New programme books in my collection

This morning, I have received two programme books for contemporary operas :

- Benet Casablancas, L'enigma di Lea, Barcelona, February 9, 2019 ;
- Anno Schreier, Schade, dass sie eine Hure war, Düsseldorf, February 16, 2019.

The first one is a 94 pages book. It contains :

- complete cast and crew ;
- biography of the composer ;
- Christina Scheppelmann : Sobre 'L'enigma di Lea' ;
- Carme Portaceli : Sobre la producción ;
- synopsis with musical comments (bilingual, Spanish and English) ;
- Rafael Argullol : 'L'enigma di Lea', un cuento mítico ;
- Germán Gan Quesada : La obra de Benet Casablancas : cuatro décadas de hallazgos sonoros ;
- interview with Alison Cook ;
- Javier Pérez Senz : Benet Casablancas, un retrato discográfico ;
- biographies of the artists with black and white headshots.

The programme is entirely in Spanish and contains several photos of rehearsals.

The second is a 48 pages book. It contains :

- synopsis ;
- Bernhard Klaus Tragelehn : Das Leben John Fords, Anmerkungen ;
- Hella Bartnig : " 'Tis pity she's a whore' : Sujet und Adressat ;
- Hella Bartnig : Eine Oper der Affekte, dialogue with the composer ;
- biographies of composer Anno Schreier and librettist Kerstin Maria Pöhler ;
- Laster und Tabubrüche auf der Opernbühne ;
- Robert Musil : Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften (excerpt) ;
- several colour photos of rehearsals ;
- synopsis in English.

The book is entirely in German. It contains a separate 12 pages booklet with biographies of the artists and a 4 pages leaflet with the complete cast and crew.

I have recently acquired four other programme books :

- Azio Corghi, Tat'jana, Milano, October 20, 2000 (world première) ;
- Salvatore Sciarrino, Perseo e Andromeda, Milano, March 27, 1992 (world première in Stuttgart on January 27, 1991) ;
- Manfred Trojahn, War ihr wollt, Hannover, December 8, 2018 (world première in München on May 24, 1998) ;
- Mark Anthony Turnage, Anna Nicole, Nürnberg, November 3, 2018 (world première in London on February 17, 2011).

I now have 642 programme books for contemporary operas. I have scanned all the covers and uploaded them to this flickr folder.

Today : world première of 'Schade, dass sie eine Hure war' by Anno Schreier in Düsseldorf

Today, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein presents the world première of Schade, dass sie eine Hure war ('Tis Pity She's a Whore), an opera in five acts composed by Anno Schreier, with a libretto in German by Kerstin Maria Poehler after John Ford's play.

It is the composer's fifth opera, after Kein Ort. Nirgends (2006), Die Stadt der Blinden (Zürich, 2011), Mörder Kaspar Brand (Düsseldorf, 2012) and Hamlet (Vienna, 2016).

The two lovers Giovanni and Annabella are not the children of rival families but brother and sister, whose incestuous affection stands in the way of their happiness. The dark web of intrigue surrounding them is rough and coarsely-meshed and as a result its deadly poison often misses its intended target. While Annabella’s spurned suitors butcher each other, she becomes pregnant with her brother’s child and is forced into marriage with one candidate in order to conceal their incestuous relationship. Overcome with manic passion, Giovanni kills his lover and shocks everyone who manages to survive this cruel game of lies and deceit. (reproduced from the Deutsche Oper am Rhein website)

The cast includes tenor Jussi Myllys (Giovanni), soprano Lavinia Dames (Annabella), bass Bogdan Talos (Mönch), mezzo Sarah Ferede (Hippolita), baritone Richard Šveda (Soranzo), bass baritone Günes Gürle (Florio), tenor Sergej Khomov (Grimaldi), tenor Florian Simson (Bergetto) and bass David Jerusalem (Richardetto). Lukas Beikircher conducts the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker and the Chorus of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. David Hermann directs.

The performance should last about 2 hours and a half, including intermission. The venue is the Opernhaus in Düsseldorf.