Music Director
La ópera Lulu, escrita por A. Berg, quedó inconclusa - su tercer acto no fue completado por el compositor. Un fragmento se representó por primera vez el 2 de junio de 1937 en la Ópera de Zúrich. La ópera fue completada por el compositor austriaco contemporáneo F. Cerchoi, que terminó el tercer acto, y su versión completa se estrenó en la Ópera de París el 24 de febrero de 1979, dirigida por Pierre Boulez (con Teresa Stratas en el papel principal).
La ópera se basó en las tragedias del escritor alemán Frank Wedekind "Earthly Spirit" y "Pandora's Box". A. Berg logró reelaborar estos dramas de tal manera que conservó el texto original de las réplicas de los héroes de Wedekind en 3 actos de su ópera. La ópera describe el auge social de una mujer joven en la sociedad burguesa, que termina con el asesinato de su amado hombre y la caída posterior cuando ella, después de haberse convertido en una prostituta, muere a manos de su último amante.
Conductor
Premiered in Stockholm in 1978, the work is based on a play by Michel de Ghelderode (1898-1962) and unfolds in an imaginary land inspired by the famous Dutch painter Pieter Brueghel the Elder: Nekrotzar, the Grand Macabre, announces the end of the world; but in a land ruled by eros, alcohol and corruption, his plan to unleash the Apocalypse bursts like a soap bubble. LIVE RECORDING FROM THE GRAN TEATRE DEL LICEU, BARCELONA, 2011
Conductor
Aribert Reimann is one of the worlds most important living composers. His works are performed regularly all over the world. Now comes his latest opera - Medea. Roughly 30 authors have written works based on this ancient myth but it was the play by Franz Grillparzer which inspired Reimann most: »In no other version is it made so brutally clear that Medea is an outsider. () Right from the start of act one my mind was flooded by musical ideas and by the end of the second act I really thought my head would burst. Vienna State Opera succeeded in recruiting Marco Arturo Marelli a man with a world-wide reputation, especially for global premieres as director and scenographer for this performance. Unusually for a world premiere, the first series of performances of the opera were a huge success amongst audiences and press alike. The public stormed the box office and ticket sales by far exceeded availability. A Sold Out notice had to be put up for virtually every performance!
Obsessive in gambling and in love, the soldier Hermann is the protagonist of Tchaikovskys Pique Dame, based on a story by Pushkin. He is smitten with the aristocratic Lisa and fixated on learning the winning secret of the three cards from her grandmother, the Countess, played by iconic contralto Ewa Podles. This opulent production from Barcelonas Liceu captures St Petersburg in the era of Catherine the Great, while the houses Music Director Michael Boder conducts a large and impressive cast. Recorded at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, 30th June & 1st July 2010.
Music Director
One of the greatest revolutions in the history of mankind happened around 3000 years ago: the transition from polytheism to monotheism through the prophet Moses. God revealed himself directly to Moses, instructing him in absolute truth. Moses was charged with leading the people of Israel to the Promised Land and escaping from Egyptian slavery. Moses came to embody the relationship between the human and divine truth. God’s call to Moses presented a new idea that exploded all previous religious concepts: ‘One God – unique, eternal, intangible, inconceivable’. Moses understands this concept, but is unable to express it, and therefore God appoints Moses’ brother Aaron as his spokesman. They are bound to fail: Aaron can only approach sharing the idea by compromising its meaning, whilst Moses is left to search fruitlessly for “the word I lack …”
This production of Arnold Schoenbergs opera was filmed during the Ruhrtriennale 2009.
Conductor
Thomas Larcher has adapted Yasushi Inoue’s best-seller The Hunting Gun for his first opera, with a libretto by Austrian Book Prize winner Friederike Gösweiner. Austrian actor and film director Karl Markovics made his debut as stage director for an opera. The story tells of three women, who speak in three letters addressed to the same man, a hunter – his wife, his lover and his lover’s daughter. As the women react to the revelation of illicit love, the hunter’s life is laid bare.
