The Munich Biennale ( German: Münchener Biennale) is a contemporary opera and music theatre festival in the city of Munich. The full German name is Internationales Festival für neues Musiktheater, literally: International Festival for New Music Theater. The biennial festival was created in 1988 by Hans Werner Henze and is held in even-numbered years over 2–3 weeks in the late spring. The festival concentrates on world premieres of theater-related contemporary music, with a particular focus on commissioning first operas from young composers. [1] [2]
History
Hans Werner Henze's artistic directorship (1988–1996)
Henze, himself a prolific composer of operas, described the genesis of the festival like this:
The whole story started with a query from the departmental head of the (Munich) cultural office ... whether I ... would be interested in considering creating some sort of civic music festival in Munich. After a period of time I suggested organizing something that had been lacking up until that point, something that also did not exist anywhere else in the world and yet was an urgent necessity – namely, a place where the young generation of composers interested in theatre ... could realize their ideas. [3]
Henze curated the first four festivals, from 1988 to 1994, and established the general format of most of the festivals that followed. [4] Short runs of the premiered operas are preceded by talks and additional concerts from the featured composers, to introduce the audiences to their ideas and music. [5] See also Klangspuren.
Peter Ruzicka's artistic directorship (1996–2014)
Peter Ruzicka took over as artistic director ("one of the most influential administrative/ artistic positions in the European music-theatre scene") [6] in 1996, with that year's biennale being jointly curated by Henze. Ruzicka broadened the scope of the works presented, with more emphasis on works using multimedia, and moving away from the text-based sources that characterised the period curated by Henze. [7]
Manos Tsangaris and Daniel Ott's artistic directorship (2016–)
The composers Manos Tsangaris and Daniel Ott took over as joint artistic directors of the Biennale, starting in 2016. [8] Their approach to curation further expanded the festival's remit beyond opera, to reflect an 'expanded composition term' and the 'open field' of new music theatre which spans '[f]rom new opera to scenic installation, from minimalized artistic interventions in municipal spaces to composed performance'. [9]
Operas given at the Munich Biennale
World premieres are marked as WP
| Premiere | Composer | Title | Libretto and source | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 May 1988 | WP | Detlev Glanert | Leyla und Medjnun | Aras Ören and Peter Schneider, after the epic poem by Nizami |
| 3 Jun 1988 | WP | Gerd Kühr | Stallerhof | Franz Xaver Kroetz, after his own play |
| 4 Jun 1988 | WP | Adriana Hölszky | Bremer Freiheit | Thomas Körner (librettist), after the play by Rainer Werner Fassbinder |
| 17 Jun 1988 | WP | Mark-Anthony Turnage | Greek | the composer and Jonathan Moore, after the play by Steven Berkoff |
| 26 Apr 1990 | WP | András Hamary | Seid still | José Vera Morales, after the play Tóték by István Örkény |
| 28 Apr 1990 | WP | Wolfgang von Schweinitz | Patmos | D. E. Sattler, after the Apocalypse of St John in Martin Luther's translation |
| 6 May 1990 | WP | Hans-Jürgen von Bose | 63: Dream Palace | the composer, after the novella by James Purdy |
| 14 May 1990 | WP | Michèle Reverdy | Le Précepteur | Hans-Ulrich Treichel, after the play Der Hofmeister by Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz |
| 7 May 1992 | [10] | Violeta Dinescu | Eréndira | Monika Rothmaier, after the story The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Eréndira and Her Heartless Grandmother by Gabriel García Márquez |
| 29 Apr 1992 | WP | Jorge Liderman | Antigona Furiosa | the composer, after the drama by Griselda Gambaro |
| 27 May 1992 | [11] | Giorgio Battistelli | Teorema | the composer, loosely after the film by Pier Paolo Pasolini |
