Name: Curlew River
Start: 2013-03-25T00:00:00.000Z
End: 2013-04-04T00:00:00.000Z
Location: Theater am Fleischmarkt

Organization

Singer

Gernot Heinrich

No role specified

Sebastian Huppmann

Alexander Kaimbacher

Stephan Rehm

Peter Edelmann

Leonid Sushon

Conductor

Walter Kobéra

Stage director

Carlos Wagner

Costume designer

Christof Cremer

Set designer

Lighting designer

Norbert Chmel

MusikTheater an der Wien

Orchestra

Amadeus Ensemble Wien

Curlew River

Vienna

Austria

Theater am Fleischmarkt

The Prodigal Son

Approved

The death of a child is arguably the worst that can happen for a parent. As a result of this reversal of the expected natural sequence, those affected ask themselves questions about the meaning of their own existence.

The normal cycle of parents or grandparents dying before children and grandchildren is broken. This contradicts our life planning, parents can hardly avoid such a situation.

In his two musical parables Curlew River and The Prodigal Son, Benjamin Britten illuminates the topic of loss, once from the point of view of a mother and the other time from that of a father who has apparently lost his son and finds him again.

Influences from Japanese Nô theater, medieval choral music, Balinese gamelan, English folk songs and the Christian liturgy can be found in both compositions. The grief over a deceased son on the one hand and the joy over a found one on the other. The Far Eastern style context becomes clear in the economical but very colorful orchestration. A theatrical ritual of the
present, with roots in the distant past. Benjamin Britten has poured the broadest range of influences into a unity, which in their severity and through the extremely driven formalism offer the opportunity to meditate on love, grief, loss, hope and faith. Two deeply human dramas that deal with fundamental themes of our existence.

English

Curlew River by Britten, The Prodigal Son by Britten, Mon 25 Mar 2013, From (2013/2013), Directed by Carlos Wagner,, Conductor Walter Kobéra, Theater am Fleischmarkt, Vienna, Austria

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Ensemble

Programme, About & Synopsis

Further reading

Performance Dates & Venues

Venues