‘The Giacomo Variations’ is a chamber opera play based about the late Giacomo Casanova, who, in the face of his approaching death, is still trying to find out, what he was living for, if not only to be coveted and desired by the woman he loves. Giacomo, played by John Malkovich, presents his memories and stories to impress Countess Isabella, the beautiful young sister of his host Karl Emanuel Count von Waldstein and of course has his try on the nurse, the seamstress and the kitchen maid, while he is developing his philosophical view on love, medicine, fashion, and cookery. The play by Michael Sturminger with music concept by Michael Haselböck is based on opera scenes by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte.
The Infernal Comedy
The stage-play for a Baroque-Orchestra, two Sopranos and one actor is based on the real-life story of Jack Unterweger, a notorious womanizer and celebrated author and journalist, who was suspected of killing prostitutes in Vienna, Graz, Prague and Los Angeles; later vanished from Vienna, fled into the U.S., got arrested in Miami, transferred to Austria, accused and finally committed suicide after being convicted of homicide in eleven cases.
Inside The Infernal Comedy
John Leake, who spent 3 years researching the Unterweger case in minute detail (‘entering Hades’), in conversation with Michael Sturminger
the author and director of the Infernal Comedy. Martin Haselböck, the conductor of the Vienna Academy Orchestra, illuminates the beginnings and musical conception of this utterly new form with classical 18th century arias and the fate of a 20th century serial killer to create a profound evening of musical theatre. The truth and nothing
but the truth.
Cecilia Bartoli – The Barcelona Concert
Cecilia Bartoli celebrates the 200th birthday of Maria Malibran with her personal tribute to Maria Malibran, one of the most famous opera singers of the 19th century.“The Barcelona Concert”, performed in the stunning Palau de la Musica Catalana, features the Barcelona concert from the ongoing “Maria” album tour “La Rivoluzione Romantica”.