| 16 May 1992 | WP | Gerhard Stäbler | Sünde.Fall.Beil | Andreas Lechner, after the drama Catherine Howard by Alexandre Dumas père |
| 22 May 1992 | [12] | Param Vir | Broken Strings | David Rudkin, after the Buddhist story Guttil Jatak |
| 22 May 1992 | [12] | Param Vir | Snatched by the Gods | William Radice, after the poem Debatar Gras by Rabindranath Tagore |
| 1 May 1994 | WP | Tania León | Scourge of Hyacinths | the composer, after the radio play by Wole Soyinka |
| 19 May 1994 | WP | Benedict Mason | Playing Away | Howard Brenton |
| 4 Dec 1996 | WP | Michael Obst | Solaris | the composer, after the novel by Stanislaw Lem |
| 9 Dec 1996 | WP | Hanna Kulenty | The Mother of Black-Winged Dreams | Paul Goodwin |
| 14 Apr 1997 | WP | Roderick Watkins | The Juniper Tree | Patricia Debney, after the folk tale by the Brothers Grimm |
| 19 Apr 1998 | WP | Toshio Hosokawa | Vision of Lear | Tadashi Suzuki, after his stage play The Tale of Lear |
| 21 Apr 1998 | WP | Sandeep Bhagwati | Ramanujan | the composer, after the life of Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887–1920) |
| 25 Apr 1998 | WP | Jan Müller-Wieland | Komödie ohne Titel | the composer, after the drama Comedia sin título by Federico García Lorca |
| 19 Apr 1999 | WP | Mauricio Sotelo | De Amore | Peter Mussbach |
| 10 May 2000 | WP | Chaya Czernowin | Pnima ... ins Innere | |
| 27 Apr 2002 | WP | André Werner | Marlowe: Der Jude von Malta | the composer, after the play The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe |
| 3 May 2002 | WP | Manfred Stahnke | Orpheus Kristall | Simone Homem de Mello |
| 12 May 2004 | WP | Johannes Maria Staud | Berenice | Durs Grünbein, after Edgar Allan Poe |
| 25 May 2004 | WP | Brian Ferneyhough | Shadowtime | Charles Bernstein |
| 9 May 2006 | WP | Aureliano Cattaneo | La Philosophie dans le labyrinthe | Edoardo Sanguineti, after the Greek myth of the Minotaur |
| 18 May 2006 | WP | José María Sánchez-Verdú | GRAMMA | the composer |
| 17 Apr 2008 | WP | Enno Poppe | Arbeit Nahrung Wohnung | Marcel Beyer, loosely after the novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe |
| 18 Apr 2008 | WP | Klaus Lang | Die Architektur des Regens | after the Noh play Shiga by Zeami (c1363–c1443) |
| 23 Apr 2008 | WP | Carola Bauckholt | hellhörig | (none) |
| 30 Apr 2008 | WP | Jens Joneleit | Piero – Ende der Nacht | Michael Herrschel, loosely after the novel Die Rote by Alfred Andersch |
| 27 Apr 2010 | WP | Philipp Maintz | Maldoror | Thomas Fiedler, after Les Chants de Maldoror by Comte de Lautréamont |
| 28 Apr 2010 | WP | Márton Illés | Die weiße Fürstin | after the first draft of the dramatic poem by Rainer Maria Rilke |
| 5 May 2010 | WP | Klaus Schedl | Tilt [13] | Roland Quitt, after the diary of Sir Walter Raleigh |
| 5 May 2010 | WP | Tato Taborda | Der Einsturz des Himmels [13] | Roland Quitt, after the book La Chute du Ciel by Davi Kopenawa and Bruce Albert |
| 5 May 2010 | WP | Ludger Brummer ( web) | In Erwartung [13] | Peter Weibel |
| 9 May 2010 | WP | Lin Wang | Die Quelle | the composer and Can Xue, after a story "the Double Life" by Can Xue |
| 3 May 2012 | WP | Sarah Nemtsov | L'Absence | the composer, after Livre des Questions by Edmond Jabès |
| 5 May 2012 | WP | Eunyoung Esther Kim ( web) | Mama Dolorosa | Yona Kim |
| 16 May 2012 | WP | Arnulf Herrmann | Wasser | Nico Bleutge (lyrics) |
| 7 May 2014 | WP [14] | Marko Nikodijević | Vivier | Gunther Geltinger, after the life and death of Claude Vivier |
| 8 May 2014 | WP [14] | Samy Moussa ( web) | Vastation | Toby Litt |
| 11 May 2014 | Claude Vivier | Kopernikus | opéra-rituel de mort, libretto by the composer | |
| 17 May 2014 | WP [14] | Dieter Schnebel | Utopien | |
| 22 May 2014 | WP [14] | Héctor Parra | Das geopferte Leben | Marie NDiaye |
Significance
The Munich Biennale has provided first or early commissions for stage works from many composers now established as opera composers, such as Mark-Anthony Turnage, Detlev Glanert, Gerd Kühr, Hans-Jürgen von Bose, Param Vir, Toshio Hosokawa and Violeta Dinescu.
