#Leipzig Opera House

[wolfie-wolfgang]

An Easter Meeting in Leipzig with JS Bach - 300 years on.

Even people who don’t think they like classical music know and even like at least some of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750). Those who love classical music are mostly in consensus that he was probably the greatest of all the classical composers. I certainly feel that he stands tall not just in the world of music, but in the world of human creativity too. I believe that we are all a…

[maaarine]

When an Orchestra Was No Place for a Woman (Farah Nayeri, The New York Times, Dec 23 2019)

"The Vienna Philharmonic, established in 1842, has been weighed down by history and by tradition, and by a somewhat convoluted recruitment process.

All players are recruited from the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera.

And until 1997, the opera would not allow women to audition for the philharmonic.

(The Vienna Philharmonic did have a woman performing regularly with it by then — the harpist Anna Lelkes played with them for 26 years, but was not allowed to join formally, and did not receive full payment, until 1997.) (…)

Women still make up less than half of most orchestras in Continental Europe.

An August 2019 survey by two University College London academics showed that in Continental orchestras, 36.6 percent of members were women.

In the United States, it was 40 percent, and in Britain, 44 percent.

“I don’t want to throw stones at Vienna, because all of us in classical music are in glass houses, in all questions of diversity,” said Gillian Moore, director of music at the Southbank Center in London, which includes the Royal Festival Hall.

“It’s clearly an odd thing to see an orchestra that is so predominantly male,” she said, referring to the Vienna Philharmonic. “I absolutely accept that they are making progress.”

The problem in classical music boils down to gender roles: what society and tradition allowed women to do, and how those roles endured.

Europe has recognized female musicians for at least three centuries — mainly pianists, harpists and vocalists.

Clara Schumann (1819-96), one of the most famous pianists of her time, composed her first piano concerto at age 16, performing it at the Leipzig premiere.

For the most part, however, women performed in private, not in public, except in all-female ensembles; the world’s first women’s orchestra was formed in Berlin in 1898.

Even in the United States, which was far less hidebound in terms of musical tradition, it was not until 1930 that an orchestra, in this case the Philadelphia Orchestra, hired a woman in a tenured position.

Entire sections of the orchestra remained male because their instruments were considered unladylike.

The cello was deemed indecorous because it had to be placed between a player’s legs.

Flutes and horns were thought to make a woman’s face look funny; percussion instruments were viewed as exclusively male.

But change does appear to be afoot in Austria. In September, Marin Alsop, an American, became the first female chief conductor of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra.

By her own admission, she would not have been given the job a decade ago.

The Radio Symphony Orchestra “really own, and are accountable for, the fact that they’ve been extraordinarily conservative, almost to the point of absurdity, in terms of gender equality,” she said in an interview this month.

“They are extraordinarily open to the idea of righting this wrong.”"

[3rdview-blackandwhite]

Leipzig Opera House

[scavengedluxury]

Opera house, Augustusplatz (then Karl-Marx-Platz), Leipzig, 1985. From the Budapest municipal photography company archive.

[princesssarisa]

Opera on Youtube 4

L'Elisir d'Amore (The Elixir of Love)

Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, 1967 (Carlo Bergonzi, Renata Scotto; conducted by Gianandrea Gavazzeni; no subtitles)

Metropolitan Opera, 1981 (Luciano Pavarotti, Judith Blegen; conducted by Nicola Rescigno; Spanish subtitles) – Part I, Part II

Metropolitan Opera, 1991 (Luciano Pavarotti, Kathleen Battle; conducted by James Levine; English subtitles) – Part I, Part II

Vienna State Opera, 2005 (Rolando Villazón, Anna Netrebko; conducted by Alfred Eschwé; English subtitles)

Theatro da Paz, Brazil, 2013 (Atalla Ayan, Carmen Monarcha; conducted by Emiliano Patarra; Brazilian Portuguese subtitles)

Teatro Manoel, Malta, 2015 (Cliff Zammit Stevens, Shoushik Barsoumian; conducted by Philip Walsh; English subtitles)

Vienna State Opera, 2017 (Dmitry Korchak, Olga Peretyatko; conducted by Marco Armiliato; no subtitles) – Part I, Part II

Ópera de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, 2017 (Ramón Vargas, Olivia Gorra; conducted by Guido Maria Guida; Spanish subtitles)

Vienna State Opera, 2018 (Benjamin Bernheim, Andrea Carroll; conducted by Frédéric Chaslin; no subtitles)

San Francisco Opera, 2023 (Pene Pati, Slávka Zámečníková; conducted by Ramón Tebar; English subtitles)

Hänsel & Gretel

Vittorio Cottafavi studio film, 1957 (Fiorenza Cossotto, Jan Poleri; conducted by Nino Sanzogno; sung in Italian with Italian subtitles)

August Everding studio film, 1981 (Brigitte Fassbaender, Edita Gruberova; conducted by Georg Solti; English subtitles)

Leipzig Opera, 1981 (Annelott Damm, Steffi Ullmann; conducted by Horst Gurgel; no subtitles)

Julliard Opera Center, 1997 (Jennifer Marquette, Sari Gruber; conducted by Randall Behr; English subtitles)

Opera Australia, 1992 (Suzanne Johnston, Christine Douglas; conducted by Johannes Fritzsch; sung in English)

Vienna State Opera, 2015 (Daniel Sindram, Ileana Tonca; conducted by Christian Thielmann; English subtitles)

Pacific Northwest Opera, 2015 (Sylvia Szadovszki, Ksenia Popova; conducted by Clinton Smith; sung in English with English subtitles)

Scottish Opera, 2020 (Kitty Whately, Rhian Lois; conducted by David Parry; sung in English with English subtitles)

Eklund Opera Program, 2020 (Christine Lee, Anna Whiteway; conducted by Nicholas Carthy; sung in English with English subtitles)

Amarillo Opera, 2021 (Sarah Beckham-Turner, Patricia Westley; conducted by Carolyn Watson; English subtitles)

Turandot

Mario Lanfranchi studio film, 1958 (Lucilla Udovick, Franco Corelli; conducted by Fernando Previtali; English subtitles)

Vienna State Opera, 1983 (Eva Marton, José Carreras; conducted by Lorin Maazel; no subtitles)

Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 1986 (Gwyneth Jones, Franco Bonisolli; conducted by Jacques Delacote; English subtitles)

Forbidden City, Beijing, 1998 (Giovanna Casolla, Sergej Larin; conducted by Zubin Mehta; no subtitles)

Teatro alla Scala; 2001 (Alessandra Marc, Nicola Martinucci; conducted by Georges Prêtre; French subtitles)

Gran Teatre del Liceu, 2009 (Anna Shafajinskaia, Fabio Armiliato; conducted by Giuliano Carella; English subtitles)

Chorégies d'Orange 2012 (Lise Lindstrom, Roberto Alagna; conducted by Michel Plasson; French subtitles)

Wichita Grand Opera, 2015 (Zvetelina Vassileva, Ricardo Tamura; conducted by Martin Mazik; no subtitles)

Teatro de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, 2017 (Gabriela Georgieva, Carlos Galván; conducted by Enrique Patrón de Rueda; Spanish subtitles)

Opera Hong Kong, 2018 (Oksana Dyka, Alfred Kim; conducted by Paolo Olmi; English subtitles)

Eugene Onegin

Prince Regent Theatre, Munich, 1965 (Hermann Prey, Ingeborg Bremert; conducted by Joseph Keilberth; sung in German; no subtitles)

Paris Opera, 1982 (Benjamin Luxon, Galina Vishnevskaya; conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich; French subtitles)

Kirov Opera, 1984 (Sergei Leiferkus, Tatiana Novikova; conducted by Yuri Temirkanov; English subtitles)

Chicago Lyric Opera, 1985 (Wolfgang Brendel, Mirella Freni; conducted by Bruno Bartoletti; Spanish subtitles)

Petr Weigl film, 1988 (Michal Docolomanský dubbed by Bernd Weikl, Magda Vásáryová dubbed by Teresa Kubiak; conducted by Georg Solti; English subtitles)

Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, 1998 (Vladimir Glushchak, Orla Boylan; conducted by Gennadi Rozhdestvensky; English subtitles) – Act I, Act II, Act III

Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, Valencia, 2011 (Artur Rucinski, Kristine Opolais; conducted by Omer Meir Wellber; no subtitles) – Part I, Part II

Teatro Comunale di Bologna, 2014 (Artur Rucinski, Amanda Echalaz; conducted by Aziz Shokhakimov; English subtitles)

