05.12.2024

ADRIAN ERÖD & PATRICIA NOLZ in Pfitzner's Palestrina at the Vienna State Opera

Set against the backdrop of the Council of Trent, it tells the legend of the Renaissance composer Palestrina, who, in a creative ecstasy, creates a masterpiece of vocal polyphony in the space of one night, thus saving an entire musical tradition from destruction. In formal terms, Pfitzner conceived his Palestrina as a kind of triptych: the first and third acts reflect - as a kind of dramaturgical bracket - the inner world of the artist Palestrina, while the middle second act reflects the turbulent hustle and bustle of the outside world, which is hostile to the work of the genius. In his creative synthesis, Pfitzner combines stylistic elements of Renaissance music with the achievements of his own late Romantic work in Palestrina.

Herbert Wernicke's production premiered at the Vienna State Opera in 1999 and was last performed at the Vienna State Opera in 2001. Christian Thielemann is now reviving the work. Adrian Eröd - last heard as the First Officer in Britten's Billy Budd - demonstrates his stylistic versatility this time as Count Luna, orator to the King of Spain, while Patricia Nolz - soon to be heard in Copenhagen as Rosina in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia - can be heard as Palestrina's pupil Silla.

Cast

Günther Groissböck, Pope Pius IV
Michael Nagy, Giovanni Morone
Michael Laurenz, Bernardo Novagerio
Wolfgang Bankl, Cardinal Christoph Madruscht
Wolfgang Koch, Carlo Borromeo
Michael Kraus, Cardinal of Lorraine
Hiroshi Amako, Abdisu, Patriarch of Assyria
Jusung Gabriel Park, Anton Brus von Müglitz
Adrian Eröd, Count Luna
Norbert Ernst, Bishop of Budoja
Michael Gniffke, Theophilus, Bishop of Imola
Ivo Stanchev, Avosmediano, Bishop of Cadix
Michael Spyres, Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina
Kathrin Zukowski, Ighino, his son
Patricia Nolz, Silla, his pupil
Clemens Unterreiner, Bishop Ercole Severolus
Devin Eatmon, Dandini of Grosseto
Andrew Turner, Bishop of Fiesole
Ilya Kazakov, Bishop of Feltre
Teresa Sales Rebordão, Young Doctor
Marcus Pelz, Bishop of Spain
Clemens Unterreiner, 1st chapel singer
Jusung Gabriel Park, 2nd chapel singer
Michael Gniffke, 3rd chapel singer
Hiroshi Amako, 4th chapel singer
Ilya Kazakov, 5th chapel singer
Monika Bohinec, Apparition of Lucretia
Hiroshi Amako, 1st master
Norbert Ernst, 2nd master
Michael Gniffke, 3rd Master
Clemens Unterreiner, 4th Master
Jusung Gabriel Park, 5th Master
Marcus Pelz, 6th champion
Ivo Stanchev, 7th champion
Ilya Kazakov, 8th champion
Wolfgang Bankl, 9th champion
Ileana Tonca, 1st angel voice
Ilia Staple, 2nd angel voice
Jenni Hietala, 3rd angelic voice

Christian Thielemann, conductor
Herbert Wernicke, staging
Herbert Wernicke, stage design, costumes and lighting