Die Nase (The nose)

Die Nase (The nose)

Oper Leipzig

Sunday 16 Nov. // 06:00 – about 09:15 p.m.
Oper Leipzig

    Opera in three acts and one epiloque

    The nose suddenly disappears from Major Kovaljov’s face and then reappears in the shape of a state councillor. His own »nose« has by far more power than he has himself and does not seem to know him any more. Curiosity and fear grows among the people of St. Petersburg: Kovaljov’s nose, so they say, has been seen in the city. Something sinister, satanic is spreading like a disease that can only be controlled through terror by a blundering police force.

    Already depicted in Gogol’s novel as a grotesquely distorted image of a faceless and fearful society, Dmitri Shostakovitsh’s (1906-75) untamed music makes this topic more penetrating and intensive. Powerful hammering rhythms, piercing exaggerations and the tempting sounds of orthodox church music create an absurdly fantastic stage production that had its 1930 premiere in Leningrad and is a rarity on the opera stage. At that time Shostakovitsh belonged to the circle of young soviet avant-garde artists and a few years later created his better known opera »Lady Mcbeth of Mzensk« (1963 new version as »Katarina Ismailova«).

    Alfred Kirchner produced at Europe’s most famous opera houses, e.g. in Vienna, Amsterdarn and Berlin and apart from countless classics also staged many premieres, such as productions by Martin Walser, Herbert Achternbusch, Thomas Bernhard, Heiner Müller and Peter Turrini. He was invited to many important festivals and guest performances abroad and in 1994 he produced Richard Wagner’s »Ring des Nibelungen« at the Bayreuth Festival.

    Uraufführung: 15.11.1997, Leipzig

    Produktion: Oper Leipzig

    Contribution selected by Oper Leipzig

    Text: Georgi Jonin, Alexander Preiss, Jewgeni Samjatin, Dmitri Schostakowitsch nach der gleichnamigen Novelle von Nikolaj Wassiljewitsch Gogol

    Musik: Dmitri Schostakowitsch

    Musikalische Leitung: Michail Jurowski

    Inszenierung: Alfred Kirchner

    Bühnenbild: Annette Murschetz

    Kostüme: Margit Koppendorfer

    Choreografie: Elisabeth Clarke

    Darsteller: Thomas Möwes (Platon Kusmitsch Kowaljow), Jan Danckaert (Iwan Jakowlewitsch), Udo Holdorf (ein Wachtmeister der Polizei), Martin Petzold (Iwan, Diener des Kowaljow), Hendrikje Wangemann (Brezelverkäuferin/Tochter von Die Nase in Gestalt eines Staatsrates und Alexandra Grigorjewna), Annelott Damm (eine vornehme Patrone), Heidrun Halx (Praskowja Ossipowna, Frau des Iwan Jakowlewitsch), Soon Won Kang (ein Arzt)

    Chor der Oper Leipzig
    Gewandhausorchester Leipzig

    In russischer Sprache mit deutscher Übertitelung

    Archive 1997

    7th Festival Year