Set Designer

Mozart’s famous opera is a whirlwind comedy of betrothal, betrayal and deliciously bad behaviour.

The Marriage of Figaro

London Coliseum

Suffused with the spirit of the French Revolution, FIDELIO explores issues of individual and collective freedom in the face of tyrannical suppression. For his one venture into opera Beethoven chose a political event rooted in the French tradition of rescue opera. It tells the story of a fearless woman, Leonore, who triggers the end of the old order by having her husband released from prison, where he has been detained on a whim. Far from evincing Beethoven’s inability to compose a coherent opera, this mixed bag of genre elements – German light opera, heartfelt arias, exquisite orchestral interludes and a symphonic close – reflects his revolutionary idea of dramaturgical opposites and subversion of form. The further Leonore descends into the depths of the dungeon, the clearer the existential core of the drama becomes. In an explosive choral and symphonic finale, which, with its quote from Schiller’s “Ode to Joy”, foreshadows Beethoven’s “Ninth”, the uncompromising affirmation of liberty, human rights and humanist ideals bursts forth. The work has repeatedly been appropriated for political ends - on both sides of the spectrum – with Leonore acquiring iconic status. Yet Beethoven’s musical vision of a humanist society still manages to thwart all attempts to encapsulate the opera in simplified interpretations.

Fidelio

Deutsche Oper Berlin

The Prince of Homburg – a dreamer, nonconformist, hero?

Fehrbellin, 1675: Prince Friedrich dreams he’s an acclaimed victor in battle but is laughed at by everybody. The command goes out before the real fight begins that no-one’s to attack until the electoral prince explicitly orders it. But Homburg high-handedly leads a charge that could lead to victory and is sentenced to death for insubordination ...

EPSG:4326

The Prince of Homburg

Oper Frankfurt

SINGING MIGHT MAKE MORE SENSE OF LIFE THAN LIVING HAD TO START WITH.</q><cite>— RICHARD POWERS (THE TIME OF OUR SINGING)</cite> <p>After a year of anticipation, Kris Defoort’s new opera will finally be brought to the stage! Black Lives Matter, police brutality, rigged elections: these are themes that have remained at the forefront of current affairs over the past year. There are clear parallels to be drawn between the recent history of the US and <em>The Time of Our Singing</em>, which was inspired by the Richard Powers novel of the same name. The work depicts the life of a mixed-race family that is both united and divided by music, against the backdrop of segregation in the post-war United States. In collaboration with the librettist Peter van Kraaij, the conductor Kwamé Ryan, and the stage director Ted Huffman, Kris Defoort conjures an imaginary space in which official history and personal histories intertwine, in which people come together to weave a narrative, and in which jazz and classical music are enriched by one another. ‘To my mind, it doesn’t happen often that a contemporary opera is so profoundly rooted in the “now” and yet raises so many universal themes.’ (Kris Defoort)

Set Designer

Johannes Schütz

Events

Past events

5 - 22 Feb, 2025

The Marriage of Figaro · English National Opera

20 - 30 Oct, 2024

Fidelio · Deutsche Oper Berlin

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