The Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst return to Carnegie Hall 5/21

The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director Franz Welser-Möst return to Carnegie Hall on Friday, May 21st at 8:00 p.m. with a program that juxtaposes Berg's dramatic Lulu Suite - with soprano Erin Morley as soloist - alongside Beethoven's Coriolan Overture and Symphony No. 3, ‘Eroica'. Tickets priced from $40 to $123 available from CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800 or carnegiehall.org.

The opera Lulu was one of the last works Alban Berg composed before his death in 1935 and it was left incomplete. However, Berg composed a five-movement symphonic suite in 1934 which was premiered in Berlin the same year. Based on two controversial and shocking plays by German playwright Frank Wedekind, Earth Spirit and Pandora's Box, the opera tells the story of a beguiling actress and dancer, Lulu, her infidelities, her descent from high society into prostitution, and her murder at the hands of Jack the Ripper.

Franz Welser-Möst conducted the complete opera at the Zurich Opera House in 2002 in a production directed by Sven-Eric Bechtolf released on DVD. Soprano Erin Morley will sing the role of Lulu at Carnegie Hall. Ms. Morley recently performed in The Metropolitan Opera's production of The Nose.

Following the New York concert, The Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst will perform the Lulu Suite on programs as part of their European summer tour with soprano Christine Schäfer, including the first of three concerts at the Lucerne Festival on August 26 and at the Edinburgh Festival on August 18.

In July 2011, The Cleveland Orchestra will begin a multi-year residency at the Lincoln Center Festival in New York. Music Director Franz Welser-Möst will lead four concerts featuring Anton Bruckner symphonies nos. 5, 7, 8 and 9 and works by John Adams. In 2013 and 2015, The Cleveland Orchestra's Lincoln Center Festival residency broadens in scope to include fully-staged productions from the Vienna State Opera presented with The Cleveland Orchestra performing in the pit of the David H. Koch Theater under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst.

April 19, 2010

Friday, May 21 at 8:00 p.m.
Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage
The Cleveland Orchestra
Franz Welser-Möst, Music Director and Conductor
Erin Morley, Soprano

BEETHOVEN Coriolan Overture, Op. 62
BERG Lulu Suite
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55, ‘Eroica'

Tickets, priced from $40 to $123, are available at the Carnegie Hall Box Office, 154 West 57th Street, or can be charged to major credit cards by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800 or by visiting the Carnegie Hall website, carnegiehall.org.