The Merry Wives of Windsor
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"A tingling opera evening - one with stars!" (NDR): Otto Nicolai's comic-fantastic opera based on William Shakespeare will be performed at the HfMT Forum until June 19
He was a contemporary of Richard Wagner, founded the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, caused a sensation with bel canto operas in Italy and was to set the libretto of Nabucco to music. Otto Nicolai certainly went down in history with his comic-fantastic opera The Merry Wives of Windsor. The composer from Königsberg chose Shakespeare's comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor as the basis for his piece, which focuses on the female characters as string-pullers.
Maestro Willem Wentzel is now the musical director of the new production at the university, director Wolfgang Ansel The singers from the opera class are making their debut in the demanding roles, with Geert Smits, a star baritone from the Vienna State Opera who is now a professor at the HfMT, at their side as Falstaff.
The self-confident wives Fluth and Reich receive exactly the same love letter. Outraged by the audacity, they take revenge on the author of the letter - the foaming-at-the-mouth Sir John Falstaff. His escape from the jealous husbands drives him into laundry baskets, women's clothing and finally into a spooky fairytale forest. The townspeople, incited by the married couples, are already waiting there to show him up. Meanwhile, daughter Anna Reich emancipates herself from her parents' power games, although it remains questionable whether her visions for the future can be realized within the framework of the bourgeois institution of marriage. By highlighting the power structures between the sexes, social classes and generations, the work, which premiered in Berlin in 1849, seems more relevant than ever.
Director Wolfgang Ansel portrays Sir John Falstaff as an ageing star who has lost much of his fire and fascination. The initially humorous pranks increasingly drive the knight into an existential crisis and make his desire for eternal youth and virility recede into the distance.
Review by the daily newspaper Die Welt of the premiere on June 2 at the HfMT: Die knallbunten Weiber von Windsor
MUSICAL DIRECTOR Willem Wentzel
DIRECTOR Wolfgang Ansel
With the singers of the opera class and the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra
Performance dates:
A premiere Sun / 2.6.2019 / 6.00 pm
B premiere Fri / 7.6.2019 / 7.30 pm
Further performances: SO 9.6. 18.00 DI 11.6. / 19.30,
FR 14.6. / 19.30 SO 16.6. / 18.00, MI 19.6. / 19.30
FORUM of the Hamburg University of Music and Drama, Harvestehuder Weg 12, Milchstraße entrance
TICKETS (incl. HVV ticket): € 28, reduced € 10
Tel. 040 45 33 26 & 040 - 44 02 98A production by the opera class of the Theaterakademie Hamburg as part of the junges forum Musik + Drama series