Today : world première of 'Wir aus Glas' by Yasutaki Inamori in Munich

Today, the Münchner Biennale (Festival of new music theater) presents the world première of Wir aus Glas, a musical theatre piece composed by Yasutaki Inamori with a libretto by Gerhild Steinbuch.

It is the composer's first work for the stage.

An apartment, five persons, seven days: the apartment becomes a world. Comfortably packed in the interior of the bubble, familiar everyday rituals and dealing with familiar things secure and protect the persons from an outside, which for a long time now one only knows about from hearsay. Home, hearth, and living room endow identity and keep fear at bay : fear of the unknown, fear of the uncontrollable, fear of the unfamiliar. The constructed 'ideal world' is not allowed to collapse, and so the outsider becomes an aggressor, whose 'otherness' has to be suppressed, because he questions one's self. (reproduced from the Münchner Biennale website)

The cast includes soprano Alexandra Hutton, mezzo Michelle Daly, tenor Clemens Bieber ; baritone Thomas Florio and actor Steffen Scheumann. Elda Laro conducts the Opera Lab Berlin. David Hermann directs.
The instrumental ensemble consists of 1 oboe, 1 bassoon, 1 trumpet, 1 trombone / tuba, 1 violin and 1 violoncello.

The score is published by Edition Gravis.

The performance should last about 90 minutes. The venue is the Muffathalle. After five performances in Munich, the production will be performed in Berlin at the Deutsche Oper (Tischlerei), starting on June 19.

Today : world première of Wolfgang Mitterer's 'Marta' in Lille

Today, the new opera composed by Wolfgang Mitterer, Marta, with a libretto by Gerhild Steinbuch, will be performed in Lille, at the Opera House.

It is the composer's 10th work for music theatre. Among these, Massacre, first performed in Vienna in 2003, has been produced in several theatres since then. The libretto for Marta (in English) is based on sources as diverse as traditional children's tales to Tarkovsky's Stalker.

In a world rent asunder by a dreadful melancholy, ruled by a King Arthur who has been rendered powerless, bewildered, some crazy redeemer has made all the children disappear... The only remaining child is the Queen's daughter, Marta, an ageless doll, whose hair is continually being combed by her mother. Within her glass cage, Marta is given over for the adoration of the people: the final vestige of a doomed world. Poised between sleep and fear, between lynching and fires, in the blinding glare of an irradiated world, death is spreading relentlessly. (reproduced from the Ictus website)

The cast includes soprano Elsa Benoit (Marta), baritone Georg Nigl (Grot), mezzo Ursula Hesse von den Steinen (Ginevra) and tenor Martin Mairinger (Arthur). Clement Power conducts the Ensemble Ictus and Les Cris de Paris. Ludovic Lagarde directs.

The opera is scored for 5 singers, 8 chorus soloists and 11 instrumentalists (flute, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, piano, e-guitar, percussion, 4 strings and electronices). The performance should last about 90 minutes (no intermission).