PRESS FOLDER 2017/18 Season

Transcription

1 PRESS FOLDER 2017/18 Season Content 2017/18 SEASON: SHOW ME YOUR WOUND 2 OPERA PREMIERES 2017/ TH OCTOBER 2017: LE NOZZE DI FIGARO 2 17 TH DECEMBER 2017: IL TRITTICO 3 11 TH MARCH 2018: LES VÊPRES SICILIENNES 3 21 ST MAY 2018: FROM THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD 3 28 TH JUNE 2018: PARSIFAL 4 23 RD JULY 2018: ORLANDO PALADINO 4 13 TH APRIL 2018: THE DICTATOR/THE BROKEN JUG (OPERA STUDIO) 4 THE RING CYCLE WITH KIRILL PETRENKO 6 OPERA REPERTOIRE 2017/18 7 SEPTEMBER TO DECEMBER JANUARY TO MARCH APRIL TO JUNE MUNICH OPERA FESTIVAL 8 BALLET PREMIERES 2017/ TH NOVEMBER 2017: ANNA KARENINA 9 14 TH APRIL 2018: PORTRAIT WAYNE MCGREGOR BALLET FESTIVAL WEEK 9 4 TH JULY 2018: BALLET EVENING YOUNG CHOREOGRAPHERS 10 BALLET REVIVALS 2017/18 11 BALLETT REPERTOIRE 2017/18 13 SEPTEMBER TO DECEMBER JANUARY TO MARCH APRIL TO JULY 2018 AND BALLET FESTIVAL WEEK 13 GUEST RECITALS 2017/18 15 Press Contact Ballet: annette.baumann@staatsoper.de, Tel. 089/ of 15

2 2017/18 SEASON: SHOW ME YOUR WOUND General Manager Nikolaus Bachler and General Music Director Kirill Petrenko have given the new season at the Bayerische Staatsoper the title Show me your wound: Whether it s a courageous act to show yourself in a moment of vulnerability or a desperate search for truth: different interpretations provide the materials for a total of seven opera premieres, says Nikolaus Bachler. After Tosca, Kirill Petrenko turns his sights onto yet another work by Giacomo Puccini, conducting the new production of Il trittico. Further performances include the premiere of Richard Wagner s Parsifal under the musical leadership of the General Music Director. From January onwards, Petrenko will be conducting another central Wagnerian work: The Ring of the Nibelung. The first premiere of the season will be Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart s Le nozze di Figaro conducted by Constantinos Carydis. Director Antú Romero Nunes returns to the Staatsoper with Giuseppe Verdi s Les Vêpres siciliennes. For the first time, Frank Castorf will be working at the Staatsoper on Leoš Janáčeks From the House of the Dead. The Munich Opera Festival opens with Pierre Audi s production of Parsifal with a set design from Georg Baselitz and, for the first time since its debut performance in Munich in 1800, there will be a new production of Joseph Haydn s Orlando Paladino. The young singers from the Opera Studio will rework a double-bill comprising of Ernst Krenek s The Dictator and Viktor Ullmann s The Broken Jug. For the first time, the Bayerische Staatsballett will add a piece by Christian Spuck to its repertoire with the premiere of Anna Karenina at the end of November. The 2018 Ballet Festival Week opens its three-part evening performance of Portrait Wayne McGregor with two Munich premieres and a brand new work by the British choreographer. OPERA PREMIERES 2017/18 26 th October 2017: LE NOZZE DI FIGARO The new production of Mozart s Le nozze di Figaro replaces Dieter Dorn s directorial work from This premiere sees Christof Loy returning to the Bayerische Staatsoper where he has already produced Saul (2003), Roberto Devereux (2004), Alcina (2005), Il turco in Italia (2007), Die Bassariden (2008) and Lucrezia Borgia (2009). On the podium of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester is a conductor of Greek descent, Constantinos Carydis, who will be heading his third Staatsoper premiere after Les Contes d Hoffmann (2011) and Pelléas et Mélisande (2015). In her first performance at the Staatsoper, Federica Lombardi is the Countess and Christian Gerhaher sings the Count; Annett Fritsch is Cherubino. The young Ukrainian soprano Olga Kulchynska will also perform here for the first time as Susanna alongside Alex Esposito (Figaro), who has sung the role numerous times in the production of Dieter Dorn. Further singers include Paolo Borgogna (Bartolo) and Anne Sofie von Otter (Marcellina). Press Contact Ballet: annette.baumann@staatsoper.de, Tel. 089/ of 15

