Bergen International Festival 2016 | Page 97

FOUNDATIONS
BERGEN INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL 2016
049
Premiere
GRIEGHALLEN GRIEGSALEN

Verklärte Nacht / Erwartung

DATE / TIME Saturday 28 May at 18:00
DURATION Duration 1:10
LANGUAGE Performed in German , subtitled in Norwegian
OTHER Introduction in Danish by Henrik Engelbrecht at 17:15
TICKET Standard : 190 – 490 Under 30 : 150
Festival Card : 30 % discount
BT Fordel : 25 % discount
Two staged masterpieces in a musical and moral borderland .
How does one describe a moment in a woman ’ s life where she desperately seeks through the forest for the man she loves ? How does one capture the feelings that rage through her body ?
Arnold Schönberg ’ s Erwartung stretches this moment into thirty passionate minutes . In this Bergen International Festival , Bergen National Opera and Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra production , the soprano Allison Cook and British video artist Netia Jones takes us on a visual journey in Schönberg ’ s disquieting soundscape . Erwartung is one of the most dramatic monologues in music history and has served as a source of inspiration for Netia Jones . She has been named the most imaginative opera director in Great Britain , and many will remember her staging of the BNO production Marco Polo at the 2013 Bergen International Festival .
The psychological monodrama is a sharp contrast to the beautiful Verklärte Nacht . Here we meet the late romantic Schönberg and the atmosphere is brought on by the whole string section together with Jones ’ video art . Forest and moonlight plays a key role in this piece inspired by Richard Dehmel ’ s poem by the same name . We join a woman into the forest where she shares her dark secret with her new boyfriend – she carries another man ’ s child .
Verklärte Nacht caused a stir in its time . The text shows contempt towards the moral damnation of sexual urges , and the work points to a musical crossroads and moves into the borderland of tonality .
Netia Jones director Marie Pappenheim libretto ( Erwartung ) ​
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra Baldur Brönnimann conductor Allison Cook soloist ( Erwartung )
ARNOLD SCHÖNBERG ( 1874 – 1951 ) Verklärte Nacht , Op . 4 Erwartung , Op . 17
A co-production by Bergen International Festival , Bergen National Opera and Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra .
WWW . FIB . NO 049