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World Premiere of the Chamber Version of Andrew Norman's A Trip to the Moon at Hamburg State Opera

Feb. 15, 2023

Inspired by the first science fiction film ever made, Andrew Norman’s new chamber version of A Trip to the Moon will receive its world premiere on February 18 at the Hamburg State Opera. A new German singing translation of the libretto by Joscha Schaback also has its first outing. The premiere performances of the chamber version of A Trip to the Moon will be conducted by Luiz de Godoy along with imaginative staging by Stephan Witzlinger for the Opera Stabile venue.


Conductor Luiz de Godoy discusses Die Reise zum Mond (A Trip to the Moon)

Norman's first dramatic work, A Trip to the Moon, was originally commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic in 2017 with the English libretto provided by the composer himself. Following this success, the Hamburg State Opera commissioned a revised version for a smaller ensemble with a German singing translation. This one-hour melodrama accompanies the filmmaker Georges Méliès who sets out to explore the moon with the company of four scatter-brained astronomers. As they research this new land and try to repair their broken rocket, they meet mysterious aliens, who in turn have to deal with their own dangers.

Andrew Norman's opera was inspired by Georges Méliès 1902 silent film, A Trip to the Moon. The retro-futuristic world presented in this ground-breaking motion picture inspired the composer to bring this story to the stage for both amateurs and professionals as a parable for how we ourselves deal with strangers. He says,

"A Trip to the Moon contains a whole new language - Lunar. As it turns out, inventing a new language is quite a lot of work. But I was excited by the potential of combining even syllables with pitches and movements to create a new gestural world. My aim was to put the audience in the role of the "other" who has to find their way around without the help of a common language."

At Hamburg’s Opera Stabile, A Trip to the Moon will run for a total of 15 performances through March 5.


In 2018, Andrew Norman discussed his role as composer for Yuval Sharon's production of
his opera, A Trip to the Moon, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall

For more information on Andrew Norman, visit schott-music.com.

Andrew Norman
A Trip to the Moon (2017)
an opera for people of all ages
inspired by George Méliès’s silent film “A Trip to the Moon” (1902)
words and music (Eng, Moonish) by Andrew Norman
Chamber version of Die Reise zum Mond in German language, 
translated by Joscha Schaback from the original libretto by the composer
60'

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