3 17 th December 2017: IL TRITTICO In his first Puccini premiere and debut of the respective opera Kirill Petrenko will be working with the young Dutch director Lotte de Beer on her first production for the Staatsoper. Lotte de Beer has previously worked at the Royal Theatre Copenhagen (Henze s Boulevard Solitude, 2015) and at the Theater an der Wien (Les pêcheurs de perles, 2014). This is the first new production of the three-parter which will be performed in its original language unlike the Munich premiere in 1959 that was sung in German. Eva-Maria Westbroek (Giorgetta), Wolfgang Koch (Michele) and Yonghoon Lee (Luigi) will be singing in Il tabarro. Ermonela Jaho, who was Manon Lescaut in Munich in 2016, will play the eponymous role in Suor Angelica. Ambrogio Maestri is Gianni Schicchi alongside Rosa Feola (Lauretta), Michaela Schuster (Zita) and Pavol Breslik (Rinuccio). 11 th March 2018: LES VÊPRES SICILIENNES The advent of Sicilian Vespers in its French-language version sees a work which has not been shown for almost 50 years return to the Bayerische Staatsoper. Verdi s Grand Opéra from his middle period will be conducted by Omer Meir Wellber, who will be giving his third Staatsoper premiere following Mefistofele (2015) and Andrea Chénier (2017). Antú Romero Nunes, known to audiences for his interpretation of Rossini s Guillaume Tell (2014 Munich Opera Festival), returns to Munich and meets Tenor Bryan Hymel again (Henri; 2014 Arnold in Guillaume Tell). Further singers include Carmen Giannattasio (Hélène; last seen in Norma, 2016), George Petean (Guy de Montfort) and Erwin Schrott in the role of Procida. 21 st May 2018: FROM THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD Following Jenůfa and The Makropulos Case, From the House of the Dead is the third premiere of a Leoš Janáček opera in Czech under Nikolaus Bachler. First performed in 1930 in Brünn, it is the Czech composer s last opera. Simone Young will be conducting the Bayerisches Staatsorchester. Both the director Frank Castorf and the set designer Aleksandar Denić will be working at the Staatsoper for the first time. Peter Rose, Bo Skovhus and Charles Workman among others will be singing the roles of imprisoned slave labourers in a Siberian gulag. The first Munich performance of this work in German took place in 1976, but this is the first time the Bayerische Staatsorchester will be playing John Tyrell s new critical edition of the opera. This transports the piece back to Janáček s original version, whether it be by means of the text or the original and, at times, surprising, chamber-musicesque orchestration. Press Contact Ballet: annette.baumann@staatsoper.de, Tel. 089/ of 15

