Today : World première of Laurent Cugny's 'Cloud Tectonics' in Nantes

Today, jazzman Laurent Cugny's first opera, La Tectonique des Nuages (Cloud Tectonics), with a libretto by François Rancillac after José Rivera's bookin the translation by Isabelle Famchon will be performed at the Théâtre Graslin in Nantes.

The opera was first performed in concert at the jazz festival in Vienne (France), in 2006. A recording was then released by PypeLine productions.

Maybe the ground will end up being cut to the heart of the monstrous city, this crazy, dazzled, amnesic Los Angeles on which the flood from heaven has been pouring for so long... that no one can remember as time itself was trampled on by Celestina, the goddess paralyzing clocks and men. This irresistible beauty, with a belly heavy from a doubtful embrace, landed out of nowhere, with its mystery as only luggage, and wanders in memory, in history, in the arms of Anibal of his brother Nelson. All three get lost, find themselves, hope and forget, victims of this strange intimate Apocalypse where love constantly blooms, blooms again and dissolves. (free translation after the opera house website)

The cast includes David Linx (Anibal de la Luna), Laïka Fatien (Celestina del Sol) and Yann-Gaël Poncet (Nelson de la Luna). The band consists of ten musicians (piano, 2 saxophones and clarinets, trumpet, trombone, horn, accordion, guitars, doublebass and drum kit.

My collection of scores of contemporary operas

Here are the scores of contemporary operas I have :

- John Adams : Doctor Atomic, full score, Boosey & Hawkes, 560 pp. ;
- Thomas Adès : The Tempest, vocal score, Faber Music, 247 pp. ;
- John Corigliano : The Ghosts of Versailles, vocal score, Schirmer, 369 pp. ;
- Tom Cunningham : The Okavango Macbeth, vocal score, Goodmusic, 168 pp. ;
- Carlisle Floyd : Susannah, full score, Boosey & Hawkes, 427 pp. ;
- Philip Glass : Akhnaten, full score, Dunvagen, 653 pp. ;
- Philip Glass : Satyagraha, full score, Dunvagen, 401 pp. ;
- Hans Werner Henze : The Bassarids, full score, Schott, 671 pp. ;
- Hans Werner Henze : Elegy for Young Lovers, full score, Schott, 532 pp. ;
- Hans Werner Henze : The English Cat, full score, Schott, 609 pp. ;
- Hans Werner Henze : We Come to the River, full score, Schott, 574 pp. ;
- Hans Werner Henze : Venus und Adonis, full score, Schott, 294 pp. ;
- Hans Werner Henze : Boulevard Solitude, full score, Schott, 260 pp. ;
- Hans Werner Henze : Das verratene Meer, full score, Schott, 492 pp. ;
- Hans Werner Henze : Der junge Lord, full score, Schott, 664 pp. ;
- Hans Werner Henze : Il Re cervo, full score, Schott, 511 pp. ;
- Hans Werner Henze : König Hirsch, vocal score, Schott, 725 pp. ;
- Hans Werner Henze : L'Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe, vocal score, Chester Music, 385 pp. ;
- Hans Werner Henze : L'Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe, full score, Chester Music, 362 pp. ;
- Hans Werner Henze : Das Ende einer Welt, full score, Schott, 73 pp. ;
- Hans Werner Henze : Ein Landarzt, full score, Schott, 73 pp. ;
- Hans Werner Henze : Das Wundertheater, full score, Schott, 156 pp. ;
- Hans Werner Henze : Der Prinz von Homburg, vocal score, Schott, 288 pp. ;
- Hans Werner Henze : La Cubana oder Ein Leben für die Kunst, vocal score, Schott, 280 pp. ;
- Hans Werner Henze : Pollicino, full score, Schott, 246 pp. ;
- Lee Hoiby : The Tempest, vocal score, Schirmer, 324 pp. ;
- Babette Koblenz : Hexenskat, full score, Kodasi, 181 pp. ;
- György Ligeti : Le Grand Macabre, full score, Schott, 302 pp. ;
- Peter Maxwell Davies : Kommilitonen !, full score, Chester Music, 230 pp. ;
- Stephen Oliver : Timon of Athens, vocal score, Novello, 361 pp. ;
- Krzysztof Penderecki : Die Teufel von Loudun, full score, Schott, 205 pp. ;
- Matthias Pintscher : Thomas Chatterton, full score, Bärenreiter, 336 pp. ;
- Aribert Reimann : Lear, full score, Schott, 460 pp. ;
- Aribert Reimann : Bernarda Albas Haus, full score, Schott, 292 pp. ;
- Aribert Reimann : Die Gespenstersonate, full score, Schott, 165 pp. ;
- Aribert Reimann : Medea, full score, Schott, 302 pp. ;
- Paolo Renosto : L'Ombra di Banquo, full score, Ricordi, 93 pp. ;
- Kaija Saariaho : L'Amour de loin, full score, Chester Music, 440 pp. ;
- Sergei Slonimsky : King Lear, vocal score, Kompozitor, 186 pp. ;
- Sergei Slonimsky : Hamlet, vocal score, Kompozitor, 399 pp. ;
- Michael Tippett : King Priam, full score, Schott, 282 pp. ;
- Michael Tippett : The Midsummer Marriage, full score, Eulenburg, 727 pp. ;
- Manfred Trojahn : Was ihr wollt, full score, Bärenreiter, 367 pp. ;
- Judith Weir : Blond Eckbert, full score, Chester Music, 152 pp. ;
- Bernd Alois Zimmermann : Die Soldaten, full score, Schott, 466 pp.

