Performance today : world première of Dai Fujikura's 'Solaris' in Paris

Today, I attended the world première performance of Dai Fujikura's opera Solaris, with a libretto by Sabuto Teshigawara after Stanislas Lem's novel, at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris.

It started with silent prelude you had to watch with special glasses. I guess it was supposed to show the journey through the stars to the planet Solaris, but it was rather ineffective. Then the music started, played by the Ensemble InterContemporain (14 musicians ensemble specialized in contemporary music) conducted by Erik Nielsen. The score is an interesting one, not by the pure musical sounds they had to play (as in Le Petit Prince by Michaël Levinas) but by the live electronic device conceived by IRCAM for this opera : it changed original sound to new one that was also projected around the theater through loudspeakers.

Unfortunately, these efforts to design an appropriate sound landscape for this journey to the depths of human sould were ruined by the ineffective staging by librettist-director-choreographer-set-costumes-and-light-designer-dancer Saburo Teshigawara. The unique set was a large box (no props) using all the space stage with the exception of a small part in front of it. The singers were always standing still in front of the box (or at some very specific moments, in the box), while dancers (one for each singer) were 'acting' in the box. The whole evening rather looked like a ballet performance with singers and orchestra, rather than a real opera. This new work definitely deserves a more appropriate staging.

The program book (88 pages) contains :

- complete cast,
- complete crew,
- introduction to the opera,
- synopsis (in French and English),
- an article on the composition of the opera, by Bastien Gallet,
- an article on the opera, by Jérémie Szpirglas,
- an article on Saburo Teshigawara, by Philippe Noisette,
- 'Seeing the unconceivable', by Ulf Langheinrich,
- biographies of all artists, with color photos,
- the complete libretto, in English and French.

A second booklet (48 pages) includes black and white photos of rehearsals.
The two performances in Paris are recorded by France Musique and there should be a broadcast in the next few months, probably on Monday.

Today : World première of 'Solaris' by Dai Fujikura in Paris

Today, the first opera composed by Dai Fujikura, Solaris, with a libretto in English by Saburo Teshigawara after Stanislas Lem's novel, will be performed in Paris.

 

The cast includes Sarah Tynan (soprano, Hari), Leigh Melrose (baritone, Kris Kelvin), Tom Randle (tenor, Snaut), Callum Thorpe (bass, Gibarian), and Marcus Farnsworth (baritone, off stage Kelvin). The Ensemble InterContemporain is conducted by Erik Nielsen. Saburo Teshigawara directs.

The book centers upon the themes of the nature of human memory, experience and the ultimate inadequacy of communication between human and non-human species. In probing and examining the oceanic surface of the planet Solaris from a hovering research station the human scientists are, in turn, being studied by the sentient planet itself, which probes for and examines the thoughts of the human beings who are analyzing it. Solaris has the ability to manifest their secret, guilty concerns in human form, for each scientist to personally confront. (reproduced from en.wikipedia.org)

The orchestra is the following :

- 1 flute, 1 oboe, 1 clarinet, 1 bassoon

- 1 horn, 1 trumpet, 1 trombone

- 1 percussionist, 1 celesta, strings, and live electronics.

The opera should last about 90 minutes. It will be performed in Lille later this month, and in Lausanne in April. It is at least the fourth opera composed after Lem's novel, after Michael Obst (Munich, 1996), Henry Correggia (Torino, 2011) and Detlev Glanert (Bregenz, 2012). The work is published by Ricordi Berlin.

New season 2014-2015 in Opéra de Lausanne

Eight operas will be performed in Lausanne, Switzerland, during the 2014-2015 season, including two composed in the 21st Century.