4 28 th June 2018: PARSIFAL Kirill Petrenko opens the 2018 Munich Opera Festival for the first time and conducts the premiere Parsifal, a debut opera for him. The General Music Director takes to the podium with another work by Richard Wagner, following Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Tannhäuser and The Ring of the Nibelung. This Bühnenweihfestspiel or stage festival play will be produced by Pierre Audi, who previously produced Tamerlano (2008) for the Bayerische Staatsoper. Audi will be supported by one of the most important visual artists of our times, Georg Baselitz, who is responsible for the set design. Jonas Kaufmann will set out his seventh Munich premiere in the leading role (after Lohengrin (2009), Fidelio (2011), Il trovatore (2013), La forza del destino (2013), Manon Lescaut (2014) and Andrea Chénier (2017)). By his side will be Christian Gerhaher (Amfortas), Bálant Szabó (Titurel), René Pape (Gurnemanz), Wolfgang Koch (Klingsor) and Nina Stemme (Kundry). 23 rd July 2018: ORLANDO PALADINO The second festival premiere, located in the Prinzregententheater, will be a rare performance of a work by Joseph Haydn: Orlando Paladino. The heroic-comic opera, which celebrated its premiere at the Bayerische Staatsoper in 1782 under the German title Ritter Roland, has not been performed since Conducting the Bayerische Staatsorchester is Ivor Bolton, who last led the premiere of Rameau s Les Indes galantes (2016 Munich Opera Festival). The young film-maker Axel Ranisch returns to the Bayerische Staatsoper with this new production. After his surprising cinematic success with Dicke Mädchen (2011), he produced a double-bill comprising of William Walton s The Bear and Francis Poulenc s La voix humaine as part of the Festspiel-Werkstatt at the Munich Opera Festival 2016, as well as the children s opera Pinocchio (2015). The main role will be sung by Mathias Vidal alongside Sofia Fomina as Angelica, who sang the role of Oscar in the new production of Un ballo in maschera (2016). 13 th April 2018: THE DICTATOR/THE BROKEN JUG (Opera Studio) The young, emerging singers from the Bayerische Staatsoper s Opera Studio will rework another of their own productions for The 13 th of April will see the premiere of Ernst Krenek s The Dictator and Viktor Ullmann s The Broken Jug in the Cuvilliés-Theater. The two one-act pieces are thematically linked by their exploration of power and its abuses. Each work has a different approach: Krenek chooses the dramatic form where Ullmann chooses the comedy. The opera The Dictator, which had its premiere in 1928 in Wiesbaden, is based on the figure of Benito Mussolini. Viktor Ullmann created his one-act musical version of Kleist s famous comic play The Broken Jug in 1942, which was first performed later in Singers are Anna El-Khashem, Paula Iancic, Selene Zanetti, Alyona Abramowa, Galeano Salas and Milan Siljanov, who are already known to the Munich audience as members of this season s Opera Studio. Among the other singers are Press Contact Ballet: annette.baumann@staatsoper.de, Tel. 089/ of 15

5 new additions to the studio, including Long Long (Tenor) from China, Boris Prýgl (Bariton) from the Czech Republic and Oleg Davydov (Bass) from Russia. They were selected this year from over 750 applicants. Press Contact Ballet: Tel. 089/ of 15

6 THE RING CYCLE with Kirill Petrenko From the 11 th January 2018, General Music Director Kirill Petrenko will be conducting two Ring Cycles. Another cycle will be part of the Munich Opera Festival 2018 (starting on 20 th July). In Andreas Kriegenburg s production, which premiered in 2012, Wolfgang Koch will give his Munich debut in all three Wotan roles. John Lundgren is Alberich and Ekaterina Gubanova plays Fricka. For the first time in Munich, Nina Stemme will sing all three Brünnhilde parts. Ensemble member Okka von der Damerau will play Erda and Waltraute. This spring, Simon O Neill will be Siegmund, a role which will then be performed by Jonas Kaufmann during the Festival - Sieglinde will be sung by Anja Kampe just as in the premiere series. Stefan Vinke sings both Siegfried roles for the first time in Munich, and Götterdämmerung also sees performances from Hans-Peter König (Hagen) and Anna Gabler (Gutrune). The Ring Cycle Conductor: Kirill Petrenko. Production: Andreas Kriegenburg Das Rheingold (11 th January 2018) With Wolfgang Koch (Wotan), Norbert Ernst (Loge), John Lundgren (Alberich), Alexander Tsymbalyuk (Fasolt), Ain Anger (Fafner), Ekaterina Gubanova (Fricka) Die Walküre (19 th January 2018) With Simon O Neill/Jonas Kaufmann (Siegmund), Ain Anger (Hunding), Wolfgang Koch (Wotan), Anja Kampe (Sieglinde), Nina Stemme (Brünnhilde), Ekaterina Gubanova (Fricka) Siegfried (31 st January 2018) With Stefan Vinke (Siegfried), Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke (Mime), Wolfgang Koch (Der Wanderer), John Lundgren (Alberich), Ain Anger (Fafner), Okka von der Damerau (Erda), Nina Stemme (Brünnhilde) Götterdämmerung (8 th February 2018) With Stefan Vinke (Siegfried), Markus Eiche (Gunther), Hans-Peter König (Hagen), John Lundgren (Alberich), Nina Stemme (Brünnhilde), Anna Gabler (Gutrune/3. Norn), Okka von der Damerau (Waltraute/1. Norn) Press Contact Ballet: annette.baumann@staatsoper.de, Tel. 089/ of 15

