Opera

Berenice

Opera based on Edgar Allen Poe

This nightmarish story focuses on the incestuous siblings Egäus and Berenice. She, a beauty, yet suffering from an incurable wasting disease – he, a loner brooding in his study, immersed in monomaniac considerations – are juxtaposed as contrary archetypes that embody many fundamental problems of human life and co-existence as well as innumerable primal fears.

The Austrian composer has found in the lyricist Durs Grünbein from Berlin an ideal partner, who has, with his libretto, relocated this classic tale to our times.

Programme

Berenice
Opera based on Edgar Allan Poe

Music Johannes Maria Staud
Libretto Durs Grünbein

Commissioned work City of Munich for the Munich Biennial, Wiener Festwochen and Berliner Festspiele

Cast

Conductor Stefan Asbury
Directed by Claus Guth
Stage and Costume Design Christian Schmidt
Video Alex Buresch, Kai Ehlers

Soprano Dorothee Mields
Mezzo Soprano Anne-Carolyn Schlüter
Bass Baritone Otto Katzameier
Actors Matthias Bundschuh, Klaus Haderer
Vokalensemble

Klangforum Wien
Experimentalstudio der Heinrich-Strobel-Stiftung des SWR e.V. Freiburg
Michael Acker, Roland Breitenfeld, Johannes Maria Staudsound direction

Co-production Munich Biennial, Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz, Wiener Festwochen, Berliner Festspiele