Detlev Glanert's Three Water Plays at Almeida Opera(July 2007) Three short operas by Detlev Glanert receive their UK premieres at Almeida Opera in London on 13 July.
While Detlev Glanert is the leading German opera composer of his generation and is an increasingly familiar name on international orchestral programmes, Almeida Opera offers the first opportunity for UK audiences to experience his work for the stage. His Three Water Plays, playing for an hour in total, are based on the Three Minute Plays by American dramatist Thornton Wilder. These short, pungent morality tales draw on Biblical and Renaissance sources, and are matched by Glanert's economy of means and acute ear for instrumentation. The semi-staged production by Charles Edwards features singers John-Graham Hall, Stephen Richardson and Jane Harrington with the Almeida Ensemble conducted by Richard Bernas. Leviathan (1986) After a stormy night, what is left of a Venetian frigate is drifting at sea with an unconscious prince on board. Brigoméide, a mermaid, wakens him and offers to save him for the price of his soul. The prince, who thinks he is seeing a vision, tries in vain to explain that one cannot simply give away a soul, and so he has to drown. The Angel that Troubled the Waters (1994) At the pool in Bethesda, people seeking to be healed wait for the saving angel. He appears first to a doctor, who is mentally ill, and tells him that he cannot help him. There are maladies that not even an angel can cure, only disturbed people. However, the diseased hand of a man with delusions is healed. He then notices the doctor and begs him for help — for his children, who suffer from melancholy. The Angel on the Ship (1995) Three survivors are drifting on the wreck of a ship. They make the figurehead into the god of the Atlantic, pray to him that they will be saved, and gradually confess all their sins. When a ship appears on the horizon, they quickly throw the great god Lilli into the sea. To book tickets for Three Water Plays please visit the Almeida Theatre website. Detlev Glanert’s operas have enjoyed frequent performances in multiple productions. His Jest, Satire, Irony and Deeper Meaning has been staged by eight opera companies since its premiere in 2001, with 80 performances to date, and a new production scheduled for Vienna in February 2008. His latest opera Caligula, based on the play by Camus, received its first performances in Frankfurt and Cologne last autumn. Glanert’s future stage projects include Nijinsky’s Diary, for singers, actors and dancers with ensemble, commissioned by the Aachen Theater, and a full-evening opera for Gelsenkirchen, The Wooden Ship, based on the novel by Hans Henny Jahnn. > Further information on Work: Drei Wasserspiele Glanert photo: Lilian Szokody > News Search |
|