Berlin is first to invite oppressed Russian director

Berlin is first to invite oppressed Russian director

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norman lebrecht

April 10, 2019

The Russians may have released Kirill Serebrennikov from almost two years house arrest on Monday but he is still not allowed to leave the city limits of Moscow.

This is no deterrent to Barrie Kosky, the Australian intendant of Berlin’s Komische Oper.

Kosky told his season launch press conference that he called Serebrenninkov at home on Monday and booked him to direct Stravinsky’s opera The Rake’s Progress next season.

It will be one of nine new productions on the Komische stage.

Others include Jaromir Weinberger’s Frühlingsstürme, sometimes described as the last hit musical of the Weimar Republic; also his greatest hit, Schwanda the Bagpiper; Hans Werner Henze’s The Bassarids; a Richard Jones production of Handel’s Jephtha; a staff-sung Traviata; and a Paul Abraham operetta Dschainah.

Imaginative, as ever.

 

Comments

  • Caravaggio says:

    It may be imaginative alright but also destructive of an artform on an evident nosedive. From over the top productions to lost singing standards to unremarkable, unmemorable voices, everything seems to be reducing to ashes.

  • Sharon says:

    The issue here is that someone may be doing Serebrennikov a favor to try to get him out of Russia. This should be commended

  • Mustafa Kandan says:

    This is indeed a very imaginative company with an excellent ensemble. I have never regarded them as inferior to the other two houses, but they are different. I think Barrie
    Kosky, who used to be very controversial with Australian audiences, have been doing a great job there.

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