Work of the week

Chaya Czernowin’s new opera Infinite Now premieres on 18 April at Vlaamse Opera Ghent directed by Luk Perceval and with conductor Titus Engel. The opera is a co-production with the Nationaltheater Mannheim, Vlaamse Opera and IRCAM Paris.

Czernowin and Perceval worked together to construct the libretto based on a short story by Chinese writer Can Xue, Homecoming, and Perceval’s own play, Front, a dramatisation of the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. Both texts enact a suspension: in Front, soldiers are in the trenches, locked in never-ending fighting. They move some kilometres forward only to return back to their former position. In Homecoming, a woman attempts to pass through a house along her journey but gradually realises that it is impossible to leave. The two seemingly distant worlds fuse in Infinite Now in a search for the will to continue and find hope in the simplest elements of life.

Czernowin’s Infinite Now: Existence here and now

Infinite Now revolves around repeating and growing structures. Each act begins with the sound of an iron gate, often hardly recognisable, and this is followed by an orchestral interlude before the singing starts. The six singers are separated into two trios; the first trio sings material from Front and is comprised of a soprano, alto and bass. The second trio takes on Homecoming with mezzo-soprano, counter-tenor and baritone. The alto and countertenor take the lead roles, and when singing together, they blend into a single androgynous voice.

The opera is about more than Homecoming or the First World War. It is about our existence here and now. How we survive, how we are destined to survive and how even the smallest element of vitality suggests survival and with it, perhaps hope. – Chaya Czernowin

Further performances of Infinite Now follow in Ghent on 20, 22 and 23 April, and in Antwerp on 30 April and 3, 5 and 6 May. The German premiere will take place on 26 April at the Nationaltheater Mannheim followed by the French premiere on 14 June at the Cité de la Musique in Paris.

• Chaya Czernowin - Profile


• Infinite now - Workdetails


• Opera Vlaanderen


• Nationaltheater Mannheim


• IRCAM Paris

 

Photo: Early Infinite Now sketches by composer Chaya Czernowin

The Symphonie "Mathis der Maler" (“Matthias the Painter”) was conceived whilst Paul Hindemith was working on his opera of the same name, and its musical material forms the opera’s orchestral interludes. The piece relates to German renaissance painter Matthias Grünewald and his masterpiece, the Isenheim Altarpiece. An essential work of the 20th century, the symphony will receive three performances over the Easter period by the Filharmonica della Scala and Daniele Gatti (10 April), Philharmonie des Nordharzer Städtebundes and Johannes Rieger (14 and 15 April), and Colorado Springs Philharmonic Orchestra and Thomas Wilson (15 April).



Each of Mathis der Maler’s three movements describes one tableau of the Isenheim Altarpiece. The first, Engelkonzert, corresponds to the opera’s overture and represents an angelic consort for Mary and the baby Jesus. The short second movement Grablegung is centred around the section of the Isenheim depicting Jesus being entombed after the crucifixion. The music here is gentle, countering the violence of the crucifixion. The final movement, Versuchung des Heiligen Antonius is based on Saint Anthony being tortured and led into temptation by demons and grotesque figures. The slow opening of this movement is interrupted by a sudden outburst from the percussion, leading to a fast ostinato section. Medieval song portrays the victory of Saint Anthony over his temptation, and leads back to the angelic consort of the first movement, which concludes the symphony.

 

Hindemith's Symphonie "Mathis der Maler": A sounding triptych

 

Symphonie "Mathis der Maler" marks the beginning of a change in style from Hindemith, who explores new timbres and uses more brass than in previous works. Despite this, he retains elements of his earlier neo-classical music language. Hindemith also incorporates German folk songs, such as Es sungen drei Engel ein’n süßen Gesang (“Three angels sang a sweet song”), which is used as a Cantus firmus. The folk songs are given new life within Hindemith’s music:

What the orchestra plays is not entirely newly created. Old folksongs, controversial songs from the Reformation period and Gregorian chant form the fertile ground for Mathis der Maler. – Paul Hindemith

Further performances of Symphonie "Mathis der Maler" in the coming weeks include those by the Badische Philharmonie Pforzheim on 30 April with conductor Markus Huber and Philharmonisches Orchester Cottbus with Ivo Hentschel on 12 and 14 May. Hindemith’s opera Mathis der Maler runs at Staatstheater Mainz until 7 May.