7 OPERA REPERTOIRE 2017/18 SEPTEMBER TO DECEMBER 2017 There will be a total of 35 productions in addition to the premieres in the 2017/18 season. Così fan tutte opens the season on the 29 th September with Constantin Trinks conducting the Bayerisches Staatsorchester. It will be followed by Il turco in Italia with Ildebrando D Arcangelo and Olga Peretyatko in Christof Loy s production. Oksana Lyniv heads the season premiere of Lady Macbeth of the Mtensk District. Once again, Anja Harteros sings the title role in Tosca and Maddalena in Andrea Chénier; her partners on stage will be Joseph Calleja (Mario Cavaradossi) and Jonas Kaufmann (Andrea Chénier). In Richard Strauss Die schweigsame Frau Brenda Rae and Pavol Breslik play the young lovers and Lard Woldt performs at the Staatsoper for the first time as Sir Morosus. Bertrand de Billy conducts Simon Boccanegra; Diana Damrau sings the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor and, finally, Munich comedian and satirist Gerhard Polt will give his debut in the role of the Frog in the traditional New Year s Fledermaus performance. JANUARY TO MARCH 2018 Performing for the first time at the Staatsoper, Maria José Siri is the lead in the season premiere of Madama Butterfly, after which Elīna Garanča will sing the role of Carmen. Just as in the premiere series in 2016, Anja Harteros will be Amelia in Un ballo in maschera and Matthew Polenzani returns as Fernand in La Favorite, this time with Clémentine Margaine in the title role. General Music Director Kirill Petrenko conducts Der Rosenkavalier with Adrianne Pieczonka, Angela Brower, Peter Rose and Hanna- Elisabeth Müller followed by a concert version of the work that will be performed in New York as part of the Bayerische Staatsoper s guest appearances at Carnegie Hall. Finally, Christiane Karg is the lead in David Alden s production of La Calisto. APRIL TO JUNE 2018 Performing in Munich for the first time, Krassimira Stoyanova is the prima donna in Ariadne auf Naxos, followed by a series of performances of Verdi s Macbeth with Simon Keenlyside and conducted by Pinchas Steinberg. Juan Diego Flórez will sing both Gennaro, with Edita Gruberova in Lucrezia Borgia, and Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor. Erwin Schrott is Mefistofele and Albina Shagimuratova sings the title role in Semiramide. Franz Schreker s Die Gezeichneten (The Stigmatized) returns to the Staatsoper stage in Krzysztof Warlikowski s production and Anja Harteros will play the lead in Arabella, this time with Michael Volle as her Mandryka. Markus Brück sings in Árpád Schilling s Rigoletto. Press Contact Ballet: annette.baumann@staatsoper.de, Tel. 089/ of 15

8 2018 MUNICH OPERA FESTIVAL In addition to the two premieres Parsifal and Orlando Paladino, the Munich Opera Festival 2018 will include the current season s new productions: Le nozze di Figaro, Il trittico, Les Vêpres siciliennes and From the House of the Dead. All roles will be performed by the same singers as in the premieres. Another highlight is a cycle from Richard Wagner s tetralogy The Ring of the Nibelung conducted by the General Music Director Kirill Petrenko. Singers will include Wolfgang Koch, Markus Eiche, John Lundgren, Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke, Ain Anger, Alexander Tsymbalyuk, Ekaterina Gubanova, Okka von der Damerau, Anja Kampe, Jonas Kaufmann, Nina Stemme, Stefan Vinke, Anna Gabler and Hans-Peter König and many more. Other artists to be seen on the festival stage include: Adrianne Pieczonka and Wolfgang Koch (The flying Dutchman); Pretty Yende and Vittorio Grigolo (L elisir d amore); Diana Damau (La traviata); Anna Netrebko, Joseph Calleja and Thomas Hampson (Tosca) as well as Anja Harteros and Thomas J. Mayer (Arabella). A total of six recital evenings showcase performances from Anja Harteros, Elisabeth Kulman, Günther Groissböck, Krassimira Stoyanova, Rolando Villazón and Piotr Beczala. As part of a festival gala, Edita Gruberova will sing arias by Bellini, Donizetti, Mozart and many more. On the 8th of July 2018, the Oper für alle programme presents an audio-visual live broadcast of Wagner s Parsifal conducted by Kirill Petrenko with Jonas Kaufmann, Christian Gerhaher, René Pape, Wolfgang Koch and Nina Stemme. Entry to the Max Joseph Platz is free as always. On the 21st of July, there will be a traditional open air festival concert, with Michele Mariotti conducting music by Antonín Dvořák and Giuseppe Verdi. Sonya Yoncheva lends her soprano voice to selected Verdi arias. As in previous years, the young musicians of ATTACCA will play Johannes Brahms Tragic Overture. Entry is free here too, thanks to our long-standing partner BMW Munich. Press Contact Ballet: annette.baumann@staatsoper.de, Tel. 089/ of 15

