Last week, I travelled to Amsterdam and Brussels to attend the following performances :
- John Adams, Girls of the Golden West, Amsterdam (Muziektheater, March 5 and March 7) ;
- Micha Hamel, Caruso a Cuba, Amsterdam (International Theater Amsterdam, formerly Stadsschouwburg, March 6) ;
- György Kurtag, Fin de partie, Amsterdam (Muziektheater, March 8) ;
- Donnacha Dennehy, The Second Violinist, Amsterdam (Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, March 9) ;
- Mark Grey, Frankenstein, Brussels (La Monnaie, March 10).
Therefore, I can add to my collection the 5 programme books.
- John Adams : Girls of the Golden West, Amterdam :
It is a 128 pages book. It is divided in 4 parts : Reis (Trip) ; Rush ; Strijd (Fight) and Vooruit (Forward). Some of the articles are Dutch translation of articles already published in the programme book for the world première in San Francisco.
It contains :
- complete cast ;
- contents ;
- Scène-overzicht ;
- AliceMiller Cotter : Huiswaarts ;
- John Adams : Wat doet een componist ? ;
- Richard Sheinin : Een gouden vondst ;
- Nancy J. Taniguchi : Vrouwen en de goldrush in Californië ;
- Peter Sellars : Probleem = Oplossing ;
- Josiah Royce : Geschiedenis van een mijnwerkerskamp ;
- Elisha Perkins : Goldrush-dagboek ;
- Gary Kamiya : De schaduwzijde van de goldrush ;
- Benjamin Madley : Genocide ;
- Frederick Douglass : De betekenis van de Fourth of July voor de 'negro' ;
- Peter Sellars : Synopsis ;
- complete libretto in English with Dutch translation ;
- several portraits from the 19th Century goldrush in California.
There is a separate 24 pages booklet with complete cast and crew, synopsis (in Dutch and English) and biographies of the cast members.
- Donnacha Dennehy : The Second Violinist, Amsterdam :
It is a 20 pages booklet, with complete cast and crew, A Dark Road by Enda Walsh, A Note on Gesualdo by Donnacha Dennehy and biographies of the artists.
- Mark Grey : Frankenstein, Brussels :
It is a 128 pages book. It contains :
- complete cast ;
- Antonio Cuenca Ruiz : Argument ;
- Alex Ollé : Un retour aux origines ;
- Mark Grey : Une histoire d'aveuglement ;
- Julia Canosa i Serra : Déconstruire et reconstruire 'Frankenstein' ;
- Susan J. Wolfson : 'Frankenstein', du roman au livret ;
- Andy Mousley : 'Frankenstein' et le post-humanisme ;
- Charles Shafaieh : Découvrir de nouveaux paysages sonores ;
- quotes from Thomas Hobbes, Alan Turing, Donna Haraway, Aldous Huxley, Rosi Braidotti, Francis Fukuyama, Friedrich Nietzsche, Hannah Arendt, Chris Marker and Aeschylus.
The book is entirely bilingual (Dutch and French).
A second volume of 104 pages contains the libretto in three languages : English, Dutch and French.
A separate 44 pages booklet contains the complete cast and crew and biographies of the artists.
- Micha Hamel : Caruso a Cuba, Amsterdam :
It is a 24 pages booklet, with complete cast and crew, synopsis (in Dutch and English), an article on the May 12, 1920 bombing at the Opera Theater in Havana, an article on Enrico Caruso and biographies of the artists.
- György Kurtag : Fin de partie, Amsterdam :
It is a 112 pages book. It is divided in two parts : 'Spel' ('Game') and 'Einde' ('End'). It contains :
- complete cast ;
- scène-overzicht ;
- 1st part ('Spel'), with quotes from : Samuel Beckett, György Kurtag, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Jean-Marie Le Clézio, Thomas Mann, Georg Büchner, E. M. Cioran, Blaise Pascal, William Shakespeare, John Milton, Tom Driver, Franz Kafka, Friedrich Nietzsche, Elmer Schönberger, Nathalie Léger and Clancy Sigal ;
- several color photos from the staging in Milan ;
- Cesare Fertonani : Fin de partie in het kort ;
- Axel Schalk : Theater waarin men niet meer is ;
- Cesare Fertonani : De muziek van Fin de partie ;
- Maurice Valency : Spel zonder toeschouwers ;
- Catherine Laws : Beckett en Kurtag, Kurtag en Beckett ;
- Pierre Audi : Kurtags Fin de partie ;
- the complete libretto in French, with a Dutch translation.
There is a separate 20 pages booklet with complete cast and crew, synopsis (in Dutch and English) and biographies of the cast members.
I now have 648 programme books for contemporary operas. I have scanned the covers and uploaded the images to this flickr folder.
