New Scenes VI – Exposed

A Chamber Opera Triptych by Juta Pranulytė, Sina Fani Sani, Germán Alonso

27
Thursday
April
20:00 - 22:00
€ 20,00 / concs.* € 10,00
Free choice of seats
Information about the work

PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Music by Juta Pranulytė
Text based on interviews: Giulia Fornasier

LOVELEASE
Music by Germán Alonso
Libretto by Fabrizio Funari

D:\FACED
Music by Sina Fani Sani
Libretto by Franziska vom Heede

Premiere: 21 April 2023, Tischlerei of the Deutsche Oper Berlin

approx. 2 hours 15 minutes / one interval

In German, English and Italian with German surtitles

Introductory lecture: from 7.15 p.m. to 7.40 p.m. in the cloakroom hall of the Tischlerei

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Cast
  • Set design, Costume design
    Zoe Leutnant
  • Project Management, Mentorship Directing
    Prof. Claus Unzen
  • Mentorship Directing
    Prof. Corinna von Rad
    Sven Holm
  • Dramaturgy
  • Head of Studies
    Peter Meiser
  • Musical rehearsals
    Byron Knutson
Physical Education
Lòvelease
  • Composition
  • Libretto
  • Conductor
  • Director
  • Dramaturgy
    Caterina Szigeth
  • Elisabeth
    Isabelle Nahrstedt
  • Maggie
    Èlia Farreras Cabero
  • Carl
    Egor Sergeev
  • Brian
    Rory Green
  • bass clarinet
    Dake Li
  • Trumpet
    Florian Baccuet
  • Double bass
    Kostiantyn Kruhliak
  • Piano
    Zhifeng Hu
D:\FACED
Our thanks to our partners

A collaboration between the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin

27
Thursday
April
20:00 - 22:00
€ 20,00 / concs.* € 10,00
Free choice of seats
Cast
  • Set design, Costume design
    Zoe Leutnant
  • Project Management, Mentorship Directing
    Prof. Claus Unzen
  • Mentorship Directing
    Prof. Corinna von Rad
    Sven Holm
  • Dramaturgy
  • Head of Studies
    Peter Meiser
  • Musical rehearsals
    Byron Knutson
Physical Education
Lòvelease
  • Composition
  • Libretto
  • Conductor
  • Director
  • Dramaturgy
    Caterina Szigeth
  • Elisabeth
    Isabelle Nahrstedt
  • Maggie
    Èlia Farreras Cabero
  • Carl
    Egor Sergeev
  • Brian
    Rory Green
  • bass clarinet
    Dake Li
  • Trumpet
    Florian Baccuet
  • Double bass
    Kostiantyn Kruhliak
  • Piano
    Zhifeng Hu
D:\FACED
the content

Bodies in love, in decay, under observation or on view: the three world premieres at this NEW SCENES VI – EXPOSED event have in common the relentless self-questioning of the protagonists, their self-centredness and loneliness as they at once exploit their bodies mercilessly yet sense their estrangement from them. We form part of the world through and with our bodies – yet it is a fundamental reality of the modern age that we have come to view them as an object that we handle and manhandle as if hived off from our very self.

In NEUE SZENEN VI - EXPOSED, this is the unifying element for three plays in which young artists explore these questions on stage from their own perspectives and life experiences. In Juta Pranulytė’s PHYSICAL EDUCATION, based on interviews and written in collaboration with dramaturg Giulia Fornasier, private individuals describe how they perceive themselves as people. They reveal their vulnerability, exposing themselves to the regards and rating of others. LÒVELEASE by composer Germán Alonso and librettist Fabrizio Funari is likewise about personal disclosures somewhere between mendacity and the quest for intimacy within the setting of a dystopic dating agency. D:\FACED by Sina Fani Sani, composed to a libretto by Franziska vom Heede, pursues our obsession with the body further, contriving to write it into a power system that claims to be saving mankind from a looming apocalypse.

All three works were created as part of the sixth edition of NEW SCENES, a biennial project run jointly by the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin. The project sees itself as a laboratory in which young artists can search for their own signatures in the multifaceted musical-theatre metier while experimenting with new forms of artistic collaboration. NEW SCENES always begins with a composition competition, which this year was also open to composer/librettist teams and whose international profile was resoundingly evinced by the 120 entries from over 30 countries. The respective winners are commissioned to produce a piece of musical theatre, not longer than 30 minutes in duration, to be developed with the close involvement of students from the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin and later staged, performed and sung by students in the Tischlerei of the Deutsche Oper Berlin. The biennial series is an opportunity for students, mentored by the Deutsche Oper Berlin in a professional setting, to gather experience while producing fresh, modern-day musical theatre.

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04
DEC

Adventskalender im Foyer: Das 4. Fensterchen

African American Spirituals
with Christian Simmons and John Parr
5.00 p.m. / Rang-Foyer right
Duration: approx. 25 minutes / admission free


In Germany, it is still little known today that, parallel to the development of the European song, the spiritual in the USA looks back on a tradition that goes back to the 17th century. Created during the oppression of slavery as songs of labour, freedom, play, lamentation, celebration or lullabies, African-American spirituals form the starting point for gospel, blues and ultimately also for jazz, R&B and African-American music in general. Spirituals are characterised by their rhythmic finesse, which includes counter-rhythms, polyrhythms and syncopation. The tonality is characterised by microtonality, pentatonic scales and the varied use of the singing voice. All these elements suggest that the influences of African music, as brought to America by slaves, have survived over the centuries, mostly passed down orally, to this day.


The bass-baritone Christian Simmons, originally from Washington D.C., was a member of the Cafritz Young Artists of the Washington National Opera in the 2022/23 season and joined the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper Berlin as a scholarship holder of the Opera Foundation New York in the 2023/24 season. Over the course of the season, he will appear in roles such as Lord Rochefort / ANNA BOLENA, 2nd Harnischter / DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE, Pinellino / GIANNI SCHICCHI, Brabantischer Edler / LOHENGRIN, Oberpriester des Baal / NABUCCO and Sciarrone / TOSCA. Simmons is the district winner of the Metropolitan Opera's 2022/23 Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition, winner of the 2017 Harlem Opera Theater Vocal Competition, winner of the 2016 National Association of Teaching Singing (NATS) Regional Competition, and an Honorary Life Member of the Coalition for African Americans in the Performing Arts (CAAPA). A graduate of Morgan State University and the Maryland Opera Studio, Simmons is a member of the nation's first and largest music fraternity, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America.

John Parr was born in Birmingham in 1955 and studied at Manchester University and at the Royal Northern College of Music with Sulamita Aronovsky. He won prizes as a solo pianist at international competitions in Barcelona and Vercelli and was a member of Yehudi Menuhin's "Live Music Now". From 1985 to 1988 he was a guest repetiteur at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and worked for the Scottish Opera in Glasgow from 1989 to 1991. He came to Germany in 1991 and was Head of Studies and Musical Assistant to the General Music Director in Hanover. In 2000, Pamela Rosenberg and Donald Runnicles brought him to San Francisco Opera as Head of Music Staff. From 2002 to 2005, he was musical assistant at the Bayreuth Festival. From 2011 to 2014, he was casting director and assistant to the general music director at the Staatstheater Karlsruhe. Since August 2014, John Parr has been working at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, initially as Head of Studies and since 2018 as Head Coach.