9 BALLET PREMIERES 2017/18 19 th November 2017: Anna Karenina Greta Garbo played her, as well as Vivien Leigh and Keira Knightley, to name just a few from the almost 20 film adaptations in 100 years. Like Fontane s Effi Briest, Leo Tolstoy s Anna Karenina belongs to the tragic female figures of realist literature 19 th century novels where the main characters duel at dawn to protect their honour or commit suicide. The latter option is often chosen by women beset by deep despair. Anna Karenina is torn between convention and passion, duty and rebellion. Her story has been the inspiration for many a choreographer s greatest work. Maja Plissetzkaja choreographed her 1972 version to the music of Rodion Shchedrin the legendary ballerina performed the leading role herself. It was followed by classical and modern interpretations by Boris Eifman, Jochen Ulrich, Alexei Ratmansky and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Christian Spuck s version was first performed in 2014 by the Zurich Ballet. The multiple award-winning choreographer from Stuttgart approached this story of infidelity from the 19 th Century with great sensitivity and placed it in a traditional Russian setting: birch tree forests and snow-covered landscapes, the legendary balls of the St. Petersburg aristocracy, beautiful women, pomp and splendour, as well as the palaces coldness. The place where, for Spuck, the action is located is covered by projections of quotations which are then danced on; the stage is large and mostly empty and the characters are lost there as they are in real life. For their musical characterisation, Spuck drew on piano music in particular: What really distinguishes this production is the music choice, namely Sergei Rachmaninov. It s a highly chromatic music which provides a certain gravitas. That s why I m contrasting it with Witold Lutoslawski s music, says the choreographer. The premiere in Munich is the first performance of a work by Spuck at the Bayerisches Staatsballett. 14 th April 2018: Portrait Wayne McGregor Ballet Festival Week An adventurous experimentalist, a soul driven by curiosity, who would like nothing more than to integrate all technological advances in every art form in order to show how these developments change our life, the world and, not least, art itself. This is Wayne McGregor. Born in 1970 in Stockport, UK, he fell in love with dance early on, inspired by films like Grease and Saturday Night Fever. He went on to study Choreography and Semiotics, continuing his education at the José Limon School in New York. In 1992 he founded the Random Dance Company, which quickly developed into a kind of aesthetics research centre, a Wayne McGregor studio. Inspiration from art, music, philosophy and scientific research meld together to form an interdisciplinary whole. Press Contact Ballet: annette.baumann@staatsoper.de, Tel. 089/ of 15

10 He has been Choreographer in Residence at the Royal Ballet London since 2006, and is the first person from the free scene to have ever held this position. Since then he has choreographed fifteen works for the Royal Ballet in which he has continued to explore movement on the basis of classical ballet, as in his early 2006 work Chroma and the fulllength Woolf Works from His wide-ranging oeuvre includes productions for the greatest companies of the world such as Ballet de l Opéra de Paris, New York City Ballet, Bolshoi Theatre Ballet Moscow and the San Francisco Ballet. Wayne McGregor s works can be seen for the first time at the Bayerisches Staatsballett as part of the 2018 Ballet Festival Week. Ballet Director Igor Zelensky has chosen to add two recent, successful pieces to the repertoire: Borderlands (San Francisco Ballet, 2013) and Kairos (Ballett Zürich, 2014). In addition, the three-part programme of Portrait Wayne McGregor will include a new work for the Bayerisches Staatsballett: It s interesting to work with dancers who are working on new interpretations of existing pieces and to see how they make the material their own and how they present it to the audience. And at the same time I ve got the opportunity to create something completely new with the dancers. I m looking forward to working on a new piece with the dancers at the Staatsballett, says McGregor about his premiere. 4 th July 2018: Ballet Evening Young Choreographers Just as in the 2016/17 season, Igor Zelensky will be handing over the stage of the Prinzregententheater in July 2018 to new, emerging choreographers most of them successful dancers in their own right who stand at the cusp of their careers as choreographers. In summer 2017, Andrey Kaydanovskiy, Benoît Favre, Anton Pimonov and Dustin Klein present their new creations for the Bayerisches Staatsballett. The programme for summer 2018 will also offer an evening of contemporary dance pieces, the details of which will be made public at the start of Press Contact Ballet: annette.baumann@staatsoper.de, Tel. 089/ of 15

