Pocket operas as guests in Sevilla
02.12.2021
Espacio Turina, Sevilla
Entitled “Narraciones extraordinarias”, Klang21 presented the Spanish premiere of the short operas “Ligeia” by Hüseyin Evirgen and “Gespensterhaus” by Reinhard Febel, both premiered at the Pocket Opera Festival Salzburg 2007.
Musical direction Juan García Rodríguez
Director & Stage Thierry Bruehl
Costumes & make-up Claudia Jung
Zahir Ensemble Sevilla
„Gespensterhaus“
Short opera based on Edward Hopper’s portrait “Haunted House” by Reinhard Febel (2006)
Deeply connected and invulnerable through young love, the newlywed couple feels – for now. Then plunging into a murderous abyss, through an amulet, whispers from the horrible past and dream images of betrayal and death in the haunted house. In a five-four time waltz, composer and librettist Reinhard Febel lets the dead and the living, past and present meet before the story begins to repeat itself. Only ghosts remain. The present speaks from offstage, the past sings.
Soprano Sachika Ito
Tenor Alain Damas
Youth performers Andrea Martínez & Julio Figueredo
„Ligeia“
Short opera based on the story by E.A. Poe by Hüseyin Evirgen (2007)
„Here then, at least, can I never – can I never be mistaken – these are the full, and the black, and the wild eyes – of my lost love – of the Lady – of the Lady Ligeia.”
Only in opium intoxication does Allan endure the death of his beloved, beautiful Lady Ligeia, sinking narratively into the turmoil of memory, entangled between dream and present. Hüseyin Evirgen’s minimalist music to Thierry Bruehl’s libretto rushes and throbs like the narrator’s pulse, while Ligeia appears in triple form, in unreal delayed images. The terse syllables of song and spoken language interweave in their extremes – in simultaneous scenes, above the pulsating pulse of the chamber orchestra.
Sopranos Sachika Ito, Aurora Galán, Bruna de Castro Paluzzi
Actor Gregor Acuña-Pohl
A co-production of Espacio Turina ICAS Sevilla and Klang21 Salzburg