• Paul Hindemith - Profile


• Symphonie "Mathis der Maler" - Workdetails


• Filharmonica della Scala


• Philharmonie des Nordharzer Städtebundtheaters


• Colorado Springs Philharmony


• Badische Philharmonie Pforzheim


• Philharmonisches Orchester Cottbus


• Staatstheater Mainz

 

Photo: Jörgens.mi (CC BY-SA 3.0)

2019 marks the 100th anniversary of the fairytale opera Die Frau ohne Schatten (“The Woman without a Shadow”). A new production of this major work by the composer-librettist duo Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal will be presented at the Staatsoper Berlin, opening on 9 April directed by Claus Guth and conducted by Zubin Metha, and in co-production with Teatro alla Scala di Milano and the Royal Opera House. A separate new production at Staatsoper Hamburg follows just one week later, with director Andreas Kriegenburgs and conductor Kent Nagano.

The imperial couple at the centre of the story face a problem. The empress - originally from the spirit realm - is without a shadow (representing her inability to bear children) and must gain one within one year or be forced to return to the spirit world and see the emperor turned to stone. In the world of the common people, a dyer named Barak and his wife are also unhappy. Appearing in disguise, the empress’ nurse offers the wife a deal: wealth and beauty in exchange for her shadow and fertility. She agrees, but the empress is torn – she is worried for her husband, but also for the dyers whose lives she will endanger.

Barak’s wife confesses the deal to her husband, who, furious after seeing her without a shadow, attempts to kill her. The empress cannot bring herself to take the now available shadow, and so refuses, saving the dyers and seemingly dooming herself. However, her benevolence results in her gaining a shadow from the spirit world, and she and her husband are set free.

Two worlds, two couples, two conflicts

Die Frau ohne Schatten is considered one of Strauss’ most technically demanding operas. The symphony orchestra is extended to include organ, glass harmonica and percussion with a thunder and wind machine. The work is characterised by the leitmotif representing the empress, which uses the “pure” intervals of fourths, fifths and octaves to give it tonal ambiguity, leaving the music in limbo – just like the empress who is only half human.

Taking inspiration from Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Hofmannsthal created two contrasting couples and strong morals behind the story. His libretto was also shaped by current affairs, including the rise of psychoanalysis and the First World War. Strauss found Hofmannsthal’s text remarkable:

“Hofmannsthal has just left, and he presented a beautiful new subject, the finest of the fine, gallant, fantastic. You will be delighted” Richard Strauss to his wife Pauline Strauss-de Ahna

Die Frau ohne Schatten will be performed in Berlin on 13 and 16 April as part of the Festtage 2017, and in Hamburg from 16 April until 7 May.

• Richard Strauss - Profile


• Die Frau ohne Schatten - Workdetails


• Staatsoper im Schiller Theater Berlin


• Staatsoper Hamburg

Photo: Brescia/Amisano (Coproduction of the Teatro alla Scala di Milano 2012)

Fazil Say’s momentous Istanbul Symphony opens and closes with sounds of the sea. In between, Say creates a portrait of the city in seven contrasting movements. On 29 March, Say's Symphony can be heard in Stuttgart with the SWR Symphonieorchester and conductor Gregor Mayrhofer.



Istanbul Symphony’s seven movements are inspired by the seven hills that the city is built on, with each movement representing one aspect of life in Istanbul. The first movement, Nostalgia, illustrates historic Istanbul and recalls the 1453 Fall of Constantinople, where the Ottomans conquered the city. The following two movements, Religious Order and Sultanahmet Mosque, show different aspects of religion: whilst the second movement is critical of fanatism, radicalisation and the formation of cults, the third sheds a more positive light, embodying the titular Istanbul landmark.

