EASTER FESTIVAL BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER APRIL 4– 13 2020 F E S TIVAL HALL BADEN- B A D E N The non-profit Festival Hall Baden-Baden Cultural Foundation was founded in the year 2000 by dedicated music lovers, and has since made possible the private operation of the EASTER Festival Hall Baden-Baden. FESTI VA L OUR SPECIAL THANKS TO BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER Frieder and Elke Burda Klaus and Kirsten Mangold Ladislaus and Annemarie von Ehr Hugo and Rose Mann Wolfgang and Anneliese Grenke Reinhard and Karin Müller APRIL 4–13, 2020 Henriette and Paul Heinze Stiftung Wolfgang and Françoise Müller-Claessen Klaus-Georg Hengstberger Dr. August Oetker KG Klaus and Hella Janson Hans R. Schmid and Mary Victoria Gerardi-Schmid Sigmund and Walburga Maria Kiener Walter Veyhle Horst Kleiner and Isolde Laukien-Kleiner Alberto Vilar Karlheinz and Dagmar Kögel Franz Bernhard and Annette Wagener Ernst H. and Helga Kohlhage Horst and Marlis Weitzmann Richard and Bettina Kriegbaum Beatrice and Götz W. Werner Christine and Klaus-Michael Kühne Ernst-Moritz Lipp and Angelika Lipp-Krüll and four unnamed donors IN MEMORIAM: THEO AND GABI KUMMER, MARGARETE STIENEN F E S TIVAL HALL BADEN- B A D E N DEAR FESTIVAL GUESTS, Ludwig van Beethoven’s 250th birthday will Tugan Sokhiev, the principal conductor of Mos- form the focus of the 2020 Baden-Baden Easter cow’s Bolshoi Theater, will be celebrating his de- Festival with the Berliner Philharmoniker. As but in Baden-Baden – a city whose history shares Artistic Director Designate, I would like to wel- so many points in common with both Russian come Kirill Petrenko, the new Chief Conductor culture and the Russian soul. of the Berliner Philharmoniker, in our midst for this edition of the Festival. His Fidelio, in the I am also delighted that Herbert Blomstedt will production by Mateja Koležnik, is certain to re- once again be leading a concert with the Berliner ceive worldwide attention. The fact that Kirill Philharmoniker, in which he will devote him - Petrenko has chosen the Missa solemnis as the self to Anton Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony, the second major vocal work by Beethoven this “Romantic.” week underscores the message of this year’s Festival: we are celebrating Ludwig van Beet- For the first time in the orchestra’s history, we will hoven as a visionary and questioner – but also be hearing Ludwig van Beethoven’s complete string as a great European. This is not just a matter quartets in the context of a single festival – a of music history but also, in my view, an im- special gift in a special year. portant attitude. Welcome to the Easter Festival Already in the nineteenth century, Europe found in Baden-Baden! in Baden-Baden a place for thinking, question- ing, making music, and enjoying. All this will once again be possible during the 2020 Easter Festival. And if we take a closer look at the guest conductors of the Berliner Philharmoniker BENEDIKT STAMPA this year, we also find important links to past and future musical milestones in Baden-Baden. Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Elīna Garanča will join the Berliner Philharmoniker in offering a new read- ing of Gustav Mahler’s Third Symphony. The new head of New York’s Metropolitan Opera has already fallen in love with Baden-Baden, and so this concert is also a promise of much to come. PHOTO: CHRISTIAN GRUND CHRISTIAN PHOTO: 2 3 APRIL 4–13, 2020 EASTER FESTIVAL 4 5 When the Berliner Philharmoniker Beethoven’s only opera, the centerpiece celebrate their eighth Easter Festival of this festival, is underpinned by a belief at the Festival Hall Baden-Baden, it will in the future that permeates the music be anything but “more of the same.” from the very first measure. A rhythmic This is because the new Chief Con- pulse that surges forward and at times ductor Kirill Petrenko is now taking nearly causes the orchestra to boil over – the reins, and so the orchestra is shed- in this connection, we must mention IN THEI BEGINNING, ding its skin, as it were. We look back Mateja Koležnik, the Slovenian theater THERE WAS THE PULSE. at past festivals as a precious heritage producer who will be directing this THE FIRST EASTER FESTIVAL UNDER to be both maintained and renewed. Fidelio and who will also be staging KIRILL PETRENKO. Practically speaking, this will be high- productions soon at the Salzburg Festival lighted in Mahler’s Sixth Symphony, and at Vienna’s Burgtheater. Koležnik’s The excitement is palpable with which Sir Simon Rattle not only trademark is the metronome, which she in anticipation of the first Easter Festival inaugurated his first Easter Festival, but uses herself in her theater rehearsals also con cluded his last, and which Kirill to play with meters and their effect on of the Berliner Philharmoniker with Petrenko will now also be conducting the actors’ flow of speech. From here its new Chief Conductor Kirill Petrenko. during his first Easter