New programme book in my collection : 'Violetter Schnee' by Beat Furrer in Berlin

Last Saturday, I have received in the mail the programme book published by the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin for the world première performance of Beat Furrer's opera Violetter Schnee, on January 13th, 2019.

It is a 108 pages book. It contains :

- synopsis, in German and English ;
- Das Ende kann nur offen sein : discussion with composer Beat Furrer, librettist Händl Klaus and dramaturges Yvonne Gebauer and Roman Reeger ;
- Yvonne Gebauer : ... ein Übergang zu etwas vollkommen neuem., dialogue with director Claus Guth ;
- Bertram Kaschek : Die weisse Falle, about Pieter Bruegel's painting Die Jäger im Schnee ;
- Marie Luise Maintz : Spiel ohne Grenzen, about Furrer's Violetter Schnee ;
- Sascha Gebauer : Wo schimmernden Schnee die alles erleuchtende Sonne zwingt, notice about Furrer's Violetter Schnee ;
- black and white photos by Florian Ruiz (The White Contamination) ;
- short excerpts of works by Thomas Lehr, Günther Anders, Jacques Derrida, Boris Groys, Christoph Ransmayr, William Carlos Williams, Robert Musil, Zbigniew Herbert and Mark Strand ;
- complete libretto ;
- production team and cast for the première.

The book is entirely in German. Only the synopsis is also available in English.

With the book, there is a 8 pages leaflet with the complete cast and crew, a 20 pages booklet with biographies and a 28 pages booklet with color photos (by Monika Rittershaus) of the dress rehearsal with piano on January 7.

I now have 612 programme books for contemporary operas. I have scanned all the covers and uploaded them to this flickr folder.

Today : world première of 'Violetter Schnee' by Beat Furrer in Berlin

Today, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin presents the world première of Violetter Schnee (Violet Snow), an opera composed by Beat Furrer with a libretto in German by Händl Klaus based on a work by Vladimir Sorokin translated by Dorothea Trottenberg.

(c) Dimitri Papageorgiou

It is the composer's 8th opera, after Die Blinden (Vienna, 1989), Narcissus (Graz, 1994), Invocation (Zurich, 2003), Wüstenbuch (Basel, 2010) and La bianca notte (Hamburg, 2015).

The world is in a state of emergency. Five people are trapped in perpetual snowdrifts. Time appears to stand still. Will this ever end ? Jacques remains apart in the middle of the group, affirming the snowfall and the nothingness that he dedicates himself to – by holding a dialogue with the snow in agreement with its uncanny effects. Peter und Silvia, by contrast, are gloomy, fearful and pessimistic. Jan and Natascha attempt to keep a perspective, continue to hope and remain active, believing that a new era will come. The ability to communicate becomes visibly more difficult for all of them. What happens namelessly alienates all of them : they have no language for it. When a stranger appears and speaks – Tanja, who moves through the landscape as if she were in a picture – she initially triggers euphoria, followed by deep isolation. She functions like a projection surface or a space of memory ; Jacques believes he sees his dead wife in her – he touches the membrane between life and death. Nothing, however, is stronger than the sun. The group is obliterated in the violet illumination of the snow. (reproduced from the Staatsoper Berlin website)

The cast includes soprano Anna Prohaska (Silvia), soprano Elsa Dreisig (Natascha), baritone Gyula Orendt (Jan), baritone George Nigl (Peter) and bass baritone Otto Katzameier. Matthis Pintscher conducts the Staatskapelle Berlin. Claus Guth directs.

The required orchestra is the following (accroding to the composer's website) :

- 3 flutes, 2 oboes, 3 clarinets, 3 bassoons ;
- saxophone ;
- 3 horns, 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, 1 tuba ;
- percussion (2 players), piano, accordion ;
- strings (12.10.8.6.4).

There will be four performances alltogether in January. The score is published by Bärenreiter. A perusal score is available for download on their website.

New recordings of contemporary operas in my collection

I have recently acquired the following opera recordings on CD :

- John Carbon : Benjamin, conducted by William Wright, Zimbel, 2006 ;
- Beat Furrer : Begehren, conducted by Beat Furrer, Kairos, 2003 ;
- Ricky Ian Gordon : The Grapes of Wrath, conducted by Grant Gershon, PS Classics, 2007 ;

- Marcel Landowski : Montségur, conducted by Michel Plasson, Cybelia, 1987 ;
- John Musto : The Inspector, conducted by Glen Cortese, Wolf Trap, 2011 ;
- Gérard Pesson : Forever Valley, conducted by Vincent Leterme, assai, 2002 ; 

- Robin de Raaff : Waiting for Miss Monroe, conducted by Steven Sloane, Challenge, 2012 ;
- Joseph Summer : The Tempest, conducted by Stefan Lano, Albany, 2015.

I also bought the following DVD :

- José Luis Turina : D. Q. Don Quijote en Barcelona, conducted by Josep Pons, directed by La Fura dels Baus (Alex Ollé and Carlos Padrissa), Fundacio Gran Teatre del Liceu, 2000.

Received in the mail this morning : program books from Köln (Eötvös) and Hamburg (Furrer)

This Wednesday morning, I have received two program books for new operas in the mail :

- Peter Eötvös, Senza sangue, Köln, May 1st, 2015 ;
- Beat Furrer, la bianca notte / die helle nacht, Hamburg, May 10th, 2015.

