Korngold's VIOLANTA Will Premiere at the Deutsche Oper Berlin
Conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles and directed by David Hermann, the title role will be sung by the American soprano Laura Wilde
Korngold's VIOLANTA will premiere at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Schoenberg's monumental choral-symphonic work "Gurrelieder" will be performed on February 10th at the Philharmonie.
Conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles and directed by David Hermann, the title role will be sung by the American soprano Laura Wilde, alongside the Icelandic baritone Ólafur Sigurdarson and the Latvian tenor Mihails Čulpajevs.
DIE TOTE STADT brought Erich Wolfgang Korngold worldwide fame, but the fact that this composer also wrote other magnificent operas was long ignored by the music world. Following its sensational success with DAS WUNDER DER HELIANE, the Deutsche Oper Berlin is now unearthing another treasure from the Viennese composer's oeuvre: the one-act opera VIOLANTA, premiered in 1916, the first opera in which Korngold found his unmistakable musical language. Sensually sumptuous melodies, rewarding vocal parts, a rich palette of suggestively employed timbres and harmonies, and a sure sense of musical drama—all this in just 75 minutes. On the surface, a classic love triangle involving a woman torn between two men in 15th-century Venice, the work is simultaneously imbued with the discoveries of psychoanalysis: The title character is driven by a conflict between repressed desire and guilt and undergoes a cathartic process of self-discovery.
This perspective also shapes the approach of David Hermann , who presents his sixth production at the Deutsche Oper Berlin with VIOLANTA. (Previous productions include THE LITTLE GIRL WITH SULFURS, ORESTEIA, and FIDELIO.) The Berlin-based director is known for his psychological approach, which interprets external elements of the plot—such as the Venetian Carnival in this case—not as mere decoration, but as symbolic expressions of the characters' inner states. Two short works preceding the music of VIOLANTA also serve this purpose: At the beginning of the evening, a short lute piece by John Dowland and the first of Alban Berg's three orchestral pieces, Opus 6, are performed.
Musically, the production is in the hands of Sir Donald Runnicles , who with VIOLANTA continues his exploration of works of Viennese Modernism, within which he has previously conducted Berg's WOZZECK and Zemlinsky's DER ZWERG at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. VIOLANTA will also be the last premiere that Donald Runnicles conducts as General Music Director of the house, a position he has held since 2009.
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