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Work of the Week – Tobias Picker: Fantastic Mr. Fox
- By Christopher Peter
- 1 Jun 2025
Tobias Picker’s Fantastic Mr. Fox premieres at Opera Omaha – a musical adventure for the whole family.
Tagged with 'children's opera'
Work of the Week – Carl Orff: Die Kluge
- By Christopher Peter
- 19 Aug 2024
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the cleverest of them all? Based on the story by the Brothers Grimm, Carl Orff's fairytale opera Die Kluge (The Wise Girl) will be performed at the Salzburg Festival on 20 August 2024 under the musical direction of Anna Handler.
Work of the Week – Ernst Toch: The Princess and the Pea
- By Christopher Peter
- 29 Jan 2024
A girl has to be good and sweet? Not at all. The princess in the children's opera The Princess and the Pea by Ernst Toch has a mind of her own. The cheeky piece will be performed from 2 February 2024 in the BlackBox of the Landestheater Linz. The production is directed by Martin Philipp and the Bruckner Orchestra is conducted by Ingmar Beck.
Paul Hindemith: Tuttifäntchen
- By Christopher Peter
- 18 Dec 2023
In their Christmas concerts these days, the Elbland Philharmonie Sachsen under the direction of Ekkehard Klemm and the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn under the direction of Hermes Helfricht will be performing the suite to the opera Tuttifäntchen by Paul Hindemith.
Work of the Week – Elisabeth Naske: Die feuerrote Friederike
- By Christopher Peter
- 13 Nov 2023
Does my hair color make me a worse person? This is the question Friederike has to ask herself in the children's opera Die feuerrote Friederike (“Fiery Frederica”). The play, based on the children's book of the same name by Christine Nöstlinger, can now be seen in Switzerland for the first time. The new production will open at Theater St. Gallen on 16 November 2023, directed by Annika Nitsch and conducted by Stéphane Fromageot.
Work of the Week – Anno Schreier: Mina
- By Christopher Peter
- 23 Oct 2023
How does one find one's way back into life after a bad experience? Anno Schreier shows this path in his children's opera Mina. First performed in Bonn in 2022, the piece was recently seen at the Opera Factory in Freiburg and a new production will open on October 25, 2023 at the Staatstheater Darmstadt, directed by Ulduz Ashraf Gandomi. The musical side is provided by baritone David Pichlmaier and flutist Olga Koring.
Work of the Week – Ludger Vollmer: Tschick
- 12 Dec 2022
On 18 December 2022, a new production of Ludger Vollmer's "Road Opera" Tschick will celebrate its opening at the Vienna State Opera whilst simultaneously marking the Austrian premiere.
Work of the Week – Stefan Johannes Hanke: The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs
- 2 Mar 2020
On 8 March, Cologne Opera will perform Johannes Hanke’s children’s opera, The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs. Written between 2011 and 2012 on commission from Staatsoper Hannover, Hanke’s opera has since been performed in Dresden Basel and Munich. This most recent production will be conducted by Rainer Mühlbach.
Dorothea Hartmann’s libretto for The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs is a modern retelling Grimm’s fairy tale by the same name. The whole opera lasts around an hour and supports the libretto with a mix of musical styles.
Stefan Johannes Hanke – The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs: making the impossible possible
The plot follows the Child of Fortune who, through self-confidence and courage, liberates a distant kingdom from an oppressive force against seemingly impossible odds. Along the way, the Child’s adventure involves a scary encounter with three robbers in a forest and a journey into hell to retrieve the Devil’s golden hairs.
[Hanke’s] new children’s opera contains many funny moments with great theatrical effects. The contemporary music is characterized by the natural treatment of musical styles (from aria cadences in a major key, going through dissonant steps to allusions to folk music), but above all, he highlights the libretto in a sensitive and effective way. – Jutta Rinas (Peiner Allgemeine Zeitung)
There will be multiple opportunities to see The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs at Cologne Opera, where the production runs until 18 April.
[embed]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyiWXbu23LA[/embed]
Dorothea Hartmann’s libretto for The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs is a modern retelling Grimm’s fairy tale by the same name. The whole opera lasts around an hour and supports the libretto with a mix of musical styles.
Stefan Johannes Hanke – The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs: making the impossible possible
The plot follows the Child of Fortune who, through self-confidence and courage, liberates a distant kingdom from an oppressive force against seemingly impossible odds. Along the way, the Child’s adventure involves a scary encounter with three robbers in a forest and a journey into hell to retrieve the Devil’s golden hairs.
[Hanke’s] new children’s opera contains many funny moments with great theatrical effects. The contemporary music is characterized by the natural treatment of musical styles (from aria cadences in a major key, going through dissonant steps to allusions to folk music), but above all, he highlights the libretto in a sensitive and effective way. – Jutta Rinas (Peiner Allgemeine Zeitung)
There will be multiple opportunities to see The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs at Cologne Opera, where the production runs until 18 April.
- Stefan Johannes Hanke – Profile
- The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs – Details and score preview
- Cologne Opera
[embed]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyiWXbu23LA[/embed]
Work of the Week – Nino Rota: Aladino e la lampada magica
- 11 Oct 2016
A new production of Nino Rota’s Aladino e la lampada magica ("Aladdin and the Magic Lamp") directed by Julien Ostini will open in Saint-Etienne in France on 16 October, performed by the Orchestre Symphonique Saint-Etienne Loire and conducted by Laurent Touche. The fairytale opera will be performed in a French translation.