The strongly international scope of the festival has meant that it has been able to offer opportunities missing at a national level. [15]
References
Notes
- ^ Munich Biennale Concert Series: Biennale plus Archived 30 July 2012 at archive.today Ernst von Siemens music foundation 2010
- ^ Kerstan, Michael; Wolken, Clemens (2006). Hans Werner Henze: Komponist der Gegenwart. p. 117. ISBN 9783894875367.
- ^ "Munich Biennale Official website". Munich Biennale. Archived from the original on 12 February 2013. Retrieved 27 March 2011.
- ^ Official website, archive notes to first biennale, 1988 Archived 5 September 2012 at archive.today
- ^ Official website, Klangspuren (discussion concerts) archive Archived 1 April 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Salzman, Desi, p. 164
- ^ Official website, archive notes to fifth biennale, 1996
- ^ "The Munich Biennale for Music Theatre as a Form of Artistic Research – DARE conferences".
- ^ "Press – Münchener Biennale".
- ^ Dinescu's Eréndira was a co-commission with the Staatsoper Stuttgart, where it had its world premiere on 18 March 1992
- ^ Battistelli's Teorema was a co-commission with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, where it had its world premiere in the Teatro Comunale, on 10 May 1992
- ^ a b Vir's operas Broken Strings and Snatched by the Gods were a co-commission with De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam, where they had their world premieres on 11 May 1992
- ^ a b c Tilt, Der Einsturz des Himmels and In Erwartung were presented in a triple bill entitled Amazonas
- ^ a b c d Advance information for the 2014 edition from the Munich Biennale website. Retrieved 25 December 2013
- ^ Salzman, Desi; p. 222: ".. with one or two notable exceptions, the lively London theatre and music scene has not developed a strong creative music-theatre component. The result is that the Munich Biennale and the film industry have sometimes been better patrons for new British opera and music theatre than local musical institutions".
Sources
- münchener biennale Festival website Retrieved 13 March 2012
- Salzman, Eric; Desi, Thomas (2008). The New Music Theater: Seeing the Voice, Hearing the Body. Oxford University Press USA. ISBN 978-0-19-509936-2.
