"Poetic freedom in the mind"
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The press and audience are enthusiastic about the premiere of the 2024 summer opera "La Clemenza di Tito", which can be experienced at the HfMT Forum until June 5.
In the Hamburger Abendblatt under the headline "La Clemenza di Tito": Strong premiere at the University of Music on 14.5.2024:
"Comparisons always limp and the comparison between a large house like the State Opera and a training institute anyway. The hare and the hedgehog send their regards. But when it comes to the stage design and direction of the two Hamburg titans, the hedgehog from the Milky Way has the edge. With little use of materials but a noticeable openness, Siegert creates a modular interior consisting of a few light-colored armchairs and four white wooden stairs that can be moved against each other as required. What Helge Leiberg loosely draws and paints in the course of the performance is projected onto the whole. This has a poetic effect, creates freedom in the mind, quite unlike the catchphrases from 'Delizia' (joy) to 'Tradimento' (betrayal) to - surprise - 'Clemenza' (clemency), with which Ben Baur dictated to the audience at Dammtorstraße in capital letters which rhyme they should make." (...) "Actually, the opera should be called 'Sesto' if it were based on the intensity and detail with which Mozart illuminates the emotional lives of his characters. The soprano Mengying Jia finds poignant tones for the anguish of the friend who becomes the conspirator of a murder plot. Her aria 'Parto, parto' with the great clarinet solo, accompanied attentively and eloquently by the symphony orchestra, becomes a centerpiece of the entire performance."
concerti - das Konzert- und Opernmagazin writes on 13.5.2024 under the headline Hamburg's alternative Clemenza:
"Exactly two weeks after the Hamburg State Opera presented a musically outstanding but not very rousing production of the same material, the Hamburg University of Music and Drama celebrated the premiere of its major summer production of 'La clemenza di Tito' on Sunday, which can be experienced at the Forum an der Milchstraße until June 5. Where at the Gänsemarkt dubious director's theater leads to the magnanimous Tito, who is punished with betrayal, wanting to blow a bullet into his own brain at the end of the opera, the university benefits not least from the more intimate atmosphere of the Forum, which can barely seat more than three hundred people." (...)
"Changwook Jang, the only one to sing Tito in this university 'Clemenza' (all other roles are double-cast), shoulders the responsibility of his irreplaceability playfully and skillfully. The young tenor's creamy vocal color blends seamlessly into the sound of the symphony orchestra, which is already demonstrated in the gallant entrance aria 'Del più sublime soglio' and is complemented in terms of virtuosity in the final aria 'Se all'impero, amici Dei'." (...)
"The true strength of the ensemble, however, is their interaction as a collective. Everyone may have their soloistic merits, such as Volodymyr Milushkin (Publio), blessed with a crystal-clear articulation of Italian, or Esther Barski, who completes the quartet of male roles with a strong character in the role of Sesto's friend Annio - as chorus singers (the other singers also take part as chorus soloists), they harmonize well together and fill the forum with a volume that is only slightly inferior to a larger chorus in terms of effect."
Dates and tickets
B-PREMIERE Fri, 17.5.2024 7 pm
FURTHER PRESENTATIONS: Sun 19.5. 4 pm / Wed 22.5. 7 pm / Fri 24.5. 7 pm / Sun 26.5. 4 pm / Sat 1.6. 7 pm / Mon 3.6. 7 pm / Wed 5.6. 7 pm
FORUM of the Hamburg University of Music and Drama
Tickets: Gerdes box office 040-45 33 26 and 040-44 02 98, also at eventim or at the box office in the foyer from one hour before the start of the performance