Prince Regent Theatre 15 July 2023 - Semele | GoComGo.com

Semele

Prince Regent Theatre, Munich, Germany
All photos (4)
Saturday 15 July 2023

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Important Info
Type: Opera
City: Munich, Germany
Starts at: 18:00
Festival

Munich Opera Festival 2023

The Munich Opera Festival is an internationally renowned institution. During the summer months, the programme condenses an immense density of opera repertoire, crème de la crème casts, several premieres and an audience travelling from all over the world, united in a unique programme and ambiance. Musical theatre with its finger on the pulse of the times is here to experience in all its facets.

Overview

She is an extra in her own life. Her life’s reality is alien to her. Semele’s father urges her to marry Athamas, and she suddenly finds herself in her own wedding ceremony, hyped up by the marriage industry into a pompous Hollywood scene. By beginning to observe herself from the outside, she creates a parallel reality as an apparent way out, which she superimposes on her life, where all her longings are satisfied – an understanding father, a loving husband, self-determination, in short: fulfilment.

However, temporary and above all, not real. In the end she would have to return to her real life, where she was quickly replaced as a wife by her sister Ino, because she could not fulfil the role assigned to her here. Semele, physically present, will psychologically not find the way back to reality. Her mind will glow through. She’s moved too far from normality. The rigid expectations of her as an individual coincided too little with her own will. This basic conflict of Semele was embedded by William Congreve and George Frideric Handel from Ovid's Metamorphoses into the narrative structures common to baroque opera. Today it might also be a perspective on the constricting power of the bourgeois corset.

Semele is director Claus Guth's third production at the Bayerische Staatsoper. In 2007 he staged Giuseppe Verdi's Luisa Miller, and in 2022 Bluthaus by Georg Friedrich Haas. Guth lives in Munich, where he studied philosophy, German philology and theatre at LMU Munich, as well as theatre and opera direction at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich. Yvonne Gebauer (dramaturgy) and Guth have worked together for many years, as has Gesine Völlm (costumes). The first collaboration between Guth and set designer Michael Levine, Jenůfa by Leoš Janáček, premiered at the Royal Opera House London in 2021. Michael Bauer (lighting) and Guth have known each other since their work experience at the Bayerische Staatsoper during their student days. Guth's staging of the baroque opera Dido and Aeneas, his thesis, premiered at Munich's Reithalle in 1991. Handel and Guth have been a tradition ever since: Radamisto, Opernhaus Zürich 2004; Rinaldo, Opernhaus Zürich 2008; Messiah, Theater an der Wien 2009; Jephta, De Nationale Opera Amsterdam 2016; Rodelinda, Teatro Real Madrid 2017; Saul, Theater an der Wien 2018; and Orlando, Theater an der Wien 2019.

A co-production with the Metropolitan Opera, New York

 

 

History
Premiere of this production: 10 February 1744, Covent Garden Theatre, London

Semele is a 'musical drama', originally presented "after the manner of an oratorio", in three parts by George Frideric Handel. Based on a pre-existent opera libretto by William Congreve, the work is an opera in all but name but was first presented in concert form at Covent Garden theatre on 10 February 1744. The story comes from Ovid's Metamorphoses and concerns Semele, mother of Bacchus. Handel also referred to the work as 'The Story of Semele'.

Venue Info

Prince Regent Theatre - Munich
Location   Prinzregentenpl. 12

The main building of the Prinzregententheater is an impressive combination of Art Nouveau and Classical architectural elements: eyes and ears are pampered, decoration and function merge into a sensual unity. From all seats in the magnificent auditorium there is an ideal view of the proscenium and the stage. The acoustics of the Prince Regent Theater are highly praised and come into their own at concerts. The amphitheatrical auditorium has 1029 seats in the stalls and six boxes, each with nine seats. The height-adjustable orchestra pit offers space for up to 95 musicians.

From 1900 to 1901, the Prince Regent Theater was built by Max Littmann based on the Bayreuth Richard Wagner Festival Hall and opened on August 21, 1901 with "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" by Richard Wagner. Over time, the stage was used in a variety of ways, in the summer months for the Richard Wagner Festival, from 1919 to 1944 also by the Bavarian State Theater as spoken theater. 

A great era of the house began after the Second World War, when it housed the Bavarian State Opera from 1944 to 1963. Unforgettable names such as Hans Knappertsbusch and Sir Georg Solti, Astrid Varnay, Erika Köth and Hans Hotter are inextricably linked with the Prinzregententheater. The Munich people's love of their "democratic" opera also stems from this period, as there is excellent visibility and acoustics from all seats. In 1963 the house was closed due to dilapidation. 

With the help of many private donations and above all thanks to the initiative of August Everding, it was able to be reopened in January 1988 with a partial repair designed as a "small solution" - a playing area in front of the iron curtain - and the restoration of all areas accessible to spectators. However, the stage consisted only of a makeshift small playing platform. In 1996 the stage area was renovated and a retractable orchestra pit was added. Finally, on November 10, 1996, there was a ceremonial reopening with "Tristan und Isolde".

Since 1993, the Prinzregententheater has been home to the Bavarian Theater Academy August Everding with courses in acting, musicals, opera, direction, dramaturgy, theater, film and television criticism, stage design and costumes and make-up. In addition to the Big House, the Academy's up to 50 productions per year are shown in the Academy Theater, which can accommodate a maximum of 300 visitors, and in the Academy Studio, which can accommodate a maximum of 100 visitors.

Important Info
Type: Opera
City: Munich, Germany
Starts at: 18:00
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