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Orest
Manfred Trojahn

Dutch National Opera / Netherlands Symphonic Orchestra / Marc Albrecht

Orest

Price: € 14.95
Format: SACD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917260526
Catnr: CC 72605
Release date: 22 November 2013
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Label
Challenge Classics
UPC
0608917260526
Catalogue number
CC 72605
Release date
22 November 2013

""First there is chaos, then soft lyrics. An enormous effect.""

NRC Handelsblad, 07-9-2015
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
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About the album

Manfred Trojahn’s Orest enjoyed its world premiere in Amsterdam amid spectacular splashes of gore and commensurate splatters of sound.

The Netherlands Opera commissioned Trojahn’s sixth opera to end a series that has focused on the House of Atreus, rounding off the cycle of violence by adding the murder of Helen of Troy to the carnage surrounding Iphigenie, Idomeneo and Elektra.

Trojahn has written his own libretto, based on Euripides and is narrative follows the Greek story closely, but he skirts around Apollo’s apotheosis of Helen, preferring to leave behind a pool of blood and a number of open questions.

Perhaps the subject matter, with its myriad musical and literary allusions, steered Trojahn towards a harmonic language more rooted in the past than he might otherwise have adopted. Certainly Strauss’s influence is amply audible.

De wereldpremière van Orest
Dit album bevat een live-opname van de wereldpremière van de opera Orest van Manfred Trojahn, uitgevoerd door de Nederlandse Opera en het Nederlands Filharmonisch Orkest. De hoofdrol wordt gezongen door Dietrich Henschel.

Naast een opname in super audio kwaliteit bevat het album een prachtig vormgeven boekje met het libretto en fascinerende beelden van de set. Trojahn schreef Orest op verzoek van de Nederlandse opera. Zijn eigen libretto is volgt het verhaal van de mythe van Euripides, maar slaat de ontknoping tussen Apollo en Helena over. Hij laat liever een plas bloed en een hoop open vragen achter. De harmonische taal van de muziek ligt dichter bij het verleden dan gebruikelijk bij Trojahn.

De première is door het tijdschrift Opernwelt genomineerd voor Best World Premiere in 2012. Bovendien is de pers lovend over het werk. Zo schrijft Timeout Amsterdam: “It doesn’t sound like opera as we know it, but the kind of music you’d have in very good contemporary films: frightening, but also very beautiful (like lyrical David Lynch films or horrifying like Hitchcock thrillers). (…)Things the non-opera audience knows about: crime scenes, Christmas gatherings that go really wrong, elements of a thriller, but it’s also got a serious bit of modern music. (…) There’s enough lyricism in it, enough moments of aria-likeness for the more mainstream operagoer to feel comfortable.”

Daarnaast schrijft de Telegraaf: “Orest stamt uit de emotie. Het is gaat niet over het hedendaagse of moderne. Trojahn is op zoek naar de schoonheid van klanken en sensualiteit. Zelfs een crisis kan hoop bieden. Er is nog steeds schoonheid om voor te leven in een gebroken wereld.”
Im Auftrag der Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam schrieb Manfred Trojahn seine Oper „Orest“, die im Dezember 2011 uraufgeführt wurde. Es entstand ein mit 80 Minuten Spieldauer relativ kurzes, aber intensives Drama, dessen Libretto der Komponist selber schrieb. Die Geschichte nach Euripides wird weiter erzählt: der große Rächer Orest wird selber zum Gehetzten.

Die Amsterdamer Uraufführung der fulminanten Oper wurde mit viel Beifall bedacht, die hier vorliegende Aufnahme entstand als Live-Mitschnitt.

Der Bariton Dietrich Henschel singt die Titelpartie.

„Während andere Komponisten gern auf den vokalen Overkill setzen, schreibt Trojahn musikalisch, er ist kein Extremist. Das dankt ihm vor allem das Amsterdamer Sängerteam, aus dem Dietrich Henschel als Orest herausragt: ein zögerlicher, fast zart besaiteter Antiheld. Wenn er von seiner »Sehnsucht nach Liebe« singt, nimmt er den Spitzenton aus dem Fortissimo zurück ins plötzliche Piano, darin liegt eine Zärtlichkeit, wie sie Muttermörder meist erst nach der Tat überkommt. Sarah Castle dagegen ist eine hinreißend eiskalte Elektra mit Mittelscheitel und Bittermandel-Timbre. Marc Albrecht lässt das prachtvolle Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest ausgreifend formulieren, bisweilen klingt es sogar süffig.“ (Wolfram Goertz, Die Zeit Nr. 51/2011)

Artist(s)

Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra

The Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra (NedPhO) is among the best orchestras in the country. The NedPhO and the associated Netherlands Chamber Orchestra (NKO) are the regular accompanying partners of De Nederlandse Opera (DNO) in the Muziektheater. Alongside this, both orchestras provide versatile concert programs in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and are welcome guests in other Dutch concert halls and in halls and festivals abroad. Typical of the NedPhO | NKO are their inviting programming and welcoming presentation. With their enthusiasm and passion for the music, the musicians provide a special listening experience. With the extensive NedPho GO! education and outreach program, NedPhO | NKO make classical music accessible for everyone.   Under its former chief conductor Hartmut Haenchen, NedPhO had great success with the...
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The Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra (NedPhO) is among the best orchestras in the country. The NedPhO and the associated Netherlands Chamber Orchestra (NKO) are the regular accompanying partners of De Nederlandse Opera (DNO) in the Muziektheater. Alongside this, both orchestras provide versatile concert programs in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and are welcome guests in other Dutch concert halls and in halls and festivals abroad. Typical of the NedPhO | NKO are their inviting programming and welcoming presentation. With their enthusiasm and passion for the music, the musicians provide a special listening experience. With the extensive NedPho GO! education and outreach program, NedPhO | NKO make classical music accessible for everyone. Under its former chief conductor Hartmut Haenchen, NedPhO had great success with the performance of the complete Der Ring des Nibelungen (DNO, also on CD). Over the years, the orchestra has performed all the great operas by Wagner and Richard Strauss. The successful performance of Die Frau ohne Schatten led to the appointment of Marc Albrecht as chief conductor of DNO and NedPhO | NKO. In 2011 and 2012 Albrecht conducted the operas Orest and Der Schatzgräber with the NedPhO and once again received praising reviews. Next to the opera productions with DNO, Albrecht will regularly appear in the coming season with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.

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Dutch National Opera

De Nationale Opera (DNO) is the Netherlands’ largest opera company and is based in the Nationale Opera & Ballet in Amsterdam (formerly known as The Amsterdam Music Theatre). DNO has grown into one of Europe’s most prominent and progressive opera companies. Until February 17, 2014 the company operated under the name De Nederlandse Opera. To start at 2013 Els van der Plas is the general director of De Nederlandse Opera, Dutch National Ballet and the music theatre. In 1998 Pierre Audi became artistic director of the company, who formed a successful team together with administrative director Truze Lodder. Since January 1, 2013, Audi is director of De Nationale Opera. In September 2018 he will be succeeded by Sophie de Lint. DNO produces...
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De Nationale Opera (DNO) is the Netherlands’ largest opera company and is based in the Nationale Opera & Ballet in Amsterdam (formerly known as The Amsterdam Music Theatre). DNO has grown into one of Europe’s most prominent and progressive opera companies. Until February 17, 2014 the company operated under the name De Nederlandse Opera. To start at 2013 Els van der Plas is the general director of De Nederlandse Opera, Dutch National Ballet and the music theatre.
In 1998 Pierre Audi became artistic director of the company, who formed a successful team together with administrative director Truze Lodder. Since January 1, 2013, Audi is director of De Nationale Opera. In September 2018 he will be succeeded by Sophie de Lint.
DNO produces music theatre productions at the highest international level, with a clear focus on artistic quality, diversity and innovation. The sixty member Koor van De Nederlandse Opera contributes significantly to this success.
Examples of DNO’s audacious programming include the first Dutch staging of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen and the operas of Claudio Monteverdi. The majority of the performances are given in The Amsterdam Music Theatre, but operas are occasionally staged in other venues, including the Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam, Koninklijk Theater Carré, on the grounds of the Westergasfabriek and in the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ.
DNO typically realizes eleven opera productions each season, with an average attendance of 96% capacity. In order to reach a wider audience, most productions are broadcast live on radio and several productions per year are televised. DNO also regularly organizes supplemental activities at other venues and via new media. In addition, many of DNO’s opera productions have been issued on DVD.
DNO performs regularly in opera houses and on festivals abroad. For instance, the company was a guest at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, on the Lincoln Festival in New York, the Adelaide Festival in Australia, the Salzburger Festspiele and in Luxembourg, Tokio and Valencia as well.

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Marc Albrecht (conductor)

Marc Albrecht, chief conductor of De Nederlandse Opera and the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, is highly regarded for his interpretations of works by Wagner and Richard Strauss, as well as contemporary works. He has been a guest conductor with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Munich Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the orchestras of Rome (Santa Cecilia), Dresden and Lyons. He has led operas including Der fliegende Holländer (Bayreuther Festspiele, 2003-2006), Die Bacchantinnen (Salzburger Festspiele, 2005) and From the House of the Dead (Opéra national de Paris, 2005). From 2001 to 2004 he was principal guest conductor at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where his engagements included a highly acclaimed performance of Messiaen’s Saint...
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Marc Albrecht, chief conductor of De Nederlandse Opera and the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, is highly regarded for his interpretations of works by Wagner and Richard Strauss, as well as contemporary works.
He has been a guest conductor with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Munich Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the orchestras of Rome (Santa Cecilia), Dresden and Lyons. He has led operas including Der fliegende Holländer (Bayreuther Festspiele, 2003-2006), Die Bacchantinnen (Salzburger Festspiele, 2005) and From the House of the Dead (Opéra national de Paris, 2005). From 2001 to 2004 he was principal guest conductor at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where his engagements included a highly acclaimed performance of Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise. He was artistic director and chief conductor of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg from 2006 to 2011. He also enjoys a close association with the Semperoper Dresden, where he led the productions of Die Frau ohne Schatten and La damnation de Faust in 2007. Recent conducting engagements include The Bassarids (Bayerische Staatsoper München), Der fliegende Holländer (ROH Covent Garden), Der Prinz von Homburg (Theater an der Wien), Lulu with the Wiener Philharmoniker (Salzburg), Elektra, Orest and The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia (DNO) and his debut at La Scala with Die Frau ohne Schatten.

