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 'GerMANIA' by Alexander Raskatov in Lyon

Today, the Opéra national de Lyon presents the world première performance of GerMANIA, an opera in 2 acts and 10 scenes composed by Alexander Raskatov, with a libretto by the composer based on Heiner Müller's plays Germania Death in Berlin (1978) and Germania 3 Ghosts at Dead Man (1995).

(c) Renate Schildheuer Bunt

It is the composer's third opera after The Pit and the Pendulum (1991) and A Dog's Heart (first performed in Amsterdam on June 7, 2010, and then produced in Lyon on January 20, 2014.

This dramatic and satirical opera plunges the audience into a turning point era of the 20th century, when two totalitarian regimes, Nazism and Communism, confront each other. In this panorama of Germany, from the World War I to the reunification and the fall of the Berlin Wall, thirty-seven characters will appear on stage, among whom Hitler, Stalin and Goebbels. (freely adapted from the Opéra de Lyon website)

The cast includes tenor James Kryshak (Hitler), bass Genaddy Bezzubenkov (Stalin, Gagarin), baritone Ville Rusanen (Goebbels), soprano Sophie Desmars, countertenor Andrew Watts and baritone Boram Kim. Alejo Pérez conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra de Lyon. John Fulljames directs.

The required orchestra is the following (reproduced from the programme book) :

- 3 flutes (doubling piccolo and alto flute), 2 oboes (doubling English horn), 3 clarinets in B (doubling E-flat clarinet, bass clarinet and contrabass clarinet), 1 tenor saxophone, 1 baritone saxophone, 2 bassoons (doubling contrabassoons) ;
- 4 horns (doubling tenor and bass Wagner tubas) ; 4 trumpets ; 1 bass trumpet, 3 trombones, 1 bass trombone, 1 tuba ;
- 7 percussion players ;
- 1 harp, 1 piano, 1 celesta, 1 electric guitar, 1 bass guitar ;
- 4 horns, 4 trumpets and 4 trombones in the auditorium.

The performance should last about 2 hours and 30 minutes.