?There will be no change regarding voice types, since the applicants will be expected to perform two roles at the competition, a soprano for the role of Venus/ Chief of the ?Gepopo?, the Secret Political Police, and a bass for the role of Astradamors,? said the director of the competition Ágnes Havas.
The Baltic Opera in Gdansk has been forced to withdraw because it did not get the required state budget subsidy.
?Neue Oper Wien has long tried to get involved in the competition but this was not possible because of our long-term agreements,? said Havas. ?Now, we are both glad that they will enter the series with Ligeti?s opera. I?ve been wanting to include Le Grand Macabre in the programme for a long time,? she added.
The premiere will be held in Vienna on October 2, at the Museumsquarter E theatre hall. The performance will be conducted by director Walter Kobéra, who was a member of the Armel jury last year and knows the competition well. The performance will be directed by Carlos Wagner and will feature Júlia Bányai, Anna Manske, Annette Schönmüller, Jennifer Yoon, Martin Achrainer, Brian Galliford, Nicholas Isherwood, Arno Raunig and Stephan Rehm.
Havas added that L?Opéra Théâtre d'Avignon had performed Michael Dellaira?s opera Secret Agent, which was the piece entered in last year?s competition by New York?s Center for Contemporary Opera.
Avignon will again host an Armel production next spring, to be selected from the 2012 competition repertoire. And starting in 2014, all the operas in the competition will also be performed in Avignon.
Le Gran Macabre is an opera in two acts, written by Ligeti between 1974 and 1977. Its original premiere was held at the Royal Opera of Stockholm on April 12, 1978. The Hungarian premiere was twenty years later, on October 29, 1998 as part of the Budapest Autumn Festival. The production was directed by Balázs Kovalik at the Thália Theatre.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