Mariinsky Theatre, 2015 (Andrei Bondarenko, Yekaterina Goncharova; conducted by Valery Gergiev; French subtitles)

Livermore Valley Opera, 2019 (Morgan Smith, Antonina Chehovska; conducted by Alex Katsman; English subtitles)

[opera-ghosts]

Katharina Senger-Bettaque (1862-1927) as Isolde

“Her Isolde is of poignant beauty. The restrained passion, the heart-rending mockery behind the deepest woe bears to the overflowing of emotion at the excess of the first act, which undoubtedly understands loving devotion in the second act, the unearthly transfiguration in the third, all these traits of Isolde they make wonderfully clear turn an eye and face. Ms. Bettaque has these roles actually created himself. (…) Now she is at the forefront of the very select few artists who truly original style Isolde succeed. Isolde in their guest appearances, however, it remains mostly in excellent loneliness by rarely by happy coincidence a worthy Tristan, about Gerhäuser or Forchhammer, or Brangaene, such as Miss Reinl in Berlin, her side occurs. In Wagner’s drama reaches but, very unlike all virtuosity, the original style performer only attain their full effect when he is in uniform dignified setting. So you have to Bettaque woman in a thoroughly accomplished by waving spirit of genuine Wagnerian Tristan performance see, to understand their size right. “(Golther, Wolfgang in” Stage and World “1898/9).

Born in Berlin, she enjoyed a career of international proportions that began there. After studying with Heinrich Dorn, Senger-Bettaque made a youthful début at the Hofoper (1879) in Rubinstein’s Feramors. Engagements as a lyric s. at Hamburg, Leipzig, Mainz and Rotterdam followed, and in 1888 she sang Eva and a "Blumenmädchen" at Bayreuth. Later that year she headed for New York and the Metropolitan where she was billed as Kathi Bettaque (Herr Senger was a few years down the road) and sang Freia in the American premiere of Das Rheingold, Marguerite in Faust, Sélika, Elsa, Marzelline in Fidelio, Sieglinde, Elisabeth and other rôles. At Covent Garden in 1892, she appeared in a number of her New York rôles as well as Gutrune, and Venus in Tannhäuser, but in 1894 she found her "home base" when she was named principal dramatic s. at Munich. This house would be the center of her activities for most of her remaining career. Senger-Bettaque returned to the Met for a month of guest appearances during the 1904 – 05 season; by then her ambitions and European successes had her tackling the Die Walküre and Siegfried Brünnhildes and Leonore in Fidelio. In these rôles, the New York critics did not like her. She was, apparently, successful in these same rôles at Stuttgart (1906 – 09), and then her career seems to have come to and end. Today, Katherina Senger-Bettaque is an enigma lost to the ages. Even the year and location of her death are unknown, shrouded by the years that followed. Groves Dictionary of Opera is non-committal, cleverly assuming her death occurred after 1909 since she was still singing in Stuttgart then. Other sources have her alive in Berlin in the early to mid 1920s. It is sad, and somewhat baffling, due to her obvious talent and the wide scope of her long career, that she has been forgotten. Recordings: These remain as enigmatic as the singer who recorded them. Senger-Bettaque is known to have made about ten recordings in Europe between 1901 – 05, and all belong in the "rare as stardust" category. Most are of song titles, and from what can be heard it appears that the recording process of her day unnerved her. The voice frequently sounds ill at ease, if not frightened. Some of this can be heard in one of her earliest discs, Franz’s lovely "Es hat die Rose sich beklagt." But the voice in general is of pure and lyric quality, almost "pretty," despite a variation from pitch or two. In fairness, it may have been that she was laboring under hopelessly inferior recording conditions, for even the piano accompaniment has a garbled, "wobbly" sound to it. A coupling of Wolf’s songs "Gesang Weylas" and "Morgentau," made a few years later, has a much steadier sound and Senger-Bettaque seems relaxed in the music; the voice here in much warmer and more appealing. One of her few operatic excerpts is Elsa’s "Euch Lüften, die mein Klagen." It is a well-sung piece with a charm of its own, but hardly displays a heroic or Brünnhilde-sized voice. After hearing her Elsa, it is difficult to imagine her as Ortrud in the same opera, but that rôle was in her large repertoire as well. She sang it once at a Met matinée in January 1905, with Emma Eames as Elsa. The volatile, cold-blooded American seems to have been particularly out of control that afternoon; after what she perceived to be an "upstaging" during the curtain calls, she slapped Senger-Bettaque across the face in full view of the audience! Reporters raced to her dressing room for comments, but the gracious Senger-Bettaque seemed outwardly unruffled. "Oh, I did not resent it," was her deceptively magnanimous reply. Then she added: "I was really surprised and delighted to see any evidence of emotion in Madame Eames."

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 5.30 (before 1920)

70 – Siege of Jerusalem: Titus and his Roman legions breach the Second Wall of Jerusalem. Jewish defenders retreat to the First Wall. The Romans build a circumvallation, cutting down all trees within fifteen kilometres (9.3 mi). 1381 – Beginning of the Peasants' Revolt in England. 1416 – The Council of Constance, called by Emperor Sigismund, a supporter of Antipope John XXIII, burns Jerome of Prague following a trial for heresy. 1431 – Hundred Years' War: In Rouen, France, the 19-year-old Joan of Arc is burned at the stake by an English-dominated tribunal. 1434 – Hussite Wars: Battle of Lipany: Effectively ending the war, Utraquist forces led by Diviš Bořek of Miletínek defeat and almost annihilate Taborite forces led by Prokop the Great. 1510 – During the reign of the Zhengde Emperor, Ming dynasty rebel leader Zhu Zhifan is defeated by commander Qiu Yue, ending the Prince of Anhua rebellion. 1536 – King Henry VIII of England marries Jane Seymour, a lady-in-waiting to his first two wives. 1539 – In Florida, Hernando de Soto lands at Tampa Bay with 600 soldiers with the goal of finding gold. 1574 – Henry III becomes King of France. 1588 – The last ship of the Spanish Armada sets sail from Lisbon heading for the English Channel. 1631 – Publication of Gazette de France, the first French newspaper. 1635 – Thirty Years' War: The Peace of Prague is signed. 1642 – From this date all honors granted by Charles I of England are retroactively annulled by Parliament. 1723 – Johann Sebastian Bach assumed the office of Thomaskantor in Leipzig, presenting his first new cantata, Die Elenden sollen essen, BWV 75, in the St. Nicholas Church on the first Sunday after Trinity. 1796 – War of the First Coalition: In the Battle of Borghetto, Napoleon Bonaparte manages to cross the Mincio River against the Austrian army. This crossing forces the Austrians to abandon Lombardy and retreat to the Tyrol, leaving the fortress of Mantua as the sole remaining Austrian stronghold in Northern Italy. 1806 – Future U.S. President Andrew Jackson kills Charles Dickinson in a duel. 1814 – The First Treaty of Paris is signed, returning the French frontiers to their 1792 extent, and restoring the House of Bourbon to power. 1815 – The East Indiaman Arniston is wrecked during a storm at Waenhuiskrans, near Cape Agulhas, in present-day South Africa, with the loss of 372 lives. 1834 – Minister of Justice Joaquim António de Aguiar issues a law seizing "all convents, monasteries, colleges, hospices and any other houses" from the Catholic religious orders in Portugal, earning him the nickname of "The Friar-Killer". 1842 – John Francis attempts to murder Queen Victoria as she drives down Constitution Hill in London with Prince Albert. 1845 – The Fatel Razack coming from India, lands in the Gulf of Paria in Trinidad and Tobago carrying the first Indians to the country. 1854 – The Kansas–Nebraska Act becomes law establishing the U.S. territories of Kansas and Nebraska. 1866 – Bedrich Smetana's comic opera The Bartered Bride premiered in Prague. 1868 – Decoration Day (the predecessor of the modern "Memorial Day") is observed in the United States for the first time after a proclamation by John A. Logan, head of the Grand Army of the Republic (a veterans group). 1876 – Ottoman sultan Abdülaziz is deposed and succeeded by his nephew Murad V. 1876 – The secret decree of Ems Ukaz, issued by Russian Tsar Alexander II in the German city of Bad Ems, was aimed at stopping the printing and distribution of Ukrainian-language publications in the Russian Empire. 1883 – In New York City, 12 people are killed in a stampede on the recently opened Brooklyn Bridge. 1911 – At the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the first Indianapolis 500 ends with Ray Harroun in his Marmon Wasp becoming the first winner of the 500-mile auto race. 1913 – The Treaty of London is signed, ending the First Balkan War; Albania becomes an independent nation.

