With the Messa da Requiem, Christian Spuck brought one of Verdi’s key works on performing stage in his first audiovisual recording since taking his position as Ballet Director at Opernhaus Zurich. In a large-scale co-production by the Ballet and Opera Zurich, Spuck ventured to portray a profound interpretation of Verdi’s funeral mass. He focuses on people who, in their vulnerability and helplessness, are in the search for comfort. Spuck is not at all concerned with a purely dance-like illustration of Verdi’s music, but instead in the contentual-scenic link of the dancers with the soloists and choristers. They act on stage together and take part in ritualized movements and sequences. With Fabio Luisi leading the Philharmonia Zurich, the Opera Choir, and the soloists Krassimira Stoyanova, Veronica Simeoni, Francesco Meli and Georg Zeppenfeld, there is a musical interpretation of some of the most acknowledged artists of our times.
Winterreise: Ballet by Christian Spuck
Franz Schubert’s “Winterreise” is not only regarded as the zenith of Schubert’s song composition, but as the pinnacle of German art song in its entirety. German composer Hans Zender arranged the cycle in 1993 with the title “Schuberts Winterreise – a composed interpretation”. Zender’s version for tenor and chamber orchestra reveals the cycle’s potential to disturb, and approaches Wilhelm Müller’s poems in its own way. Like Hans Zender, Christian Spuck’s production, which was awarded the renowned «Prix Benois de la Danse» in 2019, undertakes a journey into the innermost self.