12 premieres this weekend in Berlin
mainActually, it’s the opening of 12 new productions, but that’s pretty impressive.
Among the new shows:
– Meyerbeer’s Vasco da Gama at the Deutsche Oper, never seen before in the composer’s home town;
– Meistersinger at the Staatsoper;
– Tales of Hoffman at the Komische;
– First Berlin staging of Kiss Me Kate in a new Günther Neumann translation;
– and lots of theatre, including Ronald Harwood’s new play on Cornelius Gurlitt, the hoarder of stolen Nazi art.
Berlin’s the place to be this weekend.
Damn! I’ll be in Budapest for rare Daphne/Feuersnot double bill at Mupa. Hope to catch up later with the Meyerbeer at least. Rarities rule ok! Hoffmann (with both letters n) here the following Saturday at the RCM Britten though.
It’s called L’africaine. Not so rare.
Regrattably, Meyerbeer died before being able to finalize “Vasco da Gama”. Others compiled a mutilated version they called “L’Africaine” with a number of inconsistencies in the plot. This version was premiered in Paris a few months after the composer’s death and widely played across the world before Meyerbeer went out of fashion.
The recent critical edition of the score has restored the whole of Meyerbeer’s work and given it back the name “Vasco da Gama” as well as the setting in India. This restored version had its widely acclaimed premiere a few years ago (2012, maybe?) in the modest German town of Chemnitz. A highly recommendable recording of this prduction is available on CD.
AFAICS, the production to be premiered this weekend (featuring Roberto Alagna as Vasco) will be the first one of the restored version at a major opera house.
You of course meant Friedenstag, and not Feuersnot.
Among the Masters in the new Meistersinger are Graham Clark, Siegfried Jerusalem, Reiner Goldberg and Franz Mazura. Now that’s classy casting!!! Combined age of 314 and how many Wagner opera performances between the four of them!!!
I was at the dress rehearsal on Wednesday, and the sensation is the orchestra!