Cronaca del luogo: chronicle of a place - an opera composed by Luciano Berio

Cronaca del luogo: The PLACE

HILDEGARD BEHRENS
dramatic soprano

Saddened by her passing,
we celebrate her life.
You're welcome to submit
a TRIBUTE to Frau Behrens.

EMAIL THIS PAGE!

LISTEN!

Dich teure Halle
-Elisabeth's aria
from Tannhäuser

Immolation scene
-from Götterdämmerung

BUY BEHRENS CDs

The Very Best of
HILDEGARD BEHRENS

Götterdämmerung

Die Walküre

Elektra - Boston Symphony

Salome

ARCHIVE
of FanFaire GIVEAWAYS

VIDEO
AUDIOFILES
AUDIENCE ETIQUETTE
MUSICPLANNER
PRESS ROOM
NEW RELEASES
FOOD & MUSIC
SITE MAP

Buy sheet music

SALZBURG
FESTIVAL
summer 1999

news
release

The PLACE The VOICE The COMPOSER

1999 SALZBURG FESTIVAL OPENS WITH WORLD PREMIERE OF
CRONACA DEL LUOGO
(Chronicle of the Place)

A NEW OPERA COMPOSED BY LUCIANO BERIO
FOR THE INCOMPARABLE DRAMATIC SOPRANO
HILDEGARD BEHRENS
AND FOR A SPECIAL PLACE CALLED
THE FELSENREITSCHULE
Libretto by Talia Pecker Berio

In Italian with German and English surtitles
First performance: July 24, 2024 at 7:00 p.m.
Other performances: July 27, 31 and August 3

A world premiere is always a special event. But the premiere of Luciano Berio's new opera Cronaca del luogo is special in more ways than one. Consisting of a Prologue and 5 Scenes set within a biblical landscape, it is the renowned composer's celebration of a special place and an extraordinary voice, through his own unique form of music-theatre called azione musicale.

Photos: © David Baltzer, Courtesy: Salzburg Festival

The special place is the theatre itself - the Festival complex's Felsenreitschule. A space carved out of a rock on a mountainside, it has always fascinated the composer as a marvellous, natural setting for his ever nascent ideas of what modern music-theatre might be. It is no wonder that in this opera commissioned by the Salzburg Festival - Luciano Berio's first work to be staged in this theatre - the Felsenreitschule itself plays a central role.

So, what makes the Felsenreitschule (Summer Riding School) so special, particularly in this work? In the baroque era (the 17th century) when this rock of the Mönchsberg was first quarried to build the cathedral that still stands today, the audience watched riding displays from the three tiers of galleries that now form the wall that curves around the stage. It is the wall that makes the Felsenreitschule an exciting place for Berio's kind of music-theatre: its seeming rigidity indulges his creative genius, allowing both his music and his drama to happen on two planes - the vertical (the wall) and the horizontal (the stage).

The wall serves a multiplicity of functions. It is at once prison and refuge, a depository of memories - both hostile and friendly, at times evocative of the enemy and of grief and destruction, at other times recalling love and hope, home and community. It is a wall of music into which the traditional orchestra pit has disappeared and from which radiate alternating sounds of harmony and strife, of soft intimacy and maddening frenzy. It is an acoustic wall from within which Berio, indefatigableexplorer and experimentalist, strives to effect a miscegenation of natural sound and digital technology, amplifying and yet preserving the naturalness of the human voice and of each musical instrument.

Thus, the work's most dominant visible element is the musically ever-changing wall of immutable memories. This wall and the stage or the piazza onto which unfold these memories - of Jericho, of the tower of Babel, of events set against the vast biblical landscape - define the place or the luogo of the azione musicale, chronicling through sound and light the varying manifestations of the presence of God in human life. God (the Hebrew homonym/synonym for place), in whom change and immutability reside without contradiction.

Cronaca del luogo: Composed by Luciano Berio, libretto by Talia Pecker Berio; Musical direction: Sylvain Cambreling; Stage direction: Claus Guth; Stage set and costumes: Christian Schmidt; Choir direction: Erwin Ortner; Cast: Hildegard Behrens ("R"), Frode Olsen (General), Matthias Klink(Phanuel), David Moss (Nino), Monica Bacelli (Orvid), Urban Malmberg (Uomo senza età); Chorus: Arnold Schoenberg Chor and Tölzer Knabenchor; Orchestral soloists: Gabriele Cassone (Trumpet), Christian Lindberg (Trombone), Michele Marasco (Alto flute), Ernesto Molinari (Clarinet), David Moss (Percussion), Igor Polesitsky (Violin), Georg Schulz (Accordion),Folco Vichi (Tastiera Midi); Sound space: Klangforum Wien and Tempo Reale, Firenze.

back to top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HILDEGARD BEHRENS: she makes music worth seeing!

PROFILE     PORTRAITS     PERFORMANCES     DISCOGRAPHY     AWARDS     QUOTES
BRÜNNHILDE     ELEKTRA     SALOME      FIDELIO     ISOLDE     MARIE     SENTA
THE KOSTELNICKA     THE WOMAN 'R'       KUNDRY     DIE LUSTIGE WITWE

about FANFAIRE       AUDIOFILES     NEW RELEASES    FOOD & MUSIC       VIDEO

SUPPORT FANFAIRE!
Buy your HOLIDAY GIFTS by CLICKING on FanFaire's AMAZON links.