PFITZNER, H.: Palestrina (Bavarian State Opera, 2009)
Palestrina
Composer: Pfitzner, Hans
Librettist/Text Author: Pfitzner, Hans
Conductor: Young, Simone
Orchestra: Bavarian State Orchestra
Chorus: Bavarian State Opera Chorus
Chorus Master: Maspero, Andres
Abdisu: Roberson, Kenneth
Anton Brus von Muglitz: Rieger, Christian
Bernardo Novagerio: Daszak, John
Cardinal Christoph Madruscht: Bracht, Roland
Cardinal of Lorraine: Humes, Steven
Carlo Borromeo: Struckmann, Falk
Count Luna: Koch, Wolfgang
Giovanni Morone: Volle, Michael
Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina: Ventris, Christopher
Pope Pius IV: Rose, Peter
Set Designer: Hageneier, Stefan
Costume Designer: Hageneier, Stefan
Lighting Designer: Bauer, Michael
Stage Director: Stuckl, Christian
Television Director: Fibich, Karina
Date of Production: 14-07-2009
Venue: National Theater, Munich
Playing Time: 03:25:38
Catalogue Number: A05017481
Requiring 38 soloists, chorus and large orchestra, Palestrina, Hans Pfitzner's (1869-1949) "most important work" (Süddeutsche Zeitung), is a challenging opera to stage. In Munich, the city in which it was given its world premiere in 1917, the Bavarian State Opera succeeded - director Christian Stückl, best known for his staging of the Oberammergau Passion Play and the Salzburg Festival's Jedermann, transformed the monumental work into an optical pop art event.
Stückl's production infuses such color and life into the serious work that even the German tabloid "Abendzeitung" delightedly wrote: "Who would have thought that Pfitzner could be such fun?" Written in a lush late-Romantic idiom, the masterpiece weaves a fictitious tale around Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, one of the most important Renaissance composers and renovators of sacred music, who fears losing his creative powers and his role in society.
Conductor Simone Young maintains a silky, organic orchestral texture and expertly holds the reins of the many vocal and instrumental parts. Heading the many outstanding soloists are the imposing Christopher Ventris as Palestrina, Bayreuth regular Falk Struckmann and baritone Michael Volle.
