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.