Organization

Bregenzer Festspiele

Singer

Bass

Richard Angas

The Duke of Venice

Countertenor

Christopher Ainslie

Antonio

Tenor

Charles Workman

Bassanio

Adrian Clarke

Sa Larino

Bass-baritone

Norman D Patzke

Solanio

Baritone

David Stout

Gratiano

Jason Bridges

Lorenzo

Adrian Eröd

Shylock

Soprano

Kathryn Lewek

Jessica

Magdalena Anna Hofmann

Portia

Mezzo-soprano

Verena Gunz

Nerissa

Hanna Herfurtner

Ein Knabe

Conductor

Erik Nielsen

Stage director

Keith Warner

Set designer

Ashley Martin-Davis

Costume designer

Lighting designer

Davy Cunningham

Chorus master

Lukáš Vasilek

Others

Philharmonischer Chor Prag

Orchestra

Vienna Symphony Orchestra

English

Der Kaufmann von Venedig -  (The Merchant of Venice)

Bregenz

Austria

Bregenzer Festspielhaus

Werkstattbühne

Tchaikovsky's "Merchant of Venice" is further evidence of David Pountney's instinct for buried pearls in operatic literature and continues his series at the Bregenz Festival. The proven team around Keith Warner and an elite cast make the posthumous premiere at this year's Bregenz Festival a "restitution that will be remembered" (London Telegraph).

The composer André Tchaikovsky - whose grandmother had smuggled him out of the Warsaw ghetto as a child under a false name and named him after the great Russian composer - first made a name for himself in Britain as a concert pianist. Despite his great success, Tchaikovsky's real passion was composition. "The Merchant of Venice", based on William Shakespeare's play of the same name, was to remain his only opera: the composer soon died of stomach cancer.

The score is intricate and dark, with violent as well as lyrical moments, as well as witty, at times bitter, humor. She refuses to be placed in a specific 20th-century compositional tradition, yet intelligently references composers such as Benjamin Britten, Igor Stravinsky and Claude Debussy.

Bassanio (Charles Workman: "effortless mastery of the tenor register", Neue Musik Zeitung), a young nobleman in Renaissance Venice, adores the young noblewoman Portia, only he lacks the necessary money for the courtship. So he applies for a loan from the merchant Antonio. Antonio's wealth is tied up in shipping companies, so he suggests borrowing the necessary sum from the Jewish moneylender Shylock. But Shylock (Adrian Eröd: "vocally and dramatically an event", Kurier) sees this as an opportunity to settle scores with Antonio....

"Under the direction of Erik Nielsen, this opera sounds wonderfully brilliant, light-footed, with comedic verve." (The time). - "Big, moving music drama" (Stuttgarter Zeitung).

Photos