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Intendant Roland Geyer General sponsor The Theater an der Wien receives subsidies A Wien Holding Company from the Cultural Department of the City of Vienna “EVEN A SEA OF DREAMS HAS ANOTHER SHORE” When Maja stands on the tennis court she trembles like aspen leaves, snorts Wien starts our first series of annual premieres from this season. This is like a horse and rages like a hurricane. Her shots are hard, vicious, it’s all her not just a firm statement of intent to embrace contemporary music; tennis coach can do to return them. It is no game but a bitter battle – and it is also the fulfilment of the vision to stimulate the genre of opera to when they both collapse exhausted, Maja knows that this tennis coach has constant renewal and thereby concur with feelings already expressed by “the same tenacity and doggedness” as she has. Victor Hugo: “A dream is indispensable if you want to shape the future.” “Could you kill that squirrel?” He laughed, just like her, and, without stop- ping to think, hurled the animal against a tree with all his might. What is The new programme for the 2009/10 season once more brings one ope- that? Madness? Obsession? Mania? – or merely a dream? It seemed as ra premiere every month at the Theater an der Wien. Britten, Rossini, though they both desired to destroy each other. Henze, Haydn, Bach, Monteverdi, Kalitzke, Gluck, Mahler, Weber, and Strauß are the composers whose works will be premiered this year. In Exactly 40 years ago, Witold Gombrowicz, one of the Polish avant-garde’s addition, we are once again producing two world-class dance projects: “three musketeers”, died. His novel Possessed: The Secret of Myslotch John Neumeier’s Weihnachtsoratorium and Anne Teresa De Keersmae- evokes the ambivalence of human nature as it is caught between eroti- ker’s 3Adieux. Many outstanding artists will provide the Theater an der cism, disaster and crime. In particular the conflicting poles of individual Wien with artistic high points this season, of whom we may explicitly and history, and appearance and personality, often find forceful expres- mention Nikolaus Harnoncourt, who will be conducting Haydn’s fa- sion in his works. His language is that of fantasy, dreams, irony, even mous opera Il mondo della luna on his 80th birthday (in collaboration farce. Unlike the surrealists, Gombrowicz has not conceptually placed with director Tobias Moretti), and Austria’s sole Oscar winner Stefan something above reality; instead he describes what is above reality, uto- Ruzowitzky, who makes his debut as an opera director with Der Freischütz. pia, as man’s reality that is then destroyed, suppressed and ultimately murdered by man’s constructions. His biography makes it clear why he “All the world’s a stage,” proclaims William Shakespeare in his beloved views man’s reality as having no home, because home only describes comedy As You Like It. With these words, he boldly asserts the power of a public side of the human being who describes himself as mature and his own particular art and seeks the approbation of his audience. who by doing so surrenders himself to all the illusions and projections, all the chimaeras and all the struggle of interpersonal intercourse. With these words I hope that you, dear reader, will find our twelve new works enjoyable and that they will gain your approbation so that we “We are all possessed,” says Christian Morgenstern, “we simply have to may have the pleasure of welcoming you in our theatre. understand the word untheologically and sufficiently literally.” Conver- sely, it is precisely dreams and visions that make our lives a joyful cele- bration. Every human being carries in his heart a vision for his life that Best wishes, strives for fulfilment. It is an endless yearning that prompts us to live our dreams. I am delighted that Johannes Kalitzke has set a libretto dramatisati- on by Christoph Klimke of this remarkable work by Gombrowicz to music, thereby making an important contribution to this year’s motto Roland Geyer “Dream and Obsession”. It is with Die Besessenen that the Theater an der Intendant | 3 Music Theatre B. Britten: Death in Venice Contents7 G. Rossini: TANCREDI 11 H. W. Henze: DER PRINZ VON HOMBURG 15 J. Haydn: IL MONDO DELLA LUNA 19 J. S. Bach/J. Neumeier: Weihnachtsoratorium 23 C. Monteverdi: L’INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA 27 J. Kalitzke: DIE BESESSENEN 31 Chr. W. Gluck: IPHIGÉNIE EN TAURIDE 35 G. Mahler/A. T. De Keersmaeker: 3ADIEUX 39 C. M. v. Weber: DER FREISCHÜTZ 43 R. Wagner u. a.: ORLANDO MISTERIOSO 47 J. Strauß: DIE FLEDERMAUS 51 OPENING NIGHT 2009/10 54 OPERA IN CONCERT 55 CoNCERTS 63 “HÖLLE” 68 Guided Tours 71 Prices 72 Seating Plan 73 Information 75 Imprint 78 Telekom Austria supports innovative opera! Booking form 79 Sustainable partnerships with cultural institutions are a