Revivals
The celebratory opera written in the last year of Mozart’s life for the coronation of Leopold II as King of Bohemia used an adulatory subject which was frequently set at the time, the benevolent, merciful and magnanimous ruler. For director Jürgen Flimm, however, this opera is much more about identifying the forms and mechanisms of power than a piece in which the advantages of an enlightened monarchy are lauded. In the current revival, the US tenor Matthew Polenzani joins the new Vienna »Mozart ensemble«.
DRAMMA SERIO PER MUSICA in two acts, KV 621
Libretto CATERINO TOMMASO MAZZOLÀ
Performances 4 / 7 / 10 SEPTEMBER 2023
Conductor PABLO HERAS-CASADO
Director JÜRGEN FLIMM
Stage Design GEORGE TSYPIN
Costume Design BIRGIT HUTTER
Lighting WOLFGANG GOEBBEL
Tito MATTHEW POLENZANI
Vitellia FEDERICA LOMBARDI
Servilia SLÁVKA ZÁMEČNÍKOVÁ
Sesto KATE LINDSEY
Annio PATRICIA NOLZ
Publio PETER KELLNER
La sonnambula occupies a special position in Vincenzo Bellini's oeuvre. On the one hand, the composer refrains almost entirely from dramatic outbursts; on the other hand, his penchant for sweeping, romantic-legal cantilenas is nowhere expressed as clearly and purely as in this opera, which was first performed in 1831. Set in a sanatorium world inspired by The Magic Mountain, where inner states are also recognizable in freak weather, director Marco Arturo Marelli plays with the opera’s fine psychological vibrations. The protagonist frees herself in her dreams from the images projected onto her by her fiancé and shows her true, undisguised self. Bellini’s wonderful and enchanting melodies unfold a panopticon of precisely defined conditions which climax in the coloraturarich finale of the triumphing heroine of the title, this time portrayed by Pretty Yende.
MELODRAMMA in two acts
Libretto FELICE ROMANI
Performances 6 / 9 / 13 SEPTEMBER 2023
Conductor GIACOMO SAGRIPANTI
Director, Stage Design & Lighting MARCO A. MARELLI
Costume Design DAGMAR NIEFIND
Count Rodolfo ROBERTO TAGLIAVINI
Teresa SZILVIA VÖRÖS
Amina PRETTY YENDE
Elvino JAVIER CAMARENA
Lisa MARIA NAZAROVA
Alessio JACK LEE
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Daphne was a real gamble for Richard Strauss, a late masterpiece written in his early 70s into which he poured his entire experience as a composer. Based on this, director Nicolas Joel succeeded in telling the Greek myth about the virginal Daphne, who escapes Apollo’s advances by transforming into a laurel tree as a daydream of a sexually neglected young woman.
BUCOLIC TRAGEDY in one act
Libretto JOSEPH GREGOR
Performances 12 / 15 / 18 / 21 SEPTEMBER 2023
Conductor SEBASTIAN WEIGLE
Director NICOLAS JOEL
Set design & costume design PET HALMEN
Choreography RENATO ZANELLA
Peneios GÜNTHER GROISSBÖCK
Gaea NOA BEINART
Daphne HANNA-ELISABETH MÜLLER
Leukippos DANIEL JENZ
Apollo DAVID BUTT PHILIP
This is a complex story from the world of folk tales, which the brilliant duo of Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal developed into Die Frau ohne Schatten, a complex thematic construct which deals with sympathy as an essential human characteristic. Director Vincent Huguet sets the piece, which is on a vast scale, in the First World War, establishing a bridge between the time of the opera’s creation and the reality of the contemporary world. The conductor of the revival is Christian Thielemann, who also conducted the 2019 premiere.
OPERA in three acts, op. 65
Libretto HUGO VON HOFMANNSTHAL
Performances 14 / 17 / 21 / 24 OCTOBER 2023
Conductor CHRISTIAN THIELEMANN
Director VINCENT HUGUET
Stage Design AURÉLIE MAESTRE
Costume Design CLÉMENCE PERNOUD
Light & Video BERTRAND COUDERC
Emperor ANDREAS SCHAGER
Empress ELZA VAN DEN HEEVER
Nurse TANJA ARIANE BAUMGARTNER
Barak MICHAEL VOLLE
Barak’s Wife ELENA PANKRATOVA
Spirit Messenger CLEMENS UNTERREINER
»Not a trace of kitsch« was Anton von Webern’s euphoric comment on Puccini’s La fanciulla del West, in which the Italian master launched into
new musical paths with a drier style. This matches the point of view of the director and WSO honorary member Marco Arturo Marelli, who sees the opera as far more than a stereotypical operatic version of a Wild West spectacular. His approach to the work focuses on
the social world of the poor and uprooted who have hung onto the desire for a »little happiness« in their isolation.
