500 Year Orchestra anniversary - 500 Jahre Orchesterjubiläum

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The Snow Queen is Hans Abrahamsen’s first opera composed for the phenomenal soprano Barbara Hannigan, based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale. Barbara Hannigan is joined by Rachael Wilson, Katarina Dalayman and Peter Rose, with Cornelius Meister as music director. Experience the recording of the English premiere at the Bavarian State Opera in a production by Andreas Kriegenburg.

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Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

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This is the first historic recording from the archive on the Bayerische Staatsoper Recordings label: Felix Mendelssohn’s Elias under the musical direction of Wolfgang Sawallisch from 1984. This concert recording brings together a top-class ensemble of singers such as Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Margaret Price, Brigitte Fassbaender, Peter Schreier and Kurt Moll, all of whom have left their mark on the Bayerische Staatsoper – in some cases over decades.

The performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Elias opened the 1984 Munich Opera Festival and was also the opening event of the 88th German Catholic Day. The then State Opera Director and General Music Director Wolfgang Sawallisch set an example: With a sacred oratorio, he demonstrated the stylistic versatility of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester, which is based at the National Theater, and with the work of a Protestant-baptized composer of Jewish origin in the context of a Catholic event, he sent out a widely noticed ecumenical signal.

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This album is the first release from the Bayerische Staatsoper label -Bayerische Staatsoper Recordings. This live recording of Gustav Mahler's 7th Symphony from the National Theater in Munich reveals a dramatic interpretation of one of the summit works of the late Romantic orchestral repertoire. Here we witness an orchestra intimately familiar with its conductor telling an epic story beyond all symphonic power and brilliance: an unforgettable musical moment and a unique sonic experience. The recording under Kirill Petrenko received, among others, the Gramophone Award 2022 in the category Orchestral.

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Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

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The Opera Studio of the Bavarian State Opera on DVD for the first time! Together with the young singers of the Opera Studio of the Bavarian State Opera, director Axel Ranisch presents an unusual approach to two rarely performed works: In Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky’s last opera Iolanta, a blind princess searches for the reasons for her sadness and finds love. In Igor Stravinsky’s neoclassical buffa one-act Mavra, an inventive young woman has a risky idea and smuggles her lover into her mother’s house disguised as a cook. With great love for his characters and an impressive sense for the relationships between them, Ranisch weaves both works into an enchanting coming-of-age tale about family, love, realization and self-determination: Mavra and Iolanta becomes Mavra / Iolanta.

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It was a special moment, the 1st Academy Concert of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester in the 2020/2021 season: one of the first public concerts after the closure of the concert halls in 2020 and only the second concert under the direction of Vladimir Jurowski as designated General Music Director. The program included Ludwig van Beethoven’s revolutionary Second Symphony and the corresponding contemporary work Testament by Australian composer Brett Dean. Experience the live recording of this concert on CD!

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The Revolutionary Tribunal has sentenced Andrea Chénier to death, and no one can avert his fate. Shortly before the execution, Chénier is visited by his lover Maddalena, who has decided to die at the poet’s side. “Our death is the triumph of love,” the lovers promise each other in their last words.

The French Revolution, demanded by the people at the beginning, turns out to be a machine of terror after 1789: spies of the regime pursue the citizens, show trials serve as a deterrent, and the guillotine ensures the execution of sentences. Although the wanted Chénier could flee Paris, he decides against it. He wants to know who is hiding behind the letters that are secretly delivered to him. Here, in the shadow of the reign of terror, love triumphs: Chénier and Maddalena find each other, swear eternal love and are faithful to each other until their last breath together.

Director Philipp Stölzl made his debut at the Bavarian State Opera with his production of Umberto Giordano’s verismo opera. Munich’s dream couple Jonas Kaufmann and Anja Harteros appeared in the title role and as Maddalena, Marco Armiliato conducted the Bayerisches Staatsorchester. Now the successful production is being released on Blu-ray and DVD on the company’s own label.

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This year, in which the Bayerisches Staatorchester celebrates 500 years since its inception, the Munich Opera Horns have put together a very special birthday present, their album Voyager. The title is particularly apt. Since the horn symbolises the music of the German Romantic and Postromantic eras, it’s firstly a journey into the past. Let’s not forget that the Bayerisches Staatsorchester has always had renowned hornists in its ranks; I’d just like to mention one of them by name: Franz Strauss, Richard Strauss’s father, principal horn during the earliest Bayreuth Festivals and so esteemed that even Richard Wagner, never quick to extol anyone’s virtues, said of him, “When he plays, one can forgive him anything.” The Munich Opera Horns continue the long and wonderful tradition of performing compositions for their instrument as well as interpretations of repertoire classics. However, they are also firmly rooted in the present, showcasing new pieces composed especially for them. Alongside their magnificent performances in the Nationaltheater, the Munich Opera Horns have been playing together for fifteen years. Their aim is always to demonstrate, through their sublime musicianship, how both radiance and tenderness can be teased out of their instruments. We should really call them the Munich Opera Wunderhorns! The recording you’re listening to is ample proof.

Serge Dorny General Director, Bayerische Staatsoper

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The picture book by Rolf Fänger and Ulrike Möltgen tells of friendship, owning, sharing and letting go. The music spans from well-known repertoire of opera history to works by the contemporary composer Richard Whilds. At the same time, the world of opera is opened up to the youngest audience members through a touching story. The dramaturge of the Bavarian State Opera, Malte Krasting, created the concept based on the children’s book Der kleine Mondbär (“The Little Moon Bear”) together with Catherine Leiter, who has been responsible for the Kind & Co section since the 2021/22 season. On April 28, Der Mondbär was now released as a radio play with music for children.

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Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

The boundary between dream and reality increasingly dissolves as Paul, mourning his dead wife Marie, meets the dancer Marietta. With her looks so similar to Marie’s, Marietta becomes the object of the projection of Paul’s erotic desires. His grief has the traits of a ritual: The carefully composed strands of his dead wife’s hair are guarded like a relic. Following a nerve-racking “vision” with cathartic effect, Paul is finally reeled back to reality. He can leave the Belgian city of Bruges as the place of his death cult. The original title of the piece, “Triumph des Lebens” (Triumph of Life), is symbolic of the main character’s personal development.

Just a few weeks before the immensely successful world premiere of Die tote Stadt, none other than Giacomo Puccini himself described Erich Wolfgang Korngold, only 23 at the time, as the “greatest hope of new German music”. Because of their melodic urgency, arias such as “Glück, das mir verblieb” (Marietta’s Lute Song) and “Mein Sehnen, mein Wähnen” (Pierrot’s Song) have found a home among the concert repertoires of numerous opera singers and radiate far beyond the fame of Die tote Stadt.

The premiere of Korngold’s Die tote Stadt at the Bavarian State Opera in autumn 2019 was praised by press and audience alike. Experience the Bayerisches Staatsorchester under Kirill Petrenko as well as Marlis Petersen (Marie / Marietta) and Jonas Kaufmann (Paul) in the main roles of this intensive and stirring production by Simon Stone on DVD or Blu-ray. Winner of the Gramophone Music Awards in the categories Opera and Recordings of the Year:

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https://www.staatsoper.de/recordings

Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl

Since May 2021, the Bayerische Staatsoper has been documenting its excellence, versatility and tradition with a new in-house label: Bayerische Staatsoper Recordings.

Discover selected opera productions and concert recordings as well as important archive recordings on CD or DVD/BD under the new label of the Bavarian State Opera: BSOrec. Productions from the children’s and youth program KIND & CO as well as chamber music editions, which are intended to provide a platform for first-class ensembles of the Bavarian State Orchestra, complete the label’s range.

Shortly after it was founded, the label was also able to look forward to special awards, for example at the Gramophone Classical Music Awards 2022: Kirill Petrenko and the Bayerisches Staatsorchester won the award in the category orchestral recordings with their recording of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 7, Hans Abrahamsen’s The Snow Queenwas honored in the Contemporary category, and Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt received two awards: the Opera category and the coveted award “Recording of the Year”. Most recently, our in-house label won the “Video: Opera” category at the 2023 International Classical Music Awards with the release The Snow Queen, directed by Kirill Petrenko.

More about the label and previous releases:https://www.staatsoper.de/recordings

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Unique in its kind, OPERcussion, the virtuoso percussion quintet, brings the art of percussion from the depths of the orchestra pit to the front row, realizing a new model of artistic creation while respecting history and championing innovation.

When we study the history of the Bayerische Staatsoper, we learn that the first timpanist with a contract began in 1600 in what was then the Court Orchestra. In more than 400 years of musical tradition, the greatest composers and conductors in history have influenced the members of this traditional orchestra and promoted chamber music activities. The members of the percussion group have not escaped this call and since 2008 have been organized in the formation OPERcussion. Thomas März, Pieter Roijen, Maxime Pidoux, Carlos Vera Larrucea and Claudio Estay bring to the ensemble their virtuosity, their knowledge, the traditions of their countries of origin and their peculiarities. This international ensemble has distinguished itself in the world of percussion and in the music scene in general for the innovation and diversity of its programs, which include collaborations and commissions with contemporary composer:s, as well as arrangements of music not originally written for percussion, from the eras: Baroque, Classical and Impressionist to the interpretation of Latin American music with grandiose improvisational ideas.

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