Five new programme books in my collection

I have recently acquired 5 new programme books for contemporary operas :

1) George Benjamin : Lessons in Love and Violence, London (ROH), May 10, 2018.
It is a 92 pages book. It is entirely in English. It contains :

- complete cast ;
- synopsis, by librettist Martin Crimp ;
- Creating Psychological Sound-Worlds, George Benjamin talks to Oliver Mears, the Director of Opera for the Royal Opera House ;
- colour photographs of rehearsals, by Stephen Cummiskey ;
- A Flair for the Dramatic, by Guy Dammann ;
- Love in a Political Context, Martin Crimp talks to Oliver Mears ;
- Re-imagining Edward II, by Richard Rowland ;
- The Loves of the Powerful, by Melanie Marshall ;
- biographies with black and white headshots.

2) Sidney Corbett : San Paolo, Osnabrück, April 28, 2018.
It is a 32 pages booklet. It is entirely in German. It contains :

- full cast and crew ;
- colour photographs of rehearsals ;
- synopsis ;
- Vom Filmskript zur Oper ;
- Pier Paolo Pasolini : Filmprojekt über den heiligen Paulus ;
- Klaus Englert : Pier Paolo Pasolini - Unkonventionell religiös ;
- biographies of Pier Paolo Pasolini, Paulus von Tarsus and composer Sidney Corbett.

3) Benoît Menut : Fando et Lis, Saint-Etienne, May 2, 2018.
It is a 28 pages brochure. It is entirely in French. It contains :

- complete cast and crew ;
- Une aventure ancrée dans mes veines, by director Kristian Frédric ;
- L'éloge du chant, interview with composer Benoît Menut, by Michèle Tosi ;
- complete libretto by Kristian Frédric, in French ;
- biographies of the artists, with black and white headshots.

4) Alexander Raskatov : GerMANIA, Lyon, May 19, 2018.
It is a 192 pages book. It is entirely in French. It contains :

- technical information : writing of the libretto, composition of the score, characters, orchestral setting, complete cast for the world première ;
- synopsis ;
- the characters ;
- complete original libretto (in German and Russian, with lines in Hebrew and French), with French translation ;
- Alexander Raskatov : À la mémoire de toutes les âmes ruinées ;
- Frank Langlois : GerMANIA, matériaux ;
- several other texts by Bertolt Brecht, Heiner Müller, Paul Celan, Erich Kästner, Vassili Grossman, Ossip Mandelstam, Charles de Gaulle, Vassili Axionov ;
- Laurent Brunner : À propos de Germania 3, des souvenirs dans l'histioire ;
- biographies of Raskatov and Müller.

There is a separate 24 pages booklet with complete cast and biographies.

5) José Maria Sanchez-Verdu : Argo, Schwetzingen, April 27, 2018.
It is a 64 pages book. It contains :

- complete cast and crew ;
- excerpts of : Die Fahrt der Argonauten by Apollonios von Rhodos ; Die Odyssee by Homer ;
- colour photographs of rehearsals ;
- Interview with the composer José Maria Sanchez-Verdu, by Ina Karr ;
- Bewegung als zentrales Element, by director Mirella Weingarten ;
- Die Begegnung mit dem Imaginären, by Maurice Blanchot ;
- Odysseus oder Mythos und Aufklärung, by Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno ;
- complete libretto in German ;
- biographies of artists.

I have also acquired the librettos published by Faber Music of Lessons in Love and Violence and Written on Skin, 2 operas composed by George Benjamin, with librettos by Martin Crimp.

I now have 566 programme books for contemporary. I have scanned and uploaded all the covers to this flickr folder.

Today : world première of 'Argo' by José Maria Sanchez-Verdu in Schwetzingen

Today, the Schwetzinger Festspiele presents the world première of Argo, a dramma in musica composed by José Maria Sanchez-Verdu, with a libretto by Gerhard Falkner.

It is the composer's second opera after El viaje a Simorgh (Madrid, May 4, 2007).

The book “Butès” by Pascal Quignard inspired me to a renewed examination of this topic. Butes’ encounter with the sirens is a picture of the search for the unknown; Butes’ leap into the water is considered a symbolic and poetic gesture opening up to various interpretations. This leap in search of the sirens’ monstrous Ur-sound is a symbol of an inner decision, an adventure in the direction of the new (comparable to the creative process in art). This is the theme of ARGO in all its symbolic and iconographic dimensions. (reproduced from the Breitkopf & Härtel website)

The cast includes bass baritone Jonathan de la Paz Zaens (Butes), countertenor Alin Deleanu (Orpheus), baritone Brett Carter (Odysseus), bass Martin Busen (Jason) and soprano Maren Schwier (Aphrodite / Medea). The composer conducts the SWR Symphonieorchester and the Chorus of the State Theater Mainz. Mirella Weingarten directs. The venue is the Rokokotheater.

The required orchestra is the following :

- 2 flutes (doubling 2 piccolos), 2 oboes (1 doubling English horn), 2 clarinets (doubling bass clarinet and double bass clarinet), 2 bassoons (doubling contrabassoon) ;
- 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, 1 contrabass tuba ;
- timpani and percussion (2 players) ;
- strings 6.4.4.3.2 ;
- live electronic.

The opera will then be performed in Mainz (première on May 20, 2018).