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Korngold: Die tote Stadt / Vinke, Kringelborn, Inbal

Korngold / Teatro La Fenise Venizia / Inbal
Release Date: 07/26/2011 
Label:  Dynamic   Catalog #: 33625  
Composer:  Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Performer:  Julia Oesch,  Eleanore Marguerre,  Solveig Kringelborn,  Christa Mayer,   ... 
Conductor:  Eliahu Inbal
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Venice Teatro la Fenice Orchestra,  Venice Teatro la Fenice Chorus
Number of Discs: 1 
Recorded in: Stereo 
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Notes and Editorial Reviews

Cast:
Paul: Stefan Vinke
Marie / Mariette: Solveig Kringelborn
Frank / Fritz: Stephan Genz
Brigitta: Christa Mayer
Juliette: Eleonore Marguerre
Lucienne: Julia Oesch
Gaston: Gino Potente
Victorin: Shi Yijie

Teatro la Fenice, Venice, 2009

Director Pier Luigi Pizzi drew inspiration from Georges Rodenbach’s short novel, ”Bruges - La Morte” which narrates the bizarre and sinister experience of a man who, having lost his wife, is mesmerized and hypnotized by the atmosphere of the city of Bruges to the point that he believes to recognize his beloved one in a woman met in the streets. He is so obsessed by this incredible event to think that he can bring the Read more past back, but despite the two women’s amazing likeness, the unique sensitivity and the feelings of the wife that he had loved for ten years are gone forever.

Rodenbach turns the city of Bruges in a sinister and foggy stage where mysterious events take place. The urban spaces and the dead woman are deeply linked, the city itself amplifies death as it mirrors the main character’s feelings, his agony, his tireless quest for an impossible love. This quest will lead him to death, in the cold, dead Venetian waters. Erich W. Korngold was very touched by this novel and composed an opera imbued with romantic and lyrical elements, that enhance the sense of self destruction and doom of the protagonist, describing through music his sudden mood swings.

The reference to water is very important as it mirrors the characters’ feelings and the strict analogy with Venice. Venice is the connecting element between this production and last year’s Death in Venice by Benjamin Britten.

These two titles are deeply linked and form one unique path. For that opera too Pizzi had used fog and mist on stage as to evoke a sense of ghost silence and desolation. Water and fog are therefore essential ingredients, and always recurring on the stage set.

Picture Format: NTSC 16:9
Sound Format: LPCM 2.0
Region Code: 0
Duration: 148 minutes
Recorded: at Teatro la Fenice Venice Jan-2009
Subtitles: French English German Spanish Italian - sung in German
Booklet notes: Italian English French German.
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Works on This Recording

1. Die tote Stadt, Op 12 by Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Performer:  Julia Oesch (Mezzo Soprano), Eleanore Marguerre (Soprano), Solveig Kringelborn (Soprano),
Christa Mayer (Mezzo Soprano), Stefan Vinke (Tenor), Stephan Genz (Baritone)
Conductor:  Eliahu Inbal
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Venice Teatro la Fenice Orchestra,  Venice Teatro la Fenice Chorus
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1920; Vienna, Austria 

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