11 BALLET REVIVALS 2017/18 28 th September 2017: The Taming of the Shrew After a five year break, John Cranko s famous Shakespeare adaptation, one of the most successful comic ballets in the history of dance, will return to the National Theatre at the start of the season. The South-African provides Shakespeare s 1595 play with a literary model for an evening of dramatic ballet, which was first performed in 1969 in Stuttgart before becoming part of the Bayerisches Staatsballett repertoire in In The Taming of the Shrew, all is not quite what it seems. By the end, the prickly Katharina is tame, two whores become wives and Katharina s shy sister reveals herself to be a complete monster. This is how it happens: Before Bianca is allowed to marry, a husband must be found for the stubborn, shrewish Katharina. For this, Bianca s admirers hire a daredevil called Petrucchio. To everyone s surprise, he not only succeeds in giving as good as he gets from the rebellious Katharina, but manages to bring out Katharina s true, kind and gentle self. This entertaining war of the sexes ends with an equal and loving partnership. The revival of the comic ballet can be enjoyed in the autumn of 2017 at the National Theatre. 11 th January 2018: Don Quijote Don Quijote by Marius Petipa, first performed at the Bolschoi Theatre Moscow in 1869 to music by Ludwig Minkus, is widely regarded today as one of the greatest dramatic ballets of the 19 th century. Since 1991, the Munich company has been performing the American version by choreographer Ray Barra, reworked at the time by the then newly founded Bayerisches Staatsballett. The piece was last performed in Now, after a seven year break, it returns to the stage of the Prinzregententheater. Barra, who also adapted Swan Lake and Raymonda for the Bayerisches Staatsballett, had great respect for choreographic tradition. Thus, the episode chosen by Petipa from Cervantes novel, the love story between the Barbier Basilio and the inn-keeper s daughter Kitri, unfolds beautifully. In accordance with her father s wishes, Kitri must marry the rich Gamacho. But with wit and cunning, as well as a helping hand from Don Quijote, the two lovers Kitri and Basilio succeed in marrying in the end. 2 nd February 2018: Onegin If any full-length ballet from the second half of the 20 th century has a chance at becoming a classic à la Swan Lake then, according to audiences, critics and dancers, it is John Cranko s Onegin. Created in 1965 and based on the poem by Alexander Pushkin, the story of the young Tatyana, who falls in love with the arrogant dandy Onegin and who is cruelly rejected by him moved audiences worldwide from Beijing to New York. Onegin has been performed in Munich for 30 years, and by many of the greatest dancers from Eva Evdokimova to Konstanze Vernon, Evelyn Hart, Lucia Lacarra and Polina Semionova Press Contact Ballet: annette.baumann@staatsoper.de, Tel. 089/ of 15

