Newsletter, February 2013

Katharina Thoma's Trovatore in Dortmund

Katharina Thoma started her career as Director in 2009 with Vanessa at Malmö Opera (the production was brought to Oper Frankfurt this season). Since then she has directed many successful productions e.g. The Magic Flute at Staatstheater Kassel and Madame Butterfly at Folkoperan in Stockholm. February 2nd Il Trovatore opens at Theather Dortmund, where Katharina Thoma is director in residence during the seasons 11/12 and 12/13. Later this spring she will make her Glyndebourne debut with Ariadne auf Naxos at the opening of this year's festival.

As you studied piano before becoming a director, your artistic roots lay in music. What made you decide to become a director?

I got the idea of working with music theatre when I worked as an accompanist at the music academy. I was so fascinated by the fact that the work on stage is not only about music but also about words, meanings, images! I wanted to add these other layers to my musical experience, so I started the work on stage after having finished my piano exams.

There must be a great advantage as a director to be able to read scores and to follow the music. What is most important when directing? The music or the stage-management?

It's definitely a great advantage, as I am able to tell the story not only from the words sung by the singers but also from every moment of sound in between. Like this, the storytelling gets very dense. I would say that the music and the stage management are equally important, but I certainly draw the inspiration for my productions from the music.

What works are on your wish list for the future?

I would like to do more Mozart operas, as they are theatrically and psychologically so incredibly rich! Also on the list is a piece like Hänsel und Gretel, and I recently discovered that I would like to do a staging of the Rosenkavalier. Apart from that, I can't wait to do my first Janacek! 

Photo: Gerardo Garciarcano  

Weinius in Berlin

Michael Weinius will make his début at Deutsche Oper Berlin on February 10th, when singing the title role in Lohengrin. As Ortrud Waltraud Meier is heard, and the production is lead by Donald Runnicles.

“The sound of something out there”

A new album, "Spheres", with British violinist Daniel Hope and the Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin will be released by Deutsche Grammophon on February 15th. The album includes works and arrangements by contemporary masters like Arvo Pärt, Karl Jenkins, Max Richter, Gabriel Prokofiev and Alex Baranowski who for this album drew inspiration from the ancient philosophical concept, Musica universalis, which regards proportions in the movements of celestial bodies as a form of music.

Surrounded in electroacoustic sound

Susanna Levonen will sing the role of Senta when Folkoperan in Stockholm celebrates the Wagner Year by performing The Flying Dutchman created in a new and different world of sound. Inspired from Wagner’s friend Liszt and the golden age of piano music, Wagner’s venturesome opera has here been arranged for three grand pianos and Mats Lindström's electroacoustic music. The electronic musician will give Wagner's ocean a new colour. Folkoperan’s The Flying Dutchman opens on February 6^th.

Back to Helsinki

Estonian conductor Paul Mägi returns to the Finnish National Opera to lead Massenet’s beloved three act opera Thaïs. Last Season Paul Mägi had great success at the FNO when Jüri Reinvere’s opera Puhdistus based on Sofi Oksanens award winning novel had its World Premier. Paul Mägi is since 2004 Principal Conductor of Uppsala Chamber Orchestra.

At the Met

Susanne Resmark is back at the Metropolitan Opera for singing Ragonde in Rossinis opera Le Comte Ory. Later this season awaits another comic role - Mistress Quickly in Falstaff at the Glyndebourne Festival.

Prestigious Music Award to Danjulo Ishizaka

German-Japanese cellist Danjulo Ishizaka has recently received the very prestigious Hideo Saito Memorial Fund Award - one of Japan's greatest music awards, awarded annually by Sony Music Foundation to a conductor and to a cellist of extraordinary musical achievements. Danjulo’s international concert schedule regularly takes him throughout Europe, the USA, China and Japan, and he has performed with leading orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. The amount of the prize is 5 000 000 Japanese Yen. Previous winners include Alan Gilbert and Mari Endo.