Tagged with 'Staatstheater Braunschweig'

A century-old myth in a new light: Marking the 100th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe’s birth, Gavin Bryars’ Marilyn Forever explores the psychological depth behind the icon. Premiering at Staatstheater Braunschweig on March 7, 2026, the opera offers a poignant journey between jazz and operatic introspection.

On 17 August, a new production of Verdi’s Nabucco will be staged at Burgplatz Open Air in Braunschweig. The production uses the revised edition published by Verlagsgruppe Hermann, available through Schott Music. The Hermann edition is an authoritative final edition of the opera that includes all the changes the composer made following the work’s initial publication.



Nabucco was composed during a difficult period for the young Verdi. He had recently lost his wife, and his latest opera Un giorno di regno had been a failure. The premiere performance of Nabucco in 1842, however, seemed to mark a change in the composer’s fortune. Following the world premiere, more than 50 performances of Nabucco were given at La Scala. The work’s success was immediately followed by new productions on international opera stages and activity in the following years marked Verdi as one of Europe’s foremost opera composers.

Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I shall deliver this city into the hand of the King of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire - after Jeremiah 21:10, heading to the first part of Nabucco

Nabucco is the short form of the Italian name of the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. Under his reign, the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem and enslaved the Hebrews. The plot of Verdi’s Nabucco is set against this backdrop.

Giuseppe Verdi: Nabucco - Biblical opera with a timeless subject

Nabucco owes its success to both its mastery of dramatic tension and its thrilling music. With a fine sense for the effect of melody, rhythm and harmony, Verdi expresses the fears and hopes of the hostile people. His unique treatment of the orchestra supports the singer’s expression, for example when Hebrew priest Zaccaria in prayer is accompanied by a lone cello.

Nabucco runs at the Burgplatz in Braunschweig until the beginning of September with director Klaus Christian Schreiber and musical director Srba Dinić. On the first night, the cast will include Ivan Krutikov, Yulianna Bawarska, Kwonsoo Jeon, Dorothea Spilger and Jisang Ryu in the main roles. Another production of Nabucco opens at Semperoper Dresden in November this year.

 

• Giuseppe Verdi - profile


• Nabucco - work details


• Staatstheater Braunschweig

 

Photo: © Semperoper Dresden/Ludwig Olah

On 8 August 2018, Christian Jost’s song cycle Dichterliebe for tenor and 9 instrumentalists will receive its Danish premiere at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen. Jost himself will conduct the Horenstein Ensemble and tenor Peter Lodahl, with accompanying media scenography by Tabea Rothfuchs.

Dichterliebe was commissioned by the Berlin Konzerthaus and the Copenhagen Opera Festival, and received its world premiere at the Berlin Konzerthaus on 21 October 2017. The work is inspired by Robert Schumann’s well-known Dichterliebe op. 48 based on poems by Heinrich Heine. Jost’s reinterpretation changes and increases the cycle’s instrumentation, as well as doubling its length, effectively integrating Schumann’s romantic art song with his own modern style. The music is further supplemented by video sequences which provide a visual representation of the songs’ themes.

Christian Jost - Dichterliebe: reaching further and deeper

The 16 songs of Schumann’s cycle tell a sorrowful story of lost love. The singer’s expressions shift through pain, indifference, sorrow and joy, perhaps in a dream or perhaps reality. In Heine’s poems, the river Rhine acts as a symbol for this stream of emotions, and Jost’s songs also flow. The tenor seems to surface time and again out of the dense, wave-like instrumental accompaniment of legato ostinato, and the harmonies and melodies of Schumann’s composition are developed by Jost into a tonal stream. For example, the short motifs from Schumann’s piano accompaniment are expanded by Jost throughout the whole cycle with greater depth.

“The idea of reaching further and deeper in terms of harmony and texture runs through the entire song cycle, especially in the connecting passages between songs. While Schumann’s original songs are self-contained, my transitions form a harmonic sea, in which the songs are individual islands woven organically into a larger, newly created composition.” – Christian Jost

A second performance of Dichterliebe will take place on 9 August at the Royal Danish Theatre. The Staatstheater Braunschweig will present a new production of the work in a series of 10 performances next season, and a Polish premiere is planned for 2019.

• Christian Jost - profile


• Dichterliebe - work details


• Copenhagen Opera Festival

 

©photo: Tabea Rothfuchs

On 20 May 2018, the Opéra national du Rhin and Orchestre Symphonique de Mulhouse will premiere David Pountney’s new production of Kurt Weill’s ballet chanté The Seven Deadly Sins in Strasbourg. Roland Kluttig will conduct, with choreography by Beate Vollack and stage design by Marie-Jeanne Lecca.

Weill composed The Seven Deadly Sins in 1933 after fleeing from Nazi Germany to Paris. The work was commissioned by Edward James, a wealthy Englishman and patron to the Parisian company “Les Ballets 1933”, which had been newly founded by choreographer George Balanchine.  Weill accepted the commission on the condition that he could compose a ballet with singing - a ballet chanté (sung ballet).

Weill originally intended the libretto to be written by writer Jean Cocteau, but under time pressure he turned to his long-time collaborator Bertolt Brecht, whom he had worked with on Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera (1928) and Weill’s own Mahagonny Songspiel (1927) among others. They completed The Seven Deadly Sins in just two weeks, and on 7 June 1933 it was premiered at the Théâtre des Champs- Élysées. Although reviews of the premiere were mixed, the ballet went on to become one of Weill’s best known works.

Kurt Weill - The Seven Deadly Sins: one divided being

The Seven Deadly Sins tells the story of Anna, who is sent on a seven year journey through North America by her family to earn money for a small house on the Mississippi. The character of Anna is split into two roles: Anna I who is more sensible and pragmatic, and the more emotional Anna II. In each city the Annas face the temptations of the seven deadly sins: pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth, until eventually they give up their dreams and return disillusioned to their family in Louisiana. Musically Weill incorporates popular American musical styles of the 1920s such as the tango, foxtrot and polka to enhance the comedy of Brecht’s text, and create a satire of the moral double standards of any society willing to sacrifice its values for prosperity.

“It’s the usual mess. A small party has formed among the followers of traditional Russian ballet, who of course consider our ballet as containing too little “ballet” or “pure choreography”. As a result, there have been great disruptions in the last few days […] but Balanchine stands between the parties. He has done an excellent job and found a style of representation that is very dance-like, but nevertheless very real.”
- Kurt Weill reporting on rehearsals to Bertolt Brecht

The Seven Deadly Sins will run until 28 May in Strasbourg, after which further performances include the Théâtre municipal de Colmar on 5 June, the Théatre de la Sinne Mulhouse on 13 & 15 June and the Staatstheater Braunschweig on 22 June.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbZXBogKaPI[/embed]

• Kurt Weill – profil


• The Seven Deadly Sins – work details


• Opéra national du Rhin

 

Photo : Staatstheater Braunschweig / Thomas M. Jauk