Thomas Adès’ setting of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, his second music theatre work following the internationally-successful chamber opera Powder Her Face, is shortly to receive its first performances on the German stage; on 10 January 2010 at the Oper Frankfurt (conductor: Johannes Debus, director: Keith Warner), followed on 12 March 2010 at the Oper Lübeck (conductor: Philippe Bach, director: Reto Nickler). On 11 January, the Ensemble Modern performs Thomas Adès’ The Origin of the Harp in a concert in the series "Happy New Ears" in the Holzfoyer at the Oper Frankfurt, conducted by the composer.

The Frankfurt Opera opens the new season with two music theatre works which could scarcely be more different: Othmar Schoeck’s classical drama Penthesilea (after Heinrich von Kleist) is staged in the much-praised Basel production by Hans Neuenfels (first performance 4 September 2011, musical direction Alexander Liebreich) and the opéra bouffe L’Étoile by Emmanuel Chabrier (photo), recently performed several times in Germany and abroad using the new Bärenreiter critical edition. In Frankfurt, David Alden directs this French operatic jewel. The music director is Henrik Nánási, the future chief conductor of the Komische Oper Berlin (first performance 2 October 2011).

“People are on a journey through present-day Egypt; whilst searching for its origins, they encounter their own wilderness as an absence of memory...” Thus Beat Furrer describes the plot of Wüstenbuch. His new music theatre piece after texts by Händl Klaus, Ingeborg Bachmann and others receives its first performance at the Theater Basel in a production by Christoph Marthaler on 15 March. The first German performance takes place at Maerzmusik Berlin on 27 March. Before then, on 12 February, at Eclat 2010 in Stuttgart, Begehren was performed in a staged production by the Ensemble Modern and the SWR Stuttgart Vocal Ensemble conducted by Beat Furrer, with sets designed by rosalie. At the Konzerthaus Wien Xenos III for Percussion and Chamber Orchestra was premiered on 1 March by Ensemble Resonanz and Dirk Rothbrust (percussion).  

It’s fifty years since the curtain first went up in Prague on Bohuslav Martinu’s comic opera Mirandolina after Goldoni. The work, which recalls Rossini’s motor-rhythms, then fell into obscurity as tastes in styles changed. A rediscovery is long overdue, especially in this anniversary year.

Joseph Haydn has undoubtedly been one of the winners in opera programmes in recent years, and particularly in his anniversary year. Here we take a glance at two of his most popular works: L’isola disabitata and L’infedeltà delusa.

During Handel’s lifetime Ezio only received five performances, yet the work, which deals freely with an episode from the end of the Roman Empire, deserves to be rediscovered. This is now possible, using the Halle Handel Edition as a secure scholarly basis.

Many of Joseph Haydn's operas scarcely feature in the international operatic repertoire. This is also true of La fedeltà premiata (“Fidelity Rewarded”) of 1781, an opera semiseria in the pastoral idiom typical of the time, with a plot which is to all intents and purposes serious, yet interspersed with comic figures and scenes. The adventurous Zurich Opera House is staging the work at the beginning of the Haydn anniversary year, and has engaged director Jens-Daniel Herzog and conductor Adam Fischer, who is amongst the leading Haydn interpreters. This production, and one conducted by Trevor Pinnock at the Royal Academy of Music London, will use new performing material from the Complete Edition of Haydn's works. The first performances took place on 1 (Zurich) and 2 March 2009 (London).