The first run of performances has taken place, and what remains are memories of two magnificent hours of contemporary music theatre. Miroslav Srnka’s South Pole was widely acclaimed. A look back.

On 19 August 2016 Leoš Janáček’s great existential masterpiece The Makropulos Case will be heard at one of the world’s most important music festivals – the BBC Proms in London. For this concert performance with the BBC Singers and the BBC Symphony Orchestra the renown Czech conductor Jiří Bělohlávek has chosen the new Urtext edition from Bärenreiter Praha, edited and performed by his colleague Tomáš Hanus, himself a distinguished Janáček specialist. The Finnish star soprano Karita Mattila will sing the role of Emilia Marty. The Makropulos Case will be broadcast life from the Royal Albert Hall on BBC Radio 3.

The operas of Jean-Philippe Rameau have experienced a renaissance in German theatres in recent years. Now the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich is making its own contribution to this rekindled interest with a new production of the opéra-ballet Les Indes galantes, with its homage to exoticism. The first night is on 24 July 2016 in the Prinzregententheater. The choreography and production are by the Flemish-Maroccan dancer and choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, and the conductor is Ivor Bolton, who has previously been involved in many baroque opera triumphs in Munich. Sylvie Bouissou, Editorial Director of the Opéra Omnia Rameau, has prepared the first critical edition of this work with meticulous accuracy. It survives in several versions, some differing from each other considerably, making this a highly complex editorial undertaking. 

Handel’s opera Sosarme of 1732 will be performed at the Handel Festival in Halle for the first time using the Halle Handel Edition.

Just a year after its successful premiere at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Miroslav Srnka’s double opera South Pole receives its first performance in a reduced and revised version at the Staatstheater Darmstadt. The theatre’s artistic director Karsten Wiegand directs the legendary race between Robert Falcon Scott and the Norwegian Roald Amundsen in the Antarctic, which Srnka’s composition realizes as a musical conflict between two teams in a tremendous arc of tension. The conductor is Johannes Harneit. The first performance takes place on 27 May 2017. Further performances are planned for 10, 18 and 21 June. (Photo: Vojtěch Havlik)

The Musiktheater im Revier Gelsenkirchen is the first opera house to stage Bellini’s masterpiece Norma using the new Bärenreiter edition by Maurizio Biondi and Riccardo Minasi, following on from Cecilia Bartoli’s Salzburg Festival production. The director is Elisabeth Stöppler, and conductor is Valtteri Rauhalammi, to be followed by Rasmus Baumann in later performances. The new production of Norma receives its first performance on 5 March 2016.

Cavalli’s Il Xerse was one of the most successful operas of its day. Now, the turbulent, semi-tragic, semi-comic work is published in its Italian and Paris versions as part of the Cavalli edition.