You can find details about the scores on my librarything webpage.

Covers of the programs in my collection available online

Since I collect season programs from opera houses and concert halls from all over the world (but mostly from the Northern hemisphere, since Australian operas don't want to mail outside the country), I regularly scan the covers of the documents I receive (except the magazine), so it is easier to know what I already have.

Now, I have uploaded most of the scanned covers to flickr, and I have modified the dedicated page on my website.

Here is the link to the new page on my website :
http://www.opera-collection.net/programmes/programcolltitle.htm

Here is the link to the flickr folder :
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22297671@N03/collections/72157648578862506/

I hope that at some point, I will be able to complete my collection and enlarge it to the Southern hemisphere theaters.

Today : World première of 'Die Antilope' by Johannes Maria Staud

Today, the second opera by 40 year old Austrian composer Johannes Maria Staud, Die Antilope, with a libretto by Durs Grünbein, will be performed in Luzern (Luzerner Theater). It is a coproduction with the Oper Köln.

Here is what the composer writes about this new opera :

“The opera tells the story of a young man, Victor, a character that draws on Victor Krap (Samuel Beckett, Eleutheria) and Bartleby, the Scrivener (Herman Melville). Victor, a nonconformist social outsider, escapes from an increasingly claustrophobic company party (complete with stagnant and meaningless party chit-chat) by jumping out of the window. This results in Victor stumbling through an absurdly distorted urban world, his ‘journey through the night’ leading him to the strangest situations, sometimes menacing and appalling, sometimes funny and grotesque, always wavering on the threshold between real and unreal. Our hero is torn between the desire to be an outside observer, a spontaneous man of action (he is not immune to moral indignation) and allowing himself to be swept away by the dynamics of the curious situations in which he finds himself. At the end of this journey, Victor – whose true motivation remains a mystery – turns up unexpectedly back at the company party under extremely strange circumstances. The party, which had been frozen in time during his absence, resumes as if nothing had happened. The Möbius band has closed.”. (reproduced from http://www.universaledition.com)

The opera should last about 75 minutes, requires 7 singers, SATB chorus and an orchestra of 18 and strings (7 woodwinds, 6 brass, 2 percussionists, accordion, MIDI-piano, alto sax, strings).

The cast includes : Jutta Maria Böhnert, Todd Boyce, Flurin Caduff, Szymon Chojnacki, Utku Kuzuluk, Eun-Kyong Lim, Carlo Maffioletti and Jeanett Neumeister. Howard Arman conducts and Dominique Mentha directs.

His first opera, Berenice, after Edgar Allan Poe, was first performed in Munich in May 2004, then revised and premièred in Heidelberg in November 2005.

Received in the mail this Saturday morning

This Saturday morning, I received the following items in the mail :

- Berlin, Deutsche Oper : August October 2014 leaflet ;
- Berlin, Konzerthaus : September October 2014 brochure ;
- Gelsenkirchen, Musiktheater im Revier : September October 2014 leaflet ;
- Helsinki, Finnish National Opera : Spring 2014 and Autumn 2014 brochures ;
- Koblenz, Theater : September October 2014 leaflet.

Wanted ! 2014-2015 season programs of opera houses

To complete my collection, I am still expecting paper copies of the 2014-2015 season program for the following opera houses :

- Canada : Calgary, Victoria (BC) ;
- Croatia : Zagreb ;
- Finland : Helsinki ;
- France : Caen, Compiègne, Lille, Monte-Carlo, Montpellier, Reims ;
- Germany : Staatstheater Darmstad, Theater Erfurt, Mittelsächsisches Theater Freiberg, Theater Magdeburg, Staatstheater Nürnberg, Opernhaus Wuppertal ;
- Hungary : Budapest ;
- Italy : Bari, Bolzano, Cagliari, Catania, Firenze, Genova, Milano, Palermo, Parma, Roma, Trieste, Venezia ;
- Latvia : Riga ;
- Netherlands : Enschede, Maastricht ;
- Poland : Warsaw ;
- Portugal : Lisboa ;
- Slovenia : Ljubljana ;
- Switzerland, Bern : Konzert Theater ;
- USA : Anchorage, Central City, Charlotte (Opera Carolina), Dallas, Denver (Opera Colorado), Detroit (Michigan Opera Theatre), Honolulu (Hawaii Opera Theatre), Houston, Indianapolis, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Louisville (Kentucky Opera), Miami (Florida Grand Opera), Milwaukee (Florentine Opera Company), Minneapolis (Minnesota Opera), New Orleans, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, Sacramento, Saint Louis, San Diego, Sarasota, Washington (DC).

I hope I will receive them before the end of the year. I guess I will have to write to them again.

New productions or revivals of recent operas (4)

During the 2014-2015, several recent operas will be performed with new productions or revived :

- Julian Anderson : Thebans, directed by Pierre Audi, Bonn, June 2015. It will be a revival of the original production first performed in London (ENO), in May 2014 ;
- Jake Heggie : Three Decembers, directed by Emma Griffin, Atlanta, May 2015. The opera was first performed in Houston in February 2008. Also performed in Berkeley and Fort Worth ;
- Hans Werner Henze : Phaedra, directed by Florian Lutz, in Halle, March 2015. The opera was first performed in Berlin in September 2007. Other performances followed in Brussels, Firenze, Copenhagen and Duisburg ;
- Toshio Hosokawa : Matsukaze, directed by Matthias von Stegmann, Kiel, May 2015. New production. The opera was first performed in Brussels in May 2011. Since then, it has also been performed in Berlin ;
- Kevin Puts : Silent Night, directed by Eric Simonson, Montréal, May 2015. Revival of the world première production in St. Paul (MN) in November 2011. Production also performed in Philadelphia (February 2013) and Cincinnati (July 2014). The second production, directed by Octavio Cardenas, already performed in Fort Worth last May will be revived in Kansas City in February 2015. A third production, directed by Tomer Zvulun, will happen in October 2014 in Wexford. It will be the European première.

Today : world première of Marc-André Dalbavie's 'Charlotte Salomon' in Salzburg

Today, the second opéra composed by French composer Marc-André Dalbavie will be performed for the first time in Salzburg at the Felsenreitschule.

 

 ‘A person is sitting beside the sea. He is painting. A tune suddenly enters his mind. As he starts to hum it, he notices that the tune exactly matches what he is trying to commit to paper. A text forms in his head, and he starts to sing the tune with his own words, over and over again in a loud voice until the painting seems complete.’ This is how Charlotte Salomon describes the genesis of her fascinating series of paintings, Life? Or Theatre? The young Jewish artist had fled to southern France following the Kristallnacht pogrom in Berlin on the night of 9/10 November 1938, where she joined her grandparents. She was living in Villefranche when the Second World War broke out. Afraid of the troops who were drawing ever closer from Nazi Germany, her grandmother threw herself to her death from an upstairs window. Her grandfather then told her that when Charlotte was nine her mother had ended her life in the same way. Even worse, she now discovered that a whole series of other relatives had committed suicide. Charlotte sensed that if she, too, was not to fall victim to the family curse or to go mad, she would have to do ‘something altogether insanely special’.

(reproduced from the Salzburger Festspiele website)

Dalbavie's first opera, Gesualdo, based on the life of the famous composer was first performed in October 2010 in Zurich. His second opera has a libretto written by Barbara Honigmann, after Charlotte Salomon's own work, then translated into French.

The cast includes Johanna Wokalek, Marianne Crebassa, Jean-Sébastien Bou, Frédéric Antoun, Vincent Le Texier, Cornelia Kallisch, Eric Huchet. The composer conducts the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg and Luc Bondy directs. The first performance will be broadcast live by Austrian radio Ö1.

Today : World première of HK Gruber's new opera in Bregenz

Today, Heinz Karl Gruber's fourth opera will be performed for the first time in Bregenz, Austria. The libretto for Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald (Tales from the Vienna Woods) has been written by Michael Sturminger, after Ödön von Horvath's play.

 

Gruber's previous operas are : Gomorra (1993), Gloria von Jaxtberg (1994) and Der Herr Nordwind (2005).

The opera is in 3 acts and lasts about 130 minutes. It requires a quartett of main soloists and 9 other singers, as well as a large orchestra of 23 winds, 3 percusionists, harp, piano, 40 strings, a stage band and a cabaret band. The publisher is Boosey & Hawkes.

Tales from the Vienna Woods is the title of a charming waltz by Johann Strauss (the Younger). The title was borrowed by the Austro- Hungarian writer Ödön von Horváth for what became his best known and often filmed play which was premiered at the Deutsches Theater, Berlin, in 1931. A bitter satire about the mendacity and brutality of the petite-bourgeoisie, ironically named after the forested highlands near the Austrian capital that are so idealised in the waltz. In the play, Viennese Gemütlichkeit becomes a hollow phrase; the tragic, brutal story of the sweet girl Marianne and the deeply conventional butcher Oskar reflects the hardships and anxieties of the late 1920s during the global economic crisis.

(from http://bregenzerfestspiele.com)

The opera will be conducted by the composer and directed by the librettist, with the following cast : Ilse Eerens (Marianne), Daniel Schmutzhard (Alfred), Jörg Schneider (Oskar), Angelika Kirchschlager (Valerie), Albert Pesendorfer (Zauberkönig), Anke Vondung (Mother), Anja Silja (Grandmother), Michael Laurenz (Erich), Markus Butter, David Pittman-Jennings, Alexander Kaimbacher and Robert Maszl.

The first performance will be broadcast live by the Austrian radio Ö1.