External links
- Peter & Alexa Woolf: Munich Biennale 2000 (Contemporary Music Festival) 4–19 May 2000 (PGW & AW) musicweb-international.com 2000
- John Warnaby: Tenth Münchener Biennale musicweb-international.com 20 May 2006
- Komponieren für die reine Natur Münchener Merkur 23 April 2010 (in German)
- Münchener Biennale / Urwald-Symphonie und surrealer Seelentrip[ permanent dead link] Bayerischer Rundfunk 14 May 2010 (in German)
- Gerhard Rohde: Münchener Biennale / Wozu der ganze Aufwand? FAZ 12 May 2010 (in German)
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
The Munich Biennale ( German: Münchener Biennale) is a contemporary opera and music theatre festival in the city of Munich. The full German name is Internationales Festival für neues Musiktheater, literally: International Festival for New Music Theater. The biennial festival was created in 1988 by Hans Werner Henze and is held in even-numbered years over 2–3 weeks in the late spring. The festival concentrates on world premieres of theater-related contemporary music, with a particular focus on commissioning first operas from young composers. [1] [2]
History
Hans Werner Henze's artistic directorship (1988–1996)
Henze, himself a prolific composer of operas, described the genesis of the festival like this:
The whole story started with a query from the departmental head of the (Munich) cultural office ... whether I ... would be interested in considering creating some sort of civic music festival in Munich. After a period of time I suggested organizing something that had been lacking up until that point, something that also did not exist anywhere else in the world and yet was an urgent necessity – namely, a place where the young generation of composers interested in theatre ... could realize their ideas. [3]
Henze curated the first four festivals, from 1988 to 1994, and established the general format of most of the festivals that followed. [4] Short runs of the premiered operas are preceded by talks and additional concerts from the featured composers, to introduce the audiences to their ideas and music. [5] See also Klangspuren.
Peter Ruzicka's artistic directorship (1996–2014)
Peter Ruzicka took over as artistic director ("one of the most influential administrative/ artistic positions in the European music-theatre scene") [6] in 1996, with that year's biennale being jointly curated by Henze. Ruzicka broadened the scope of the works presented, with more emphasis on works using multimedia, and moving away from the text-based sources that characterised the period curated by Henze. [7]
Manos Tsangaris and Daniel Ott's artistic directorship (2016–)
The composers Manos Tsangaris and Daniel Ott took over as joint artistic directors of the Biennale, starting in 2016. [8] Their approach to curation further expanded the festival's remit beyond opera, to reflect an 'expanded composition term' and the 'open field' of new music theatre which spans '[f]rom new opera to scenic installation, from minimalized artistic interventions in municipal spaces to composed performance'. [9]
Operas given at the Munich Biennale
World premieres are marked as WP
| Premiere | Composer | Title | Libretto and source | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 May 1988 | WP | Detlev Glanert | Leyla und Medjnun | Aras Ören and Peter Schneider, after the epic poem by Nizami |
| 3 Jun 1988 | WP | Gerd Kühr | Stallerhof | Franz Xaver Kroetz, after his own play |
| 4 Jun 1988 | WP | Adriana Hölszky | Bremer Freiheit | Thomas Körner (librettist), after the play by Rainer Werner Fassbinder |
| 17 Jun 1988 | WP | Mark-Anthony Turnage | Greek | the composer and Jonathan Moore, after the play by Steven Berkoff |
| 26 Apr 1990 | WP | András Hamary | Seid still | José Vera Morales, after the play Tóték by István Örkény |
| 28 Apr 1990 | WP | Wolfgang von Schweinitz | Patmos | D. E. Sattler, after the Apocalypse of St John in Martin Luther's translation |
| 6 May 1990 | WP | Hans-Jürgen von Bose | 63: Dream Palace | the composer, after the novella by James Purdy |
| 14 May 1990 | WP | Michèle Reverdy | Le Précepteur | Hans-Ulrich Treichel, after the play Der Hofmeister by Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz |
| 7 May 1992 | [10] | Violeta Dinescu | Eréndira | Monika Rothmaier, after the story The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Eréndira and Her Heartless Grandmother by Gabriel García Márquez |
