Reading libretti
The literature club of the Staatsoper Stuttgart
You love reading and are equally passionate about sharing your reading with others? You like going to the opera - or you're planning to finally attend a performance? At the Staatsoper Stuttgart's new literature club, we want to read libretti in advance and talk about what we've read over a drink in a relaxed atmosphere. In the coming months, there are several operas on the program that are not only musically rich, but also offer plenty of inspiration for discussion on a literary level. Texts by book prize winner Frank Witzel, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Friedrich Schiller and Bertolt Brecht form the basis of the performances in the opera house - and there is also a lot of literature to discover about these works beyond these texts. The hosts are employees of the opera house who are passionate about literature. However, discussions are held on an equal footing and collectively - because the participants decide together what will be read. Attention, limited number of participants!
Access to the side room of the canteen via the canteen entrance in the connecting building between the opera house and the theatre
Registration required via oper@staatstheater-stuttgart.de!
Hosts
Johannes Lachermeier (Direction Communiactions) and Kyra Palberg (Development)
Registration required via oper@staatstheater-stuttgart.de!
Hosts
Johannes Lachermeier (Direction Communiactions) and Kyra Palberg (Development)
19.3. "Dora" – zu Gast: Josefin Feiler
In the first episode of the literature club, we discussed the libretto for the world premiere of Dora. In the second episode, we now want to discuss the production by director Elisabeth Stöppler and conductor Elena Schwarz and make intertextual connections! Our "Dora" Josefin Feiler will join us.
11.4. "Elektra"
Hugo von Hofmannsthal's Elektra is on the program in the third episode. The libretto, set to music by Strauss for the opera and premiered in Dresden in 1909, is based on Hoffmannsthal's first major stage success Elektra. Tragedy in One Act. In contrast to Sophocles' original, Hoffmannsthal concentrates entirely on Elektra's inner drama, after which we will attend the performance together (musical direction: Cornelius Meister, staging: Peter Konwitschny).
16.4. "Elektra"
Following the joint performance of Richard Strauss' Elektra on April 11, we would like to discuss the production at the fourth meeting of our literature club. Participants who are not attending on April 11 are also very welcome.
13.5. "Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny"
Shortly after the premiere of Kurt Weill's Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (musical director: Cornelius Meister, stage director Ulrike Schwab), we talk about Bertolt Brecht's libretto, about uninhibited capitalism and unrestrained gambling, about the downfall of morality and the way to the nearest whiskey bar.
19.06. What does the troubadour sing about?
The libretto to Verdi's Il trovatore by Salvatore Cammarano and Leone Emanuele Bardare, based on the drama El trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez, is considered one of the most confused in opera history. Together with chief dramaturge Ingo Gerlach, who is overseeing the new production of Verdi's opera and is also one of the play's most ardent fans, we take a look at the musical-dramatic potential of the text.
17.3. Aschenbach’s Journey
In Der Tod in Venedig, Thomas Mann tells of a writer’s love for a boy, of ageing, of loneliness, of dreaming – and ultimately of dying. From film to ballet to opera, the text has inspired various arts – we will read the 1911 novella in the literature club. Our guest is tenor Matthias Klink, who was named "Singer of the Year 2017"and awarded the FAUST Prize 2018 for his portrayal of Gustav von Aschenbach.
7.4. "Who is the Grail?"
With Parsifal, we take on one of the most ambiguous and most discussed texts in all of opera literature: Richard Wagner’s "stage consecration festival" tells of wounding and healing, guilt and desire, compassion and redemption. In the middle of it all: the "pure fool" Parsifal, who is ultimately appointed King of the Grail. But what are the Grail and the Holy Spear actually all about? Who is the enigmatic Kundry? And above all: who is actually redeeming whom here?
2.6. Otellos Revenge
Is the handkerchief really to blame for everything? The most hair-raising intrigues unfold around this lost prop, at the end of which the jealous Otello finally murders his beloved wife Desdemona. Verdi’s opera based on the masterful libretto by Italian writer and composer Arrigo Boito is considered the best-known adaptation of Shakespeare's drama about love, war and foreigners.
7.7. Gladis’ Resistance
If that’s not an unusual subject for the opera stage: At the center of our world premiere Der rote Wal is the female orca Gladis, who wants to take revenge on the human world and unexpectedly encounters an urban guerrilla group. A fairy tale, a political thriller, a parable? Yes, this "German Autumn Fairy Tale", for which rapper and singer-songwriter Markus Winter, alias Maeckes, wrote the lyrics, is all of these things together – plus grand opera, musical and rap!
Oct 2024
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