• PostedJanuary 23, 2023
  • AuthorLeni Kreienberg

 

 


In This Issue:

Dudamel Conducts Weill in Paris,
with Livestream



Superstar conductor Gustavo Dudamel will include two Weill works in a concert of songs and arias featuring six rising vocal artists from the Académie of l’Opéra national de Paris along with the house’s orchestra. The “Ice Cream Sextet” from Street Scene offers an ideal opportunity for all six featured singers to take part in a single number. “Youkali” will bring the concert to a close on a decidedly wistful note. Other composers featured in the program, which is described as “inspired by the rhythms and colors of Spain and South America,” are Barbieri, Bernstein, Codina, Granados, Guastavino, Obradors, Piazzolla, Salgán and Villa-Lobos.

The concert will be livestreamed at 19:00 GMT on Wednesday, 25 January and can be viewed HERE. It will subsequently be broadcast on Monday, 6 February at 19:00 GMT on France Musique in “Le Concert du soir” and also on Arte and the Paris Opera platform.

One Touch of Venus Premieres In Graz



Rodney (Christof Messner) and Venus (Dionne Wudu)
in the Graz One Touch of Venus. Photo: Werner Kmititsch.

The recently premiered production of One Touch of Venus at Oper Graz adds an entry to the catalog of Weill’s American works that have found a secure footing in European houses. The Graz Philharmonic, led by Marcus Merkel, has come in for generous praise for the “verve” and “sparkle” of its performance of the score. Director Magdalena Fuchsberger’s concept places the action amid a set suggestive of a broken or disassembled statue, with imagery from the American wartime of the work’s 1943 Broadway premiere. Dionne Wudu as Venus and Christof Messner as Rodney play the leads, Messner being one of this season’s four Kurt Weill / Lotte Lenya Artists sponsored by the KWF.

Watch the production trailer or read a summary of critical acclaim.

“Opera of the Year” Award 
for Opera Zuid’s Lady in the Dark



Liza (Maartje Rammeloo) launches into her first dream
in the Opera Zuid production of Lady in the Dark. Photo: Bjorn Frins.

Lady in the Dark has had quite a year. January 2022 opened with the Vienna Volksoper’s new production. Theater Basel and Opera Zuid followed suit in the fall. All three realizations of the work have received nearly unanimous raves in the press: three productions, three hits. Now, the Dutch online opera magazine Place de l’Opera has named Opera Zuid’s Lady as “Opera of the Year.” Runners-up included some heavy hitters, including three productions by the Dutch National Opera as well as a Giulio Cesare by De Nederlandse Opera.

Read the complete Place de l’Opera post, or watch the Opera Zuid trailer.

KWF Announces First Round of 2023 Grant Recipients

The interior of London’s Arcola Theatre, site of an upcoming production of
Marc Blitzstein’s No for an Answer with grant support from the KWF. Photo: Miriam Mahony.

The eight awardees in the first round of the 2023 KWF Grant Program range widely across Europe and the U.S., from Warsaw, Poland to Ohio in the USA, and from Weill’s Zaubernacht and Road of Promise to Marc Blitzstein’s No for an Answer. Professional, amateur, and school performances are all represented. Explore the complete list of supported projects, past and present. And mark your calendars for the next grant application deadline: 1 June 2023.

Featured Upcoming Events

21 January – Der Silbersee
Deutsches Nationaltheater und Staatskapelle Weimar (Friedrich Praetorius, conductor; Andrea Moses, director) Performances through 1 May.Der Silbersee, Weill’s last work completed in Germany, has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years. This new production in Weimar holds the promise of another important step forward for the piece. The house’s opera leader, Andrea Moses, directs, with rising conductor Friedrich Praetorius in the pit.

3 February – Die sieben Todsünden
Madison Opera (John DeMain, conductor; Kristine McIntyre, director). Also 5 February. 

The new fifteen-player version of Die sieben Todsünden has established itself in Europe with more than a dozen performances in its few short years of life. Now, it receives its long-awaited US premiere, in a staging under the baton of veteran Weill conductor John DeMain and director Kristine McIntyre, with choreography by Lisa Thurrell.

4 February – Die Verheißung
Orchestra Miami (Elaine Rinaldi, conductor). Also 5 February. 

This oratorio version of Weill’s legendary Eternal Road features chorus, orchestra, and a host of vocal soloists, led in these performances by Metropolitan Opera veteran Allan Glassman in the pivotal role of The Rabbi. Conductor Elaine Rinaldi has proven her ability to artfully preside over large musical forces, not least with last season’s uniquely successful pairing of Weill’s Der Lindberghflug with Marc Blitzstein’s Airbourne Symphony.

9 February – Symphonic Nocturne from Lady in the Dark
London Symphony Orchestra (Marin Alsop, conductor). 

Marin Alsop was the first conductor to record the Symphonic Nocturne from Lady in the Dark. She continues her artistic advocacy of the piece, this time with the London Symphony in a program pairing the Weill with Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances.

18 February – Tom Sawyer
Komische Oper Berlin (Kai Tietje, conductor; Tobias Ribitzky, director). Performances through 29 April. 

In a culmination of years of development, Komische Oper Berlin premieres the full version of this family musical telling the story of Tom Sawyer through a score constructed entirely of songs by Weill, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin and Maxwell Anderson as well as some newly imagined.

View the Full Events Calendar

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