[16.02.2012] Leoš Janáček’s artistic opera Osud, which the composer never heard staged during his lifetime, returns to the place where it received its German premiere. The work was first performed in a staged version in October 1958 on consecutive days in Brno and in Stuttgart. The revised edition, published as part of the Janáček Complete Edition, will be used in the staging by the new production team at the Stuttgart Opera: Sylvain Cambreling conducts Fate: Destiny – Osud in the production by Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito. Janáček’s “theatrical work, emerging entirely out of the spirit of his music, whose lyrical and dramatic high points are amongst the great, unique moments of his output in their originality,” is presented with another Expressionist artistic drama, Schoenberg’s “Die glückliche Hand”. The first performance takes place on 11 March 2012.

Sieg der Schönheit (The Triumph of Beauty), Telemann’s first work for the Hamburg stage, captivates through an exciting and richly varied plot, and through music which spills over with a wealth of emotions. It can be rediscovered as a theatrical work in Osnabrück in June 2012.

[16.02.2012] This year also sees two little-known operas by Telemann put through their paces in the repertoire: the Theater Magdeburg presents the Singspiel Miriways on 10 March at the 21st Telemann Festtage in a staged premiere (production: Jakob Peters-Messer, conductor: Michi Gaigg), and the Theater Osnabrück ends its season on 6 June with a new production of Sieg der Schönheit (production: Markus Bothe, conductor: Michael Schneider). For both productions, new performance material has been specially produced, based on the Telemann Edition.

Flavius Bertaridus is Telemann’s sole surviving opera seria. Following the first performance of the new edition in 2008 in Magdeburg, this highly emotive drama in the Italian style is being revived by the renowned Innsbruck Festival of Early Music from 10 August. In the co-production with the Hamburg State Opera, the director is Jens-Daniel Herzog and Alessandro de Marchi conducts the choir and orchestra of the Academia Montis Regalis.

Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass has an extremely complicated genesis and presents an intricate set of problems for an editor. Now, an authoritative edition has been published as part of the complete edition.

A scholarly-critical edition of Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem is an editorial adventure, since the composer expanded the work several times after the premiere of the “small” version of 1888. The edition in the new Fauré complete edition offers a convincing solution.

There is still a great deal to discover amongst Christoph Willibald Gluck’s operatic works, beyond the well-known Reform operas. One such work is Telemaco, the Dramma per musica premiered in Vienna in 1756, which combines traditional and progressive stylistic elements in fascinating ways. Tobias Kratzer directs the ‘magic opera’ at the Schwetzingen Rococo Theatre; performers include the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, conducted by Anu Tali (21, 22, 24 and 26 May).