PÉNÉLOPE

In the organizer's words:

Composer Gabriel Fauré. Libretto by René Fauchois after Homer's Odyssey (Odýsseia).

Poème lyrique in three acts (1913)

In French language. With German and English surtitles. New production.

2024 marks the 100th anniversary of Gabriel Fauré's death. Throughout his life, he was an esteemed composer of art songs and chamber music as well as director of the Paris Conservatoire. Today, his Requiem is the most popular of his works in larger ensembles on the international repertoire. His only opera Pénélope is now being performed for the first time at the Bayerische Staatsoper. The story follows the last songs from Homer's Odyssey, which has become proverbial as the years-long odyssey of the title hero back to his home in Ithaca after the Battle of Troy. At the center of the opera, however, is his wife Pénélope: for years she has successfully resisted the courtship attempts of power-hungry men who want to succeed her husband Ulysse on the throne. With the transparency of chamber music and the use of central themes inspired by Richard Wagner, the composer created a score in which the orchestra is used symphonically, but in which the lyrical melodic expression and the comprehensibility of the human voice are always in the foreground. Director Andrea Breth will explore the question of whether the meeting of the ruling couple Pénélope and Ulysse, who have been separated for years, can be harmonious or whether it is more likely to be accompanied by alienation and disappointment.

CAST:

Musical direction: Susanna Mälkki

Production: Andrea Breth

Stage: Raimund Orfeo Voigt

Costumes: Ursula Renzenbrink

Lighting: Alexander Koppelmann

Choir: Sonja Lachenmayr

Dramaturgy: Klaus Bertisch, Lukas Leipfinger

Ulysse: Brandon Jovanovich

Eumée: Thomas Mole

Antinoüs: Loïc Félix

Eurymaque: Leigh Melrose

Léodès: Joel Williams

Ctésippe: Zachary Rioux

Pisandre: Dafydd Jones

A shepherd : Soloist(s) of the Tölzer Knabenchor

Pénélope: Victoria Karkacheva

Euryclée: Rinat Shaham

Cléone: Valerie Eickhoff

Mélantho: Seonwoo Lee

Alkandre: Martina Myskohlid

Phylo: Ena Pongrac

Lydie: Eirin Rognerud

Eurynome: Elene Gvritishvili

Bavarian State Orchestra

Vocal ensemble "LauschWerk"

Price information:

Prices PB , € 132 /104 /76 /42 /32