Organization

Singer

Soprano

Anke Krabbe

Sopran

Morenike Fadayomi

Mezzo-soprano

Susan Maclean

Mezzosopran

Sarah Ferede

Ekaterina Aleksandrova

Tenor

Cornel Frey

Andrés Sulbarán

Johannes Preissinger

Bass

Luke Stoker

Torben Jürgens

Jake Muffett

Florian Simson

Stage director

Elisabeth Stöppler

Conductor

Axel Kober

Costume designer

Su Sigmund

Set designer

Annika Haller

Chorus master

Gerhard Michalski

Terry Wey

Lighting designer

Volker Weinhart

Dramaturge

Carmen Kovacs

Anna Melcher

Deutsche Oper am Rhein

Others

Chor der Deutschen Oper am Rhein

Orchestra

Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra

German

Weihnachts-Oratorium, BWV 248 -  (Christmas Oratorio)

Dusseldorf

Germany

Opernhaus Düsseldorf

Weihnachts-Oratorium Bach,JS

Public

Christmas Oratorio

Approved

Music video for "Christmas Oratorio - Scenes of a Sleepless Night" 14 soloists from the Deutsche Oper am Rhein make their way to the Düsseldorf Opera House: Together with the choir of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein and the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra under the direction of General Music Director Axel Kober, they sing and play Johann Sebastian Bach's “Christmas Oratorio” in “Scenes of a Sleepless Night”. A music-theatrical version of the well-known oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach was created for the new production of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein: “Christmas Oratorio - Scenes from a Sleepless Night” will premiere on December 11, 2021 at the Düsseldorf Opera House. A total of eleven performances are on the program until January 22, 2022. The director and FAUST Prize winner Elisabeth Stöppler puts the musically told Christmas story into a secular context: A child whose birth promises redemption is born right next door today in the middle of the city. A perfectly normal child, charged with the hopes of many. The news spreads like wildfire, triggers a wide variety of reactions and sets an entire city community in motion. In Johann Sebastian Bach's clear and intimate musical language, various voices have their say, reacting immediately to an event that then as now means 'new beginning'. In a team with Annika Haller (stage design), Su Sigmund (costumes) and Anna Melcher (dramaturgy), the director dedicates herself to snapshots and close-ups of people from a secular urban society and lets them tell of their longing for collective commitment and closeness, of loneliness and failure, of hope and love. // Johann Sebastian Bach CHRISTMAS ORATORIO Scenes from a sleepless night A music-theatrical version by Elisabeth Stöppler, Anna Melcher, Gerhard Michalski and Axel Kober with spoken texts by Hannah Dübgen. Tanja Brill Camera and editing: Jo Alexander Berg Many thanks for the kind support to Blumenwerkstatt Carlsplatz 6B47 Real Estate Investors AG Köster GmbH Sir Walter Art Collection NRW Dreischeibenhaus GmbH & Co. KG Bazzar Caffè City Libraries Düsseldorf DEG-Winterwelt and Oscar Bruch jr. all colleagues involved © Deutsche Oper am Rhei

Five bangs and it's Christmas. Of the great vocal instrumental works by Johann Sebastian Bach, the Christmas Oratorio, performed for the first time at the turn of the year 1734/35, is by far the most popular. Thanks to the inexhaustibly rich and clear tone and harmony language of the deeply religious Thomaskantor, his subtle combination of traditional melodies, reused secular cantatas, new compositions and festive to heartfelt chorales, the Christmas story is also familiar to non-believers and non-believers to this day.

With the birth of a child, born of a simple woman, the world starts to move. Whether you believe in it or not, whether you understand it or whether you doubt it, whether you challenge it or it challenges you - nobody leaves this event indifferent. What if what happened in the Bethlehem stable over two thousand years ago happened today? A child whose birth promises redemption is born in the middle of the city, right next door. In Johann Sebastian Bach's work, through his clear, intimate and sensual music, the most varied of voices have their say, reacting immediately to an event that told and tells of 'new beginning' then as now.

Director Elisabeth Stöppler, set designer Annika Haller and costume designer Su Siegmund dedicate themselves to very different people in a secular urban society in snapshots and close-ups and tell of their longing for collective commitment and closeness, loneliness and failure, and hope. With fourteen soloists and the choir of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, all six parts of the Christmas Oratorio will be played in a music-theatrical version.

English

Christmas Oratorio by Bach, J. S., From (2021/2022), Directed by Elisabeth Stöppler,, Conductor Axel Kober, Opernhaus Düsseldorf, Dusseldorf, Germany

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