Rota, sometimes called the “Italian Mozart”, composed his first children’s opera Il principe porcaro (1925-26) at the age of 13. A sense of childlike wonder has infused Rota’s music throughout his career, evident particularly in his film scores composed for director Federico Fellini, which remain among his best-known works today. For Rota, fairytales were never trivial; although they provided fantastical entertainment, they stemmed from deeper moral motivations and life lessons. Such is Rota’s understanding of Aladdin, which was first recounted to him as a child by his Grandmother.
Aladino e la lampada magica (1968) comes from one of the most popular tales of the well-known collection of stories “One Thousand and One Nights,” commonly known as “Arabian Nights”. The narrative follows Aladdin, an impoverished young boy, who dreams of wealth. After a sorcerer gains Aladdin’s trust, intending to use him only as a tool to obtain a mysterious oil lamp from a magical cave, an exciting and dangerous adventure begins.
The enchanted world of Rota’s Aladino e la lampada magica gives great scope for appealing staging, with colourful bazaars and extravagant costumes, presenting an ideal first opera experience for young children. The work is further full of refreshingly tonal musical language, employing the traditions of operatic composition yet in a modern and distinctive fashion. Despite being termed a children’s opera, it will nonetheless appeal to audience members of all ages.
The Leipzig Opera will perform a reduced orchestration version of Aladino e la lampada magica, as arranged by Rainer Schottstädt, on 28 and 31 October.
Rota, sometimes called the “Italian Mozart”, composed his first children’s opera Il principe porcaro (1925-26) at the age of 13. A sense of childlike wonder has infused Rota’s music throughout his career, evident particularly in his film scores composed for director Federico Fellini, which remain among his best-known works today. For Rota, fairytales were never trivial; although they provided fantastical entertainment, they stemmed from deeper moral motivations and life lessons. Such is Rota’s understanding of Aladdin, which was first recounted to him as a child by his Grandmother.
Aladino e la lampada magica by Nino Rota – an opera for everyone
Aladino e la lampada magica (1968) comes from one of the most popular tales of the well-known collection of stories “One Thousand and One Nights,” commonly known as “Arabian Nights”. The narrative follows Aladdin, an impoverished young boy, who dreams of wealth. After a sorcerer gains Aladdin’s trust, intending to use him only as a tool to obtain a mysterious oil lamp from a magical cave, an exciting and dangerous adventure begins.
The enchanted world of Rota’s Aladino e la lampada magica gives great scope for appealing staging, with colourful bazaars and extravagant costumes, presenting an ideal first opera experience for young children. The work is further full of refreshingly tonal musical language, employing the traditions of operatic composition yet in a modern and distinctive fashion. Despite being termed a children’s opera, it will nonetheless appeal to audience members of all ages.
When I’m creating at the piano, I tend to feel happy; but, the eternal dilemma arises - how can we be happy amid the unhappiness of others? I'd do anything I could to give everyone a moment of happiness. That's what's at the heart of my music. – Nino Rota
The Leipzig Opera will perform a reduced orchestration version of Aladino e la lampada magica, as arranged by Rainer Schottstädt, on 28 and 31 October.
Work of the Week – Sir Peter Maxwell Davies: The Hogboon
- 20 Jun 2016
On 26 June, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ last large-scale work, The Hogboon, will be premiered by the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle, joined by the London Symphony Chorus, LSO Discovery Chorus and Guildhall School Musicians at the Barbican Hall, London. The work was commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg and Philharmonie Luxembourg.
The Hogboon is a children’s opera which tells the story of Magnus, a young Orkney Islander who, with the help of a friendly Hogboon (a household troll), sets out to defend the village from the feared sea monster, Nuckleavee.
Completed shortly before his death in March,The Hogboon was particularly close to Maxwell Davies' heart as an Orkney resident and a passionate advocate for music education. The composer wrote the libretto himself, based on an Orkney folk tale. He took great pleasure in creating a work for combined professional and student forces, assigning the children’s choir the roles of the angry sea monster and the witch’s kittens. The opera also bears an ecological moral: we must take care of nature if we wish to live alongside it.
The Hogboon can next be seen in Luxembourg with the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra in May 2017. Following the premiere of The Hogboon in London, a free memorial event in Maxwell Davies' honour will take place at St John's Smith Square on 27 June. Included in the programme are two of his last works, The Golden Solstice (2016) for choir and organ and String Quartet Movement 2016, receiving its premiere performance. For more information and booking go to: https://www.sjss.org.uk/events/max-celebration.
The Hogboon is a children’s opera which tells the story of Magnus, a young Orkney Islander who, with the help of a friendly Hogboon (a household troll), sets out to defend the village from the feared sea monster, Nuckleavee.
Completed shortly before his death in March,The Hogboon was particularly close to Maxwell Davies' heart as an Orkney resident and a passionate advocate for music education. The composer wrote the libretto himself, based on an Orkney folk tale. He took great pleasure in creating a work for combined professional and student forces, assigning the children’s choir the roles of the angry sea monster and the witch’s kittens. The opera also bears an ecological moral: we must take care of nature if we wish to live alongside it.
Bearing in mind the involvement of children and students, I have not written down to them with any condescension – rather – I have written up, knowing, from long experience, that, taken absolutely seriously, children and students are wickedly perceptive, and not to be taken for granted. I have attempted to make the masque work on several levels, of interest to adults, students and children, with weavings into the work’s verbal and musical textures diverse layers of meaning not least to do with our accommodations with Nature, and our present ecological problems.– Maxwell Davies
The Hogboon can next be seen in Luxembourg with the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra in May 2017. Following the premiere of The Hogboon in London, a free memorial event in Maxwell Davies' honour will take place at St John's Smith Square on 27 June. Included in the programme are two of his last works, The Golden Solstice (2016) for choir and organ and String Quartet Movement 2016, receiving its premiere performance. For more information and booking go to: https://www.sjss.org.uk/events/max-celebration.