[cymorilcinnamonroll]

Godmother Death: A Sapphic, Genderbent "Godfather Death" Retelling

Once, my father Frederick went into the woods. It was a cold night in Leipzig when I, Sieglinde, was born. I was the twelfth child of a woodcarver and washerwoman. We lived in a shanty by the opera house, and I grew up hearing the sound of music. Great arias poured out into the gutter that I collected in my memory like spilled coins.

“One by God, two by the Devil, three by Death,” papa always said. In the alehouse late at night, papa spoke of how he walked miles and miles, begging for mercy for a good godparent for me.

I was born an ill omen, on All Soul’s Eve, in a caul. It snowed the day I was a newborn suckling infant on mama’s teat, and my elder sisters Johanna and Ilke and the rest of my brothers crowded around my swaddled, nursing form. There was not enough food or money to last the winter.

To win fortune’s favor and full larders, father meant to bargain with God.

But God plays favorites, papa said. So, he turned Him away. God could not be my godfather.

Next came old Samiel, the Black Huntsman. He is wicked, and made a terrible offer, papa thought, so into the barrel of papa’s rifle Samiel’s soul went.

Papa was always good at trapping things. Once, papa fit the moon into a thimble and blotted out the night for a whole week. The crops in Leipzig didn’t grow, and Mme. Friegler’s voice went to shards the whole time. When a cow was born with two black heads, papa put the moon back to ward off God’s wrath.

So thereupon sauntered my bold father Frederick, drunk off cheap ale, and into the darkest part of the forest he went, where sunlight never touches, and winter always freezes.

He found a graveyard of souls.

Death was there, tending frozen roses. And Samiel was still trapped in papa’s gun.

“Will you be my dear Sieglinde’s godmother, Frau Todd? I have a handsome demon in exchange,” papa boasted.

Death smiled. Frau Todd is just, after all, and always takes pity on souls. “You know, Frederick, Heaven and Hell talk often about your penchant for stealing things with sweetened words. Just last year, you bribed a sparrow to give you two weeks off the back of summer so that you had more time to complete the legs of a chair.”

“Though silver-tongued, Frau Todd, I am also an honest man. Is there any punishment for bargaining?”

Frau Todd laughed. “No, dear Frederick, all is right in my eyes. I see you have a good heart, and that Sieglinde will grow to be a great woman. So yes, you shall free my husband the Black Huntsman and set Samiel back upon his Wild Hunt as Erl King, and I shall be dear Sieglinde’s godmother. She cannot fail with me by her side. I will make Linde rich, but moreover, kind.”

And so, my godmother was the talk of Leipzig. At Peterskirche, a flock of black crows attended my baptism, complete with their Lady in black lace. I grew up under Frau Todd’s wing, and inherited father’s tricksome tongue.

I was sixteen. Frau Todd had a cabin in the forest, where she taught me women’s crafts: weaving souls. Dousing with spring-green twigs. How to bake the best bread for my future husband.

Frau Todd herself was married to Samiel the Black Huntsman. But she lived alone, and only visited him when the moon was full, or to deliver a month’s worth of dinner in an enchanted silver pail. Samiel ate souls that were too weak to pass on into Heaven or Hell. As for what Frau Todd ate – anything hearty, bloody, and half-alive.

“Mama Todd, what would you trade for the jewel on your throat?” I asked Frau Todd the day autumn came.

Frau Todd smiled. “Only a fresh beating heart, Linde.”

So, I baked a blackbird’s heart into a veal pie. The bird’s heart was alive by my magic, bloody and thrumming, when Frau Todd bit in.

“I see you are becoming quite the thief of life, just like your father Frederick,” Frau Todd smiled, her blonde hair and winsome blue eyes beaming. She wiped the blood on a pearly napkin, then devoured the rest of the pie.

Into my hands Frau Todd placed the jewel. It was a large ruby that glimmered with black stars.

“What are the virtues of this stone, Mama Todd?” I inquired, fascinated.

Frau Todd was skinny as a spindle, dainty and precise, and always wore white, with a red ribbon in her hair. Almost skeletal, but not unpleasant, with long honey-colored hair and eyes that burned like the sky. I felt she was always watching me. “That is the Jewel of Nocht. It can set to sleep anyone who you direct it at.”

I had much fun, setting my schoolmarms to sleep. Frau Todd had made us rich, and I and Johanna and Ilke all attended a girl’s Catholic finishing school. Ilke was even learning opera from Mme. Friegler. I was a stickler for poetry. But the nuns did not like me slipping away to kiss cute choir boys and woo schoolgirls with their curling, sweet-smelling hair. So, I enchanted the nuns into snoring.

“Linde, it is dangerous what you do!” Johanna giggled, embroidering a rose and thistle. She loved sewing. Mama was now a fine lady, but her hands would always be cracked from her time with lye and river rocks as a washerwoman. Mama did not want her daughters to know pain. And her sons had all made papa’s woodcarving business a booming industry. They each carved different parts of tables and shipped them out of Rostock to international waters. “You’re too much like papa, Linde,” my sister continued. “One day, it will do you in.”

“Say Johanna?” I mused, clacking my nails on my chalk tablet. “How much is the smell of a thistle worth?”

“Do thistles smell?”

“To birds.”

“Then I’d say… they’re worth laughter. Laughter can’t be sold, and often, laughter is a lie,” Johanna chuckled, used to my joking. “Shall I trade this thistle and rose?”

“Only their smell, dear Johanna.” I tickled her. She burst out laughing in tears as I hit her sweet spot.

Thistles smelled like rain, I learned.

That night, at Frau Todd’s house, I used the smell of roses and thistles, perfected in Johanna’s virginal mind, to sweeten Frau Todd’s stew.

Frau Todd’s face was electric. “This stew has life in it!” she beamed. “Linde, you are so clever with your magic.”

Frau Todd gulped it down, but it never seemed to cling to her thin, thin shape. Death is always hungry, it seems.

“I have the best teacher, Mama Todd,” I demurred.

We finished the soup in companionable silence as the fire crackled.

“Sieglinde, it is time,” Frau Todd said, her hair from her blond chignon falling a bit to her shoulders. “You are sixteen now. I will teach you my secrets.”

It was the moment I had been angling for, caressing Frau Todd’s tongue with delicious concoctions. Though I loved her like a godmother, I wanted more power.

“Are you sure, Frau Todd?” I said innocently.

“Do not act the sheep when you are a wolf, Linde. You are as wily as me.” Frau Todd smiled. “You are a clever girl, my Linde. Come see my final secret.”

She took me deep into the heart of the forest.

A patch of heart-shaped purple leafed herbs bloomed with fiery orange flowers.

“These are my precious deathsflower, goddaughter” Frau Todd sighed sweetly, inhaling their overripe scent. “Crush and make a powder medicine of this for any patient you have. If I appear by the head of their bed, they will survive, and you may cure them. But if I appear at the dying man or woman’s feet, my Linde, I mean to drag them to either God or my husband Samiel. There is no stopping me then.”

“Thank you, Frau Todd,” I said, tears in my eyes, and hugged her, hard, feeling I had just lost my last bit of innocence.

I set up shop in Berlin in the Old City by the orangerie. The deathsflower grew wherever I went, in secret gardens and groves, appearing only for me. I made my way as a physician, in a time when Europe was being electrified and Prussia was bending to welcome women into the arts and sciences.

Some thought me a quack, but I cured when I could cure, and put to sleep with my Jewel of Nocht those bound for brighter shores, Frau Todd a vigil keeper at their toes. The families always felt overwhelming peace under my care, and godmother often took tea with me in my little flat by the opera. I still fancied the arias and had just seen Cosi fan Tutti for the first time. It could not beat The Magic Flute, but it had its charms.

“Where do you take them, Mama Todd, truly?” I asked her over tea one day. I was so dark in comparison to her, a night girl, black hair, almond-brown eyes, tan skin, freckles and moles. I was beautiful in a way Death was not, thrumming with life and humor, and she was glorious in a way I could never be. Where Frau Todd was youthful, I would always be mortal, and where my magick worked in little tricksy ways like papa had taught me, hers was vast. Little slices of time and place I could carve up, bottle, and trap were mine.

