A tireless innovator: Carl Maria von Weber was defined by curiosity, musical expressiveness and an insatiable artistic energy. Soprano Regula Mühlemann, baritone Äneas Humm, composer Jörg Widmann, film composer Rachel Portman and others discuss an artist whose influence extends far beyond the famous Freischütz. Carl Maria von Weber saw the orchestra as a narrative force; he experimented boldly and opened up new musical horizons, the influence of which extends into the modern era and film music. At the same time, his life was marked by upheavals, shaped by illness, financial strain, tireless work and the search for his own artistic language beyond established traditions. “The Free Spirit – Carl Maria von Weber” takes us into the world of a composer who, until his untimely death at the age of 39, worked tirelessly to renew the sound of his time and to give music its own language of expression, thereby opening up a new way of listening for his audience.
Norma
In this intimate staging of Bellini’s masterpiece opera, Asmik Grigorian’s highly anticipated debut as Norma is “one of the best things to happen to Vienna’s opera stages in a long time” (FAZ). Set in a dictatorship of the 20th century, Grigorian’s Norma is the forewoman of a clay foundry. Vasily Barkhatov’s “convincingly concentrated, intimate staging” (Kronenzeitung) underscores the drama of the love triangle between the three central characters. Grigorian masters the notoriously difficult role with bravura: “Grigorian is a true Callas successor because every gesture and facial expression merges with her musical expression” (Kleine Zeitung). In Aigul Akhmetshina as Adalgisa, “she found a counterpart who has one of the richest mezzo voices of our time” (Die Presse). Freddie De Tommaso as Pollione completes the three-way conflict with his “clean and beautifully sounding” tenor (Oper News). Rounding out the evening musically are the “magnificent in every respect” Arnold Schoenberg Chor (Salzburger Nachrichten). “All in all, a breathtakingly thrilling evening with a perfect interlocking of stage and pit” (Van Magazin).
Don Carlo
“vocal luxury was the order of the day”(Die Deutsche Bühne) In this new production of Verdi’s Don Carlo, director Kirill Serebrennikov sets the opera in a historic costume research institute, blending history with the present. Silent actors in historic costumes symbolize self-aggrandizement and emotional confinement. Conductor Philippe Jordan is praised for his sensitivity. Joshua Guerrero effectively portrays Don Carlo, while Etienne Dupuis’s Posa is a charming freedom fighter. Roberto Tagliavini stands out as Filippo II, and Eve-Maud Hubeaux impresses alongside Asmik Grigorian, who shines in her role debut as Elisabetta, delivering a powerful performance that resonates deeply with the audience.
Götterdämmerung
Wagner’s immense imagination reveals itself in the composer’s 16-hour Ring cycle, being able to fully captivate worldwide audiences since its complete performance in 1876 in Bayreuth. Christian Thielemann’s conducting of “Velvety sound of unmatched beauty” (The Guardian) leads an extremely sophisticated production, with Tcherniakov’s stage that meets the highest technical standards, evolved in ever new, impressive spaces. “Götterdämmerung” is the concluding chapter of Wagner’s monumental four-part opus, which he conceived in the light of the revolution of 1848/49 and completed in 1874 after numerous attempts and a long interruption. In many ways, the thematic and musical threads are intertwined in a highly artistic and complex manner. “Tcherniakov, as usual, manages details on a level rarely seen in opera.” (The New York Times)
Siegfried
Thielemann/Tcherniakov Ring from Berlin’s Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin was a project of truly Wagnerian scale and ambition – one that captured the attention of the opera world and set new standards: “Musically, this ‘Ring’ blew away everything that had gone before – and we are talking about a performance history of more than one hundred years.” (Die Welt) In the third part of his Ring tetralogy, Wagner incorporates fairy-tale motifs into his epic mythological story. The well-known tale of “The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn Fear” is echoed in ”Siegfried” as well as episodes from the medieval “Nibelungenlied”. “One wishes for such a “Ring” all over the world.” (Kurier)
Die Walküre
Raising the curtain on a work of superlatives: the Staatsoper Unter den Linden represents the ultimate challenge for any opera house, Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen”. Christian Thielemann conducts the Ring tetralogy, and Dmitri Tcherniakov, highly praised for his psychologically sophisticated productions, led the playful all-star ensemble coherently through the panorama of characters, situations and events that unfolded like a universe and consistently interpreted the sheer vastness and the manifold twists and turns of the Ring cosmos. With the “Walküre” score, composed in the mid-1850s, Wagner reached new heights with his music, giving the orchestra remarkable communicative powers, layers of meaning were thus developed and incorporated into the work. “Enchanting magic of sound” (Die Zeit) / “A triumph for the Staatsoper” (Neue Zürcher Zeitung)
Das Rheingold
“Michael Volle’s Wotan […] is an event, […] Rolando Villazón plays a fabulous Loge.” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) A myth, a heroic epic, a family saga – perhaps all of these together – make up Richard Wagner’s Ring tetralogy. This epic production of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden sees a remarkable collaboration between Christian Thielemann , one of the most distinguished Wagner conductors of our time, and Dmitri Tcherniakov, one of the great, internationally celebrated opera directors of our time. The result is “A glittering feast of voices, sounds, ideas and precise direction of characters. Wagner at his best.” (BR Klassik) The Rheingold gives the background to the events that drive the main dramas of the whole Ring cycle. “In this Rheingold, Thielemann mastered the art of nuance and varied interpretation like no other, and without having to bank on exaggeration.” (Bachtrack.com)
Turandot
Philipp Stölzl, known as award-winning cinema director (The Physician), always finds time for opera despite his many TV and cinema projects – and each time it is a very special production. He now turned to Giacomo Puccini’s last opera Turandot, which remained unfinished, because the composer could not find a twist for the final love scene that convinced him. Stölzl came up with a “a particularly intelligent perspective” (Süddeutsche Zeitung), which fascinates as much as his massive puppet moved by string, the splendid cast, or the Staatskapelle Berlin in the pit conducted by the great Zubin Mehta.
Aida
Even though Christian Thielemann conducted a lot of Italian operas during his “journeyman years” in Italy, this production at the Semperoper is his very first Aida. He tells this stirring drama by Giuseppe Verdi at the Semperoper Dresden with a great symphonic arc and a sense of detail. No blaring, no crashing: Everything is carefully balanced and lovingly modelled. With small breakes when it’s important, and otherwise a high basic pulse, Thielemann and the luxurious Staatskapelle Dresden counter the oratorical, statuesque nature of the piece with a lot of dramatic tension. Katharina Thalbach, known for her innovative and thought-provoking productions, created a classical set for the Semperoper and hence laid all the focus on the portrayal of the characters and their relationships and on the music. The “outstanding ensemble of singers” (Deutschlandfunk). “The crowning glory of this feast of voices is provided by Francesco Meli … currently the best Radamès” (Der Merkur), Krassimira Stoyanova as Aida, who beguiles with her power as well as with piani, and Oksana Volkova as Amneris, who comes up with darkly blazing passion” (Neue Musikzeitung).
Giuditta
Giuditta was to be Franz Lehár’s ticket to the world of opera: His “Spieloper” or “musical comedy” was triumphantly premiered in January 1934. Intoxicating melodies and borrowings from Puccini, whom Lehár admired, and his tragically loving characters stand alongside operetta-like innocuousness. However, the end of the plot is by no means cheerful; the lovers Giuditta and Octavio go their separate ways in resignation. The “musical comedy” thus only seems to stand in stark contrast to the social present of the emerging war, the 1930s. Director Christoph Marthaler, known for his whimsically beautiful theatre evenings, picks up on the ambivalence of Lehár’s characters, who vacillate between opulence and resignation, between euphoria and the abyss. Orchestral music by Béla Bartók, Erich Wolfgang Korngold or Dmitri Shostakovich, songs by Viktor Ullmann, Hanns Eisler or Alban Berg as well as excerpts from Sladek oder Die schwarze Armee by Ödön von Horváth radically place Lehár’s operetta in the context of its time of origin. Giuditta in Christoph Marthaler’s version tells a love story within the turmoil and confusion of the times, brilliantly realised by a top-class cast led by Vida Mikneviciute and Daniel Behle.