Organization

Singer

Soprano

Slávka Zámečníková

Hanne

Tenor

Josh Lovell

Lucas

Bass

Martin Häßler

Simon

Conductor

Giovanni Antonini

Lighting designer

Thomas Diek

Costume designer

Mylla Ek

Set designer

Choreographer

Martin Schläpfer

Chorus master

Thomas Lang

Wiener Staatsoper

German

Die Jahreszeiten -  (The Seasons)

Vienna

Austria

Die Jahreszeiten Haydn

Public

Private

The Seasons

English

Approved

A walk through the year as a metaphor of life! With "The Seasons" the aged Joseph Haydn composed a great secular oratorio about the integration of man into the cycle of nature - a music full of colour, full of splendor and great rhetorical force, as a reviewer did on May 2nd, 1801 after the Vienna premiere in the Leipzig General Musical Newspaper remarked: "Sometimes the melody of the song is enchanting, at other times it is shaking like a forest stream that breaks through all dams, the powerful intervention of all instruments; now the simple, artless expression delights, now one admires the extravagant opulence in quick and bright chords. From the beginning to the end, the mind is involuntarily carried away from the most touching to the most terrible, from the most naive to the most artificial, from the most beautiful to the most sublime.« Scenes from full life stand alongside gripping musical descriptions of nature, catchy melodies alongside thoughtful reflections on life and its transience, great ones Oratorio scenes next to folksy Singspiel full of wit, but also rough humor.

For the director of the Vienna State Ballet, Martin Schläpfer, the idea of ​​being inspired by Haydn's "The Seasons" to create a full-length dance piece goes back to the early 1990s, when he was still at the beginning of his career as a choreographer. More than 25 years later, he is now bringing them to the stage – with the Vienna State Ballet, soloists from the ensemble of singers, the choir and the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera in a production for which Giovanni Antonini was won as musical director. The maestro from Milan is a founding member and director of the baroque ensemble Il Giardino Armonico as well as first guest conductor of the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg and the Basel Chamber Orchestra. On the occasion of Joseph Haydn's 300th birthday.

The Swedish artist Mylla Ek assisted Martin Schläpfer in designing the stage and costumes. From the shell of a sea snail, she has abstracted a stage space that changes according to the seasons, can be narrow, cold and dark or large, warm and bright - a place where Martin Schläpfer unfolds his dance images to Haydn's composition: images of People are kept in their microcosm, but also exposed in the vastness of the universe.

The Seasons by Haydn, From (2022/2022), Conductor Giovanni Antonini, Wiener Staatsoper, Vienna, Austria

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Program, About & Synopsis

Photos

Further reading

Performance Dates & Venues

Venues