But all the stars were my godmother’s. Great gaseous balls. With angel’s hearts. Beating, bloody, winged hearts that only Death could eat.

Frau Todd smiled dreamily. “And what if God has as much appetite as I, or Samiel?” she teased. Only, I could not tell if she was serious or not.

“So, a Heaven’s Gate is the same as a Hellmouth? God eats His chosen souls?”

I shivered. Night set over my heart.

Death’s lips thinned.

“Everything is hungry, goddaughter. From the worms to God Himself. A grave is a grave, my Linde. We all rot, in the end.”

I winced, hard.

Frau Todd smiled in afterthought: “Yes, everyone perishes. Except for me, of course.”

The King of Prussia was marked for death. Some say he had crossed a witch on his campaign in France. Most thought it was the Hapsburg curse. All I knew was, there was land and a title and limitless purse for any lass or man that could cure him.

I hauled my belongings to court, my cart and best oxen and phials of medicine, and my precious deathsflower, and I went deep into his palace. Finally, it was my turn.

The Jewel of Nocht gleamed like a rose on my chest. Frau Todd was at his head and nodded serenely. Smiling, I cured the king.

There was a ball held in my honor. I was named Lady Sieglinde, First of Her Name. The royal coffers were mine. So was a palace back in dear old Leipzig – the King had done his research.

I charmed the corsets off many lasses for a tussle in silken sheets, then sang the britches off several noblemen. With Frau Todd’s help, I distributed birth control made especially by my cultivated strains of sacred herbs throughout the palace, and I grew even more popular.

But most on my mind was Princess Hilda. She was beautiful – curvy, shining brown ringlets, always dressed in green like Lady Greensleeves. I set to courting Hilda in secret, sang her the eponymous song meant originally for Anne Boleyn, even wrote her some of my poems.

As we lay in my palace’s bed – Hilda was there to “study mathematics with the King’s savior” – Hilda asked: “My dearly beloved Linde, what is that jewel?”

“What is the truth worth to you, my Hilda?”

She had eyes like a doe. I realized then, all like a crashing train, that I was deeply in love.

“A rose.” Hilda beamed.

“And a thistle?” I said, shaking.

Hilda giggled, staring at the silver astrolabe over my room and study. “Whatever you say, snake charmer.”

I went home, and bought the rose and thistle embroidery from Johanna, and I gave it to Hilda… wrapped with a promise ring with a chip from the Jewel of Nocht.

We met back in Berlin.

“Let’s run away to America, Sieglinde, together,” Hilda beamed, ravishing me with kisses. Heat grew in my legs. She made love to me to claim me.

“I cannot do that Princess Hilda. My medical license, my land and holdings, my livelihood, are all here.”

Hilda soured. “Am I worth anything to you but my title?”

“Hilda, you are the blackbird heart in my pie.”

The comely princess forgave me, kissing me through our tears. “You say the funniest things, strange Sieglinde.”

The next day, Hilda accepted a marriage offer from the Duke of England.

Her promise ring came to me by post.

I was bereft. I wanted to bargain, but for once

I had nothing

to give.

Death is always hungry. And never hungrier than when it comes to Maidens. Death and the Maiden, entwined.

Hilda fell sick with her father’s illness in a week. The King of Prussia said: “Anyone who can cure Hilda gets to become King. The engagement to the Duke of England is annulled. I will hand over my crown to whosoever saves my daughter.”

I disguised myself as a man and cast a glamour of forgetting over myself, to blend in. Court had forgotten Sieglinde the King’s Savior, secure as I was in my bastion in Leipzig, but I had not forgotten the riches of palace.

The riches all paled in comparison to my beloved. I cursed myself every day for not sailing away to America with Hilda and starting over.

I shorn my hair, donned men’s britches, and rode in through a storm on my palomino gelding, death like a decaying rose in my shadow.

There Frau Todd stood, at Hilda���s feet.

Hilda was comatose.

“Mama Todd, you cannot take her, I love her!” I pleaded, on my knees. It was only us alone in the room.

Frau Todd grew steely. “My Linde, this time, I win.”

I grabbed the Jewel of Nocht, and with its ruby beam, I put Death to sleep. My godmother collapsed in a pile. I moved Hilda’s bed so that her face was by Frau Todd’s breast and her feet were by the wall.

I leaned in to administer deathsflower tincture. The purple and orange swirls brought life back to Hilda’s lips.

“Sieglinde, my beloved, is that you?” Hilda asked, sleepy-eyed, reeling.

But Death dragged me away, away from Hilda’s embrace.

“Why, Mama Todd? Give me this one thing!”

“A heart is worth a heart, my Sieglinde.” Frau Todd was oddly happy. “I get to show you my favorite part of the forest. My beautiful Cave of Souls.”

I awoke, scared shitless, in a cavern.

Candles, candles everywhere on dank lime scale walls, blinding me. Tall tallows for children, half-burnt for the married, stubs for the old and ill.

“Where is mine, godmother?” I asked.

“Putting me to sleep was a neat trick. Just like Samiel did to rape me. When I was simply a girl. The first woman born in God’s shadow. That is why I had to marry him, you see. It was the beginning of time, when a woman’s first blood meant something, my little linden tree. I was born from that tree, just like your namesake, Sieglinde. In fact, I was once called Eve,” Frau Todd mused. She held a sharp knife.

“Where is it! My soul?”

“What is a soul worth, my Linde?” Death’s blue eyes shone like stars.

“A mother’s love,” I pleaded. “Spare me, Mama Todd.”

“I never loved you, Sieglinde. Death cannot love. Fond of you, yes. But the only thing I love is hearts.” She showed me a pool of wax, candle flicker. “This is you. You will feed me.”

“No – Uglugh!”

Eve reached deep into my chest and carved out my heart with her paring knife.

Swallowed, now

I see

all.

Death is just. Death is not merciful. Death is not kind. And now I live in the first woman’s chest, a caged blackbird, trilling my mournful tune. She feeds me with tears over her unfaithful, ruinous husband. She cries over dead newborns. Comforts war-grizzled veterans who take their lives. She heals the souls of them all.

We walk together through the ages, my cage Frau Todd and I.

Now, we are never

alone.

[hpoxfordprogram]

Summer in the Oxford Program

~by JP Turney      

This summer I had the amazing opportunity to participate in the Oxford study abroad program. I had never been to Europe or really out of the United States at all, so this would be a completely new experience for me. As part of Group 3 (aka the Italy Group), I would get the chance to travel to many cities in the country including Rome, Florence, Milan, and Venice, as well cities in other countries such as Vienna, Leipzig, and Antwerp. While we were traveling around Europe, we would be taking two classes, History of Art and Architecture as well as Music and its Composers. I came in knowing that this would be a life changing experience, but I was still not prepared for all the things that I would see and experience on this trip.

 Our first stop after landing was Rome, which had a ton of incredible places to visit. For example, we went to see the Vatican Museum and Saint Peter’s Basilica, both of which showed the beauty and wealth of the catholic church and their artwork, as well as how big of an influence they were on Italian society. I even had the opportunity to experience a Catholic mass in the Pantheon, which gave me a chance to observe the religious life of the Italian people, as well as see one of the oldest places of worship for the Italian people going back to the ancient Romans.

We continued our journey through Italy by going to Florence, one of the biggest art hubs in all of Italy. We visited the Uffizi Gallery, seeing amazing paintings such as the Birth of Venus and Judith Beheading Holofernes from the renaissance period of Italy, demonstrating how truly incredible the art produced here during this time was. We also got to see more incredible Italian architecture, this time at the Pitti Palace which had incredible renaissance architecture as well as being an art gallery inside with even more art work inside. Throughout my experience in Rome and Florence I was able to see how much respect and importance Italians put on there past and have pride in how it shaped their country and cities into what they are today, which is a lesson that I will continue to take with during me this trip.

Afterwards we continued to Milian, which felt like a more modern city that still retained its historic roots with beautiful buildings such as the Dumomo di Milano and the Castello Sforzesco, as well as showing that it is a developed and modern city, as shown through a lot of modern buildings and having more modern art work such as the art present in the Museo del Novecento. Afterwards for our final Italian city we went to Venice, which had even more beautiful renaissance architecture and artwork in Venice such as the art galleries inside of the Doge’s palace and the grand structure of Saint Marco’s Cathedral. I would say one of the most interesting things about Venice is the unique structure of the city that can’t be found anywhere else due to it being built on the ocean, making the city a whole just as interesting as the individual locations, something that can be lost through the process of going from museum to museum.