Festival. On a side it is not a wide leap to Beethoven’s com- note, the hammer blow in this sympho- pact structures, characterized as they The focus will be on both continuity and ny has its counterpart in the trumpet often are by mathematical precision: change, and certainly also invites signal in Beethoven’s Fidelio. In both eight bars are followed by four, then two, comparisons (keyword Mahler). works, it is a signal from outside that then one ... We are expecting much from heralds the turning point: for Beethoven, this director-conductor duo. And we are Beethoven’s Fidelio directed by Slovenian unlike for Mahler, it is a turning point looking forward to Sokhiev’s debut, theater producer Mateja Koležnik for the better. From darkness to light: and naturally also to a reunion with a this central theme, which pervades few of our beloved friends, including promises to be especially compelling. Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony – Kirill Herbert Blomstedt, Leif Ove Andsnes, Petrenko will be performing the work and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. with the National Youth Orchestra of Germany – also forms the core of the dramaturgy of Fidelio. ILLUSTRATION P. 5: SÉBASTIEN PLASSARD SÉBASTIEN P. 5: ILLUSTRATION 6 7 SAT 4.4.20 FIDELIO 6 PM PREMIERE L. VAN BEETHOVEN TUE 7.4.20 6 PM MON 13.4.20 Berliner Philharmoniker, Kirill Petrenko 6 PM New production by Mateja Koležnik The first opera with the new Chief Conductor BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER Don’t let yourself get too comfortable! For Beethoven, only KIRILL PETRENKO MUSIC DIRECTOR persistence, struggle, hope, and achievement seemed worthy MATEJA KOLEŽNIK of art. Overcoming the laxness of habit and forcing oneself PRODUCER to adopt form, the conscious life, to utter the tremendous RAIMUND ORFEO VOIGT SET DESIGNER “it can be otherwise”: this is what makes Fidelio so recogniz- ALAN HRANITELJ ably – unmistakably – a work that could only have been written COSTUME DESIGNER by Beethoven. The symphonic impulse that boldly drives MATIJA FERLIN CHOREOGRAPHER Beethoven’s music forward would exert a decisive influence on Wagner. Fidelio has always been most performed and MARLIS PETERSEN understood in times of transition when something important LEONORE HANNA-ELISABETH was involved. With this in mind, Kirill Petrenko will be inaugu- MÜLLER MARCELLINA rating his operatic collaboration with the Berliner Philhar- PETER ROSE ROCCO moniker in Baden-Baden with Beethoven’s only opera. The WOLFGANG KOCH DON PIZARRO production will also mark a new beginning in the hands of MATTHEW POLENZANI KIRILL PETRENKO multi-award-winning Slovenian director Mateja Koležnik: FLORESTAN Kirill Petrenko is Chief the next step on a path taken with deliberation. TAREQ NAZMI Conductor of the Berliner DON FERNANDO Philharmoniker and will be In German with German and English supertitles. PAUL SCHWEINESTER leading the Easter opera JAQUINO, GUARD productions in Baden- CHORWERK RUHR Baden in the coming years. (CHORUS MASTER: MICHAEL ALBER) PRICES IN EUROS: | | | | | | | 59 89 144 199 233 270 295 360 LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN REDUCED: FIDELIO – OPERA IN TWO 54 | 84 | 139 | 194 | 223 | 260 | 285 | 350 ACTS TO A LIBRETTO BY PERFORMANCE ENDS: AROUND 8:50 PM SONN LEITHNER, BREUNING SEATING PLAN A AND TREITSCHKE PHOTO: MONIKA RITTERSHAUS PHOTO: FESTIVAL HALL EXPRESS 8 9 MATEJA KOLEŽNIK RAIMUND ORFEO Production VOIGT The Slovenian director Set Designer won the Nestroy Award After studying in the mas- in 2018 for her production ter class of Erich Wonder of Chekhov’s “Ivanov.” in Vienna, Raimund Orfeo Since 2012 she has also Voigt worked as assistant enjoyed success in the to his former teacher as German-speaking world well as to Robert Wilson. with works at the Munich He has designed sets for Residenztheater, Theater the Bayerische Staatsoper, in der Josefstadt Wien, Salzburg Festival, and and Schau spiel Stuttgart. Berliner Ensemble. MATTHEW POLENZANI PETER ROSE Florestan Rocco The American lyric tenor Since his debut at Glynde- began his career at the bourne in 1986, the English opera studio of the Lyric bass has sung the great Opera of Chicago. He has roles of his field on major since conquered the opera stages throughout the stages of New York, Milan, world. At the Festival Hall Rome, Vienna, Berlin, Baden-Baden, he has ap- Munich, and Salzburg, peared in Easter Festival and has sung in over productions as Messner 300 performances at in Puccini’s “Tosca” and New York’s Met alone. as Ochs in Strauss’s “Rosenkavalier.” HANNA-ELISABETH WOLFGANG KOCH MÜLLER Don Pizarro Marcellina The foundation of the The soprano studied with baritone’s career is the MARLIS PETERSEN Rudolf Piernay, Dietrich great Wagner roles, includ- Leonore Fischer-Dieskau, Julia Varady, ing Hans Sachs, Telra- Her 2002 debut as Lulu in Vienna and Thomas Hampson. mund, and Wotan, which helped launch the versatile soprano’s She gave her debut as he has sung at the Wiener career.