- Jules Massenet : Manon, conducted by Jesus Lopez Cobos, directed by Arnaud Bernard (new production) ;
- Michaël Levinas : Le Petit prince, conducted by Arie van Beek, directed by Lilo Baur (world première). This children opera, with a libretto based on Saint-Exupéry's novel, will also be performed in Geneva, Lille, Liège and Paris ;
- Franz Lehar : Die lustige Witwe, conducted by Cyril Diederich, directed by Jérôme Savary (first performed in Paris in October 2005) ;
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Die Entführung aus dem Serail, conducted by Laurent Gendre, directed by Tom Ryser (new production) ;
- Giuseppe Verdi : La Traviata, conducted by Corrado Rovaris, directed by Jean-Louis Grinda (first performed in Monte-Carlo in January 2013) ;
- Gioachino Rossini : Tancredi, conducted by Ottavio Dantone, directed by Emilio Sagi (new production) ;
- Daï Fujikura : Solaris, conducted by Erik Nielsen, directed by Saburo Teshigawara. The opera was first performed in Bregenz in July 2012. This is the third production, first to be performed in Paris in March 2015 ;
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Die Zauberflöte, conducted by Diego Fasolis, directed by Pet Halmen (revival from a production first performed in March 2010).

This is quite an interesting season, with two modern works confronting 6 operas of the classical and romantic eras.

New Season 2014-2015 at the Oper Köln (Cologne)

The Opera House in Cologne will be closed for the third and last season. The performances of the 2014-2015 will take place in 5 different locations not originally conceived to welcome such events.

The new productions are :
- Johann Adolf Hasse : Leucippo, conducted by Gianluca Capuano, directed by Tatjana Gürbaca.
In fact, this production premiered in Schwetzingen in May 2014 ;
- Detlev Glanert : Solaris, (German première, new production), conducted by Lothar Zagrosek, directed by Patrick Kinmonth. The opera was first performed in Bregenz in July 2012 ;
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Die Zauberflöte, conducted by Will Humburg, directed by Mariame Clément. This production was originally staged in Strasbourg in December 2012 ;
- Luigi Dallapiccola : Il prigioniero, conducted by Gabriel Feltz, directed by Markus Bothe. It is performed as the first part of a double bill evening ending with a staged version of Bernd Alois Zimmermann's ecclesiastical action Ich wandte mich und sah an alles Unrecht, das geschah unter der Sonne ;
- Richard Strauss : Arabella, conducted by Stefan Soltesz, directed by Renaud Doucet ;
- Leos Janacek : The Diary of One Who Disappeared, conducted by Rainer Mühlbach, directed by Béatrice Lachaussée.

The revivals are :
- Giacomo Puccini : Madama Butterfly, conducted by Claude Schnitzler, directed by Patrick Kinmonth (first performed in 2008) ;
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Cosi fan tutte, conducted by Julia Jones, directed by Tatjana Gürbaca (already performed in Lucerne in 2005 and in Munich in 2007) ;
- Carl Maria von Weber : Der Freischütz, conducted by Andreas Schüller, directed by Viestur Kairiss (production of the Cologne Opera first performed in April 2014) ;
- Benjamin Britten : The Turn of the Screw, conducted by Gerrit Prießnitz, directed by Benjamin Schad (production of the Cologne Opera first performed in February 2011) ;
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : La Clemenza di Tito, conducted by Christoph Spering, directed by Uwe Eric Laufenberg (first performed in October 2011) ;
- Georges Bizet : Carmen, conducted by Claude Schnitzler, directed by Christof Loy (first performed in September 2009) ;
- Giuseppe Verdi : Otello, conducted by Will Humburg, directed by Johannes Schaaf.(production from the Stockholm Royal Opera, first performed in March 2013).

And in concert :
- Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky : Iolanthe, conducted by Dmitrij Kitajenko ;
- Hector Berlioz : La Damnation de Faust, conducted by Markus Poschner ;
- Franz Lehar : Die lustige Witwe, conducted by Marc Piollet.

Two productions shouldn't be advertised as new productions.
5 of the 16 operas performed have been composed in the last 100 years. Even with the Opera House being closed, the Cologne Opera manages to offer a well balanced season with baroque, classical romantic and modern music, in six different languages (German, French, Russian, Italian, English, Czech).