Monteverdi – L’Orfeo
New production at Semperoper Dresden
Favola in musica in one prologue and five acts
Libretto by Alessandro Striggio
Orpheus sings to vanquish death, hoping to save his dead wife from the underworld. And so it is entirely fitting that the history of opera should begin with a work celebrating the power of music. The premiere of Claudio Monteverdi’s »L’Orfeo« on 24th of February 1607 is regarded as the birth of musical theatre. In the Semperoper, Monteverdi’s opera about the power and powerlessness of music can now be experienced for the first time in a new production of the original version. The conductor and lutenist Wolfgang Katschner will bring the score to life with his orchestra, the lautten compagney BERLIN, playing on period instruments. Director and puppeteer Nikolaus Habjan, a shooting star of the Austrian theatre scene, will stage the work with a mixture of singing actors and life-size puppets.
- Wolfgang Katschner Conductor
- Nikolaus Habjan Staging
- Esther Balfe Choreography
- Jakob Brossmann Set Design
- Cedric Mpaka Costume Design
- Lugh Amber Wittig Costume Assistant
- Fabio Antoci Lighting Design
- Jonathan Becker Choir
- Benedikt Stampfli Dramaturgy
- _______
- Alice Rossi La Musica (Music)
- Rolando Villazón Orfeo (Orpheus)
- Anastasiya Taratorkina Euridice (Eurydice)
- Stepanka Pucalkova The Messenger
- Eric Jurenas La Speranza (Hope)
- Bogdan Talos Caronte (Charon)
- Ute Selbig Proserpina (Proserpine)
- Tilmann Rönnebeck Plutone (Pluto)
- Simeon Esper Apollo
- Christiane Hossfeld Nymph
- Anastasiya Taratorkina Eco (Echo)
- Justyna Ołów 1st Shepherd
- Aaron Pegram 2nd Shepherd / 1st Spirit
- Joseph Dennis 3rd Shepherd / 2nd Spirit
- Ilya Silchuk 4th Shepherd / 3rd Spirit
- _______
- Sächsischer Staatsopernchor Dresden
- lautten compagney BERLIN