Alongside Gounod's “Faust”, Bizet's “Carmen” and Saint-Saëns' “Samson et Dalila”, “Thaïs” by Jules Massenet is one of those 19th-century French operatic masterpieces whose success on the stage remains undiminished to this day. Together with “Manon” (1884) and “Werther” (1892), it is also one of the composer's most popular and original works. This new edition which appears as part of the “L'Opéra français” series enables all three versions of “Thais” to be drawn upon for the first time.

The courtly Opéra-ballet Les Fêtes d'Hébé was premiered in May 1739 at the Académie royale de musique in Paris and was immediately extremely successful. Rameau had probably not reckoned on such a resounding success with a work he had evidently composed very quickly, to a libretto by dilettante authors who shared the same box at the Opéra – Antoine-César Gaultier de Montdorge and Louise-Angélique Rondin de La Tournerie. Their idea of writing a libretto for a ballet occurred to them following the performances of Les Indes galantes in 1735. In that year, Rameau had been unable to perform his tragedy Samson, based on a libretto by Voltaire, because of the censor, and so he decided to re-use a large portion of the music from Samson in his score for Les Fêtes d’Hébé.

A glimpse into the not-too-distant future: In their new opera "Singularity," composer Miroslav Srnka and author Tom Holloway dramatize mind games about computerized people, updates, and human and technical malfunctions. Their opera is a fast-paced play with set pieces of the cyber world, combining vision with farce and a glimpse into human abysses.  Expressly composed for young voices, “Singularity” was written for the opera studio of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. Nicolas Brieger signed responsible for the production of the premiere on 5 June 2021 in the Cuvilliés Theatre, the Klangforum Wien played under the baton of Patrick Hahn. The opera was performed both live and per live-stream. The live-stream is still accessible. "Singularity" is the third opera by Miroslav Srnka and Tom Holloway commissioned by the Bavarian State Opera, following “Make No Noise” and “South Pole”.

The return to life is the evocative title of this year’s Festival Berlioz in the composer’s birthplace of La Côte-Saint-André. In the second half of August leading Berlioz interpreters such as Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Francois-Xavier Roth, Jérémy Rhorer, John Nelson and Valery Gergiev perform key works from Berlioz’s output including Les Troyens à Carthage, La Damnation de Faust, L’Enfance du Christ, Requiem, Symphonie fantastique, Lelio ou Le retour à la vie and Les nuits d’été. The fact that music can finally be performed again after a long period of enforced silence is also another reason for traditional summer festivals in Aix-en-Provence, Glyndebourne, Munich, Salzburg and Lucerne – to name just the most prominent – to celebrate. Bärenreiter features many times with its critical new editions and performance material of Baroque and classical-romantic operas, and in addition, first performances of new concert works by Beat Furrer and Miroslav Srnka feature. Here is an overview of dates. Please check these with the respective organisers beforehand.

Following the multi prize-winning first CD recording of the dialogue version of Gounod’s “Faust”, edited and reconstructed by Paul Prévost, this can now be seen on the stage for the first time. With set designs by Herbert Murauer, renowned director Johannes Erath has conceived his production specially for Oper Köln’s venue in the Staatenhaus, creatively approaching this with current distancing rules in mind. The production embodies both the spirit of the Opéra Comique and the musical interpretation by Music Director François-Xavier Roth, the Gürzenich Orchester and the vocal soloists. These are largely drawn from the ensemble of Oper Köln, with Anne-Catherine Gillet (Marguerite) as the sole guest artist. Audiences will be particularly excited to hear the second part of Faust’s famous aria “Salut! demeure chaste et pure”, only recently rediscovered. This was cut from the Paris premiere on 19 March 1859 at the Théâtre Lyrique because of a change of singer at short notice, and has now been published exclusively in a Bärenreiter edition. Young Woo Kim gives the belated premiere of the young Faust’s Cavatina in the original two-part version on 5 June 2021. The first performance and all subsequent performances will be given by Oper Köln both with a live audience and streamed, on a pay as you wish basis.

A West-Far East encounter of a special kind links the Suntory Hall in Tokyo with the world premiere of Matthias Pintscher’s new orchestral work “neharot” and several Japanese first performances. These include his Cello Concerto “un despertar” and other works. Five intensive days of concerts with Matthias Pintscher and the Ensemble intercontemporain from 22–27 August contrast this composer portrait with works from the French avant-garde and Japanese music. The Trio “beyond II (bridge over troubled water)” and the orchestral work “neharot”, composed in the last year, are very recent. Pintscher writes: “Neharot means rivers in Hebrew, but also tears. It also describes lamentation. This music was written during the worst period of the many daily deaths in the spring of 2020 ... and is a clear echo of the desolation and fear, but also the hope for light that so emotionally characterized this time in our lives.” (Photo: Franck Ferville)

With his four symphonic poems, Camille Saint-Saëns placed himself firmly in the tradition of Hector Berlioz and Franz Liszt. The first critical editions offer an opportunity for new interpretations based on authoritative primary sources, both in the 2021 anniversary year (the 100th anniversary of the composer’s death) and well beyond.

Da noch einige Zeit ins Land gehen dürfte, ehe wieder große symphonische Werke der Spätromantik und Moderne in ihren Originalbesetzungen in geschlossenen Räumen erklingen können, suchen Orchester nach Stücken für Streichorchester, Kammerorchester, größere Bläserformationen und klassisches Symphonieorchester, die unter den Bedingungen der Corona-Pandemie ins Programm genommen werden können. Ein neuer Katalog bietet nun eine Auswahl aus den bei Bärenreiter | Alkor erhältlichen Werken. Wie in dem unlängst erschienenen Katalog mit Bühnenwerken in kleiner Besetzung steht hier weniger das wohlvertraute Kernrepertoire im Fokus, sondern Kompositionen, die seltener gespielt werden und damit die Möglichkeit eröffnen, dem starren Aufführungskanon neue Facetten hinzuzufügen.

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Wenn die Opernhäuser und Konzertsäle wieder öffnen, werden klein besetzte Werke sicher eine große Rolle spielen. Aus diesem Grund haben Bärenreiter und Alkor eine Auswahl aus ihrem Repertoire zusammengestellt: Sie reicht von Händels genialischer Minioper Aci, Galatea e Polifemo, die der blutjunge Komponist 1708 in Neapel komponiert hat, über ein zu wenig bekanntes Meisterwerk der Opéra comique, Le Toréador, Adolphe Adams im Theatermilieu spielender Hymnus auf eine nicht ganz reine Liebe zu dritt, bis hin zu Opern des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts, die das Thema Isolation aufgreifen und verarbeiten: Räumlich in Günter Bialas’ Aus der Matratzengruft (nach Heinrich Heine), akustisch in Miroslav Srnkas Make no noise und spirituell in Thomas Daniel Schlees Ich, Hiob.

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