After Venice we left Italy and went to the city of music, Vienna. We had been studying music throughout our trip so far, but it really came into focus once we got here. I got to visit the Museum of Music as well as visiting a local piano shop and Mozart’s house. The biggest thing we did though was attending an opera, “Salome”, in the Vienna State Opera house, which had beautiful architecture and was the perfect setting for this experience. It was the culmination of everything we had learned and seen so far in music. It had a large professional orchestra, Opera singers with beautiful voices, and a grand story, a demonstration of the power music has to bring stories to life and to connect people together through the emotions it evokes.

After Vienna we had quick visits to two more cities, Leipzig and Antwerp. In Leipzig we visited a few locations significant to music history such as the Bach Museum, while in Antwerp we had time to explore the city on our own while preparing for finals, which I took advantage of to cycle around the city and try out their food such as Belgian waffles. After this the first part of the program ended, and the second part of program began as we boarded the bus to drive to Oxford.

Once we got to Oxford, we had a day to explore oxford and prepare before we began our classes. Each of the classes I took were very interesting, with The History of Medieval England being particularly interesting as we are learning about history of the country we are studying in, talking about how the Norman invasions changed the landscape of the country or how the various succession wars affected the country and their traditions. This allowed me to engage with Oxford in a unique way that was still able to challenge me academically.

Oxford was a wonderful town to study in as well, with lots of interesting places to visit as almost every building here was built in medieval times or has architecture based on that time period. I had the opportunity to go on a walking tour around Oxford with David Gunnell, which was a wonderful way to learn more about the history of the town and visit some of the wonderful locations in the town. There was also plenty of free time during the week to explore around the city on our own, with some examples of neat places I visited being Oxford Prison and Castle, as well as Christ Church college.

While we were at Oxford, we were also free to travel and explore different places during our weekends, which is one of the best parts of the Oxford portion. I went to a variety of places on the weekends, but my biggest excursions where to Edinburgh and London. At Edinburgh there was lots of Scottish History which I explored through visiting the Edinburgh castle and viewed the beautiful scenery on the top of Arthur’s head, while at London I got to visit the London Bridge, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey just to name a few.

Overall I have learned a lot about myself and about the world while I have been on the oxford program. I’ve learned the importance of learning about different cultures and the traditions and past associated with them and how I can implement these diverse views into my own life. I’ve also learned that there is so much to appreciate in this world and various places in it, from the big grand cathedrals that many people worshiped at for hundreds of years, to the small quiet streets with a local restaurant that serves recipes passed down for generations. This program has been a wonderful experience and it will be something that I will remember and carry with me for the rest of my life.

[sonyclasica]

SUMMER NIGHT CONCERT 2024

SUMMER NIGHT CONCERT 2024: FILARMÓNICA DE VIENA, ANDRIS NELSONS Y LISE DAVIDSEN

Sony Classical se complace en anunciar el Summer Night Concert 2024 con la Filarmónica de Viena, dirigida por Andris Nelsons ycon la soprano Lise Davidsen. Este concierto único estará disponible en CD, DVD, Blu-ray y formato digital el 12 de julio.

Resérvalo AQUÍ

El Summer Night Concert se llevó a cabo el 7 de junio. Se trata de un evento anual al aire libre, que se celebra desde 2004 en el mágico marco del Palacio de Schönbrunn, en Viena (Austria). Los ilustres directores que han dirigido anteriormente la orquesta en este evento son Georges Prêtre, Daniel Barenboim, Franz Welser-Möst, Lorin Maazel, Christoph Eschenbach, Zubin Mehta, Semyon Bychkov, Gustavo Dudamel, Daniel Harding, Yannick Nézet-Séguin y Andris Nelsons.

Gracias a su entorno, declarado Patrimonio de la Humanidad por la UNESCO, en el parque barroco de Schönbrunn con el palacio como telón de fondo, el Concierto Nocturno de Verano añade a su magnífica calidad musical un gran encanto visual. La idea de poner la música clásica en su máxima expresión al alcance de todo el mundo y hacer así un regalo a todos los amantes de la música sigue caracterizando el evento hoy en día. Millones de espectadores y oyentes de más de 80 países pueden seguir el concierto por Internet, televisión y radio.

El programa de este año se centró en obras populares de los siglos XIX y XX procedentes del rico patrimonio musical europeo. Bedřich Smetana, uno de los compositores checos más importantes, fue homenajeado con tres obras con motivo del 200º aniversario de su nacimiento. Andris Nelsons dirigió el concierto por segunda vez, mientras que la cantante noruega de ópera y lieder Lise Davidsen debutaba con la orquesta. Cantó dos arias: de Tannhäuser, de Richard Wagner, y de La forza del destino, de Giuseppe Verdi.

La soprano noruega Lise Davidsen irrumpió en la escena internacional en 2015 al ganar múltiples premios en los concursos Operalia, Queen Sonja y Hans Gabor Belvedere. A estos les siguieron rápidamente debuts triunfales en la Metropolitan Opera, la Royal Opera House de Covent Garden, el Teatro alla Scala de Milán, la Bayerische Staatsoper, la Wiener Staatsoper y los Festivales de Aix-en-Provence y Glyndebourne. En verano de 2021 apareció en dos producciones del Festival de Bayreuth (Elisabeth en Tannhäuser y Sieglinde en Die Walküre). Ese mismo año fue galardonada como Cantante Femenina del Año por los Premios Internacionales de la Ópera. Recitalista y concertista habitual, Davidsen ha realizado giras con muchas de las principales orquestas y directores del mundo. En marzo de este año, Lise Davidsen hizo su aclamado debut en la Ópera Metropolitana como Leonora en La forza del destino.

Andris Nelsons es director musical de la Orquesta Sinfónica de Boston y Gewandhauskapellmeister en Leipzig. Estos dos cargos, además de liderar una alianza pionera entre ambas instituciones, han consolidado firmemente a Nelsons, ganador de un premio Grammy, como uno de los directores más renombrados e innovadores de la escena internacional actual, con compromisos con las orquestas y teatros de ópera más importantes del mundo. Nacido en Riga en 1978 en el seno de una familia de músicos, Andris Nelsons comenzó su carrera como trompetista en la Orquesta de la Ópera Nacional de Letonia mientras estudiaba dirección de orquesta. Fue director musical de la Orquesta Sinfónica de la Ciudad de Birmingham de 2008 a 2015, director principal de la Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie de Herford (Alemania) de 2006 a 2009 y director musical de la Ópera Nacional de Letonia de 2003 a 2007. En 2020, Nelsons fue también el célebre director del legendario Concierto de Año Nuevo de la Filarmónica de Viena.

La antigua tradición de 182 años de la Filarmónica de Viena se remonta a 1842, cuando Otto Nicolai dirigió un Gran Concierto con todos los miembros del imperial "Hof-Operntheater".  Este evento se llamó originalmente "Academia Filarmónica" y se considera el origen de la orquesta.  Desde su fundación, la orquesta ha sido gestionada por el comité administrativo -un órgano elegido democráticamente- y trabaja con autonomía artística, organizativa y financiera. Todas las decisiones se toman de forma democrática durante la asamblea general de todos los miembros.

Programa

1       RICHARD WAGNER Die Walküre: Der Walkürenritt

2       RICHARD WAGNER Tannhäuser: “Dich, teure Halle, grüß ich wieder”

3       BEDŘICH SMETANA The Moldau

4       BEDŘICH SMETANA The Two Widows: Polka

5       BEDŘICH SMETANA La novia vendida: Baile de los comediantes

6–7   GIUSEPPE VERDI La forza del destino: Obertura – “Pace, pace, mio Dio!”