| 29 Apr 1992 | WP | Jorge Liderman | Antigona Furiosa | the composer, after the drama by Griselda Gambaro |
| 27 May 1992 | [11] | Giorgio Battistelli | Teorema | the composer, loosely after the film by Pier Paolo Pasolini |
| 16 May 1992 | WP | Gerhard Stäbler | Sünde.Fall.Beil | Andreas Lechner, after the drama Catherine Howard by Alexandre Dumas père |
| 22 May 1992 | [12] | Param Vir | Broken Strings | David Rudkin, after the Buddhist story Guttil Jatak |
| 22 May 1992 | [12] | Param Vir | Snatched by the Gods | William Radice, after the poem Debatar Gras by Rabindranath Tagore |
| 1 May 1994 | WP | Tania León | Scourge of Hyacinths | the composer, after the radio play by Wole Soyinka |
| 19 May 1994 | WP | Benedict Mason | Playing Away | Howard Brenton |
| 4 Dec 1996 | WP | Michael Obst | Solaris | the composer, after the novel by Stanislaw Lem |
| 9 Dec 1996 | WP | Hanna Kulenty | The Mother of Black-Winged Dreams | Paul Goodwin |
| 14 Apr 1997 | WP | Roderick Watkins | The Juniper Tree | Patricia Debney, after the folk tale by the Brothers Grimm |
| 19 Apr 1998 | WP | Toshio Hosokawa | Vision of Lear | Tadashi Suzuki, after his stage play The Tale of Lear |
| 21 Apr 1998 | WP | Sandeep Bhagwati | Ramanujan | the composer, after the life of Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887–1920) |
| 25 Apr 1998 | WP | Jan Müller-Wieland | Komödie ohne Titel | the composer, after the drama Comedia sin título by Federico García Lorca |
| 19 Apr 1999 | WP | Mauricio Sotelo | De Amore | Peter Mussbach |
| 10 May 2000 | WP | Chaya Czernowin | Pnima ... ins Innere | |
| 27 Apr 2002 | WP | André Werner | Marlowe: Der Jude von Malta | the composer, after the play The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe |
| 3 May 2002 | WP | Manfred Stahnke | Orpheus Kristall | Simone Homem de Mello |
| 12 May 2004 | WP | Johannes Maria Staud | Berenice | Durs Grünbein, after Edgar Allan Poe |
| 25 May 2004 | WP | Brian Ferneyhough | Shadowtime | Charles Bernstein |
| 9 May 2006 | WP | Aureliano Cattaneo | La Philosophie dans le labyrinthe | Edoardo Sanguineti, after the Greek myth of the Minotaur |
| 18 May 2006 | WP | José María Sánchez-Verdú | GRAMMA | the composer |
| 17 Apr 2008 | WP | Enno Poppe | Arbeit Nahrung Wohnung | Marcel Beyer, loosely after the novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe |
| 18 Apr 2008 | WP | Klaus Lang | Die Architektur des Regens | after the Noh play Shiga by Zeami (c1363–c1443) |
| 23 Apr 2008 | WP | Carola Bauckholt | hellhörig | (none) |
| 30 Apr 2008 | WP | Jens Joneleit | Piero – Ende der Nacht | Michael Herrschel, loosely after the novel Die Rote by Alfred Andersch |
| 27 Apr 2010 | WP | Philipp Maintz | Maldoror | Thomas Fiedler, after Les Chants de Maldoror by Comte de Lautréamont |
| 28 Apr 2010 | WP | Márton Illés | Die weiße Fürstin | after the first draft of the dramatic poem by Rainer Maria Rilke |
| 5 May 2010 | WP | Klaus Schedl | Tilt [13] | Roland Quitt, after the diary of Sir Walter Raleigh |
| 5 May 2010 | WP | Tato Taborda | Der Einsturz des Himmels [13] | Roland Quitt, after the book La Chute du Ciel by Davi Kopenawa and Bruce Albert |
| 5 May 2010 | WP | Ludger Brummer ( web) | In Erwartung [13] | Peter Weibel |
| 9 May 2010 | WP | Lin Wang | Die Quelle | the composer and Can Xue, after a story "the Double Life" by Can Xue |
| 3 May 2012 | WP | Sarah Nemtsov | L'Absence | the composer, after Livre des Questions by Edmond Jabès |
| 5 May 2012 | WP | Eunyoung Esther Kim ( web) | Mama Dolorosa | Yona Kim |
| 16 May 2012 | WP | Arnulf Herrmann | Wasser | Nico Bleutge (lyrics) |
| 7 May 2014 | WP [14] | Marko Nikodijević | Vivier | Gunther Geltinger, after the life and death of Claude Vivier |
| 8 May 2014 | WP [14] | Samy Moussa ( web) | Vastation | Toby Litt |
| 11 May 2014 | Claude Vivier | Kopernikus | opéra-rituel de mort, libretto by the composer | |
| 17 May 2014 | WP [14] | Dieter Schnebel | Utopien | |
| 22 May 2014 | WP [14] | Héctor Parra | Das geopferte Leben | Marie NDiaye |
Significance
The Munich Biennale has provided first or early commissions for stage works from many composers now established as opera composers, such as Mark-Anthony Turnage, Detlev Glanert, Gerd Kühr, Hans-Jürgen von Bose, Param Vir, Toshio Hosokawa and Violeta Dinescu.