Say’s Istanbul Symphony: A diverse portrait of a diverse city

Alongside the classical symphony orchestra, Say uses traditional Turkish instruments including the ney, kanun, kudüm, bendir and darbuk. Due to its programmatic nature, Istanbul Symphony could be described as a symphonic poem. In the fourth movement, Merrily clad young ladies aboard the ferry to the Princes' Islands, bursts from the tuba imitate a ship’s horn. The sixth movement begins with an improvisation wherein calmness gradually gives way to upbeat music for dancing, depicting a scene outside of the city. The finale represents modern Istanbul, a bustling metropolis with a population of 15 million. The very end of the piece revisits the old Istanbul, before returning to the sounds of the sea.

You cannot tell the story of Istanbul by using clusters, atonality or twelve-tone technique. Istanbul has to be told romantically or nostalgically. There is nothing of the Avant-garde in it but something new is still needed, I think, to cope with building this bridge from west to east. – Fazil Say

The SWR Symphonieorchester performs Istanbul Symphony again on 30 and 31 March, and further performances will be given by the Philharmonic Orchestra Bremerhaven on 3-5 April.

• Fazil Say - Profile


• Istanbul Symphony - Workdetails


• SWR Symphonieorchester


• Stadttheater Bremerhaven

 

Photo: Ben Morlok (CC by-sa 2.0)

Richard Ayres’ acclaimed chamber opera No. 39: The Cricket Recovers receives its Swiss premiere at Theater Basel on 22 March directed by Daniela Kranz with conductor Stephen Delaney. Premiered at the 2005 Aldeburgh Festival, it has since been presented throughout Europe by the likes of Staatsoper Stuttgart and the Holland Festival.



The Cricket Recovers is based on an award-winning collection of children’s stories by Dutch author Toon Tellgen, adapted by librettist Rozalie Hirs. The story presents an array of animal protagonists overcoming every day human struggles, with the orchestra depicting the surrounding forest.

 

Ayres’ The Cricket Recovers: Animal characters that are all too human

In The Cricket Recovers, Ayres transports us to an extraordinary forest where one morning, the eponymous cricket wakes up with a gloomy feeling in its head. The proceeding voyage of self-discovery to grapple with his depression with the help of his fellow animals is both entertaining and moving. The animals also help an elephant who can’t stop climbing trees. As the sun rises on a new day, the memories of the previous one vanish leaving only the wise owl wondering what sort of world she inhabits.

This is a story for adults and children alike, touching upon the realities of depression in a simple and beautifully direct way. Through its magical setting, very human emotions and desires are brought to light:

In this parallel territory, all sorts of attractive impossibilities become real. Moral absolutes matter: the distinction between good and bad is fundamental and ultimate retribution is always just. Time and the natural world are also magically flexible: one may live forever, or temporarily adopt other shapes; animals can talk, acquire neuroses, live heroically. – Christopher Fox (The Musical Times)

The Cricket Recovers will run at Theater Basel until 21 May. This summer, another of Ayres' theatrical works, the dramatic cantata In the Alps, will be presented in the UK by Aurora Orchestra with soprano Mary Bevan and conductor Nicholas Collon at St John's Smith Square, London on 3 June and at Symphony Hall, Birmingham on 4 June.

• Richard Ayres - Profile


• The Cricket Recovers - Workdetails


• Theater Basel


• Aurora Orchestra

 

Photo: Stefan Odry (Production of Staatstheater Braunschweig 2009)

During the summer holidays, 14-year-old Maik sets off with his friend Tschick in a stolen truck through East Germany in the direction of Walachia – a Romainian region and the German euphemism for "the middle of nowhere". It’s a destination they will never reach, but the journey to freedom is full of adventures and bizarre encounters. Adapting the bestseller "Why We Took the Car" by Wolfgang Herrndorf, Ludger Vollmer’s Tschick - Road Opera premieres at Theater Hagen on 18 March with director Roman Hovenbitzer and conductor Florian Ludwig.