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Composer(s)

Manfred Trojahn

Manfred Trojahn was born in Cremlingen (near Brunswick) in 1949. He studied orchestra music in Brunswick and went on to study composition with Diether de la Motte in Hamburg. His works have received a great number of distinctions, including the Stuttgart Advancement Prize (1972), First Prize in the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris (1978), the Sprengel Music Prize (1980) and the German Music Author Prize (2009). Until 2017 he held a professorship for composition at the Robert Schumann Conservatory in Düsseldorf: Trojahn is a member of the Academies of the Arts in Munich, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, and Berlin. Manfred Trojahn’s oeuvre comprises practically every music genre. His works have been performed by outstanding soloists, orchestras and conductors in Germany and...
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Manfred Trojahn was born in Cremlingen (near Brunswick) in 1949. He studied orchestra music in Brunswick and went on to study composition with Diether de la Motte in Hamburg. His works have received a great number of distinctions, including the Stuttgart Advancement Prize (1972), First Prize in the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris (1978), the Sprengel Music Prize (1980) and the German Music Author Prize (2009). Until 2017 he held a professorship for composition at the Robert Schumann Conservatory in Düsseldorf: Trojahn is a member of the Academies of the Arts in Munich, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, and Berlin. Manfred Trojahn’s oeuvre comprises practically every music genre. His works have been performed by outstanding soloists, orchestras and conductors in Germany and abroad. Ever since the première of Enrico in 1991, music theatre has occupied a preponderant place in his output. Trojahn’s operas Was ihr wollt (Munich, 1998), La Grande Magia (Dresden, 2008) and Orest (Amsterdam, 2011) have been taken up and staged by a number of international opera houses. Trojahn has recently been composing more and more for instrumental ensemble: thus, since 2012, he has been writing the Quitter cycle based on texts by René Char for Ensemble Modern; in 2013 wrote Le Ceneri di Gramsci (on a text by Pasolini) for MusikFabrik NRW, and in 2015 /16 the first portion of Nocturne – Minotauromachie for Ensemble Intercontemporain.

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Press

"First there is chaos, then soft lyrics. An enormous effect."
NRC Handelsblad, 07-9-2015

"The jury praised the artistic addition and the technical quality of the recordings"
NRC Handelsblad, 27-10-2014

"The musical-culture that they offer is of international high level. To be very proud of"
Opus Klassiek, 03-8-2014

The many pages of colour photos (in the booklet) confirm what the audio-only experience so forcefully suggests: that this remarkable work now urgently deserves also to be released on DVD.
Opera, 01-8-2014

With bass-baritone Dietrich Henschel inhabiting the part with total, sometimes terrifying conviction, and electrifying conducting Marc Albrecht, this live recording from the premiere run of the piece in 2011 amply proves why Opernwelt magazine picked Orest as its 'Premiere of the Year'.
BBC Music Magazine, 01-5-2014

Marc Albrecht's conducting is concise and exciting.
Opera Now, 01-4-2014

For this music, which refers to the old and dares the new, is Marc Albrecht a bright and determined mediator.
Opernwelt, 01-3-2014

Manfred Trojahn’s ‘Orest’ focuses on the guilt feelings of the man who murdered his mother and murders Helena as well, pushed by Elektra, his sister. Marc Albrecht conducts the dramatic music of that tragedy in a terrific performance, with excellent singers, Dietrich Henschel being the most  impressive one in a role that reminds his Wozzeck performances, one of Henschels’ principal roles.
Pizzicato, 17-2-2014

healthy portion of drama
Das Opernglas, 01-2-2014

Without doubt on this recording you can listent to emphatically singing - in a very beautiful way!
Fono Forum, 01-2-2014

The impact is impressive, especially in this terric performance under Marc Albrecht
The Guardian, 31-1-2014

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Often bought together with..

Richard Strauss
Der Rosenkavalier
Dutch National Opera / Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra / Marc Albrecht
Richard Wagner
Parsifal (BluRay+DVD)
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra / Ivan Fischer / Chorus of the Dutch National Opera
Franz Schreker
Der Schatzgräber
Dutch National Opera / Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra / Marc Albrecht
Franz Schubert
Winterreise (DVD)
Christoph Prégardien / Michael Gees
Benjamin Britten
War Requiem Op. 66
Jaap van Zweden / Netherlands Radio Philharmonic
Richard Wagner
Parsifal
Jaap van Zweden, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Choir & State Male Choir Latvija

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