Organization

Singer

Baritone

Bjørn Waag

Frank

Fritz

Tenor

Burkhard Fritz

Paul

Norbert Schmittberg

Silent

Majken Bjerno

Marietta

Richetta Manager

Mezzo-soprano

Anna Agathonos

Brigitta

Anke Sieloff

Soprano

Alfia Kamalova

Juliette

Lucienne

Lars Rühl

Victorin

William Saetre

E. Mark Murphy

Count Albert

Conductor

Heiko Mathias Förster

Stage director

Thilo Reinhardt

Set designer

Wilfried Buchholz

Costume designer

Gisa Kuhn

Chorus master

Christian Jeub

Dramaturge

Juliane Schenk

Rasmus Baumann

Musiktheater im Revier

Die tote Stadt -  (The Dead City)

Gelsenkirchen

Germany

Die tote Stadt Korngold

Public

The Dead City

Approved

Paul lives in his home in Bruges solely in memory of his late wife Marie. Everything changes when he meets the dancer Marietta, in whom he believes he sees a rebirth of Marie. As she leaves him for a rehearsal of her theater company, Paul sees the deceased Marie stepping out of the painting. Moments later, Marietta is standing in front of him again. She then spends the night with him at his house. The next morning, during a procession passing in front of the house, she asks him to kiss her and provokes him. Paul lunges at her and strangles her. Then he wakes up and realizes how deceptive it is to substitute a dream for reality. He will leave Bruges, the dead city.
Knapp über zwanzig Jahre alt war Erich Wolfgang Korngold, hoch gepriesenes Wunderkind, als er 1920 dieses einzigartige Werk schrieb. Im amerikanischen Exil erhielt er für eine seiner Filmmusiken einen Oscar, doch seine Opern fanden im Europa der 1940er Jahre keine rechte Bleibe mehr. Ihm wurde vorgeworfen, er sei ein verwegener Spätromantiker mit Puccini- oder Strauss-Anstrich. Das Gegenteil ist der Fall. In einer expressiven, präzis strukturierten Partitur schafft Korngold die waghalsige Gratwanderung, eine erotische Phantasmagorie mit einer einprägsamen Studie eines verzweifelten einsamen Menschen zu vereinen. Und er erzählt am Ende eine Hinwendung zum Leben – ein ungewöhnlicher wie faszinierender Opernschluss.

Deutsch

Paul lives in his home in Bruges solely in memory of his late wife Marie. Everything changes when he meets the dancer Marietta, in whom he believes he sees a rebirth of Marie. As she leaves him for a rehearsal of her theater company, Paul sees the deceased Marie stepping out of the painting. Moments later, Marietta is standing in front of him again. She then spends the night with him at his house. The next morning, during a procession passing in front of the house, she asks him to kiss her and provokes him. Paul lunges at her and strangles her. Then he wakes up and realizes how deceptive it is to substitute a dream for reality. He will leave Bruges, the dead city.
Erich Wolfgang Korngold, the highly praised child prodigy, was just over twenty years old when he wrote this unique work in 1920. In American exile he received an Oscar for one of his film scores, but his operas found no real home in Europe in the 1940s. He was accused of being a daring late romantic with a Puccini or Strauss touch. The opposite is the case. In an expressive, precisely structured score, Korngold manages to walk the daring tightrope of uniting an erotic phantasmagoria with a memorable study of a desperate, lonely person. And at the end he tells a turning to life - an unusual and fascinating opera ending.

English

The Dead City by Korngold, From (2010/2010), Directed by Thilo Reinhardt,, Conductor Heiko Mathias Förster, Rasmus Baumann, Musiktheater im Revier, Gelsenkirchen, Germany

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