Ludger Vollmer, who has brought topical issues for young audiences to the stage in Gegen die Wand and Lola rennt has created another opera for young adults with this coming-of-age story. In Tschick, there are no traditional acts to divide the plot; instead the scenes are "departures" matching the protagonists’ journey, with a variety of settings: a dump, an old quarry, and an overturned pig truck. The music lies on the edge of conventional opera, incorporating fast and frantic vocal lines in the style of punk singer Nina Hagen:

The dynamic music gives the plot an additional emotional, sometimes comical drive. Many of the more profound psychological layers of Herrndorf’s story, possessing fascinating philosophical aspects despite the punk exterior, only become visible through the music. – Ludger Vollmer

Following the premiere, Tschick will run until 8 July at Theater Hagen. It is due to be performed again in Germany in January 2018.

• Ludger Vollmer - Profile


• Tschick - Workdetails


• Theater Hagen

Photo: Iakov Kalinin/ Adobe Stock

The Adventures of Robin Hood, with music by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, is a classic of cinematic history. In a series of “Music from the Movies” concerts beginning 9 March in Portsmouth, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra performs the symphonic suite of this three-time Oscar-winning adventure film.



With 18 film scores to his name, Korngold was one of the most sought-after film music composers of all time. He perfected the genre of symphonic film music over the course of his career as house composer at Warner Brothers Studios. His soundtracks have received five Oscar nominations and two wins: in 1936 for Anthony Adverse and in 1938 for The Adventures of Robin Hood. Korngold began a new Hollywood era, where music represented or intensified events and emotions within films, rather than accompanying them. This was heightened by his use of the Wagnerian Leitmotif technique to distinguish characters or themes.

Korngold’s The Adventures of Robin Hood: A Viennese in Hollywood

When he began writing this soundtrack, Korngold was an established composer in Hollywood, already known for works such as Captain Blood. But The Adventures of Robin Hood was a far bigger project, having a tremendous budget of two million dollars, larger than any previous motion picture. Having no script to work with, Korngold researched Robin Hood in the Viennese libraries and incorporated his earlier symphonic overture (Sursum Corda!) into his score.

Since 2015, Schott Music has exclusively distributed the “Erich Wolfgang Korngold – Warner Chappell Library”. Here you can find the scores of The Adventures of Robin Hood and more cinema classics including Captain Blood, The Prince and the Pauper and The Sea Hawk.

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s “Heroes & Legends: More music from the Movies” continues in Bristol (10 March), Poole (11 March) and Brighton (22 April). The Hofer Symphoniker play Korngold’s The Sea Hawk on 16 March in Germany.

• Erich Wolfgang Korngold - Profile


• The Adventures of Robin Hood - Workdetails


• Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra


• Hofer Symphoniker

 

Photo: Warner Bros. / Deutsches Filminstitut - DIF e.V., Wiesbaden

On 27 February Ryan Wigglesworth’s first opera The Winter’s Tale will receive its world premiere on the main stage at English National Opera. The production is directed by the acclaimed Shakespearean actor Rory Kinnear and features an exceptional cast that includes Iain Paterson, Sophie Bevan and Leigh Melrose. Ryan Wigglesworth himself will conduct.



Wigglesworth’s The Winter’s Tale is a compelling new interpretation of Shakespeare’s tragedy-turned-romance. In a jealous rage, King Leontes imprisons his wife Hermione after believing her newborn daughter to be the result of infidelity. Leontes orders the baby to be sent away to a desolate shore, and is left completely alone. This seeming tragedy turns to remorse, love and reconciliation through the passage of time. The play perfectly suits an operatic adaptation, as Wigglesworth describes:

I began by creating something very skeletal and then fleshed it out when I started composing. From there I could see more clearly what was needed… With this play, the remarkable thing is the dramatic pillars, the trial of Hermione; the storm; the passing of the sixteen years and of course the final scene, are incredibly strong and big-boned in a way that opera requires. - Ryan Wigglesworth

The Winter’s Tale runs at English National Opera from 27 February until 14 March.

• Ryan Wigglesworth - Profile


• The Winter's Tale - Workdetails


• English National Opera

 

Photo: ENO

Bust: Jess Riva Cooper

On 19 February, Opéra de Monte-Carlo will present the Paris version of Wagner’s Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg with Argentinean tenor José Cura in the lead role, conducted by Nathalie Stutzmann and directed by Jean-Louis Grinda.