12 have given the role their own unique, unmistakable personality. Hardly any other narrative ballet allows so many possibilities for character development than in the role of Tatyana: During the two and a half hour performance, Tatyana transforms from a dreamy, naive teenager to a mature woman, who must, in a final, dramatic confrontation, finally decide between passion and duty. Onegin returns to the Staatsballett programme in February after a three year break. 22 nd May 2018: Raymonda Raymonda, first performed in 1898 in St. Petersburg s Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, is the final great work by the choreographer Marius Petipa, creator of Cinderella, Nutcracker and Don Quijote. Set to the music of Alexander Glazunov, this ballet is regarded as the equal of Tchaikovsky s greatest works. If Petipa had been a world famous artist in his final creative phase during his work on Raymonda, then the chances are that the 32 year old Alexander Glazunov would have made his name as a young, emerging talent. Together they created the ballet highlight of the late Tsarist era in St. Petersburg, which has had a lasting impact on our definition of classical ballet today. At the first ballet gala in January 2017, the stars of the Staatsballett led by Igor Zelensky presented the First Soloist Ksenia Ryzhkova and Demi-Soloist Alexander Omelchenko in the Grand Pas Hongrois, one of Raymonda s choreographic highlights. After a break of eight years, the full-length piece will return to the National Theatre stage in May The choreographer Ray Barra, who has previously reworked Swan Lake and Don Quijote in Munich, will also be responsible for the Bayerisches Staatsballett Raymonda adaption. He has retained Marius Petipa s choreography while working more intensively on developing the leading heroine s story. Raymonda is stuck between two men: the crusader knight Jean de Brienne, to whom she has been betrothed since childhood, and the Saracen caliph from Córdoba, Abderakhman, who woos and tries to seduce her. Although Jean kills Abderakhman in a fight, paving the way for a splendid wedding feast at the ballet s climax, Raymonda will never forget her encounter with Abderakhman, his disturbing, erotic power and the deeply conflicting emotions she experiences. Press Contact Ballet: annette.baumann@staatsoper.de, Tel. 089/ of 15

13 BALLETT REPERTOIRE 2017/18 SEPTEMBER TO DECEMBER 2017 The Bayerisches Staatsballett opens the 2017/18 season with a revival of John Cranko s comic ballet The Taming of the Shrew based on the play by William Shakespeare. Following this will be the same work that opened Igor Zelensky s first season: Giselle, the most romantic ballet ever made, in Peter Wright s interpretation. The programme will also include La Bayadère, which proved a successful guest performance for the Staatsballett in Hong Kong in February The first premiere of the season is on the programme in November: For the first time, a work by Zurich Ballett Director Christian Spuck will be performed in Munich with Anna Karenina. The year will close with two winter matinees from the Heinz-Bosl-Stiftung/the Bayerisches Jugendballett (the Bavarian Youth Ballet) and a series of performances of John Neumeier s A Midsummer Night s Dream. JANUARY TO MARCH 2018 After Yuri Grigorovich s celebrated dance drama Spartacus at the start of the year, February at the Bayerisches Staatsballett will be completely under the John Cranko s star-sign. In August 2017, the choreographer and director of the Stuttgarter Ballett would have been 90 years old. The Munich ensemble will also commemorate this anniversary in its 2017/18 season. Three of his key works are on the programme: Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew and Onegin. In February 2018, all three of these works will be performed in a row as part of the Cranko Festival. Along with Stuttgart, the Bayerisches Staatsballett is the only company worldwide to have all three pieces in its repertoire. Further performances in the first months of 2018 include a revival of the two act ballet Don Quijote, A Midsummer Night s Dream by John Neumeier, La Fille mal gardée and another series of Christian Spuck s Anna Karenina. APRIL TO JULY 2018 AND BALLET FESTIVAL WEEK Portrait Wayne McGregor, a three-part evening with two premieres and a first performance of the British choreographer, will open the Ballet Festival Week From the 14th to 22nd April, the programme will also include the Cranko Triad with Romeo and Juliet, Onegin and The Taming of the Shrew. Performances of Alice in Wonderland, Spartacus, Anna Karenina and the traditional Heinz-Bosl-Stiftung Matinee complete the programme. May sees the return of the Petipa classic Raymonda to the National Theatre stage after an eight year break, reworked by Ray Barra. As in 2017, the end of the season will be distinguished by a ballet evening showcasing the work of young choreographers, which will premiere at the Prinzregententheater in July 2018 as part of the opera festival. Press Contact Ballet: annette.baumann@staatsoper.de, Tel. 089/ of 15