8       AUGUSTA HOLMÈS La Nuit et l’Amour

9       ARAM KHACHATURIAN Sabre Dance

10     DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH Suite para orquesta de variedades: Waltz No. 2

Website Vienna Philharmonic

Facebook Vienna Philharmonic

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Youtube Vienna Philharmonic

Website Andris Nelsons

Facebook Andris Nelsons

Instagram Andris Nelsons

Twitter Andris Nelsons

Website Lise Davidsen

Instagram Lise Davidsen

Facebook Lise Davidsen

[dollsdeger]

orchestra

Orchestra (English: Orchestra) is the largest and most complex orchestra type, possessing extremely powerful and extensive musical expression. Orchestras generally perform classical music or accompany operas, and sometimes accompanies popular music. Many modern orchestras also often accompany movies and produce movie soundtracks.Liebespuppen

When an orchestra performs, not all members must participate in the performance process; generally, the number of performers participating in the performance is also different depending on the needs of the performance. Most orchestras do not yet have players on all instruments. For example, many orchestras do not have a regular staff of harpists, saxophone players, pianists, jazz drummers, etc. Therefore, if the work to be performed includes instruments that they do not own, they usually collaborate with independent musicians, so the number of orchestra members is quite flexible.Love Dolls

An orchestra mostly consists of more than 70 performers, and some even have hundreds of performers. A smaller orchestra is also called a "Chamber Orchestra" (English: Chamber Orchestra). Chamber orchestras generally have less than 30 members. In between, there is the so-called "Sinfonietta Orchestra" (English: Sinfonietta Orchestra). , mainly performs works that are larger than real chamber music and smaller than "typical" modern large-scale orchestral works, such as symphonies or concertos of the Baroque or classical music schools in history, and their preparations are performed by medium-sized orchestras of 30 to 50 people.Lebensechte Sexpuppen

Some large orchestras are also called "symphony orchestra" (English: Symphony Orchestra) or "English: Philharmonic Orchestra" (English: Philharmonic Orchestra), and there is no substantial difference between the two titles. Sometimes when there are two orchestras in a city, they can be distinguished from each other, such as the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra in London, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in Vienna, etc.Sexpuppen mit großem Po

In 1781, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra was founded. It was an orchestra funded by local businessmen and was the beginning of a citizen orchestra. This kind of orchestra, which belonged to the middle-class citizens and was no longer affiliated with the nobility or the church, developed rapidly with the rise of the middle class in the 19th century. In 1842, the famous New York Philharmonic Orchestra and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra were established one after another; members of these orchestras could cooperate for a long time and continuously improve their performances. For a long time, the orchestra played mainly for the opera house rather than giving concerts of its own. In the early 19th century, with the emergence of symphony and other musical forms, this situation gradually changed. At this time, some outstanding touring performers such as Paganini wrote concertos specifically to highlight their skills, and held concerts and collaborative performances with the local orchestra, which also indirectly enhanced the independent status of the orchestra. . With the formation of professional orchestras, musical instruments are constantly being improved and standardized.große brüste sexpuppen Woodwind and brass instruments are evolving day by day, and are constantly improving in the direction of being suitable for large-scale ensembles. In the mid-19th century, the French composer Berlioz made great contributions to the advancement of orchestral music. He conducted in-depth research and wrote the first monograph that systematically analyzed orchestral orchestration. At the end of the 19th century, during the late Romantic period, Wagner in Germany, Mahler in Austria, and Rimsky-Korsakov in Russia brought another improvement and evolution to orchestral techniques. Their musicals and symphonies , orchestral works, each created many advanced orchestral orchestration techniques, allowing the orchestra to express majestic momentum and rich and gorgeous colors. At this point, it has the basic prototype of future film scores.

[alexandersahm]

PROJECTS / SHOWS / EXHIBITIONS Technical Gardens by Lex Rütten & Jana Kerima, music for the installation 2024 Alternative Space LOOP, Seoul, KR Virtual Healing Hub by dgtl fmnsm, sound design

2024 HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin, DE 2023 Diversify the Code, Kampnagel Hamburg, DE 2023 DAS[neue]WIR, Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, DE

Songs of Cyborgeoisie, music show, computer game, soundtrack 2023 DAZ, Digital Art Zurich, CH 2023 Berlin Art Week, DE 2023 Sickhoes, Rijksmuseum Twenthe, NL 2022 Mousonturm Hybrid, Frankfurt a.M., DE 2022 DAZ, Digital Art Zurich, CH 2022 Balance Festival, Leipzig, DE 2022 tender intelligences exhibition Muted Space, LA, USA 2022 Dreaming Beyond AI, Berlin, DE 2021 Hybrid.Play, Hellerau - European Center of the Arts, Dresden, DE 2021 Deep States, Bärenzwinger, Berlin, DE 2021 Blaues Rauschen, Bochum, DE 2021 Riviera Festival, Offenbach, DE 2021 Exhibition project Koi Pond by KVTV, Punkt.Umweg, Frankfurt, DE 2021 Fake Me Hard, Rotterdam, NL 2021 Aus heutiger Sicht, Museum for Applied Arts, Frankfurt, DE 2021 Mousonturm Digital, Frankfurt, DE 2020 Cyborg Futures, IMPAKT Web Project, NL 2020 The Overkill Festival, Sickhouse, Enschede, NL 2020 NODE20 - Second Nature, Mousonturm, Frankfurt, DE Household Supplies for Overseas, sound installation 2021 Exhibition „Aus heutiger Sicht“, Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt, DE Dystopia Japan Tour 2019 with Octopussy 2019 Bar Txalaparta, Tokushima, JP 2019 Toonice, Takamatsu, JP 2019 Environment 0g, Osaka, JP 2019 Neonhall, Nagano, JP 2019 Kichijioji, Tokyo, JP 2019 Utero, Fukuoka, JP 2019 Art Space Tetra, Fukuoka, JP

Dystopia, music performance 2020 Digi-Conference, Mousonturm, Frankfurt, DE 2019 B3 Award Show, Frankfurter Buchmesse, DE 2018 LoadNext, Saasfee*Pavillion Frankfurt, DE 2018 LoadNext, Kressmann-Halle Offenbach, DE Fully Accessible Body, interactive music performance, XR 2018 Monitoring Festival, Kasseler Dokfest, DE 2018 Klangstärke Festival, Hildesheim, DE 2018 PalaisPopulaire, Deutsche Bank, Berlin, DE 2018 Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt, DE 2018 Auction House Arnold, DE 2018 there's no point in being dramatic, Künstlerhaus Dortmund, DE 2018 Web-Residency, Favoriten Festival Dortmund, DE 2018 Young Urban Performance Festival, Osnabrück, DE 2018 Kapelle, annual exhibition HfG Offenbach, DE 2018 Transeuropa Fluid Festival, Hildesheim, DE 2018 Festival of Young Talents, Frankfurter Kunstverein, DE 2018 Dgtl Fmnsm Festival, Hellerau - European Center of the Arts Dresden, DE Baby Of Control, Opera Offenbach tour, live sound and performance 2018 Futur3 Festival Kiel, DE 2018 Darmstädter Sezession, Central station Darmstadt, DE 2018 Lalafestival, Ovendorf, DE 2018 Opera Offenbach, Mousonturm Frankfurt, DE 2018 Luminale Aftershow, Atelier Frankfurt, DE Id Rather Be An Iphone Japan Tour 2018 六本木Roppongi Varit, Tokyo, JP 2018 Environent0g, Osaka, JP 2018 Sokrates, Kyoto, JP 2018 Nagoya, JP 2018 Utero, Fukuoka, JP 2018 Kobe, JP 2018 Saitama, JP Id Rather Be An Iphone, music performance, album release 2019 Gallery Delivery, Roehrs & Boetsch, Berlin/Zürich, DE/CH 2019 BAUWHAT?, Staatstheater Darmstadt, DE 2018 Fluent Arts Project, Osnabrück, DE 2018 Zeppelin Museum, Friedrichshafen, DE 2017 Annual exhibition HfG Offenbach, DE 2017 Zukunftsvisionen / Future Visions Festival, Görlitz 2017 Frankfurter Kunstverein, DE 2017 NXS Release, Amsterdam, NL 2017 Transmediale Vorspiel, Panke Club Berlin, DE 2017 Acts Performance Festival, LAF Pforzheim, DE 2017 Music of tomorrow, objekt klein a, Dresden, DE 2017 Node Festival, Frankfurt, DE 2017 Album release show, AMP, Frankfurt, DE 2015 Titania Theater Frankfurt, DE 2015 Dreikönigskeller, Frankfurt (M), DE 2015 Cross Media Night, HfG Offenbach, DE 2015 Out-of-Range Types, Saasfee*pavillon, Frankfurt, DE 2017 Sentiment-solutions.com, interactive website & sound with Performance Class Britta Thie Virtual Appia, commissioned by Hellerau Centre of The Arts, Dresden, interactive augmented reality piece 2017 Reconstruction of the Future, Festspielhaus Hellerau Dresden, DE Buddha App Says, sound performance, VR 2017 WORM Rotterdam, NL 2017 Membrana Project_documenta14, Stellwerk Kassel, DE 2017 Cosmotic Space, Dresden, DE 2017 Lilac POP, Dresden, DE 2017 Node Festival, Frankfurt, DE 2017 Good day to have a good day, Meet/n/Work, Frankfurt, DE 2016 Scripted Spaces Exhibition, Satellit Berlin, DE Laxmi Mata, music performance 2018 I am a Problem, Museum for Modern Art MMK Frankfurt, DE 2017 Opencreek Beautiful Family, Cross Media Night, Offenbach, DE 2016 UCC Upper City Center, Offenbach, DE 2016 Opencreek Show, Offenbach, DE Status Cant Be Empty, sound performance 2015 Brotfabrik Frankfurt, DE 2015 Wolkenkuckucksheim Exhibition, Korrekt Frankfurt, DE Documentary Film Projects 2016 Oslo_Tel Aviv_ Offenbach exchange program, documentary film series 2015 Shanghai_Offenbach exchange program, documentary film series