The first one is a 144 pages book that includes the complete and detailed program for the complete 'Acht Brücken' Festival. It contains only a short notice on the new opera, with the title 'Personal comments by Peter Eötvös on the performance of Senza sangue'. The whole book is entirely in German.

The second is a 48 pages book. It contains :
- Figuren in sizbzehn Szenen, the synopsis of the opera ;
- several quotes from Beat Furrer ;
- Kontinuierliche Suggestion, by Marie Luise Maintz ;
- Kann man Licht hören ?, by Rupert Burleigh ;
- Moderne Zeiten, gestern und heute, by Francis Hüsers ;
- a new German translation of the libretto, after the vocal score ;
- several color photos of rehearsals ;
- the complete cast for the world première ;
- and a separate 4 pages leaflet withe complete cast and crew.

You can have a look at the covers of all program books for contemporary operas I have in this flickr folder.

May 10th, 2015 : World première of Beat Furrer's new opera 'La bianca notte / Die helle Nacht' in Hamburg

Today, Beat Furrer's new opera, La bianca notte / Die helle Nacht will be performed at the Opera House in Hamburg.

It is the composer's seventh composition for the musical stage since Die Blinden in 1989. His output includes Narcissus (1994), Invocation (2003) and Wüstenbuch (2010). Beat furrer has written his own libretto after the life and works of Dino Campana.

The protagonist Dino writes and invents stories in order to exist and to conjure his own exitence, his identity, his ego.  He evokes his own real identity by creating counter-realities. Dino Edison lights up the night by inventing stories. He designs his counterpart, the Mephistophelean figure of Regolo, the seducer with an addiction for novelty rooted deep into his heart, he designs Russo, his reflection, a frantic writer who is convinced he could save people by writing stories. (freely adapted from the Bärenreiter publisher e-newsletter).

 The following orchestra is required :
- 3 flutes (doubling 2 piccolos), 2 oboes, 3 clarinets (doubling bass and contrabass clarinet), 1 soprano saxophone, 2 bassoons, contrabasson ;
- 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba ;
- percussion (3 musicians) ;
- piano, accordion, harp ;
- strings (8,8,6,6,4).

The cast includes Golda Schultz (Sibilla, soprano), Tanja Ariane Baumgartner (Indovina, messo), Tomas Tomasson (Dino, baritone), Derek Welton (Regolo, bass baritone) and Tigran Martirossian (Il Russo, bass). The Philharmoniker Hamburg and the Chor der Hamburgischen Staatsoper are conducted by Simone Young. Ramin Gray directs. The first performance will be broadcast live by NDR Kultur.

New Season 2014-2015 at the Staatsoper Hamburg

During the 2014-2015 season, the Staatsoper Hamburg will perform the following 32 operas in 5 languages :

8 new productions (including 2 world premières) :

- Jacques Offenbach : La Belle Hélène, conducted by Gerrit Prießnitz, directed by Renaud Doucet ;
- Arthur Honegger : Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher, conducted by Simone Young (in concert) ;
- Giuseppe Verdi : Luisa Miller, conducted by Simone Young, directed by Andreas Homoki ;
- Giacomo Puccini : La Fanciulla del West, conducted by Carlo Montanaro, directed by Vincent Boussard ;
- Erich Wolfgang Korngold : Die tote Stadt, conducted by Simone Young, directed by Karoline Gruber ;
- Beat Furrer : La bianca notte / Die helle nacht, conducted by Simone Young, directed by Ramin Gray (world première) ;
- Huw Watkins : In the Locked Room (German première) and Michael Langemann : Persona (world première), conducted by Daniel Carter, directed by Petra Müller.


and 24 revivals :

- Ludwig van Beethoven : Fidelio, directed by Hans Neuenfels ;
- Georges Bizet : Carmen, directed by Jens-Deniel Herzog ;
- Claude Debussy : Pelléas et Mélisande, directed by Willy Decker ;
- Gaetano Donizetti : L'Elisir d'amore, directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle ;
- Gaetano Donizetti : Lucia di Lammermoor, directed by Sandra Leupold ;
- Georg Friedrich Haendel : Almira, directed by Jetske Mijnssen ;
- Engelbert Humperdinck : Hänsel und Gretel, directed by Peter Beauvais ;
- Leos Janacek : Jenufa, directed by Olivier Tambosi ;
- Leos Janacek : The Little Cunning Vixen, directed by Johannes Erath ;
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Die Entführung aus dem Serail, directed by Johannes Schaaf ;
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Le Nozze di Figaro, directed by Johannes Schaaf ;
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Die Zauberflöte, directed by Achim Freyer ;
- Francis Poulenc : Dialogues des Carmélites, directed by Nikolaus Lehnhoff ;
- Giacomo Puccini : La Bohème, directed by Guy Joosten ;
- Giacomo Puccini : Madama Butterfly, directed by Vincent Boussard ;
- Gioachino Rossini : Il Barbiere di Siviglia, directed by Gilbert Deflo ;
- Gioachino Rossini : La Cenerentola, directed by Renaud Doucet ;
- Richard Strauss : Elektra, directed by August Everding ;
- Richard Strauss : Salome, directed by Willy Decker ;
- Giuseppe Verdi : Aida, directed by Guy Joosten ;
- Giuseppe Verdi : Un Ballo in maschera, directed by Alexander Schulin ;
- Giuseppe Verdi : Simon Boccanegra, directed by Claus Guth ;
- Giuseppe Verdi : La Traviata, directed by Johannes Erath ;
- Richard Wagner : Tannhäuser, directed by Harry Kupfer.