The strongly international scope of the festival has meant that it has been able to offer opportunities missing at a national level. [15]
References
Notes
- ^ Munich Biennale Concert Series: Biennale plus Archived 30 July 2012 at archive.today Ernst von Siemens music foundation 2010
- ^ Kerstan, Michael; Wolken, Clemens (2006). Hans Werner Henze: Komponist der Gegenwart. p. 117. ISBN 9783894875367.
- ^ "Munich Biennale Official website". Munich Biennale. Archived from the original on 12 February 2013. Retrieved 27 March 2011.
- ^ Official website, archive notes to first biennale, 1988 Archived 5 September 2012 at archive.today
- ^ Official website, Klangspuren (discussion concerts) archive Archived 1 April 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Salzman, Desi, p. 164
- ^ Official website, archive notes to fifth biennale, 1996
- ^ "The Munich Biennale for Music Theatre as a Form of Artistic Research – DARE conferences".
- ^ "Press – Münchener Biennale".
- ^ Dinescu's Eréndira was a co-commission with the Staatsoper Stuttgart, where it had its world premiere on 18 March 1992
- ^ Battistelli's Teorema was a co-commission with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, where it had its world premiere in the Teatro Comunale, on 10 May 1992
- ^ a b Vir's operas Broken Strings and Snatched by the Gods were a co-commission with De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam, where they had their world premieres on 11 May 1992
- ^ a b c Tilt, Der Einsturz des Himmels and In Erwartung were presented in a triple bill entitled Amazonas
- ^ a b c d Advance information for the 2014 edition from the Munich Biennale website. Retrieved 25 December 2013
- ^ Salzman, Desi; p. 222: ".. with one or two notable exceptions, the lively London theatre and music scene has not developed a strong creative music-theatre component. The result is that the Munich Biennale and the film industry have sometimes been better patrons for new British opera and music theatre than local musical institutions".
Sources
- münchener biennale Festival website Retrieved 13 March 2012
- Salzman, Eric; Desi, Thomas (2008). The New Music Theater: Seeing the Voice, Hearing the Body. Oxford University Press USA. ISBN 978-0-19-509936-2.
External links
- Peter & Alexa Woolf: Munich Biennale 2000 (Contemporary Music Festival) 4–19 May 2000 (PGW & AW) musicweb-international.com 2000
- John Warnaby: Tenth Münchener Biennale musicweb-international.com 20 May 2006
- Komponieren für die reine Natur Münchener Merkur 23 April 2010 (in German)
- Münchener Biennale / Urwald-Symphonie und surrealer Seelentrip[ permanent dead link] Bayerischer Rundfunk 14 May 2010 (in German)
- Gerhard Rohde: Münchener Biennale / Wozu der ganze Aufwand? FAZ 12 May 2010 (in German)
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |