The Rage of Life had its world premiere at the Troubleyn Laboratorium in Antwerp in April. In the opera, which some critics says has parallels with Onegin, the young man Leif searches for his great love Helena, rejecting news of her death. When he does find her, she has become unapproachable.
Festival director Tamás Bátor stressed the importance of bringing fresh new works to audiences in Hungary.
Elena Kats-Chernin
Born in 1957 in Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Kats-Chernin received training at the Gnesin Musical College before immigrating to Australia in 1975. She graduated from the New South Wales Conservatory in 1981 and was awarded a DAAD (German academic exchange) grant to study with Helmut Lachenmann in Hanover. She remained in Germany for 13 years, returning in 1994 to Australia where she now lives in Sydney.
One of Australia?s leading composers, Elena Kats-Chernin has created works in nearly every genre. Among her many commissions are pieces for Evelyn Glennie, Ensemble Modern, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Sequitur, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Present Music, and the North Carolina Symphony.
?Her dramatically vivid music communicates a mixture of lightheartedness and heavy melancholy, combining strong rhythmic figures with elements of cabaret, tango, ragtime, and klezmer,? according to her publisher Boosey & Hawkes.
Miskolc, once a centre of heavy industry under communism, has become well known for its Bartók + ... opera festival, which it is organising for the tenth year in a row. Bartók is always on the festival bill, but a different composer or theme shares the spotlight each year.
Bátor said the State Opera of Kosice would perform SwanLake in Miskolc instead of The Wooden Prince and Orbis Pictus.
