Leporello - Nr. 9 - May 2012 page 1

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C o n t e m p o r a r y O p e r a N e w s l e t t e r

Nr. 9 May 2012

World Première PerformancesWorld Première PerformancesWorld Première PerformancesWorld Première Performances

In May 2012, the Munich Biennale, international festival for new musical theatre will take place. It will present three new works by Sarah Nemtsov, Eunyoung Kim and Arnulf Herrmann. Other world premières will take place in Dijon (children opera by Brice Pauset), Melbourne (Gordon Kerry), Paris (Marco Stroppa), Firenze (Silvia Colasanti) and London (chamber opera by Max Richter), Boston (chamber opera by Rudolf Rojahn) and Mannheim (Olga Neuwirth). Among the writers whose works have been adapted as libretto are Jacques Prévert, Arrigo Boito, Franz Kafka and Herman Melville.

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DVD

John Adams : El Niño, ArtHaus Musik, 100 220. with Dawn Upshaw, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Willard White. It tells the story of Jesus, Mary and Joseph through a sequence of separate numbers, always through the image of modern-day Marys. First performed in Paris on December 15, 2000. Recorded in Paris. Conducted by Kent Nagano. Directed by Peter Sellars.

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Sarah Nemtsov : L’Absence

Opera in 5 parts (110 minutes) Libretto : Sarah Nemtsov, after Edmond Jabès’ The Book of Questions. Munich, Muffathalle May 3, 2012

with Tehila Nini Goldstein, Assaf Levitin, Bernhard Landauer, Tobias Hunger, Matthias S. Otto. Rüdiger Bohn conducts and Jasmin Solfaghari directs. Sarah and Yukel are – or were they ? – a couple. Sarah was deported along with her parents to an extermination camp. Her parents were murdered and she survived, but her soul is shattered. Yukel searches for her.

Eunyoung Kim : Mama dolorosa

Music theatre in 6 scenes Libretto : Yona Kim Munich, Gasteig (Carl-Orff-Saal) May 5, 2012

with Rebecca Nelsen, Daniel Gloger, Julia Rutigliano, Christian Miedl, Simone Lichtenstein Conducted by Sebastian Beckedorf and directed by Yona Kim. A woman from a noisy quarter of Seoul, has finally given birth to a son. After the death of the child’s father, the boy is adored and spoiled by his mother and grandmother. But he doesn’t develop into the shining light they had hoped for, and he is accused of raping and murdering a young girl.

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World Première PerformancesWorld Première PerformancesWorld Première PerformancesWorld Première Performances

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Brice Pauset : L’Opéra de la lune

Opera for children and adults (100 minutes) Libretto : Jacques Prévert Dijon, Opéra May 12, 2012

with Luanda Siqueira, Vincent Deliau, Gilles Ostrowsky. The composer conducts and Damien Caille-Perret directs. Michel is a strange little boy who spends his nights on the Moon. On Earth, no one can hear the birdsongs because of the war machines. Everything is nicer on the Moon.

Arnulf Herrmann : Wasser

Music theatre in 13 scenes Libretto : Nico Bleutge Munich, Muffathalle May 16, 2012

with Boris Grappe, Sarah Maria Sun, Sebastian Hübner, Jörg Deutschewitz, Georg Gädker. Hartmut Keil conducts and Florentine Klepper directs. The story of a trauma forms the background of the thirteen scenes. A man wakes up during a nightmare in a hotel room. He has lost his orientation. He also thinks he has seen the woman who accepts his request for a dance somewhere before, but he doesn’t recognize her. Is she his departed wife/lover appearing before his eyes, or is she another woman who could help him overcome his trauma ?

Gordon Kerry : Midnight Son

Opera Libretto : Louis Nowra Melbourne, Victorian Opera (Merlyn Theatre) May 16, 2012

with Antoinette Halloran, Dimity Shepherd, Byron Warson, Jonathan Bode, Roxane Hislop. Olliviier-Philippe Cuneo conducts and Nicky Wendt directs. Ray Clark’s predicament is clear. His world has spiraled out of control. His wife Marisa is dead and his lover Clara has been jailed for her murder. As the clock is wound back on these three devastated lives, the blinding nature of obsession is revealed in this modern-day operatic tragedy.

Marco Stroppa : Re Orso

Musical legend, for 6 singers, 5 actors and 12 instruments Libretto : Catherine Ailloud-Nicolas and Giordano Ferrari, after Arrigo Boito Paris, Opéra Comique (Salle Favart) May 19, 2012

with Brian Asawa, Monica Bacelli, Marisol Montalvo, Alexander Kravets. Susanna Mälkki conducts and Richard Brunel directs. The libretto intertwines the legend of the scary King Bear who ruled Crete before the year 1000 and the myth of the Minotaur.

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Silvia Colasanti : La Metamorfosi

Opera Libretto : Pier’Alli, after Franz Kafka’s novel Firenze, Teatro Goldoni May 22, 2012

with Edoardo Lomazzi, Laura Catrani, Gabriella Sborgi, Tiziana Tramonti, Roberto Abbondanza. Conducted by Marco Angius and directed by Pier’Alli. The libretto is based on the famous novel about the traveling salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes up one morning transformed into a monstrous insect.