The so-called Paris version of Tannhäuser originates from the 1861 Paris performance, which differs in both libretto and score from the opera’s 1845 Dresden premiere. Charles Nuitter translated the opera’s libretto, in close collaboration with Wagner. Musically, Wagner adapted his work to follow the conventions of Parisian opera, but the Paris version was also influenced by Wagner’s compositional development: by this time he had written Tristan und Isolde. The Parisian premiere was not an immediate success, but nevertheless increased Wagner’s popularity in France and to this day is viewed as equal to the Dresden original. Wagner said of the Paris version:

I will therefore write a completely new and more highly developed music for the first scene (call it a ballet) and undertake significant alterations and nominal extensions to Venus whilst retaining the best motifs: for this purpose I have composed new poetic verses for the end of the scene. – Richard Wagner

The determining conflict between excessive and chaste love is most distinct in the Paris version of Tannhäuser. The new opening scene is an extended orgiastic bacchanale contrasting dramatically with the displays of innocent love in the opera. A further addition in the Paris version is the duet at the end of the Venusberg scene, which is clearly related to Tristan und Isolde in its harmonic shape and instrumentation.

Wagner's Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg: Three versions at a glance

As part of the Richard Wagner Complete Edition, editors Egon Voss, Peter Jost and Reinhard Strohm have dedicated more than thirty years to producing a comprehensive guide to the genesis of Tannhäuser. Based on this edition, Schott Music has published a score, orchestral parts and a piano reduction. These allow comparison between the Dresden and Paris versions, as well as the 1875 Vienna version. Wagner never gave the work a definitive form, leaving the opportunity to combine the different versions in performance.

Evening conversation with Richard concludes with the Shepherd’s song and Pilgrim’s chorus from Tannhäuser. He says he still owes the world Tannhäuser. – diary entry of Cosima Wagner

Tannhäuser und der Sängerkreig auf Wartburg will run from 19 - 28 February at Opéra de Monte-Carlo.

• Richard Wagner - Profile


• Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg - Workdetails


• Wagner "Performance Materials and Versions" - Brochure


• Opéra Monte-Carlo

Photo: Alain Hanel

This month the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Simon Rattle will present György Ligeti’s opera Le Grand Macabre in a semi-staged production directed by Peter Sellars. Earlier this year the same production was presented by the London Symphony Orchestra also conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.



The fictional dukedom of Breughelland, the opera’s original setting, is replaced in Sellars’ new production by modern-day Europe and it is from here that the protagonist, Nekrotzar (the Grand Macabre himself), a sinister figure with an unshakable sense of mission decides to declare doomsday, spreading fear and terror everywhere. Unfortunately for Nekrotzar, he becomes so inebriated after drinking with the people he meets that his plans fall flat. After a fabricated End of the World, the intoxicated population first imagine themselves to be in heaven, only later to realise that they are still alive. Nekrotzar dies alone from grief having failed his mission.

https://youtu.be/X9NMdfajdwI

Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre: Doomsday in a drunken stupor

Musically, Ligeti takes inspiration from a wide variety of popular and classical music, alluding to it and contorting it rather than quoting directly. Thus, the audience recognises an assortment of references including Monteverdi’s Orfeo, Beethoven’s Eroica and Pink Floyd. Ligeti himself called Le Grand Macabre an “anti-anti-opera” as a way of describing its elements of tradition opera in a time of avant-garde music theatre.

Michael Meschke’s libretto is drawn from the play La Balade du Grand Macabre by Michel de Ghelderode. The resulting absurdness and coarse language emerges as a wayward, dark humour that carries the opera forward:

My opera is a kind of black farce, a ridiculous piece, humorous but utterly tragic at the same time […]. At the centre of the play stands the fear of dying, the impossibility to change fate and the actions and efforts undertaken in vain to escape death. One of the strategies used to avoid this destiny is the attempt to ridicule death. – György Ligeti

Le Grand Macabre will be performed in Berlin from the 17 – 19 February and later as part of the orchestra’s Ruhr Residency in Dortmund and Essen where they will perform more orchestral works by Ligeti.

• György Ligeti - Profile


• Le Grand Macabre - Details


• Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra 

Photo: Tristram Kenton (Performance of the London Symphony Orchestra)