[classicalmusicdaily]

Zoltan Nagy started his international career as the youngest ensemble member of the Vienna State Opera. Recognized by opera critics for his strengths in both dramatic and comic roles, he is regularly invited to perform as a guest artist in many of Europe’s leading opera houses. Zoltan’s most requested role is Escamillo (Carmen), a role he has performed in over 12 productions in theatres like Bilbao (ABAO), Teatro Massimo di Palermo, Teatro Grande di Brescia, Teatro Ponchielli di Cremona, Teatro Sociale di Como, RTE Orchestra in Dublin, Romanian National Opera Bucharest and Cluj, the Shaanxi Grand Opera House in China, the State Theatre of Nuremberg, among others. As a permanent guest soloist of the Hungarian State Opera, Budapest, Zoltan has been invited to perform the role of Guglielmo (Cosi Fan Tutte), Silvio (Pagliacci), the title role in Kodaly’s Hary Janos, and Schaunard (La Bohème), a title he has performed at Oper Leipzig, Opera de Nice, Singapore Symphony Orchestra (in concert), Vlaamse Opera Antwerpen, and Opera Ghent among others. Zoltan made his Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow debut with the role of Count Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro). He has sung Haraschta (The Cunning Little Vixen) at the Hamburg State Opera, Dr Falke (Die Fledermaus) at Teatro Verdi Trieste, Calchas (Iphigenie en Aulide) in Athens, Schmied (Egk’s Peer Gynt) in Theater an der Wien, where he also had the privilege to join Edita Gruberova for her gala concert. Zoltan made his debut as Alberich (Siegfried) at Teatro Campoamor in Oviedo. He sang Marcello in a new production of La Bohème at Teatro Comunale di Sassari, portrayed the role of Dulcamara in a new production of L’Elisir d’Amore at the Romanian National Opera, and was invited to give masterclasses at the Xi’an University of Music in China. Count Tomski was a role debut in a new production of Tchaikovsy’s Pique Dame at the Opera Festival Heidenheim accompanied by the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker. Zoltán returned to Oviedo for a new production of Götterdämmerung where he performed the role of Alberich. He sings the role of Theseus in the Essen Philharmonic’s CD live recording of Bohuslav Martinu’s Ariane directed by Czech conductor Tomas Netopil, released in 2016 on Supraphon. Zoltan has worked with conductors such as Marco Armiliato, Pinchas Steinberg, Ulf Schirmer, Renato Palumbo, Fabio Luisi, Marc Minkowski, John Wilson, Alejo Perez, Tomas Netopil, Guillermo Garcia Calvo, Leo Hussain, Marcus Bosch among others. Some of the stage directors Zoltan has collaborated with are: Peter Konwitschny, Damiano Michieletto, Inga Levant, Stefano Poda, Calixto Bieito, Paris Mexis, Thorsten Fischer, Georges Delnon, Maurizio Scaparro, and Immo Karaman. He has collaborated with the Vienna Philharmonic, Robert Schumann Philharmonie, RSO Vienna, Vienna Symphony Orchestra Singapore Symphony Orchestra, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the Romanian National Radio, Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra among others. Zoltan studied at the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy in his hometown Cluj-Napoca under Professor Gheorghe Roşu. Upon graduation, he received a full scholarship to study at the prestigious Mozarteum University in Salzburg for a Masters degree in voice performance with Professor Boris Bakow. He has won prizes at various singing competitions including the Romanian National Song Competition, the Hariclea Darclee International Voice Competition, and “Debut”, the European Opera Singing Competition in Germany. In 2012 Zoltan participated in the Salzburg Festival’s Young Singers Project, and was then selected to sing in the Festival’s production of Das Labyrinth. Recent engagements included two new production of La Wally and Jenufa at Theater an der Wien, a new production of The Raise and Fall of the city of Mahagonny in Parma. Future higlights of his saison include a debut at Regio Torino as Escamillo, a ROH debut in La Bohème as Schaunard and a debut at Komische Oper Berlin in the Love of the three oranges as Leander.

Dear Zoltan, I’m so glad to meet you, this time in Italy! And I am very much looking for- ward to your house debut at Teatro Regio di Parma! What has been your relationship with the Italian theatres throughout your career and what does this event mean to you? In my nearly 15 years of international career I have been lucky enough to be part of some wonder- ful productions all over the world starting with Vienna until Singapore, but singing ocasionally in Italy, becomes each time on of the highlights of my season. My first ever concert accompanied by an orchestra abroad was actually in Palermo when I was 22. Since then I was dreaming about singing one day at Teatro Massimo which was closed for renovation those years. Several years later my dream came true and I was indeed portraying the role of Escamillo in that amazing opera house… I always used to say, that a part of my heart is in Italy. I’ve also worked on several occa- sions at Teatro Verdi in Trieste, one of them was a very funny production of Die Fledermaus (Dr. Falke) with the late Gianluigi Gelmetti conducting who I was very fond of. I have beautiful memo- ries of Sardegna where I’ve done a new production of La Bohème as Marcello, and later a Pagliacci as Silvio. Singing at Teatro Regio in Parma is an absolut honor for me not only because of the enormous tradition that surrounds this opera house but also because of the fact that I am a guest artist in a very unusual production that should make history in Parma. Tell us more about this opera, about the role that you’re about to perform and the produc- tion that will be on stage at Regio di Parma this month (April)? Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny is an opera, although I like to call it rather music theater/ music play… composed between 1927-1929 by Kurt Weill on Bertold Brecht’s libretto, where I will interpret the role of Trinity Moses. When I first saw the score, I said to myself… “oh, I’ll deifinitely need some time to learn this music and get used to certain rhytms“. I’ve seen it challenging but I ended up having great fun singing this part and enjoying Weill’s geniality. The opera was a scandal on its premierere in Leipzig in 1930, presenting the decandece of the society which is more then actual nowadays where money is everything. I hope the audience will be receptive, of course, one should not expect a coservative staging for this type of music. I’m sure everyone will leave the the- ater whistling the Alabama song at the end of the performance… and realizing hopefully how en- joyable this music is. reposted from https://opera-charm.com/

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

happy 200th birthday, queen. 

edit: the text, for anyone under paywall (below the cut):

Toward the end of her life, the opera diva Pauline Viardot took stock of her vast social network. She wrote a three-page, multicolumn list of everyone she had ever met, worked with or loved.

She ended up with over 300 names, a who’s-who of 19th-century icons: composers like Rossini, Liszt and Schumann; novelists like George Sand, Victor Hugo and Ivan Turgenev, her lover; Giuseppe Mazzini and Napoleon III.

Viardot entertained many of them at the weekly salons she held at her home in Paris. Classical musicians have rarely connected so widely with important figures of the day; the closest American parallel might be Leonard Bernstein, who hobnobbed with presidents and Hollywood glitterati.

But like Bernstein, Viardot — born exactly 200 years ago, on July 18, 1821 — was far more than a Zelig. One of the supreme singers of her time, she was also a prolific composer, whose music is slowly being salvaged from obscurity; a savvy entrepreneur; a gifted visual artist; and a highly respected voice teacher.

Born Michelle-Pauline-Ferdinande-Laurence Garcia, in Paris, Viardot was an heir to a musical dynasty. Her father, Manuel Garcia, was an international opera star and the first Count Almaviva in Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville.”

Born in Spain, Garcia never stayed in one place for long, moving his wife and three children — Viardot’s older sister, Maria Malibran, became another of the century’s reigning divas — to Italy, Paris and London. And then in 1825, when Viardot was 4, to the United States, where his family and troupe introduced Italian operas, sung in their original language, to the American public.