14 Bayerisches Staatsorchester ACADEMY CONCERTS Following the Bayerisches Staatsorchester s tour of Asia, the General Music Director Kirill Petrenko opens the concert season with the 1 st Academy Concert on the 9 th and 10 th of October. Gustav Mahler s songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn are on the programme, interpreted by the baritone Matthias Goerne. The second half of the concert, Johannes Brahms Symphony No. 4 e-minor op. 98, is also part of the guest recital in Asia. The following month will see the 2 nd Academy Concert led by Cristian Măcelaru, who will be conducting for the first time at the Bayerische Staatsoper. Along with the Swiss pianist Francesco Piemontesi, he will be interpreting Piano Concert No. 2 in A-Major by Franz Liszt. Two Hungarian composers will also be part of the programme: Zoltán Kodály s Concert for Orchestra and Béla Bartók s Grand Suite from his pantomime ballet The Wooden Prince. (20 th /21 st November) The 3 rd Academy Concert will also see a conducting debut at the Staatsoper: The young Israeli conductor Lahav Shani will head Felix Mendelssohn Bartoldy s Overture Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, Antonín Dvořák s Symphony No. 9 e-minor From the New World and Richard Strauss Oboe Concert D-Major. Strauss work will be interpreted by Giorgi Gvantseladze, who has been solo oboist at the Bayerisches Staatsorchester since (18 th /19 th December) The 4 th Academy Concert will be led by the General Music Director. Johannes Brahms has an increasingly important role to play in Kirill Petrenko s repertoire and, on this occasion, he will turn to Brahms Concert for Violin and Violoncello in A-Minor. The soloist parts will be reworked by the violinist Julia Fischer and cellist Daniel Müller- Schott. Another addition to the programme is Peter I. Tchaikovsky s Manfred Symphony, which belongs to the rarities of the concert scene. (19 th /20 th March) The Bayerisches Staatsorchester s 5 th Academy Concert will be conducted by Daniele Rustioni, who gave his first performance at the theatre with Madama Butterfly. The programme comprises of Sergei S. Prokofiev s Violin Concert No. 2 G-Minor with the Ukrainian-Israeli violinist Vadim Gluzman. There will also be a chance to hear Dmitri D. Shostakovich s famous Leningrader Symphony No. 7 in C-Major. (23 th /24 th April) To close the Academy Concert Season 2017/18, General Music Director Kirill Petrenko will continue his exploration of Gustav Mahler s work. At the 6 th Academy Concert, along with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester, he will interpret Symphony No. 7 in e- Minor. The piece, which will comprise the entire evening, is made up of five movements and is described as a key work of extreme contrasts and ambiguity. (28 th /29 th May) Press Contact Ballet: annette.baumann@staatsoper.de, Tel. 089/ of 15

15 GUEST RECITALS 2017/18 Taiwan / South Korea / Japan: 9 th September to 1 st October 2017 Even before the official start to the season, the Bayerische Staatsoper and the Bayerisches Staatsorchester will be travelling to Asia. The orchestra and General Music Director Kirill Petrenko will be giving three concerts in Taiwan and South Korea for the first time. From the 17th September, the Bayerische Staatsoper will be travelling to Tokyo as a guest company with four scenic performances of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart s The Magic Flute led by Asher Fisch and three performances of Tannhäuser led by Kirill Petrenko. The Staatsoper s last recital in Tokyo took place in Two different concert programmes present music from Sergei Rachmaninov, Gustav Mahler and Ludwig van Beethoven. Igor Levit is the soloist for Beethoven s Piano Concert No. 3. To close the series of Asian guest appearances, Kirill Petrenko will conduct a special concert including the 1 st act from Richard Wagner s Die Walküre and Gustav Mahler s songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn with Matthias Goerne. Hamburg, Elbphilharmonie: 24 th March 2018 Kirill Petrenko and the Bayerisches Staatsorchester will give their first ever performance at Hamburg s Elbphilharmonie with the Concert for Violin and Violoncello A-Minor op. 102 by Johannes Brahms and Peter I. Tchaikovsky s Manfred Symphony. The soloists are Julia Fischer and Daniel Müller-Schott. New York, Carnegie Hall: 28 th and 29 th März 2018 For the first time, the Bayerische Staatsoper are guest performers at New York s legendary concert hall. On the first evening, Kirill Petrenko will conduct music by Brahms and Tchaikovsky. The General Music Director will also conduct a concert version of Richard Strauss Der Rosenkavalier with Adrianne Pieczonka, Angela Brower, Peter Rose and Hanna-Elisabeth Müller. London, Barbican Centre: 1 st June 2018 In June, the Bayerisches Staatsorchester and Kirill Petrenko will give another debut, this time at London s Barbican Centre. They will be playing Gustav Mahler s Symphony No. 7 in e-minor. Press Contact Ballet: annette.baumann@staatsoper.de, Tel. 089/ of 15