The young British conductor George Jackson makes his Hamburg State Opera debut conducting a new opera, Immer weiter, by two composers.
Conductor George Jackson |
Composer Jesse Broekman |
The work uses seven soloists (one soprano, one mezzo-soprano, two tenors, one baritone and one bass) with a reasonable size chamber ensemble (accordion, violin, two violas cello, flute, clarinet and trombone, plus extensive percussion).
Composer Irene Galindo Quero |
George feels that the music shows great influences from Helmut Lachenmann and from musique concrete, often the instruments are manipulated rather than played, creating a feeling of dystopia via an atmospheric background which evokes electronic music. The players will be from the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra (which plays at Hamburg State Opera), and whilst George will be going into detail with the performers he is aware that he will also need to be aware of the overall soundworld of the piece.
This intriguing new opera which seems to reflect concerns with a dystopian vision of society opens at Hamburg State Opera on 7 July 2017 in the opera's smaller studio theatre, Opera Stabile, and there are a number of performances. (Further details from the Hamburg State Opera website).
When I last saw George conducting it was in May 2016 at one of Trinity Laban's Side by Side events where the Trinity Laban Symphony Orchestra performed alongside members of Welsh National Opera Orchestra in a Elgar's Symphony No. 1 (see my article). When we spoke for this article he was just back from Romania where he was conducting Elgar's Enigma Variations with the Transylvanian Philharmonic (based in Cluj) and this was very much like a new piece for them, so George felt he was responsible for selling the work to both the audience and to the orchestra. He has a regular relationship with the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano and Trento and will be opening the Bolzano Festival in this Summer with the orchestra in a programme which includes Mendelssohn's Scottish Symphony. From the Autumn George has a new position, Studienleiter and Assistant Conductor at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, where his first assignment will be working on Robert Carsen's new production of Berg's Wozzeck (which opens on 15 October 2017, conducted by Leo Hussain with Florian Boesch in the title role, see the theatre's website).
No comments:
Post a Comment