Viardot’s musical talents emerged early. She took piano lessons with Liszt and developed a girlhood crush on him. As a young woman, she played duets with Chopin, a friend. But when she was 15, her mother dashed her dreams of becoming a concert pianist, declaring that Pauline would pursue the family trade: singing opera.

She made her debut in 1839 in London as Desdemona in Rossini’s “Otello,” then hit her stride four years later when she brought the house down at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow as Rosina in “The Barber of Seville.”

“Ravishing, velvetlike notes rang out, of the sort that no one, it seemed, had ever heard,” an audience member later recalled, adding, “Instantly an electric spark ran round the audience.”

When she was 18, she met and married the historian, art critic and theater director Louis Viardot, 21 years her senior. In a reversal of gender norms, he resigned from his post as director of the Théâtre Italien in Paris after their wedding to focus on Pauline, her career and, ultimately, their four children.

With a voice of uncommon range and flexibility, Viardot became famous on Europe’s major stages in signature roles that included Zerlina and Donna Anna in “Don Giovanni,” Adina in Donizetti’s “L’Elisir d’Amore” and the title role in Bellini’s “Norma.”

“Her technical skill alone is immense; in the completeness of her chromatic scale she is, probably, without a rival,” said an article published in Fraser’s Magazine, a London journal, in 1848.

But, the writer went on, “the principal feature which characterizes her is the dramatic warmth of her impersonations. She throws herself heart and soul into a part.”

Composers sought her out for important premieres: She was the first Fidès in Meyerbeer’s “Le Prophète” and Charles Gounod’s first Sapho. When Berlioz resurrected Gluck’s “Orfeo” for the Parisian stage in 1859, Viardot was the diva for whom he rewrote the title role. A decade later, Brahms chose her as the soloist for the premiere of his Alto Rhapsody.

After retiring from the opera stage in 1863, Viardot continued singing in concerts and being what we’d call today a macher. She owned the original manuscript of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” which composers including Fauré and Tchaikovsky made pilgrimages to see. In 1869, she wrote an effusive letter to Richard Wagner congratulating him on a performance of “Die Meistersinger.” But his notorious anti-Semitic essay, “Judaism in Music,” published under his name the following month, soured the relationship, and Wagner and his wife, Cosima, began referring derisively to Viardot as a “Jewess.” (She was not Jewish.)

Following her father, who was a gifted composer as well as a brilliant singer, Viardot put significant time and energy into composing. Her work is not nearly as widely known as that of Robert Schumann, Liszt, Saint-Saëns or others in her social circle. But her music was deeply appreciated by her contemporaries, with one person going so far as to compare her talent to Schubert’s. Clara Schumann referred to her as “the greatest woman of genius I have ever known.” A fierce advocate for her students, she died, just a month shy of her 89th birthday, in 1910.

Today, her works are enjoying a resurgence among scholars and performers — part of a wave of interest in long-neglected composers like Amy Beach, Florence Price, Clara Schumann and others.

Viardot wrote hundreds of pieces, the majority of them songs for solo voice and piano. Her first was “L’Enfant de la montagne,” published when she was just 19 in a collection organized by Meyerbeer, Paganini and Cherubini. Like so many of her songs, she was its major advocate, using it to show off her vocal skills in concerts in Leipzig, Germany, and other cities.

Her songs have more recently become popular fare for prima donnas including Annick Massis, Cecilia Bartoli and Aude Extrémo. They range from playful and virtuosic (“Vente, niña, conmigo al mar”) to hauntingly beautiful (“L’Enfant et la Mère” and “Hai luli”). The publisher Breitkopf und Härtel has released a new critical edition of some of the songs on texts by Pushkin, Fet and Turgenev. (Viardot’s Russian was superb.) She also wrote works for piano and violin, the instrument of her son, Paul Viardot. Her other three children, also musicians, performed her compositions, too.

True to her specialty, Viardot also wrote operas. These were mostly performed by her students and children in her home, with piano accompaniment, but at least one, “Le Dernier Sorcier,” was orchestrated and performed in 1869 in Weimar Germany.

Wolf Trap Opera in Virginia has revived her “Cendrillon” just this weekend. Viardot wrote both the music and words for this chamber operetta about Cinderella, a fanciful interpretation of the fairy tale by Charles Perrault.

“Her music is both challenging and wonderfully singable,” Kelly Kuo, the production’s conductor, said in an interview. “You just know that it was written by someone who really understood what she was doing.”

Among the guests at the 1904 premiere of “Cendrillon” were the editor and musician Salvatore Marchesi and his wife Mathilde, an influential voice teacher. Finding Viardot’s music charming, they wrote of their certainty that it would have “a successful run through the world.” Although somewhat delayed, their prediction is perhaps beginning to come true.

“Viardot,” Kuo said, “is a perfect example of an artist who should be much better known today.”

[princesssarisa]

The Top 40 Most Popular Operas, Part 3 (#21 through #30)

A quick guide for newcomers to the genre, with links to online video recordings of complete performances, with English subtitles whenever possible.

Verdi's Il Trovatore

The second of Verdi's three great "middle period" tragedies (the other two being Rigoletto and La Traviata): a grand melodrama filled with famous melodies.

Studio film, 1957 (Mario del Monaco, Leyla Gencer, Ettore Bastianini, Fedora Barbieri; conducted by Fernando Previtali) (no subtitles; read the libretto in English translation here)

Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor

The most famous tragic opera in the bel canto style, based on Sir Walter Scott's novel The Bride of Lammermoor, and featuring opera's most famous "mad scene."

Studio film, 1971 (Anna Moffo, Lajos Kozma, Giulio Fioravanti, Paolo Washington; conducted by Carlo Felice Cillario)

Leoncavallo's Pagliacci

The most famous example of verismo opera: brutal Italian realism from the turn of the 20th century. Jealousy, adultery, and violence among a troupe of traveling clowns.

Feature film, 1983 (Plácido Domingo, Teresa Stratas, Juan Pons, Alberto Rinaldi; conducted by Georges Prêtre)

Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI

Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio)

Mozart's comic Singspiel (German opera with spoken dialogue) set amid a Turkish harem. What it lacks in political correctness it makes up for in outstanding music.

Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 1988 (Deon van der Walt, Inga Nielsen, Lillian Watson, Lars Magnusson, Kurt Moll, Oliver Tobias; conducted by Georg Solti) (click CC for subtitles)

Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera

A Verdi tragedy of forbidden love and political intrigue, inspired by the assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden.

Leipzig Opera House, 2006 (Massimiliano Pisapia, Chiara Taigi, Franco Vassallo, Annamaria Chiuri, Eun Yee You; conducted by Riccardo Chailly) (click CC for subtitles)

Part I, Part II

Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann)

A half-comic, half-tragic fantasy opera based on the writings of E.T.A. Hoffmann, in which the author becomes the protagonist of his own stories of ill-fated love.

Opéra de Monte-Carlo, 2018 (Juan Diego Flórez, Olga Peretyatko, Nicolas Courjal, Sophie Marilley; conducted by Jacques Lacombe) (click CC and choose English in "Auto-translate" under "Settings" for subtitles)

Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman)

An early and particularly accessible work of Wagner, based on the legend of a phantom ship doomed to sail the seas until its captain finds a faithful bride.

Savolinna Opera, 1989 (Franz Grundheber, Hildegard Behrens, Ramiro Sirkiä, Matti Salminen; conducted by Leif Segerstam) (click CC for subtitles)

Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana

A one-act drama of adultery and scorned love among Sicilian peasants, second only to Pagliacci (with which it's often paired in a double bill) as the most famous verismo opera.

St. Petersburg Opera, 2012 (Fyodor Ataskevich, Iréne Theorin, Nikolay Kopylov, Ekaterina Egorova, Nina Romanova; conducted by Mikhail Tatarnikov)

Verdi's Falstaff

Verdi's final opera, a "mighty burst of laughter" based on Shakespeare's comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Studio film, 1979 (Gabriel Bacquier, Karan Armstrong, Richard Stilwell, Marta Szirmay, Jutta Renate Ihloff, Max René Cosotti; conducted by Georg Solti) (click CC for subtitles)

Verdi's Otello (Othello)

Verdi's second-to-last great Shakespearean opera, based on the tragedy of the Moor of Venice.

Teatro alla Scala, 2001 (Plácido Domingo, Leo Nucci, Barbara Frittoli; conducted by Riccardo Muti)