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Wolfgang Rihm's Jakob Lenz at Zürich Opera

Nov. 23, 2022

Zürich Opera presented Wolfgang Rihm and Michael Fröhling's Jakob Lenz at the Zürich Opera House from November 19-26. The production is directed by Mélanie Huber and conducted by Adrian Kelly with design by Lena Hiebel, lighting design by Dino Strucken, and dramaturgy by Fabio Dietsche.

Of Jakob Lenz, Wolfgang Rihm notes:

"For me, [the musical stage] is where very magical and very human things take place. In Jakob Lenz, the human aspects often switch to magical ones, since the realism of a self-suasive, unhinged soul takes on surreal traits – or we simply cannot understand transformation except as not being real. A character like Jakob Lenz harbours many stages within itself, and music must represent those constantly changing stages.

I have tried to do this in the most direct way – by not cleanly separating the musical layers, but keeping them constantly in evidence until they must break forth, each in accordance with its own dramaturgy. The large form takes on aspects of a rondo, performed in overlapping layers – a type of rondo relief, since perspectives of psychological proximity and distance are indeed formulated musically as atmospheric relations.

Above all: the thread on which Jakob Lenz hangs is the current onto the listeners’ hearts."


Trailer: Yannick Debus sings Jakob Lenz at the Zürich Opera House.

To learn more about Wolfgang Rihm, visit: universaledition.com.

Wolfgang Rihm
Jakob Lenz (1977-1978)
chamber opera
libretto (Ger) by Michael Fröhling based on the text by Georg Büchner
Lenz - baritone; Oberlin - bass; Kaufmann - tenor 
6 voices: 2 sopranos, 2 altos, 2 basses, 2 or 4 children
0.2.1.1-0.1.1.0-perc-hpd-3vc
75'

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