This blog is mainly about contemporary opera (operas composed after 1970), but also about classical music. Ce blog est consacré principalement à l'actualité de l'opéra contemporain depuis 1970, mais aussi à la musique / musicologie en général, de manière plus anecdotique.
Showing posts with label The Great Gatsby. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Great Gatsby. Show all posts
Monday, 14 December 2015
New in my collection : program book for John Harbison's 'The Great Gatsby' in Dresden
This Monday morning, I have received in the mail the program book published by the Semperoper Dresden for the European première performance of John Harbison's The Great Gatsby.
It is a 48 pages book. It contains :
- synopsis of the opera ;
- an interview with the composer, by Stefan Ulrich ;
- an interview withe director Keith Warner, by Stefan Ulrich ;
- Fitzgerald und die "Lost Generation", by Stefan Ulrich ;
- Glimmerwelt und fahler Schein der "Goldenen Zwanziger", by Katrin Böhnisch ;
- Großstadt und Maschine : die Darstellung New Yorks, by Heinz Ickstadt ;
- colour photos of the production.
The whole book is in German. There is a synopsis in Engish at the end of it. It is completed by a separate 24 pages booklet with the complete cast and biographies of the artists.
In this flickr folder, you can see the scanned covers of all 381 program books for contemporary operas I have in my collection.
Sunday, 6 December 2015
Today : European première of John Harbison's 'The Great Gatsby' in Dresden
Today, John Harbison's opera The Great Gatsby, with a libretto by the composer after F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, will have its first performance in Europe at the Semper Oper in Dresden.
The opera was commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera in New York to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the debut of conductor James Levine. It was first performed there on December 20, 1999. The cast included tenor Jerry Hadley (Jay Gatsvy), soprano Dawn Upshaw (Daisy Buchanan), tenor Mark W. Baker (Tom Buchanan), baritone Dwayne Croft (Nick Carraway), mezzo-soprano Susan Graham (Jordan Baker), bass Richard Paul Fink (George Wilson) and mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (Myrtle Wilson). James Levine conducted and Mark Lamos directed.
The same production was also performed at the Civic Opera House in Chicago in October 2000 and then revived at the Met in April 2002. In February 2012, a reduced version, with re-orchestration for 30 musicians (instead of the original 120) by Jacques Desjardins, was performed by Ensemble Parallèle in San Francisco.
The cast for the Dresden performances includes Peter Lodahl (Jay Gatsby), Maria Bengtsson (Daisy Buchanan), Raymond Very (Tom Buchanan), John Chest (Nick Carraway), Christina Bock (Jordan Baker), Lester Lynch (George Wilson) and Angel Blue (Myrtle Wilson). Wayne Marshall conducts the Sächsischer Staatsopernchor and the Staatskapelle Dresden. Keith Warner directs.
In my collection, I have the libretto published by G. Schirmer :
It includes the complete cast of characters with tessituras and a detailed scenario.
In 2014, on the occasion of the 40th anniversay of James Levine's debut, a recording of the broadcast of January 1, 2000, was released by the Met.
Full information on the opera, including full score, reduced version, vocal score and libretto are available on the Music Sales Classical website.
Wednesday, 25 March 2015
New Season 2015-2016 at the Semperoper in Dresden
This Wednesday morning, I have received the program book for the 2015-2016 season at the Semperoper in Dresden.
- Albert Lortzing : Der Wildschütz, conducted by Asher Fisch, directed by Jens-Daniel Herzog ;
- John Harbison : The Great Gatsby, conducted by Wayne Marshall, directed by Keith Warner (European première) ;
- Pietro Mascagni : Cavalleria rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo : Pagliacci, conducted by Stefano Ranzani and directed by Philipp Stölzl ;
- Paul Hindemith : Mathis der Maler, conducted by Simone Young, directed by Jochen Biganzoli ;
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Don Giovanni, conducted by Omer Meir Wellber, directed by Andreas Kriegenburg ;
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky : Eugene Onegin, conducted by Pietari Inkinen, directed by Markus Bothe;
- Viktor Ullmann : Der Kaiser von Atlantis, conducted by Johannes Wulff-Woesten, directed by Christiane Lutz (Semper 2).
In fact, Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci will be performed in Salzburg during the 2015 Easter Festival, later this month.
The following productions will be revived :
- Georges Bizet : Carmen, directed by Axel Köhler (first performed in September 2013) ;
- Gaetano Donizetti : L'Elisir d'amore, directed by Michael Schulz (first performed in April 2012) ;
- Charles Gounod : Faust, directed by Keith Warner (first performed in June 2010) ;
- Georg Friedrich Händel : Alcina, directed by Jan Philipp Gloger (first performance in October 2011) ;
- Georg Friedrich Händel :Giulio Cesare, directed by Jens-Daniel Herzog (first performed in December 2009) ;
- Georg Friedrich Händel :Orlando, directed by Andreas Kriegenburg (first performed in January 2013) ;
- Engelbert Humperdinck : Hänsel und Gretel, directed by Katharina Thalbach (first performed in December 2006) ;
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Le nozze di Figaro, directed by Johannes Erath (this production will be performed for the first time next June) ;
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Die Zauberflöte, directed by Achim Freyer (first performed in Dresden probably in 2006, considering that Freyer directed this opera as soon as 1982 in Hamburg) ;
- Giacomo Puccini : La Bohème, directed by Christine Mielitz (this production is more than 22 years old) ;
- Giacomo Puccini : Tosca, directed by Johannes Schaaf (first performed in January 2009) ;
- Peter Ronnefeld : Nachtausgabe, directed by Manfred Weiß (first performed in October 2014) ;
- Gioachino Rossini : Il barbiere di Siviglia, directed by Grischa Asagaroff (performed in Dresden since at least April 2008, but also in Zurich from 1991 to 2007) ;
- Johann Strauß : Die Fledermaus, directed by Günter Krämer (first performance in December 2003) ;
- Richard Strauss : Arabella, directed by Florentine Klepper (first performed in Dresden in November 2014, original production for the 2014 Easter Festival in Salzburg) ;
- Richard Strauss : Elektra, directed by Barbara Frey (first performed in January 2014) :
- Giuseppe Verdi : Don Carlo, directed by Eike Gramss (first performed in October 2003) ;
- Giuseppe Verdi : Macbeth, directed by Philipp Himmelmann (first performed in October 2005) ;
- Giuseppe Verdi : La Traviata, directed by Andreas Homoki (first performed in Dresden in October2009, but already performed in Leipzig and other German Cities in 2004) ;
- Richard Wagner : Der fliegende Holländer, directed by Florentine Klepper (first performance in June 2013) ;
- Richard Wagner : Lohengrin, directed by Christine Mielitz (this production is more than 22 years old) ;
- Richard Wagner : Die Walküre, directed by Willy Decker (first performance in November 2001) ;
- Carl Maria von Weber : Der Freischütz, directed by Axel Köhler (first performance next May) ;
Therefore, 31 operas by 20 composers in 5 languages will be performed next season. There will be one opera from the 21st Century, and another one contemporary. This season covers quite well the complete history of opera and its various genres.
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