Winterreise

Opera

Great masterpiece in the history of music and landmark of German Lied, Winterreise was composed by Franz Schubert one year before he died. The composer is only thirty when he writes this score. He is experiencing a particularly prolific period, as if his inspiration was freeing itself after the death of the great Ludwig van Beethoven, who was leading the musical life in Vienna.

This condensed work is made of twenty-four melodies for voice and piano. It is based on dark and melancholic poems by Wilhelm Müller, a writer whose poems Schubert already set to music: Die schöne Müllerin (The Fair Miller-maid). The psychological range of those Lieder is complex, with a unique and strong sadness. With a deep interiority, this Winter Journey depicts in two parts the wandering of a young man, who has no luck in love, in a frozen landscape. Nature, which is represented motionless and desolate, expresses the wrench of the individual and his despair.

Schubert develops musically this lonely journey with repetitive rhythms and low colors. Then the poem acquires a metaphysical dimension: the winter journey ends with the image of an old hurdy-gurdy player, who personifies Death.

The famous South African artist William Kentridge created a visual journey with videos (animation, collage, montage) which is a poetic counterpoint to the interpretation by Matthias Goerne, the most acclaimed Lied singer today.

UPCOMING DATES

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PAST DATES

  • 2019-10-18 00:00:00 2019-10-18 00:00:00 - Kyoto Art Theater Shunjuza, Kyoto - Japan
  • 2019-08-08 00:00:00 2019-08-08 00:00:00 - Salzburger Festspiele, Salzburg - Austria
  • 2016-11-24 00:00:00 - Daejeon Arts Center, Seoul - South Korea
  • 2016-11-22 00:00:00 - Lotte Concert Hall, Seoul - South Korea
  • 2016-04-14 00:00:00 - Palau de la Musica Barcelona, Barcalona - Spain
  • 2016-04-03 00:00:00 2016-04-06 00:00:00 - Opéra de Lille, Lille - France
  • 2016-03-30 00:00:00 - Philharmonie de Paris, Paris - France
  • 2016-03-11 00:00:00 2016-03-13 00:00:00 - San Francisco Opera, SanFrancisco - USA
  • 2016-02-15 00:00:00 2016-02-21 00:00:00 - Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon - Portugal
  • 2016-01-07 00:00:00 2016-01-09 00:00:00 - Sydney Festival, Sydney - Australia
  • 2015-11-19 00:00:00 2015-11-20 00:00:00 - Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, Luxembourg - Luxembourg
  • 2015-09-17 00:00:00 2015-09-19 00:00:00 - Lotte Concert Hall, Seoul - South Korea
  • 2015-09-04 00:00:00 2015-09-05 00:00:00 - Singapore International Festival of Arts, Singapore - Singapore
  • 2014-11-26 00:00:00 - NET Festival Moscow, Moscow - Russia
  • 2014-11-11 00:00:00 - Lincoln Center White Light Festival, New York - USA
  • 2014-09-19 00:00:00 2014-09-21 00:00:00 - KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen, Göttingen - Germany
  • 2014-07-25 00:00:00 2014-07-26 00:00:00 - Holland Festival, Amsterdam - The Netherlands
  • 2014-07-04 00:00:00 2014-07-17 00:00:00 - Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Aix-en-Provence - France
  • 2014-06-09 00:00:00 2014-06-15 00:00:00 - Wiener Festwochen, Vienna - Austria

CREDITS

Franz Schubert (1797 – 1828) 
Song Cycle for voice and piano (1827) 
Poems by Wilhelm Müller 

Stage direction and visual creation William Kentridge
Stage design William Kentridge, Sabine Theunissen 

Costumes Greta Goiris

Lights Hermann Sorgeloos
Video Editor Snezana Marovic
Video Operator Kim Gunning 

Baritone Matthias Goerne
Piano Markus Hinterhaüser

Coproduction Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Wiener Festwochen, Holland Festival,
 Lincoln Center, Opéra de Lille, Kunstfestspiele Herrenhausen / Niedersächsische Musiktage (Hannover) Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg