Deutsche Oper Berlin
The Miracle of Heliane
Opera
Bismarckstraße 35, 10627 Berlin
Erich Wolfgang Korngold































Description
The music of Korngold’s mystery opera depicting a callous ruler, his despondent wife and a Dionysian »stranger« is a breathtaking work of late romantic opulence. Christof Loy sets the intoxicating music in juxtaposition to a highly compressed view of this ménage à trois …
Erich Wolfgang Korngold spoke of this work as his “masterpiece”. THE MIRACLE OF HELIANE bears all the hallmarks of Korngold’s musical theatre - and goes one step further in scale, with a huge score and orchestra, intoxicating pathos and exquisitely expressive harmonies that play with polytonality - resulting in a gripping and sensuous drama. The world premiere in Hamburg in 1927 was a triumph, with more than a dozen houses booking the latest work by Korngold, at the time the second most performed composer of opera after Richard Strauss. In 1928 the work was presented at the Städtische Oper Berlin, with Bruno Walter directing, but here, as at other venues, the reception was cool, due in part to intrigues, in part to the charge that his Late Romantic score was behind the times. With the Jewish Korngold prevented by the Nazis from presenting his works to the public, THE MIRACLE OF HELIANE vanished from the repertoire, never to return. This is a timeless fairy tale portraying a cold ruler incapable of loving anyone, his wife Heliane, devoted to a Dionysian stranger, and a people waiting for a redemptory miracle to occur.
A precise psychological analysis of a work’s protagonists is what interests director Christof Loy, who is returning to the Deutsche Oper Berlin after stints here presenting JENUFA, FALSTAFF and EDWARD II. And it falls to Marc Albrecht, for many years a close collaborator with the opera house, to waken Korngold’s grand and opulent music from decades of slumber.
Erich Wolfgang Korngold spoke of this work as his “masterpiece”. THE MIRACLE OF HELIANE bears all the hallmarks of Korngold’s musical theatre - and goes one step further in scale, with a huge score and orchestra, intoxicating pathos and exquisitely expressive harmonies that play with polytonality - resulting in a gripping and sensuous drama. The world premiere in Hamburg in 1927 was a triumph, with more than a dozen houses booking the latest work by Korngold, at the time the second most performed composer of opera after Richard Strauss. In 1928 the work was presented at the Städtische Oper Berlin, with Bruno Walter directing, but here, as at other venues, the reception was cool, due in part to intrigues, in part to the charge that his Late Romantic score was behind the times. With the Jewish Korngold prevented by the Nazis from presenting his works to the public, THE MIRACLE OF HELIANE vanished from the repertoire, never to return. This is a timeless fairy tale portraying a cold ruler incapable of loving anyone, his wife Heliane, devoted to a Dionysian stranger, and a people waiting for a redemptory miracle to occur.
A precise psychological analysis of a work’s protagonists is what interests director Christof Loy, who is returning to the Deutsche Oper Berlin after stints here presenting JENUFA, FALSTAFF and EDWARD II. And it falls to Marc Albrecht, for many years a close collaborator with the opera house, to waken Korngold’s grand and opulent music from decades of slumber.
Cast
Marc Albrecht
Conductor
Christof Loy
Stage direction
Johannes Leiacker
Set design
Barbara Drosihn
Costume design
Olaf Winter
Light design
Jeremy Bines
Chorus Master
Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin
Chorus
Dorothea Hartmann
Dramaturge
Thomas Jonigk
Dramaturge
Sara Jakubiak
Heliane
Jordan Shanahan
The ruler, her husband
Mihails Culpajevs
The stranger
Maiju Vaahtoluoto
The messenger
Derek Welton
The doorman
Burkhard Ulrich
The blind judge
Kieran Carrel
The young man
Andrew Dickinson
The six judges
Daniel Nicholson
The six judges
Artur Garbas
The six judges
Kangyoon Shine Lee
The six judges
Simon Wallfisch
The six judges
Ossian Huskinson
The six judges
Sua Jo
2 seraphic voices
Hye-Young Moon
2 seraphic voices
Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin
Orchestra
Deutsche Oper Berlin
Bismarckstraße 35, 10627 Berlin
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