News
30.10.2018
Opera madness
His appearance on the Italian opera scene heralded a new era. Gioachino Rossini’s stage works – numbering over fifty – thrilled his fellow countrymen and before long the entire world. »more«
01.10.2018
Scartazzini meets Mahler
The Swiss composer Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini is invited to an ongoing encounter with Gustav Mahler. Commissioned by the Jena Philharmonic and its Music Director Simon Gaudenz, a work by Scartazzini will precede the performance of a Mahler symphony each time. This begins with “Torso" for orchestra, preceding Mahler’s First Symphony. The first performance takes place on 18 October 2018 in the Volkshaus Jena. »more«
28.09.2018
Georg Anton Benda‘s “Medea” – first performance with Katharina Thalbach
The master concerts associated with the Heidenheim Opera Festival present a very special event this autumn: the well-known German actress Katharina Thalbach will play the (spoken) title role in Georg Anton Benda’s famous melodrama “Medea”, accompanied by the Cappella Aquileia under the direction of Marcus Bosch. The concert on 27 October in the Congress Zentrum Heidenheim, repeated on 28 October in Fürth, is at the same time the first performance using the critical new edition published by Bärenreiter. »more«
11.09.2018
Emojis become music: Miroslav Srnka’s Piano Trio
Miroslav Srnka has composed “Emojis, Likes and Ringtones” for the renowned ARD Competition 2018 in Munich. The premiere can be followed online in a livestream on 13 September 2018. In his Piano Trio Miroslav Srnka examines communication in the digital age. »more«
11.09.2018
In the Slums of Naples. Umberto Giordano’s „Mala vita“ in Gießen
The Stadttheater Gießen has been known for its rediscoveries for many years. This time the choice has fallen on Umberto Giordano’s opera “Mala vita”, a drama of the relationships amongst outcasts in the slums of Naples, written by the composer in 1892, before his major work “Andrea Chenier”. In Wolfgang Hofmann’s new production for Gießen the increasingly fateful plot is contrasted with, and commented on, by madrigals and responsories by Carlo Gesualdo. Eraldo Salmieri conducts this verismo gem, just 75 minutes long. The work was originally successfully premiered in Rome, but was angrily rejected in Naples. The first performance of the new production takes place on 15 September 2018.
11.09.2018
Beat Furrer’s “nero su nero”: Swiss and German premieres
“nero su nero” (black on black), the latest orchestral composition by Siemens prizewinner Beat Furrer premiered in June in Vienna, is concerned with the nuancing of light: a continuum of sound from darkness to light builds up an immense tension by the most subtly differentiated means. The Swiss premiere takes place in Basel on 16 September 2018 conducted by Baldur Brönnimann with the Basel Sinfonietta, and the German premiere on 27 October 2018 with the Essen Philharmonic under the baton of Johannes Kalitzke. »more«