Max Richter : Sum

Chamber opera Libretto : after the novel Sum : Forty Tales from the Afterlives, by David Eagleman. London, Royal Opera House (Linbury Studio) May 23, 2012

Directed by Wayne McGregor. Inspired by a cult book of short stories by the American neuroscientist David Eagleman, Sum is a new chamber opera on the subject of the afterlife, written by Max Richter and Wayne MacGregor.

Rudolf Rojahn : Bovinus Rex

Chamber opera (40’) Libretto : Rudolf Rojahn Boston (MA), The Zack Box Theater May 24, 2012

with Kim Soby, Aliana de la Guardia, Patrick Massey, Brian Church. Directed by Copeland Woodruff. Orchestra : Bass-clarinet, violin, saxophone and percussion. Maurice Picking’s factory farm for cattle in rural Ohio faces imminent bank foreclosure. With only a trophy wife and a slow-witted man child as laborers Maurice invents a machine to quickly slaughter his entire herd. Trouble unfolds when his long-lost daughter Flavia Taste, a militant animal rights activist, returns to sabotage her father’s operation. As events spin out of control Flavia is forced to confront the practicality of her puritanical worldview.

Olga Neuwirth : The Outcast

Opera Libretto : Barry Gifford, after Herman Melville Mannheim, Nationaltheater May 25, 2012

with Trine Wilsberg Lund, Anton Skrzypiciel, Steven Scheschareg, Peter Pearce, Andrew Watts. Johannes Kalitzke conducts and Michael Simon directs. The creator of Moby Dick features in Neuwirth’s work as an ageing customs official looking back on his life. The composer confronts the character of Melville, a knowledgeable yet failed individual, with people from his own novels, in particular from Moby Dick. The ageing writer ponders his childhood, his writing, his power and powerlessness and yet ultimately simply longs “for the healing of the sea”.

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In my collectionIn my collectionIn my collectionIn my collection

Below are listed parts of my collection. There will be more in the next issues. 1) Program books : - Claude Prey : Sommaire Soleil, Paris, March 21, 1995 - Aribert Reimann : Das Schloß, Munich, July 30, 1995 - Edward Rushton : Babur in London, Zürich, March 28, 2012 - Ludger Vollmer : Border, Köln, April 13, 2012 2) Libretto : - Daniel Catán, Il Postino, New York : G. Schirmer, 2010, 55 p. 3) DVD :

Aulis Sallinen : The Red Line, Ondine, ODV 4008 with Jorma Hynninen, Päivi Nisula, Aki Alamikkotervo, Hannu Forsberg The action is set in winter 1907, the time of Finland’s first parliamentary election, in which the actual voting was carried out by marking the ballot with a red line. Conducted by Mikko Franck and directed by Pekka Milonoff. First performed in Helsinki in 1978. Recorded in Helsinki in May 2008.

4) CD : Helmut Lachenmann : Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern, Kairos, 0012282KAI with Elizabeth Keusch, Sarah Leonard, Salome Kammer First performed in Hamburg on January 26, 1997. The libretto is base on Hans Christian Andersen’s short story about a dying child’s dreams and hope. Recorded in Stuttgart in July 2001. Conducted by Lothar Zagrosek. John Musto : Volpone, Wolf Trap Recordings with Joshua Jeremiah, Jeremy Little, Faith Sherman, Rodell Rosel, Museop Kim. First performed at The Barns at Wolf Trap on March 10, 2004. The theme of the original Elizabethan comedy by Ben Jonson is the annihilative nature of greed. Recorded June 2007 at The Barns at Wolf Trap. Conducted by Sara Jobin.

Tobias Picker : Thérèse Raquin, Chandos, CHAN 9659(2) with Diana Soviero, Sara Fulgoni, Gordon Gietz, Richard Bernstein First performed in Dallas on November 30, 2001. Based on Émile Zola’s novel. Thérèse and Laurent kill her cousin and husband Camille but are tormented by his ghost. Recorded in Dallas in December 2001. Conducted by Graeme Jenkins.

In progress Shakespearean Opera Performance Guide This book will include all operas listed in previous studies as well as new operas composed in the last 20 years. It will give all information needed to perform it : characters with tessituras (and complete cast for the world première performance), complete orchestral setting, sets as described in libretto, duration, recordings, publishers. It is to be published before the Shakespeare anniversaries in 2014 (450th of his birth) and 2016 (400th of his death). COWARC holds a collection of more than 6,100 documents published by opera companies since 1989 with information about more than 132,000 performances. A great amount of information has also been gathered on Shakespearean operas from all times and all countries. Leporello is published by COWARC - Contemporary Opera Worldwide Archive and Research Center 29, rue de la Clef, F-75005 Paris Directeur de la publication : Mathias LEHN - Rédacteur en chef : Mathias LEHN contact : Leporello21@orange.fr © COWARC, 2012