special concern of ours. That‘s why Telekom Austria is a technology partner of Theater an der Wien, which is breaking new ground as an opera house by combining the traditional with the modern. www.telekom.at | 5 BusImage_Sekt_130x205_RZ.indd 1 20.07.2009 14:21:17 Uhr Death Benjaminin Venice Britten It is true, it is all true. I can fall no further. (Gustav von Aschenbach) 17 September 2009 19 / 22 / 24 / 27 September 2009 enice as a symbol of sensuality and ambiguity, beauty and decay – in Opera in two acts (1973) his last and most personal stage work, the British composer Benjamin Death in Venice Music BY Benjamin Britten Britten took Thomas Mann’s famous and much discussed novella Death Libretto BY MYfanwY Piper VIn Venice as his source material, which had already been made into a film based on the noveLLA BY Thomas Mann by Visconti. The plot centres on the writer Gustav von Aschenbach and the story of the fate that befalls him as an artist: after years of self-con- Performed in English with German surtitles trol he is broken by the conflict between the struggle to achieve perfect beauty in his art and ardent, feverish passion. Conductor Donald Runnicles Director Ramin Gray The writer Gustav von Aschenbach, suffering from writer’s block, is seized Set designer Jeremy Herbert by a desire for change. He travels to Venice. On his arrival he finds the sea Costume designer Kandis Cook and sky grey, the air clammy. But then his attention is taken by Tadzio, the Choreographer Thomas Stuart son of a Polish family. His beauty and childlike grace fascinate the writer. Light designer Adam Silverman He falls in love with the youth, thereby going beyond the limits of anything he could previously have imagined. Aschenbach believes he has found the Gustav von Aschenbach Kurt Streit perfect form in Tadzio and surrenders to his fascination and his feelings to The Traveller Russell Braun such an extent that he passively submits to his impending death of cholera. The Voice of Apollo Christophe Dumaux Hotel porter Erik Årman Benjamin Britten and his librettist Myfanwy Piper created a world in English clerk Klemens Sander their opera that is largely composed of an introspective monologue by Aschenbach. Bound up by self-imposed shackles and social ostracism, Vokalensemble Nova: Britten’s alter ego gives an account of inspiration through youth, of Hotel Waiter, Russian Mother, Strawberry Seller, Russian Nanny, Gondolier, Apollo-like innocence and Dionysian desire and of a love that brings not Glass Maker, Guide in Venice, Priest in St. Mark’s, Polish Father, Beggar Lady, only destruction but also liberation. For the 17 scenes evoking the am- Hotel Guests, … bivalent relationship between youth and old age as well as between love and death, Britten composed an extremely suggestive score and used ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien a small, transparent orchestra, percussion and a piano. Death in Venice premiered in 1973 at the Aldeburgh Festival, three years before Britten’s death. The part of Gustav von Aschenbach was played by Peter Pears, his life-long partner. Coproduction with Staatsoper Hamburg Premiere: Thursday, 17 September 2009, 7 p.m. Performances: 19, 22, 24 & 27 September 2009, 7 p.m. Introduction: Sunday, 6 September 2009, 11 a.m. 8 | MusiC theatre | 9 GioachinoTancredi Rossini Contro il destin crudele trionferà l’amor. Love will conquer cruel fate. (Tancredi) 15 October 2009 17 / 19 /21 / 23 October 2009 ancredi, the Sicilian drama of war and love that abounds with melo- Melodramma eroico in two acts (1813) dies and is based on Voltaire’s 1760 French tragedy of the same name, Tancredi Music BY Gioachino Rossini was commissioned for the Venetian carnival season of 1812/13. For the LIBRETTO BY GAetano Rossi T21-year-old Gioachino Rossini, who was at the beginning of his career, the work represented a particularly great challenge. The only way he Performed in Italian with German surtitles could make his name as an operatic composer was to produce a suc- cessful opera seria. To suit the taste of Italian audiences of the time Conductor René Jacobs the librettist Gaetano Rossi replaced the tragic ending of Voltaire’s dra- Director Stephen Lawless ma with a happy one. Set & costume designer Gideon Davey Choreographer Lynne Hockney After years of bloody feuding, the opposing families of the Argirios and the Light designer Patricia Collins Orbazzanos form an alliance to fight the Saracens who are laying siege to the city. To cement their new alliance, Argirio promises Orbazzano the hand Argirio Colin Lee of his daughter Amenaide in marriage. But Amenaide is in love with Tancre- Amenaide Aleksandra Kurzak di, who was dispossessed and banished during the civil war. For his part, Tan- Tancredi Vivica Genaux credi does not yet know anything about the planned marriage of Amenaide Orbazzano Konstantin Wolff to Orbazzano.