will be performed by Bochumer Symphoniker, ChorWerk Ruhr and Philharmonische Chor Bochum under the baton of Steven Sloane. The baritone part will be sung by Martijn Cornet and the three treble parts will be performed by members of the Chorakademie Dortmund.

Baruch ata Adonaj by Stefan Heucke – Space and sound rearranged

Heuke’s intended staging of Baruch ata Adonaj aims to showcase the new hall’s excellent acoustics. Beginning with an empty stage, the solo baritone and trebles sing the cantata’s opening rhapsodic melody in call and response from opposing balconies to form the basis of eight sequential variations. The eight movements alternate between instrumental and vocal settings of the central melody as Heucke gradually develops delicate chamber music-like textures into the full sound capabilities of the combined large ensembles. As the empty stage gradually fills with musicians the concert hall is progressively filled with sound.

For the inauguration of the new Musikforum, Bochum Symphony commissioned from me a work to celebrate the completion of the long term project as well as a blessing for its future. In it, more and more singers and instrumentalists enter the stage, leading to a radiant culminating Amen, at which point the whole room is inhabited and inaugurated with music. - Stefan Heucke

The text ‘Baruch ata Adonaj’ is a Hebrew blessing that holds an important place in Jewish tradition. Whilst it is customarily used to give thanks for food or wine, it can also be used to remark on exceptional occasions, such as the opening of the Anneliese Brost Musikforum Ruhr promises to be. The Musikforum will also become the first permanent venue of the Bochumer Symphoniker.

A second performance of Heucke’s Baruch ata Adonaj will take place on 28 October and on 29/30 October, Bochumer Symphoniker will present a program including Igor Stravinsky’s ever popular Firebird Suite.

• Stefan Heucke - Profile


• Baruch ata Adonaj - Details


• Bochumer Sinfoniker