Singer

Large pillars, a seemingly infinite space, the feeling of a connection between heaven and earth: Bonn Minster has been open again since late autumn 2021 after several years of renovation and amazes you when you enter the light-flooded room. It offers spiritual perspectives even before the first word has been spoken or the first note heard. We have already had the pleasure of making music in this special room several times: There was the Wandelkonzert, where the audience could move around the musicians. The concert as part of the Beethovenfest 2023, where the audience remained in their seats while the orchestra moved through the nave during the programme. And the church was home to two benefit concerts that our musicians organised on a private initiative together with the city deanery for earthquake victims in Turkey and for victims of the war in Ukraine. Now we are returning with music that seems to have been made for the cathedral basilica in terms of its dimensions, sound and spirituality: to mark the 200th anniversary of Anton Bruckner’s birth, we are performing his 9th Symphony – » dedicated to God « – and his magnificent Te Deum, which in a way complements the unfinished symphony, bringing it to a striking conclusion. In a time of isolation, of the celebration of the individual, Bruckner’s music, which in many ways points far ahead into the modern age, is a manifesto of the collective and of togetherness. For us at the start of the season, at a time when we hope that the end of the Beethovenhalle’s renovation is approaching, it is also an invocation of the community of space, performers and audience.

Dem lieben Gott

Bonner Münster

Disaster looms over the ruling house of Mycenae. Since Agamemnon was killed by his wife Klytaemnestra, ever new sacrifices have been made. But peace does not return, especially not for the children. Orest has gone missing, Chrysothemis wants a family of her own, but Elektra pursues only one thought: revenge for her father. “The times are strange”, wrote the poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal around 1900, “and they have strange children: us!” He observes “people who were fractured”, who had lost their unity. With irrationality, delusion and “mysteriously aroused nature”, the writer poetically describes what Sigmund Freud was soon to describe psychoanalytically as a sign of the times.

Astrid Kessler

Soprano

Events

Past events

30 - 31 Aug, 2024

Dem lieben Gott · Beethoven Orchester Bonn

Jan 1 - Oct 26, 2024

Elektra · Oper Köln

Future and recently performed repertoire

Singer in Symphony No. 9 by Bruckner

Beethoven Orchester Bonn

Singer in Te Deum by Bruckner

Beethoven Orchester Bonn

About

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