OPERA in three acts
Libretto GUELFO CIVININI & CARLO ZANGARINI
Performances 7 / 10 / 12 / 15 JANUARY 2024
Conductor CARLO RIZZI
Director, Stage Design & Lighting MARCO A. MARELLI
Costume Design DAGMAR NIEFIND
Co-Choreography CHRISTIAN HERDEN
Minnie MALIN BYSTRÖM
Jack Rance ROBERTO FRONTALI
Dick Johnson YONGHOON LEE
An opera commission for Paris was regarded as particularly prestigious in the 19th century. However, more important for Verdi than the Paris success of his grand opera Les vêpres siciliennes was dealing with the stylistic requirements he met in Paris, which permanently enriched his own musical language. The WSO is presenting the Italian version Verdi preferred in the staging by Herbert Wernicke, which shows the mediaeval uprising of the Sicilians against the French occupiers as a grim folk drama which has no winner.
OPER in five acts
Libretto EUGÈNE SCRIBE & CHARLES DUVEYRIER
Italian by EUGENIO CAIMI
Performances 13 / 16 / 19 / 22 JANUARY 2024
Conductor CARLO RIZZI
Director, Stage & Costume Design, Lighting HERBERT WERNICKE
Guido di Monforte IGOR GOLOVATENKO
Arrigo JOHN OSBORN
Giovanni da Procida ERWIN SCHROTT
Elena RACHEL WILLIS-SØRENSEN
In his last and 40th music theatre piece, Gioachino Rossini, the greatest composer of his day, gave the world another operatic hit. Guillaume Tell, based on a play by Schiller, uses the imposing and extravagant resources of French Grand opéra to retell the legend of the Swiss liberation hero. For almost 20 years the masterpiece, which director David Pountney enriched with symbolic imagery, was absent from the Vienna State Opera programme, and now it returns with a formidable cast!
OPER in four acts
Libretto VICTOR-JOSEPH ETIENNE DE JOUY & LOUIS FLORENT HIPPOLYTE BIS
Performances 8 / 13 / 16 / 19 MARCH 2024
Conductor BERTRAND DE BILLY
Director DAVID POUNTNEY
Stage & Costume Design RICHARD HUDSON
Lighting ROBERT BRYAN
Choreography RENATO ZANELLA
Guillaume Tell CARLOS ÁLVAREZ
Arnold JUAN DIEGO FLÓREZ
Gesler JEAN TEITGEN
Ruodi IVÁN AYÓN RIVAS
Mathilde LISETTE OROPESA
Jemmy MARIA NAZAROVA
The music critic Alex Ross described the opera The Tempest by Thomas Adès, which had its world premiere in 2004, as »a masterpiece of graceful beauty and terrifying power«. Based on the 1611 play of the same name, the British composer created a piece of flamboyant musical language that swiftly traverses the spheres of the Shakespearean theatrical universe. The Vienna production, staged by Robert Lepage, shows Prospero’s island as a magical theatre kingdom into which Thomas Adès as revival conductor will lead the audience.
OPER in three acts
Libretto MEREDITH OAKES after WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Performances 9 / 12 / 14 / 17 MAY 2024
Conductor THOMAS ADÈS
Director ROBERT LEPAGE
Stage Design JASMINE CATUDAL
Costume Design KYM BARRETT
Lighting MICHEL BEAULIEU
Video DAVID LECLERC
Choreography CRYSTAL PITE
Prospero ADRIAN ERÖD
Ariel CAROLINE WETTERGREEN
Caliban FRÉDÉRIC ANTOUN
Miranda KATE LINDSEY
Trinculo JAMES LAING
Ferdinand HIROSHI AMAKO
King of Naples TOBY SPENCE
Antonio DANIEL JENZ
Stefano DAN PAUL DUMITRESCU
Sebastian MICHAEL ARIVONY
Gonzalo WOLFGANG BANKL
A Co-production with METROPOLITAN OPERA NEW YORK and the OPÉRA DE QUÉBEC. In collaboration with EX MACHINA.
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