Today, Heinz Karl Gruber's fourth opera will be performed for the first time in Bregenz, Austria. The libretto for Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald (Tales from the Vienna Woods) has been written by Michael Sturminger, after Ödön von Horvath's play.
Gruber's previous operas are : Gomorra (1993), Gloria von Jaxtberg (1994) and Der Herr Nordwind (2005).
The opera is in 3 acts and lasts about 130 minutes. It requires a quartett of main soloists and 9 other singers, as well as a large orchestra of 23 winds, 3 percusionists, harp, piano, 40 strings, a stage band and a cabaret band. The publisher is Boosey & Hawkes.
Tales from the Vienna Woods is the title of a charming waltz by Johann Strauss (the Younger). The title was borrowed by the Austro- Hungarian writer Ödön von Horváth for what became his best known and often filmed play which was premiered at the Deutsches Theater, Berlin, in 1931. A bitter satire about the mendacity and brutality of the petite-bourgeoisie, ironically named after the forested highlands near the Austrian capital that are so idealised in the waltz. In the play, Viennese Gemütlichkeit becomes a hollow phrase; the tragic, brutal story of the sweet girl Marianne and the deeply conventional butcher Oskar reflects the hardships and anxieties of the late 1920s during the global economic crisis.
The opera will be conducted by the composer and directed by the librettist, with the following cast : Ilse Eerens (Marianne), Daniel Schmutzhard (Alfred), Jörg Schneider (Oskar), Angelika Kirchschlager (Valerie), Albert Pesendorfer (Zauberkönig), Anke Vondung (Mother), Anja Silja (Grandmother), Michael Laurenz (Erich), Markus Butter, David Pittman-Jennings, Alexander Kaimbacher and Robert Maszl.
The first performance will be broadcast live by the Austrian radio Ö1.
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