Günther Groissböck

Aufführung vom 09.02.2020 in derf Staatsoper Berlin. André Heller is staging "Der Rosenkavalier" (his first opera production) at the Berlin State Opera. The story of a young nobleman caught between two women in Maria Theresa's Vienna is full of bold twists and fantastic entanglements. And as if made for an imaginative realization with all the means of modern theater. André Heller can rely on a first-class ensemble... André Heller is a chansonnier, actor, circus founder, vaudeville maker and stager of spectacles in which a variety of genres are combined with exuberant fantasy. In Berlin, Heller follows in the footsteps of Max Reinhardt, who ruled the Berlin stages at the beginning of the 20th century and revolutionized the theater with a multitude of innovations. Reinhardt also staged the world premiere of "Der Rosenkavalier" in 1911. It will be interesting to see how today's multimedia genius deals with the legacy of the great theater genius of yesteryear.

This is the Ring cycle of the Dutch National Opera, directed by Pierre Audi. Fleeing for his life, Siegmund seeks shelter at Sieglinde's house. Her husband Hunding happens to be one of Siegmund's pursuers, and the two of them must cross swords the next day. As Siegmund laments his lack of a weapon, Sieglinde directs him to the sword Nothung stuck in an ash tree. Despite discovering they are twin siblings, the two fall in love. The King of Gods Wotan, their father, sends his Valkyrie daughter Brünnhilde to aid Siegmund. Fricka protests, and Wotan uses his spear to break Siegmund's sword during the battle. Siegmund is slain, but Brünnhilde rescues both the sword fragments and Sieglinde who is pregnant with Siegmund's child Siegfried. Wotan is angry that she intervened, but since Brünnhilde is his favorite child, he merely strips her of immortality and sends her into an enchanted sleep, surrounded by fire.

Frank Castorf revolutionised German-language theatre in the post-Berlin Wall era, bringing to the stage intellectual and political acuteness, brash references and a not infrequent use of crude humour. He brought these qualities to the Bayreuth Festival where his production of the Ring ran from 2013 to 2017. This 2016 recording of Das Rheingold captures Marek Janowski's festival debut as conductor of this unique production, in which Castorf replaces the Rheingold with oil as the central commodity in a pre-capitalist society. The first night of the Ring cycle begins at a gas station off of Route 66, the main road connecting the East and West coasts of the USA, that played an important role in commerce in the 1920s.

Soprano Christine Goerke plays Brünnhilde, Wotan’s willful warrior daughter, who loses her immortality in opera’s most famous act of filial defiance. In this Live in HD transmission of Die Walküre, the second and most popular installment in the composer’s sweeping tetralogy, Goerke is joined by bass-baritone Greer Grimsley as Brünnhilde godly father, Wotan, and mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton as his unbending wife, Fricka. As the incestuous lovers Siegmund and Sieglinde, soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek and tenor Stuart Skelton—alongside bass Günther Groissböck as Sieglinde’s bloodthirsty husband, Hunding—round out the principal cast. And on the podium, Maestro Philippe Jordan conducts Robert Lepage’s innovative staging, which uses state-of-the-art stage technology to tell Wagner’s mythic tale.

Tony Award winner Bartlett Sher’s bold new production probes the psychological underpinnings of Verdi’s dynamic setting of Shakespeare’s great tragedy. At the helm of this performance is riveting conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who brings out all the cascading emotions in Verdi’s turbulent score. Aleksandrs Antonenko is the Moor Otello, the triumphant general of the Venetian army who is ultimately brought down by the sly insinuations of his friend Iago (Željko Lučić). Sonya Yoncheva continues to win fans as Desdemona, Otello’s faithful and long-suffering wife. With Günther Groissböck as Lodovico and Dimitri Pittas as Cassio.

Met Music Director James Levine leads this Live in HD presentation of Wagner’s early Romantic opera, starring Johan Botha in the title role of the minnesinger torn between earthly passion and true love. Eva-Maria Westbroek is Elisabeth, whose unswerving devotion redeems Tannhäuser’s soul, and Peter Mattei sings Wolfram, his faithful friend. Michelle DeYoung as the love goddess Venus and Günther Groissböck as Landgraf Hermann complete the cast. Otto Schenk’s classic production was the first of his acclaimed Wagner stagings at the Met.

Max, a young hunter, must win a shooting competition to claim the hand of his beloved Agathe. But on the eve of the competition, seemingly having lost all shooting prowess, Max allows himself to be convinced by his rival Kaspar to make a pact with the devil to use seven magic bullets which never miss their target. Wagner said that Carl Maria von Weber’s early-Romantic gem was the most German of German operas. With touches of the eerie supernatural, Der Freischütz is an irresistible mix of colourful folklore, tender romance, and a passionate struggle between good and evil - all captured in Weber’s tuneful and dramatic score. Successful Russian theatre, opera and film director Kirill Serebrennikov makes his debut in Amsterdam. In his approach to the opera, the struggle for success is transposed from the world of hunters and that of artists.