10 Years Opera House

10 YEARS OPERA HOUSE General sponsor The Theater an der Wien receives subsidies A Wien Holding Company from the Cultural Department of the City of Vienna NOTHING IS AS POWERFUL AS AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME VICTOR HUGO In the upcoming season we celebrate ten years of the “new opera theatre that does not shy away from the social and political issues of our house”. day, that plumbs the depths of the works and, I hope, is able to raise the right questions for our time. The last decade, full of innovative and When, on 8 January 2006, Austria’s president Dr. Heinz Fischer officially highly appreciated musical theatre, is naturally a great incentive for us opened the Theater an der Wien as an opera house during a gala concert to continue our chosen path with enthusiasm. For the early Hebrews, led by Plácido Domingo, he reminded those present that not only had the number ten was a symbol for the origin of things; accordingly, we Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart been born 250 years earlier, but that Sig- wish to mark our anniversary by remaining alert to and inquisitive about mund Freud had followed one hundred years later. President Fischer saw the new and produce musical theatre of and for our age. “I can always a connection here that Freud’s daughter Anna was also fond of pointing be tempted by this house,” said Nikolaus Harnoncourt before the The- out, namely that while her father described himself as unmusical, he ater an der Wien was reopened as a new opera house. Exactly ten years had a liking for the opera in general and for three Mozart operas in after this epoch-making event for Vienna as a city of music – the open- particular: Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Die Zauberflöte. That ing of the first opera owned by the City of Vienna – we come full circle, could not be coincidence. Mozart, the revolutionary, was a man who as Nikolaus Harnoncourt will underline the importance of the new opera searched for answers all his life. Although his works do not provide any house with a performance of Beethoven’s Fidelio, as will René Jacobs answers, they help us to this day to ask the right questions, in the vast who will conduct Mozart’s Idomeneo. Both maestri have found a musical land that is the human soul. “The effect of music is so very much more home at the Theater an der Wien where they can allow their vision of powerful and penetrating than is that of the other arts, for no other opera to unfold exactly as they imagine it. art reveals the true essence of the world to us so penetratingly and powerfully,” writes Arthur Schopenhauer. But if we set off in search of The road was a long one once the first plans were put forward to return the essence of the world, then it should be the essence of our contem- the building, which had been built by Emanuel Schikaneder for the per- porary world, even if that means that the “true essence” stays hidden formance of opera, exclusively to that genre. A lively debate arose about from us. On stage, however, what is shown can only appear real if the whether, and in what form, a third permanent opera house should be illusion of performance is removed. In this context, Brecht introduced opened in Vienna. Despite initial criticism, this heated discussion quickly the famous Verfremdungseffekt (distancing effect) which also has justi- proved superfluous. For aesthetic and architectural reasons it was logical fication on the opera stage. Hans Heiling and Der (fliegende) Holländer, and most advantageous to adopt the “stagione” system. Consequently, two characters in the forthcoming season, are of course, as denizens the oldest Viennese opera house – now also the youngest – returned of other worlds, first and foremost reflections of our own souls and the to the original form of opera presentation as it began in Italy and was sensitivities of society. known by Handel and Mozart. This means that, from a more precise point of view, Vienna does not have three major opera houses, but Since the house reopened, it has always been, and remains, very im- three opera houses each with its own unmistakable and distinct focus. portant to me to challenge such images at the Theater an der Wien in a way that is in keeping with our times. An astute sensorium of knowl- That numerous famous artists and the opera-goers who have contributed edge and empathy is required to discover contemporary aspects in the to and supported the new path followed by the Theater an der Wien for ideas from the past that are sketched and defined in scores. Only then a decade now are, for me, a sign that the stagione system is the right does the idea rise to the status of artwork, because the eternally human one. Many notable singers, conductors and directors are happy to have and the pursuit of humanity, while they have developed over the course this opportunity to strive for the best possible staging of works that are of humankind’s history, have not changed. We want to offer musical there to be discovered anew, time and time again. Angelika Kirchschlager, 2 | | 3 AN OVERVIEW OF THE 2015/16 SEASON: Anne Sofie von Otter, Edita Gruberová and Marlis Petersen are among To open the anniversary season 2015/16, and to commemorate the end those who return with pleasure and regularity to Wienzeile, as do Plácido of World War II, the Theater an der Wien presents Das Tagebuch der Anne Domingo, Tobias Moretti, Florian Boesch and Michael Schade along with Frank by the Russian composer Grigory Frid, born in 1915 and a Moscow Christof Loy, Claus Guth, Robert Carsen and Keith Warner – to cite just a award-winner. The opera features Juliane Banse and musicians of the Wie- few famous names. And of course we can add those of Nikolaus Harnon- ner Philharmoniker, conducted by Leo Hussain. Reto Nickler will direct this court, René Jacobs and John Neumeier. unusual mono-opera. Composers have often and self-critically reflected on the fact that opera The first major opera premiere is devoted to one of the most important is a genre that frequently encounters the limits of what is possible in its composers of his day, but whose operas are nowadays only performed in constant striving to unite disparate art forms. However, what is real, at exceptional cases. In 1833, Heinrich Marschner created a key work of ro- any time, on any given evening, is the effect it produces. The magic of mantic opera: Hans Heiling tells a story of love, absent love and loss based opera lives! on a Bohemian folk tale. Ten years after Marschner, Richard Wagner com- posed Der fliegende Holländer, also based on a folk tale, and one of the I extend a warm welcome to the Theater an der Wien, highlights of romantic opera. The titular heroes of both works struggle to find their place in a world controlled by others and maybe even the love that would set them free – and both are destined to lose out. With this produc- tion, the Theater an der Wien, at which Wagner himself conducted excerpts from his operas in 1863, for the first time presents one of the Bayreuth master’s operas with the instrumentation used at the time of its premiere. Roland Geyer Marc Minkowski and his Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble will take on this Director challenging musical task. Otello also longs for love, which is denied him by external circumstances and a lack of self-awareness. Ever since Shakespeare made the Venetian general a dramatic figure he, his secret wife Desdemona, but above all the scheming Iago have fired the imaginations of artists from every genre. Ros- sini adapted the work for the opera as early as 1816, albeit with consider- able differences from the Elizabethan version. With this work, the director Damiano Michieletto returns to the TAW following the resounding success SPECIAL THANKS he had with Idomeneo and Il trittico. When celebrating such a special anniversary as this it is particularly important to stress that the artistic and economic success of the Theater an der Wien as a As a pacifist who refused to allow himself to be swayed by rabble-rousing new opera house would not have been possible without the tremendous support propaganda even during World War II, Benjamin Britten remained an out- provided by the City of Vienna (especially the mayor, Dr. Michael Häupl, head sider all his life, despite his many triumphs. As a Briton he also had a life- of the City Finance Dept. and Deputy Mayor Renate Brauner and head of the long affinity with the sea. In his operaPeter Grimes, Britten combines these City Culture Dept. Dr. Andreas Mailath-Pokorny) and by General Director Johann two traits and shows, using a fisherman as an example, the kind of pressure Marihart (from our main sponsor, Agrana) and last but not least by the CEO of that society can exert on an individual. Following his impressive portrayal the Vereinigte Bühnen Wien, Thomas Drozda. of Gustav von Aschenbach, Kurt Streit again takes on the lead role in a Heartfelt thanks to you all. Britten opera, whose psychological depths will be plumbed by Christof Loy. 4 | | 5 Many contemporary composers cite Kurt Weill as a major influence. His The number 10 as the unit of a decade has excellent significance in our way of setting text to music shows as much intelligence as musicality, and current method of calculating time – not just in engineering science.

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